Trifecta: Week Sixty-Seven
The Trifecta Challenge this week is Juggle :- (transitive verb) meaning to handle or deal with usually several things (as obligations) at one time so as to satisfy often competing requirements.
My response in 33 words is a story that goes someway to celebrate my attachment to Rio de Janeiro and my forth coming visit. I believe it fulfills the requirements .
The boy from the favela hits the juggle button in his heart daily. When he leaves his home and vagabond ways and ventures into the city to earn a living for his family.
Wednesday’s Wise Woman … Clara Barton
Over the last few months, some of the wise women I have featured have been favoured by most but in some cases despised.They have been called heroes and trouble makers; depending on which side of the fence she stood.
There are few heroes who are universally appreciated like Clara Barton (1821-1912) who founded the American Red Cross. She was a hero of global worth and crossed all international and political divides.
Clara began as a battlefield nurse in the American Civil war in 1862. She administered to all soldiers in the bloodiest of battles. Running from patient to patient as the guns rattled and bombs exploded about her. Her fearlessness and compassion earned her the title of Angel of the the Battlefield. With equal care she nursed soldiers on either side of the front.
At the end of the civil war Clara achieved widespread recognition by delivering lectures around the the country about her wartime experiences. During this time she became involved in the women’s suffrage movement and an activist for black civil rights.
After this in 1870 she went to Europe and served as a member of the Red Cross in the war between Germany and France; where she was charged with the responsibility to supply work to the poor in Strasbourg,. Then in 1871 after the siege of Paris to distribute supplies to the people of Paris.
It was in 1873 when Clara returned to to the United States that she founded the American Red Cross and was the president for twenty years. For many years until she was well passed her 70s Clara continued to travel to sites of disasters to nurse all people. She died aged 90 of tuberculosis.
Weekly Photo Challenge …. Lost in detail …
This weekend we went to Canterbury to stay with friends. Sunday morning the weather was kind so we walked along the river to to visit the Cathedral that overwhelmed the little town. With its lofty spires that pointed heavenwards, within the arch ceilings twirled north, south, east and west. Drawing us to the stained glasses windows that glowed like jewels in the spring sun we have been denied for so long … its richness and grandeur could not fail to delight those who wandered the aisles that morning
but these tiny gems I believe are more precious and often ‘lost in detail’
gsasjfa
Last Week I learned more about …
Last week while researching a subject for my Alphbe-Thursday I came across an illustrator who looked interesting and decided to research a bit more for a later post.
Ora Eitan (1940-) is a published author, illustrator and photographer of children’s books.
Ora is one of Israel’s most prominent artists and a Hans Christian Andersen Award Nominee. She lives in Jerusalem where she teaches at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Her published credits include Scuba Bunnies, Cowboy Bunnies, A tisket, a tasket and more importantly for me Georgia Rises ; a day in the life of Georgia O’Keeffe by Kathy Laskey and illustrated by Ora Eitan.
For me Georgia was a new found artist raised my interest recently when I read O’Keeffe (1887-1986) Flowers in the desert by Britta Benke.
Georgia O’Keeffe an American artist born in Wisconsin. In 1916, while in New York she made her name in the art world. She painted large blooms as if seen through a magnifying glass and depicted the buildings of the city.
From 1929 Georgia worked ‘to and from’ New Mexico until she made her home there 1949. Here enchanted by the barren landscape and the wide blue skies she would collect animal bones and paint them as she had the flowers; magnified, but with remote stillness and a strange beauty you would only find in the desert.
The paintings after her move to New Mexico were more connected to the architecture of the adobe with the angles of the walls against the sky, for some less inspiring.
Georgia Rises; inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe’s descriptive letters, tells us of an imaginary day in the life of the legendary artist in her home in New Mexico.
Before the sun rises Georgia leaves her home to paint. She walks the red rust hills; before settling down in the shade to paint ‘a bone, glowing white, the black wing of a raven, against the grey sky, a slice of silver moon’.
This intimate opening and Ora Eitan’s painting gives a delightful glimpse into the artist’s world as she becomes part of ‘nature’ and lays it on her canvas.
This little book for children gave me lovely biographical overview of Georgia O’Keeffe’s life and will have a place in my library.
Silent Sunday
Trifextra: Week Fifty-Seven Weekend Challenge
Friday Library Snapshot … Edward Gorey
It was Edward Gorey’s birthday last week. he was an American, born in Chicago 1925 (-2000) a writer, poet and artist noted for his illustrated books.
I know very little of him except that he illustrated one or two of Samuel Beckett’s books. So I was able to find a couple of images in All strange way and Beginning to end in our Beckett Collection; yet could find no more of note.
I spoke to a couple of Beckett scholars, who often lurk in the Reading Room, and one told me that Edward Gorey was an illustrator of some notoriety. Also that he was an author of children’s books and they were popular. So this prompted me to search in our Children’s Collection; but again I drew a blank. I even looked under some of his many pseudonyms, for instance Ogdred Weary an anagram of his own name.
So any information I have found has been on Wikipedia and would not perhaps regurgitate it here. I am keen to know more about him, as an illustrator of book covers from 1953 – 1960. He was influenced by Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll and illustrated works such as Dracula by Bram Stoker, War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells and Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Elliot, books that might have been in my local library as a child.
AlphabeThursday … O is for ‘O’ shaped objects
I work in the Special Collections Library, In the University of Reading, nearby in the same building is the Museum of English Rural Life. I don’t often have time to wander around just looking; but today it become important. As AlphabeThursday loomed I had not yet consider this weeks post. I looked for a likely candidate but nothing hit me in the eye; only these ‘O’ shaped objects … I hope you like them as I do!
Trifecta: Week Sixty-Six
I joined this forum in a bid to improve my writing skills. Also to expose myself to a notable audience who clearly have more experience and seem to flourish with words. While, I struggle in the margin to make the grade. So forgive my feeble attempt in this highly esteemed field to brandish the word ‘doctor’ as a noun in 33 words for this Weekday Challenge:
The old dog cheerfully impregnated the so called bitches each night. Until one day he was subjected to the skill of the razor happy doctor. Then his escapades didn’t seem so much fun.
Wednesday’ s Wise Woman … Corrie ten Boom
From Peaceful heroes by Jonah Winter illustrated by Sean Addy
Cornelia ‘Corrie’ ten Boom (1892-1983) was born in the Netherlands where in 1940 Corrie’s home town was to become part of Hitler’s cleansing plan. Hitler believed that Germanic peoples or the Aryans were the master race and should rule the world. He believed that Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and other minorities were not even human and that he was going tp ‘cleanse’ the world of them. To this end they were humiliated, rounded up, imprisoned, tortured and then murdered.
Corrie’s family who were Christians; watched helplessly as their friends, at the hands of the Nazis, were being degraded and taken away never to be seen again.
However, Corrie’s family already actively involved in charitable works soon undertook to rescue Jews from harm and the threat of concentration camps. Their home became a hideaway for Jews. It soon became necessary for the ten Boom’s to make a secret room, in case of the inevitable raid. Corrie’s bedroom, in the upper reaches of the house was the ideal place. Bricks and other building materials were bought in secretly in briefcases and rolled newspapers. The room no bigger than a closet was hidden behind a bookcase. An electric buzzer was installed so that a warning could be sounded in the event of a raid.
On the night of the dreaded raid the six people hiding were not discovered. Sadly the family were arrested and sent to different German prisons and concentration camps. Her mother had died before the arrest but Corrie’s father and sister died in a camp.
Corrie did live to tell her story in The hiding place. It is said that even ‘during her darkest moments in the Ravensbruck concentration camp she never stopped trying to remember the human capacity to love other people, even those who hate and would kill you. This she claims, and luck, kept her alive, kept her from giving up’.
From Peaceful heroes by Jonah Winter illustrated by Sean Addy
Further reading Peaceful heroes by Jonah Winter illustrated by Sean Addy.
Coat Hanger Doll's House 