I’ve notice for some time that I have a special interest in images of humans with animal heads, and stumbled across a lovely site today by an artist who makes amazing paper animal heads. Her name is Isabelle Thibeault, and while I can’t read her French weblog, the photos are enough to stir the imagination. A few samples:
See many more at her site: http://isabellethibeault.wordpress.com/
Fabulous.
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Pilgrimage badges began to be used in the 13th century, and were usually displayed as an indication of the completion of a pilgrimage, or as a testament to the miracles performed by a saint or that were supposed to have occurred at a specific location. There are some fine examples of these badges to be found in many museums, including the Ashmolean here in Oxford. Badges were worn on hats, sewn on clothing, and sometimes even contained compartments to carry holy water, oil or soil from the sacred shrine.
I’ve found a wonderful site that creates pewter reproductions of these badges, needless to say, I’d love to have the whole collection. Here are a few examples, but do visit the site and see the many versions available… all at an astonishingly reasonable price!
‘Becket Slain’, showing Saint Thomas á Becket, slain in the cathedral:
‘Becket’s Exile’, showing Saint Thomas á Becket during his sea journey to France:
The somewhat shocking ‘Thomas of Lancaster’:
The lovely ‘Star and Crescent’:
There are many wonderful treasures to be found at this site, so I encourage you to explore Steve Millingham Pewter Replicas, I don’t think you’ll find such fine craftsmanship for such an affordable price anywhere else.
Now, if I could only find a similar outlet that sold milagros and votive offerings!
Helena Bonham Carter from The Guardian
The Guardian has published an interview and photoshoot with Helena Bonham Carter. I guess we’re building up for Alice in Wonderland. I love these photos, and the work she has been doing the past several years, she seems more alive and vibrant than ever. While discussing her relationship with her husband Tim Burton, she says “He likes to simplify things, I complicate them. I think we can do this or this or this, optionitis, then I get frozen because I don’t know which one.” Optionitis, boy, can I relate to that.
Photos:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/gallery/2010/feb/06/helena-bonham-carter-photographs
Interview:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/feb/06/helena-bonham-carter-interview
I’ve been a fan of San Francisco based musician Sean Hayes for several years. There is a fragile quality to his voice that I really enjoy, and his music never ceases to move me. He has a new album coming out this Spring, and has released a promo video for a song called Garden. I like it. It’s not quite as accessible as some of his other work, but I’m finding myself going back every couple of days to youtube to hear it again, so it seems to be working its magic.
I’ve always liked the lyrics in his songs, like these from Flowering Spade:
He has a flowering spade
Growing out of his chest
Full of magic and healing
She is a flowering spade
As she moves and she sways
You can see that she feels itShe’s off to dance with the goat boys
He’s of to sail through your wide open ocean
She learned to sing from a siren
He learned to swim from a drop in the waterThere are words there are signs
Close your eyes there is magic inside you
Hear this box in your mind
building frames for to trace your desiresShe learned to cook from a sailor
He learned to cry in an elephant circus
She found a recipe for flying
He’s growing flowers to understand dyingRejoice
Hmmm…
Oh ma na na…Oh oh
Rejoice
Oh ma na na…Oh oh
Oh ma na na…Oh oh
Rejoice
There’s no such thing as dyingOh oh
Rejoice
Does anyone feel like flyingOh oh
Oh ma na na…Oh oh
Oh ma na na…Ooo…
In this video, he talks about the inspiration for the song, and sings it in the studio. Not the best quality, but enough to give you a sense of his style.
I received my monthly bill for my iPhone from O2, and I actually looked at it this month because it had a special notice attached to it. They were kind enough to tell me that they were no longer going to send me a paper bill each month to “save paper”. I usually choose electronic options anyway, but I like the “option” part of this and the false sense of power in having the ability to make a decision, so I felt a bit robbed to hear that I didn’t even have a choice in this anymore.
After feeling slightly diminished at having yet another physical aspect of my existence sent into cyberspace, I took a moment to read my bill. It revealed what I pretty much expected anyway, I don’t use my iPhone as an actual phone very often; I use iPhone as a mobile computer, and this is exactly why the iPad is aimed at people like me.
Out of my allocated 600 monthly minutes of phone use, I used 14. Out of my 500 monthly text messages, I used 12. That means I’m calling and talking less than 30 seconds a day on the phone, unless it’s February. We don’t have a landline either, so my talking minutes aren’t going there either. I’d like to think that I’m not an anti-social chap, friendly even to a fault in an “American” sort of way. Perhaps other people call me? I don’t even know if that would show up on my bill as minutes? It’s even more distressing if they do, it’s likely that the conversations I initiated, being fair to estimate at 50%, would now be less than 15 seconds a day. When you consider that we are billed for the entire minute of only partial use, it’s possible that I spoke only a total of 14 seconds over 14 separate one second calls on the phone last month, but was billed for the full minute in each of those cases.
It’s probably for the best that I don’t get the physical bills each month. I’d like to think of myself as environmentally friendly and I don’t really need the reminder that I’m not much of a phone-talker anyway. I can see myself leaving the world of “phones”, and switching to entirely data-based communication soon enough, my mobile phone going the way of my landline. Of course, I’ll still end up paying O2, or some other telecommunications giant for the ability to connect with a data plan, but maybe the deal like the one offered for the iPad with AT&T for a limited amount of data each month for $14.99 would be a much better route for me in the future? I feel another shift coming on, I’m not sure how it’s going to work out, but I suspect that even a year from now those 14 seconds a month when I communicate with others is going to be somehow very different.
My next essay is due in less than three weeks, and I’m struggling with it more than I think I have with any other essay. It’s not because I don’t like the subject matter, I think the problem is that I’m spoiled for choice and have so many interests connected to the subject that it is hard for me to sort out what I want to focus on; and more specifically, how to properly answer the question:
“Choose three parish churches with substantial medieval fabric and furnishings. Analyse the medieval elements of the buildings and their fittings and discuss their use for the local historian as historical evidence.”
Here’s my chance to write about a subject that really interests me: Medieval church architecture and decoration. My first reaction to the question was to try to find a theme to connect three churches, rather than just randomly choosing three churches with no apparent connection. The theme that most excited me was of early church wall-paintings: should I focus on how certain subjects such as St Christopher, the Last Judgement or “Doom” as it was called, or local saints might were depicted in wall-paintings
During the English Reformations, the once heavily painted churches were whitewashed, covering up the paintings which were considered idolatrous “popery”, not suitable for Protestant churchgoers focused on the Word of God. Some of these wall-paintings have been uncovered by “restorations” beginning mostly in the Victorian period when the “Anglo-Catholic” or “High Church” movement became popular in England. Layers of whitewash were removed and the underlying paintings, in varying degrees of success, were revealed after several hundred years. There is a wonderful website devoted to these wall-paintings called “The Painted Church”: http://www.paintedchurch.org/
For the past two weeks I’ve been researching churches, especially in Oxfordshire, and have narrowed down the list to half a dozen candidates. I’ve also reflected on the question and have decided that if I only focus on wall-paintings, I’ll probably do a poor job of answering the question. The focus of this course is generally to view history from the local perspective, especially to consider the effect on the local community of historical events. With this question, I’ll need to discuss how the churches reflected their communities, and my story will likely be too limited if I focus only on wall-paintings.
Unfortunately, some of the churches I would most like to write about don’t have enough medieval content to qualify for the assignment, such as my beloved little church in Binsey; I would love to talk about the healing well that attracted so many pilgrims during the middle ages, but unfortunately, the well was completely rebuilt during the late 1800s, as shown here in a photograph from the blessing of the well during the Binsey fete from 2009:
Last weekend, my friend Liz was kind enough to drive me out to see two churches just outside of Oxford. South Leigh and North Leigh are both famous for some of their architectural details, South Leigh especially for its collection of wall-paintings.
St James the Greater, South Leigh
There has been a church here since Norman times, the wall-paintings are from the 14th and 15th centuries. They have been restored many times, and to my eye, so very much so that I’m inclined not to use the church for the essay because of the heavy-handedness of the restorers over the years. Nevertheless, the paintings were breathtaking, and I’d like to share them with you.
The most spectacular image in the church is the Doom which, typical for this type of painting, covers the chancel arch. Two angels usher the newly arisen to their fates… heaven or hell awaits.
For those on their way to Heaven, St Peter awaits to welcome you:
For those on their way to Hell, the gaping mouth of Hell awaits you:
On another wall, St Michael weighs souls to determine each person’s destination. This painting is the most heavily restored, and in fact, completely repainted painting in the church. There are actually two versions on top of each other. The first from the 14th century can still be seen peeking through the (probably Victorian) much larger over-painting, although some sources suggest that the second image is older, perhaps from the 15th century:
In this close-up, you can see the older St Michael near the newer weighing of the scales which shows the Virgin Mary intervening by placing her rosary beads on the scales to help weigh the scales towards salvation for the souls.
On the other end of the scales, devils unsuccessfully try to weigh the scales towards damnation:
A wall in the chancel shows the Virgin Mary:
In the north aisle, a rare image of St Clement with an anchor, his symbol:
An “unrestored” Seven Deadly Sins shows just how little might be found to work with, this image was let be probably because there was not enough information to reveal the subject matter to the Victorian restorers. Other similar images have been found to suggest the probable subject, and the Hell Mouth at the bottom of the image helps to explain what was once above:
St Mary’s, North Leigh
Just a few miles north of St James is St Mary’s in North Leigh. The wall paintings here are on a much smaller scale, and only a Doom exists above the chancel arch. While also restored, I find these images more natural and appealing:
I think my favourite part of these images is the devil with gills, which reminds me of the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
It’s important to remember the setting in which these paintings were viewed. Most parishioners were illiterate, and even for those who could read, a copy of the Bible would have been incredibly rare. Only the very wealthy might have had a book or hours or missal. The Mass would have been performed by priests in the chancel, mostly, if not entirely, hidden from the view of the people gathered in the nave. Mass would also have been said in Latin, so much of the meaning of the words would have been unknown to those gathered in the church. There would probably not have been benches, so the people would gather usually kneeling or sitting on the floor. These paintings would have conveyed the main theological messages, reminders of what it meant to live a good life, and the consequences of what awaited those who did not.
“Analyse the medieval elements of the buildings and their fittings and discuss their use for the local historian as historical evidence.”
Hmmmmm.
This week, another friend is taking me to see a few other churches. I’m particularly interested in the paintings in Shorthampton because they show two unusual saints, both related to the working laity. I might choose to do St Michael’s at the North Gate in Oxford because it has some really interesting features including a Sheela-na-Gig and an unusual stained glass window showing Christ crucified on a lily. The only church I feel certain of at this point is nearby Iffley, which is considered one of the best examples of Norman Romanesque architecture in the country.
Hopefully, I’ll have this all sorted by the end of the week, and will have some lovely photographs to share.
See the entire gallery of photographs from South Leigh here: http://www.robertmealing.com/photography/recent-photographs/south-leigh/
As mentioned in my last post, I’m fascinated with the idea of flying and levitation. A few years ago a friend assisted me in creating a levitation image.
Total trickery, of course. We went to Balboa Park early one morning and went set up a step ladder for her to stand on. Using a tripod and locking the exposure, we took two images, one with her on the stool, one without. At home, a few seconds of Photoshop work to merge the photos together, remove the step ladder and add a drop shadow, and the image was complete.
Two nights ago, I dreamed of flying.
Flying dreams are by far my favourite dreams, I’ve had them ever since I can remember, and they only get better with time. When I was younger I wasn’t really sure about about the mechanics of flying, so in my dreams I’d often have false starts where I’d be running down a street, jump into the air, then fall right to the ground again.
This reminds me of when I was about nine years old and my best friend Mike and I would race down hills leaping into the air trying to get enough lift from the hills to fly.
Later, my flying dreams often had an antagonist chasing me, and the method of flying evolved into something similar to swimming; as if the air were made of water and I was pushing my way upwards to resurface from the bottom of the pool. I would still had occasional problems with false starts where I would come crashing back to the ground if I became distracted or didn’t have the right rhythm to keep in the air.
Eventually, I began to master the art of flying, and now I tend to move by focusing on an object and zooming towards it. I think I have retained at least minor swimming motions during the process, but flying doesn’t take much effort now, and is much more enjoyable. Often in these dreams, I’m aware that flying is a special ability, and I think I used to worry about being noticed while flying, but now I tend to associate flying with a sense of skill and pride and like to show off a bit.
In the dream the other night, I was in a very large building that was full of antique wood furniture, it reminded me of a gentlemen’s club or one of the college buildings here in Oxford, although there was also a lot of glass and stainless steel, so it definitely had some modern touches to the interior. I was very aware that there was an expectation of high creativity for everyone that was in the building, as if it were the Apple headquarters and Steve Jobs was coming to inspect what we had been working on. There were strange, pocket-sized carved figures, like large chess pieces, that were used like keys to open the doors between rooms, and then once used, were tossed to the side of the door in piles. I decided, (and I’m not sure why but it must have been some sense of intimidation), to express my creativity by flying about the room. So I started to lift off and flit about, bouncing from case to case and somersaulting as I went higher and higher underneath a large domed ceiling. When I reached the top I was able to see that there were people lounging on the tops of the bookcases, hidden from below but revealed from the air above, and I descended down and joined them, reclining on the bookcases and enjoying interesting conversations.
Then I woke up.
It felt great, having enjoyed the rush of flying, and such a marvellous time. I even tried to go back to sleep to pick the dream up again, but had no luck.
I was thinking tonight about my favourite image in the Ashmolean Museum, a detail of an image of St Nicholas flying to help sailors on a sinking ship.
And I realised that I have a fascination with images of people flying and levitating, such as these of St Joseph of Cupertino:
If you dream about flying, I’d love to hear about.
