Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 36

Timey-Wimey

One day last summer, I attempted to bring an injured catbird to a wildlife rehabilitation center. Sadly, the bird died in transit, but on the way, I discovered the existence of the Willard House and Clock Museum.



The plaque outside the house contains this thought-provoking statement:

"The realization that time could be spent rather than passed marks a profound change in the way Americans think--and work."

How magical: a whole museum of clocks! I resolved to go as soon as conditions permitted it.

Th...

Indigo

The sunken walls of Firelei Báez's vision of Sans-Souci Palace are decorated in blue to recall the indigo dye used in West Africa, and at the end of the installation, in a separate space, is a giant painting by Stephen Hamilton, celebrating the use of indigo in textiles:



There are also samples of indigo-dyed fabrics created by Agnes Umeche, based on traditional designs.



And this informational plaque tells you a little more about Agnes Umeche and her work. (To read the text you'll have to click th...

Firelei Báez exhibit

Today was the day we chose to go to the Firelei Báez exhibit! Nothing like a sunny, mild, first-of-August day to venture into Boston for the first time in, oh, a very long time.

Everything was enchanting and exciting, but I will try to space things out over posts so as not to be gushing in too many different directions at once. Today I will gush mainly about the exhibit. ... Actually, the gushing will mainly take the form of photos because, having read Siddhartha Mitter's New York Times article,...

Shearwater, by Khiem Tran

Some years ago khiemtran documented his adventures learning to sail, and after that, his adventures restoring a Mirror dinghy and the trips he and his son took aboard it. It was fabulous--I really felt like I was learning to sail, reading those entries.

Later, he drew on those experiences to write a short novel for young people: Shearwater, which he's now published. In Shearwater ten-year-old Andy and thirteen-year-old Priya help Andy's Uncle Phil restore a Mirror, and Uncle Phil teaches them to ...

evanescent

I like how she fades away. As I said last entry, it's fan art for Tasha Suri's The Jasmine Throne, but it works for what I was aiming for with the end of Lagoonfire, too.


After one rain...



After two



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Fan art for Tasha Suri's THE JASMINE THRONE

I have been waiting to draw this for **so long** There's been so much rain, I haven't had a chance. But today was clear, and tomorrow should be too, so!

Here is the relevant quote, describing a yaksa:

From her chest bloomed a great lotus, bursting through exposed ribs. From her eyes streamed marigold petals, flecked gold and carnelian, seeping from beneath the closed lids.

And here is my drawing, partially done...



Close-up on the face at that stage:



The whole thing, finished:



Close-up on the finished...

A Field of Inhumanity, by Lê Vĩnh Tài

My friend CE, who blogs over here , shared this breathtaking poem on Twitter:


Lê Vĩnh Tài | A FIELD OF INHUMANITY – BÀI TRƯỜNG CA VỀ CÁNH ĐỒNG BẤT NHÂN

It is very long and very intense, but as you read through it, you will see and hear how words and phrases and ideas, come up again and again in new contexts, like they do in a sestina, turned over and reinterpreted. Pain, rage, acquiescence, regret, bitterness, beauty, horror--clear eyes, clouded heart.

Here are a handful of the parts that jumped out...

cherries and blueberries

Last weekend mallorys_camera invited me to pick sour cherries and blueberries at Samascott Orchard in Kinderhook, NY.

What an experience! I've never been to such a huge orchard. You pay to enter and then can *drive* to the place where you want to pick. mallorys_camera and I scoffed at this, but soon we realized that people who come here to pick are not playing, and with the amounts they're picking (pounds and pounds--enough for all their home canning; enough for their roadside stall or their ho...

coming to a movie 24 years late

Editing a whole book on the Titanic made me FINALLY willing to take the plunge and watch James Cameron's Titanic (1997), which I have successfully avoided all these years.

But it's so long, people! A Night to Remember (1953) is so much shorter, and lets you see things on the Californian and the Carpathia.

Never mind, I took the plunge over the past two days. I have the following observations:

(1) 1997 was just about the last year that movie could have been made and have it set in the movie's own ...

where moth and rust destroy

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy (Matthew 6:19)

That's a common enough adage and moral lesson, but for some reason the portrayal of it in our current Colombian series was visually super affecting and got me thinking.

One of the secondary characters is an army officer, undercover in a mission to take down the supply portion of a drug operation, but he seems at times to have lost himself in his role, though he insists to one of the main characters that...