30 Day Writing Challenge: Day 3

Day 3: What are your top 3 pet peeves?

1. People who can’t use their turn signal. Literally it takes so little effort to do this and be considerate of other drivers. If you can talk on your phone or text and drive, you can signal to indicate whether you will turn left or right before your turn. And not the second before you do it either.  See this video which encapsulates this peeve of mine (warning: cussing).
2. Parents that dump their children in the library [or rec center], especially during the summer. I love my job. I love working with kids and their parents, even teens at times. However, I hate parents that completely disappear and leave their kids in the Children’s Area like we’re a free babysitting service. While I don’t mind watching out for your kids, they are not my responsibility. Be a parent. Act like you give a damn. 
3. People with no manners or common sense. This kind of ties in with number 1, but I will expand upon it. Nowadays it seems like no adults, or children for that manner, have either of these. For help on common sense with kids, check out here and here. Maybe I’m extra sensitive because I was raised in the Southeast and we were brought up with both, especially manners, but c’mon people! There is nothing wrong parents with teaching your kids manners and believe me, people will thank you for it. Esp teachers and librarians. 

30 Day Writing Challenge: Day 2

Day 2 of Writing Challenge: Write Something that Someone Told You About Yourself That You Will Never Forget

This story is in About Me section of my blog, but it has always stuck with me as both a celebrity story and one of the nicest things anyone has ever said about me. When I was in a freshman in college, the real Patch Adams came to visit my church. He was friends with the priest at my church St. James Episcopal Church, Richmond, Virginia who invited him to come give a sermon there.

Ok a preface to this conversation would be a brief history on Episcopal Churches on the East Coast. They tend to be full of old white families that are stinking rich, especially in the South East. The rich and powerful have been going to them since the start of the US, i.e. St. John’s Lafayette Square in DC  where all the presidents since James Madison have gone at least once, and politicians still do this in Virginia (or at least did when I was in school there). St James is one of the oldest ones in the city and I adored going there because it was right across the street from my apartment, the community was awesome (great Young Adult meetings and they were nice to everyone even college students – not every Episcopal Church in the area was, it was my 2nd or 3rd one that I tried in the city) and I got to be in the choir, and we always sang amazing music. So St. James was full of these bowtie-wearing old established families, sitting in their historical church with the Tiffany stained glass windows (which really were lovely), and then Patch Adams does the sermon. I’ve never laughed so hard during one and I have been to many sermons as a PK (priest kid). People got up and left during the sermon, especially after he stood on top of the stool inside the pulpit and got completely inside of these clown pants he was wearing, it was brilliant. 

Anyways, after church, Patch was going to speak at VCU. My Young Adult group was helping set it up so we all went over there early. Before his talk, he was going to sign copies of his new book. I, being a broke college student, didn’t have any money but I still wanted his autograph so I stood in line for about half an hour waiting for his signature. Once I finally got up to the front of the line, he asked me for my book and I explained that I couldn’t afford one. He told me to go get one, so I did and went to stand in the back of the line. I knew how long it had taken me to get to the front but I didn’t think it was fair to cut in front of all the other people who were waiting, so I stood in the back. After about ten minutes, there was a commotion at the front of the line and the guy who was standing behind me originally in line, came back to say “He wants you to come to the front.” So I followed him up and Patch said “You were going to wait back there?” and I said “Yes.” So he says “You know, if there were more people like you, there wouldn’t be any wars.” This made me grin like an idiot, and he signed my book and I got to hear him speak again. 

30 Day Writing Challenge

I haven’t done anything like this, so I thought it might be fun to try. 

Day 1: List Ten Things That Make You Really Happy

In no particular order:

1. My son (he really makes my day brighter)
2. Playing Dragon Age games (Origins, Awakening, DA2, or DA: Inquisition)
3. Writing – blog posts, poetry, and Dragon Age fanfiction
4. Reading during any spare minutes I have – esp if they’re ARCs (Advanced Readers Copy so I get to read and review them before anyone else)
5. Talking to anyone who will listen about art and sharing my knowledge and appreciation of it – doubly so if I get to teach an art program like Art Explorers or the ones I used to do for Kids Cafe
6. Having intellectual conversations with cute educated guys
7. Nerding out/Fangirling while watching Star Wars/LOTR/Miraculous Ladybug/anything vaguely Anglophile (see my Pinterest page for more of what Nerdy/Geeky things I mean)
8. Going to Comic-con in Phx – maybe one day I can do the big one in San Diego
9. Traveling – last trip was to Alabama to visit my family so not sure that really counts but last trip before that was to Prescott/Sedona/Northern Arizona area which I hadn’t really explored since before I moved here to AZ so that counts. I haven’t been on a good trip since college, esp a “dropping me in the middle of a country where I don’t speak the language but still manage to have fun”, but here’s hoping for more in the future. 
10. As corny as this sounds, doing my job at work. I got a Masters Degree in Youth Services in a Public Library and I really do love helping kids and their families, so anywhere I get to do that is awesome, i.e. during Preschool STEM storytime, during Baby Storytime, Kids Cafe, Reference Desk, Readers Advisory, or helping out with other programs. 

Paul Pletka

It’s been ages since I wrote a proper blog post (about 3 months) and even longer since I did a proper art post. I’ve been wanting to talk about the Our Lord, The One Who Is Flayed painting for ages, ever since I first saw it a year or so ago in the Phoenix Art Museum. I had never heard of the artist until I saw the three-paneled work below. Paul Pletka was born in 1946 in San Diego, California and has made his name painting Native Americans, especially those from the American Southwest.  His style is neo-surrealistic and has been described as “both realistic and deeply spiritual, being highly sensitive to the inner thoughts of Native Americans.” Paul has a local connection to Phoenix by going to nearby AZ State University. “Interestingly enough, Pletka has never taken a painting course. His focus in college was printmaking. Through an extensive process of experimentation, his heroic-sized visions of Indian mysticism are distinguished by exacting details that can only be achieved when technique is coupled with dedicated research.” He currently lives in New Mexico. 

I am always curious when someone outside of one cultural group decides to concentrate on something different (like Children’s author/illustrator Ezra Jack Keats being a white Jewish guy creating amazing books about African American and Hispanic children in the 1960-80s) , as I want to know why they have chosen to do this and is his work accepted by the group he is trying to interpret. The artist himself said this about his decision to paint predominantly Native Americans: “When I was a youngster and first became enchanted with Indian costume, lore and artifacts, I would sometimes pretend I was an Indian. I soon realized that was not intellectually reasonable. I am not an Indian. I am simply an interpreter.” He is considered one of the best painters on the subject and his work has been in exhibitions since 1964.

The painting below, While the Ravens Laughed, is one of his earlier works. It depicts the human form of the Hopi Crow Bride/Mother Kachina, aka Angwushahai-i. “Dolls and dancers representing the Crow Mother generally wear masks with ears of huge crow wings.” She is connected to the renewal/growth of corn crops in the spring. 

While the Ravens Laughed, 1976

The piece below (here is the larger version) is probably one of my favorite ones from Phx Art Museum. It just draws your eye with the bright reds, oranges, blues and greens and makes you want to study it to find out what all the little details mean. The painting depicts a re-enactment of the Passion of Christ, which is done by Mexicans during Lent (the liturgical season leading up to Easter in the Catholic and Protestant calendars). The Passion of Jesus refers to the suffering enduring by Jesus starting at his entrance to Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the trial in front of Pilate and finishing with his crucifixion The difference here between traditional representations is the mixing of Catholic and pre-Hispanic elements, i.e.the inclusion of the Olmec/Toltec/Aztec god of fertility, seeds, metalsmith/goldworkers, maize and spring. Xipe Totec was typically depicted wearing the flayed skin of his enemy’s and you can see that on the face of Christ on the cross and possibly the rest of the skin showing on his body. The flayed skin was supposed to renew or grow crops, which goes in well with the idea that Christ on the cross is there to give us salvation/renewal. The title refers to both the flayed body of Jesus and the flayed skin of Xipe Totec’s mask is scene on the far right panel underneath the banner of Jesus/John the Baptist. 

Xipe Totec – The Flayed God

The altar in the back of the painting is taken directly from the artist’s studio, as seen in the first picture above. Complementary colors play an important part in moving your eyes around the picture. The greens complement the red (ex.the dark green of the cross vs the bright red of the drapes), as well as the blues and oranges (ex. the turquoise of the ladder with the orange of the woman’s shawl in the center of the painting). The red symbolizes the blood of martyrs, in this case the ultimate martyr – Jesus. It is also specifically used on Palm Sunday in anticipation of the death of Jesus. As the author of the post on Yo So Art has commented on her blog post, in the center of the painting is one of the most interesting juxtaposition of images. The priest standing on the ladder has purple vestments which “depict missionaries preaching to the Native [Mexicans]  from a book in front of a giant cross, on top of a scene of some conquistadors on horseback stabbing [these same Aztecs].” 

Nuestro Senor el Desollado (Our Lord, The One Who is Flayed), 2004

Resources: 

Bratcher, Deborah. CRI, 2013: http://www.crivoice.org/symbols/colorsmeaning.html   

askArt, 2000-2017. http://www.askart.com/artist_bio/Paul_Pletka/82216/Paul_Pletka.aspx

The Eddie Basha Collection, Paul Pletka, taken from Art Fortune, 2016: http://eddiebashacollection.com/collection/paul-pletka 

Yo Soy Art, Dec 2012.Paul Pletka, Our Lord, The One Who is Flayed, 2004: http://yosoyart.blogspot.com/2012/12/blog-post.html 

Norse Mythology

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Published: February 7, 2017

Taken from Goodreads.com: In Norse Mythology, Gaiman fashions primeval stories into a novelistic arc that begins with the genesis of the legendary nine worlds; delves into the exploits of the deities, dwarves, and giants; and culminates in Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods and the rebirth of a new time and people. Gaiman stays true to the myths while vividly reincarnating Odin, the highest of the high, wise, daring, and cunning; Thor, Odin’s son, incredibly strong yet not the wisest of gods; and Loki, the son of giants, a trickster and unsurpassable manipulator. From Gaiman’s deft and witty prose emerges the gods with their fiercely competitive natures, their susceptibility to being duped and to dupe others, and their tendency to let passion ignite their actions, making these long-ago myths breathe pungent life again.

I’ve never had the opportunity to advance read one of Mr. Gaiman’s books, so I jumped at the chance when I saw it on Netgalley. Plus it’s about one of my favorite subjects that I have loved since a child, and I could identify with Mr. Gaiman’s similar experience, in regards to the introduction of Norse mythology into his life, in the foreword. His writing is beautiful as it always is and I discovered stories I had never heard before, but I guess I just thought it would be different and a better interpretation because of his past work involving Norse mythology (Odd and the Frost Giants and American Gods). 3-1/2 stars. 

Disclaimer: I received a copy from the publishers, WW. Norton & Company on Netgalley, in exchange for my honest review. 

I can never take a good photo of myself

Portraits reveal a desire for human connection; a desire so strong that people who know they will never see me again open themselves to the camera, all in the hope that at the other end someone will be watching, someone who will laugh or suffer with them. What could be more simple and more complex, […]

via On Portraiture — Steve McCurry’s Blog

I hate taking photos of myself  as I think I look horrible, and avoid it like the plague, nearly always using comics or some other kind of illustration in its places on sites such as FB. I’ve followed Steve McCurry’s blog for awhile now and he always takes amazingly expressive portraits of people from all over the world. Check these out!