The week has kept me on my toes. For the most part my days have echoed that of a certain white rabbit running late "for a very important date". My dusty burrow piled high with things to be done, checked off, delivered and attended to, seems to be growing and multiplying as if by magic. And just when I feel as though I have wriggled free of those tall white rabbity ears sprouting from my crown, I discover a cotton tail and giant thumper feet to match.
In the midst of a busy streak, I've taken much delight in whipping up three new collages for Friday. They may appear free of rabbits however if you squint your eyes you may just catch sight of a pair of those distinctive long rabbit feet in the shadows or a fog watch in the foreground.
"Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!"Down the Rabbit-Hole, Chapter 1, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Detail of Pietro Longhi's The Temptation, 1746
Oil on canvas, 61 X 49.5cm
From the J. Pierpont Morgan Collection.
Image snipped today from the pages on The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Winter, 2000.
The extra place at the table indicates that the barn owl was indeed expected.
Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes
Sculpture Gallery, Boston Athenaeum, ca. 1854-55
Daguerreotype, 18.8 X 13.8cm
From the Rubel Collection
Image snipped today from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Spring, 1999. And created whilst listening to Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love as a talking book on cassette... "The whippets did wear diamond necklaces, far grander ones than Aunt Sadie's, she said, and she was forced to admit that they looked beautiful in them. Birds of paradise flew about the house, quite tame, and one of the young men told Louisa that, if she came during the daytime, she would see a flock of multi-coloured pigeons tumbling about like a cloud of confetti in the sky." (Chapter 5)... it is perhaps not surprising that birds are still on my mind or on my page.
David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson
Lady Ruthven, ca. 1845
Salted paper print from paper negative, 19.9 X 15cm
From the Rubel Collection
Image snipped today from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Spring, 1999.
And now some weekend visual & audio trails to follow:
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, plate 43 from the series Los Caprichos.
Counting the geese, fragment of wall painting from the tomb of Nebamun, Thebes, Egypt. 18th Dynasty, around 1350 BC.
Elaborately bandaged mummified bull calf also from Thebes, Egypt. Roman Period, after 30 BC.
The Mocking Bird record cover - a children's talking book. Plus, hear it here.
A happy weekend to you all.