It All Comes Back To Art…

I have a weird propensity for finding small round things.

Coins, buttons, marbles, rings, eggs. You can bet if it’s small and round I will happen upon it. I’ve been doing it all my life, and I don’t even have to be trying, things just catch my eye. My husband says I’m worse than a magpie or a crow, and yet we have a huge jar of marbles, several jars of change, a scattering of nuts and bolts, and a few pieces of wearable jewelry because of my fixation with small, usually shiny, round things. The most expensive thing I have ever found was a gold ring with diamond chips around half a heart; it was a $50 or so item. The weirdest thing I ever found was a “witch rock” a very small rock with a naturally worn hole in the middle of it that some people believe when worn will protect a person from witchcraft. (Due to my contrary nature I did try and find out what folk lore says would happen if a witch were to find and wear a “witch rock”. I came up dry and figure we can assume that witches don’t spent their time looking for cool rocks.) 

Most recently I have found several tiny blue bird eggs in front of the CFAC door – all on separate days spaced out over several weeks, a half dozen marbles on the garage floor of an abandoned house, and this past year walking my son in his stroller, nearly $100 in change. I think I have passed on my “gift” to my son, since he seems to find lots of stuff on the ground as well. (Although to be fair he is only 31 inches tall and so much, much closer to the ground than the rest of us.) Last week at the playground my little guy found and picked up a green unspent paintball, and then tried to eat it. I grabbed it and told him it was not food, even though it did kind of look like a gumball.

And that ladies and gentlemen brings us back to art… since the next thing that popped into my head (right after ick germs on my baby’s hands) was one of Wayne Thiebaud’s paintings. Three Machines, an oil on canvas painted in 1963 that shows three gumball machines in a row. If you haven’t experienced Thiebaud’s (pronounced tee-bo) work yet I think you are in for a treat! 

I am finally back from my two week anti-vacation. We had the plague at my house and lost half of February and the first part of March in the process. We went “En Famille” to visit the Doctor, then the pharmacy, and then home to nap, some on the couch, some in the rocking chair. Being home sick is just as exhausting as going to work in my opinion, everything seems to take forever to think of and then execute.

Tea? First decided if you can swallow it, then drag sick self and sick baby to stove, fill water, light burner making sure to keep everyone’s hands, feet and clothing out of the way and wait for hot water. Find mug and tea, fill mug, remember to turn off stove so house remains intact and haul hot mug, sick baby and sick self to rocking chair. Try and sit without spilling hot tea all over self and baby, enjoy as much as possible with throbbing throat. Repeat as needed for bottles with medication hiding inside and all meals.

Making tea that first very bad day I was reminded of a few books…Years ago I read The Plague Tales Amazon by Ann Benson, a great historical fiction work that follows two physicians from different times. The story jumps chapter to chapter from Jewish physician Alejandro Canches who works during the plague-ridden era of King Edward III’s reign to Doctor Janie Crowe battling a global epidemic in 21^st century America. The thread that holds the two stories together is the medical journal of Doctor Canches, which Janie now possesses, that holds secrets on how to cure the plague and other deadly diseases. The Plague Tales is good stuff, a nice blend of historical fiction, romance, and what-if possibilities..

The second book that came to mind has more to do with the story around it than the book itself. A close friend of mine picked up The Stand by Stephen King Amazon some 15 years ago for something to read while he helped his wife get through a particularly rough bout of a chest cold turned to pneumonia. He said that with each turn of a page, with his wife’s breath wheezing and rattling beside him, he became more and more paranoid. My friend said his thoughts ran wild “Sure she doesn’t have a super-flu, but just listen to her cough… Hmmm a fever, chills, rattle in chest, that’s what she has, same as the guy in the book…” He summed it up well “reading about sickness and living with sickness is a paranoia inducing experience. A well written story will do that, make you the worst kind of hypochondriac, books like The Stand should come with a warning label so sickies don’t pick ‘em up.” Too true.

By the middle of the second week I was too physically and mentally dejected to even think about reading. As I coughed, sniffed and dragged my aching body and pounding head around making tea, taking care of my son and husband, washing laundry, and monitoring everyone’s medication intake, it occurred to me what I needed. If I could just get my hands on the kind of outfits a 17^th century plague Doctor wore I would be set..

Sure I would look like a giant freaky crane, but the benefits are clear. First the broad rimmed hat, worn low on the head would keep the heat in and looks smart (the well-groomed kind not the book kind). The full head, face, and neck mask has a beak stuffed with a blend of aromatic spices and herbs assuring the wearer a pleasant lungful no matter where they go or what they do. Crystal lenses protect the eyes, and I could probably manage to get them rose tinted which would only help my outlook on life. Finally, the full length gown covered in wax with leather gloves, boots, and breeches complete the necessary safety precautions. Not much gets in or out of wax, and clean up with a damp cloth is a breeze. I would probably eschew the long wooden stick to push away plague victims who got too close, I am after all caring for my family, but it might be nice to use to pick up things off the floor. Perhaps I could find one of those pincer grips you can use to get cans off the top shelf in your cupboards.Looking back from a relatively healthy perspective the whole costume is a bit much, but the beak face mask is still a good idea. I could always use a breath of sweet smelling air.

Doktor Schnabel von Rom (”Doctor Beak of Rome”), engraving by Paul Fürst, 1656.

For Elizabeth who worked with cadavers,

You gave me a scare, I thought for a moment after reading your post that you were my good friend Elizabeth. I spent a frantic few seconds wondering why she had never mentioned her work with dead bodies. That would have been interesting and I was prepared to mention that my Dad had worked moving bodies for a local mortuary when he was in High School. But since you are not her we can all heave a sigh of relief and move on. I will confess that I am fascinated with your old job and actually considered going into mortuary work. When I was a High School Senior I had to take a “possible career options to consider” test. It turns out I was well suited to be a vet or mortician. Of course if I were the paranoid type I might worry that a multi-choice test suggests I’m not good at interacting with living, breathing people…

Now for you Elizabeth II, here are the books linked to Amazon. I will always include the ISBN, Publisher and Year so readers can order from their favorite book seller or check it out at their local library.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (Paperback - May 2004)

My Art, My Life: An Autobiography by Diego Rivera and with Gladys March (Paperback - Jan 14, 1992)

For Adam who emailed me and said: “Interesting blog, I’d never heard of this guy [Rivera] before.  Do you have a website that has some of his work?” The answer is well yes, I think I can round up a page for you to click to, just make sure and click back to “It all comes back”, you don’t want to miss anything. 

http://www.diegorivera.com/index.php

Then just for the weird fun of it, this website has “Astro Profiles” of celebrity’s relationships. This one is for Diego Rivera and you can judge for yourself, after looking at the other web site, if it is accurate or not. I don’t see a disclaimer on their page, so I feel compelled to say this site is just for fun. You may not necessarily marry a Hollywood star just because your profiles match up.

http://famous-relationships.topsynergy.com/Diego_Rivera/

Happy Birthday Norman Rockwell! Norman Rockwell, the great portrayer of Americana, was born on this day in New York City in 1894. Checkout the Norman Rockwell Museum here: http://www.nrm.org/ Then stop by the CFAC and see an original of his, “New Years Eve” on permanent display in the Gallery. And while you’re here checkout one of the dozens of books or videos we have available on the artist. My favorite is “The Norman Rockwell Illustrated Cookbook” edited by George Mendoza, Published by Smithmark Publishers, August 1996. ISBN: 0765198274.

For my first real post I thought I should explain how I got to “It all comes back to art…”

I had been kicking around the idea of a blog for the Library System for some time with no real conclusion. The idea of bloging about the CFAC, the books we are reading here and the projects we are doing seemed like such a fun idea. I love sharing everything we have here at the CFAC with anyone who will hold still long enough to listen, and this seemed like a natural extension of that. I just couldn’t figure out how to post about the CFAC and still make it appealing to a wide variety of readers. Then at the beginning of December, while reading “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers” by Mary Roach, it came to me… I should try and blog about what I am reading, art related or not, and then tie it to the CFAC and the arts. Ahhh, now we have a hook for the readers, and so “It all comes back to art…” was born.

Let me start with a bit about “Stiff” it is not a book for everyone; it is as my husband says “one of those gross medical things you like”. Well, yes it is, but “Stiff” is also an extremely well written look at how people use, and have used, human corpses for scientific research.

In an effort at full disclosure let me just say the above two sentences should have tipped you off. I may be writing about things you don’t really want to read right now. Please feel free to drop down to the closing paragraph and skip all the details, you won’t miss a thing or hurt my feelings, and I won’t tell anyone you skimmed.

Some of what Roach covers is touching, she says for every human crash test dummy used to test airbags 147 people walk away from a crash unscathed. Some of it is disturbing, like cadaver heads being used to help plastic surgeons “brush-up” on their technique. And some of it is just weird, like the German physician who discovered it takes about a gallon of food to fill a stomach to bursting. I have to confess, I love this kind of reading, it makes for such great conversation! Just imagine sitting at Thanksgiving dinner when you’re obnoxious Uncle Al launches into his “I’m so full I could pop” routine. Finally you dear reader, have just the right thing to say. Even if your factoid does not get the rich flow of conversation it deserves, you might manage a blissful silence, it’s a win win situation1

So I’m happily reading along and then it hits me. Art. Under the chapter Eat Me Roach quotes painter Diego Rivera’s memoir “My Art, My Life: An Autobiography” on Rivera’s supposed experiment in eating human flesh. And I quote: 

“Those of us who undertook the experiment pooled our money to purchase cadavers from the city morgue, choosing the bodies of persons who had died of violence-who had been freshly killed and were not diseased or senile. We lived on this cannibal diet for two months and everyone’s health improved.” (Roach, 229)

Here I stopped reading and thought Really? Although I am not a big fan of Diego Rivera I can not ever remember hearing he ate people. And that, I assure you, is something I would have filed away for future reference. The next two things that came to mind in quick succession were I wonder if that is true, how could I find that out? And Hmmm I could see if we have a book on Rivera at work..

It turns out, dear reader, that we do indeed have several books and videos about the famed artist but not his biography, and so to the internet I went. It seems that everyone from the reviewers on Amazon and a host of blogs and websites to the chief art critic of The New York Times Michael Kimmelman agree Rivera’s biography is more fantasy than memoir. It seems that the artist and his tastes, in everything from women and art to wine and dinner, were over exaggerated to help create the legend of Rivera the Artist. All I can say at the end of this little journey is, whew, that’s good to know. I much prefer to think he was bluffing, than imagine that he and his classmates were serious. 

In closing let me assure you that I will definitely not be posting on such questionable material anytime in the near future. Especially since I have now completed both of Mary Roach’s books and have no more material.

Now for a list of further reading:

Stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers by Mary Roach. 2003.  Available at the Rock Springs Library, Sweetwater County Library, and Western Wyoming Community College.

My Art, My Life: An Autobiography by Diego Rivera and Gladys March. 1992.  Only available through interlibrary loan.

Diego Rivera: the age of steel by Shelby Newhouse. Video. 1998.  Available at the Community Fine Arts Center.

Mexican art today and Mural painting of the Mexican revolution by Luis Cardoza Y Aragon. 1966.  Available at the Community Fine Arts Center.Diego Rivera: as epic modernist by David Craven. 1997.  Available at the Rock Springs Library. 

To kick off the New Year the Community Fine Arts Center is starting a new venture! We have joined the Blogosphere and are ready to spread the word about art in our own unique way.   “It all comes back to art…” is founded on the idea that everything we are seeing, reading and doing can be tied back to the arts. My goal is to let people know what is going on in the art world, both locally and abroad in a fun, energetic way. Although I can’t tell you, dear reader, where we might start, it could be with something from the local newspaper or the book I’m currently reading, a T.V. show or a conversation that jogs my memory, I can tell you with certainty where we will always end, with art. I have imagined this blog as a walk off the beaten path, a trip by the tourist with no deadlines who takes the side road through the arts. It promises to be an interesting journey; I hope you will join me.

The CFAC is free and open to the public and wheelchair accessible through the Rock Springs Library. We are open Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., every Friday & Saturday from Noon - 5 p.m. and are closed Sundays and major holidays. Stop by anytime and see what the Community Fine Arts Center has going on; we would love to see you! Or visit us online at http://www.cfac4art.com/
As always, your participation, thoughts and comments are always welcome! Jennifer Messer — Assistant to the Director, Community Fine Arts Center