Dusk - I live in the most beautiful place on earth.
I walked at dusk to a spot on the top of the hill - overlook to Horseshoe Mound. Bunnies emerge from the woods and stand stark still - then turn fluff tails and run wild eyed into the lush blue green underbrush. Storm brewing - muggy - but the brisk breeze blows off the day's dust and the buggy gnats. Jitterbug Perfume scented air - fading May Mother's day lilacs, pre-June bridal wreath dropping snow-petals to the damp earth, honey locust blossoms, dogwood. Snoopy the Afghan hound takes a walk with Grant - the wood turner.
Dusk and another late spring storm brewing over the Grant Wood-ed view down the Galena valley - neighbors low conversation murmurs up to me but I only catch a word or two - they are so far below. Maxfield Parrish deepish aqua sky and pinky yellow clouds. Yes, there is a storm brewing and now the scattered cooling raindrops come dropping slow.
And I do live in the most beautiful place on earth!!! I know this and I am grateful to have had just this one perfect moment before dark, before I am old, to breath in the perfumed air at twilight. Loveliness in every direction, knowing nothing more perfect ever existed - turning around slowly taking in every detail. And then - my eyes adjust to the woods gloom and see a young doe up the path - gazing calmly directly into my eyes. Both knowing we are in the most gorgeous and perfect place and moment ever imagined.
Blessed to have lived and witnessed magic time.
"Call it nostalgia, I don't mind
Standing on that windswept hillside...
In that magic time"
The perfect “Black Butterfly muse” subject – Pattie (Boyd) Harrison/Clapton.
So, here’s my tribute to THE muse of the London music scene of the 60’s and 70’s. This time I’ve flipped my symbolism, the model is the muse and the butterflies represent the artists inspired by her. I used several references for this work, all were very low resolution, and I took great artistic liberty and removed a sheer vest Pattie was modeling. I hope she doesn’t mind ;) oops. The photo of her face was most likely from the period when she was torn between George Harrison and Eric Clapton.
According to Wikipedia :
Boyd started her modeling career in London in 1962. She modeled in London, New York and Paris (for Mary Quant and others). Boyd, who was nineteen in 1964, met Harrison during the filming for A Hard Day’s Night, after being cast as a schoolgirl fan for the film. Boyd married Harrison on 21 January 1966.
Boyd says she served as the inspiration for one of George Harrison’s most famous Beatles songs. Boyd maintains that Harrison told her that Something was written for her but after she left him, Harrison denied Boyd was his muse.
In the late 1960s, Clapton and Harrison became close friends, and began writing and recording music together. It was reported at this time that Clapton fell in love with Boyd. Harrison and Boyd split in June 1974, and Boyd married Clapton in 1979.
Boyd is said to also be the inspiration to Bell Bottom Blues which Clapton reportedly wrote after he gave her a pair of blue jeans. In her autobiography, she claims he gave her the pair of pants after returning from a trip to Miami. It appeared on the same album as Layla. “Layla” took its name from a Persian tale of unrequited love that Clapton had received from a friend.
In the true story of Layla, Majnun fell passionately in love with her at first sight. He went mad when her father prevented him from marrying her; for that reason he came to be called Majnun Layla, which means “Driven mad by Layla”. To him were attributed a variety of incredibly passionate romantic Arabic poems. It may be the basis for the story of Romeo and Juliet.
On September 7, 1976, Clapton wrote the famous love song Wonderful Tonight for Boyd while waiting for her to get ready to attend Paul and Linda McCartney’s annual Buddy Holly party. He also reportedly penned other tunes for her: “Pretty Blue Eyes”, “Golden Ring”, “Never Make You Cry” (from Behind the Sun) and “Pretty Girl” (from Money and Cigarettes).
Mick Jagger also made some plays on Boyd, but she rejected his advances. She did, however have a brief affair with Ronnie Wood after her break-up with Harrison. This was apparently some hot muse.
Clapton and Boyd divorced in 1989. Of “Wonderful Tonight,” Boyd would say: “For years it tore at me. To have inspired Eric, and George before him, to write such music was so flattering. Wonderful Tonight was the most poignant reminder of all that was good in our relationship, and when things went wrong it was torture to hear it. “An exhibition of photographs taken by Boyd during her days with Harrison and Clapton opened in San Francisco in 2005, titled, Through the Eye of a Muse. Her autobiography Wonderful Today: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me, was published in England in August 2007 and in the U.S. (as Wonderful Tonight).
"Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", pastel on sanded paper 24 x 36"
I've been getting some questions about this piece, I suppose because it's a bit of a departure for me. More surreal or psychedelic than my usual work. Part of that is intentional as a reflection of the nature of the Beatles tune which influenced the work. John Lennon always denied that the song referred to LSD, and was really inspired by Julian's childish drawing of a girl flying in the sky. Appropriate that this pastel is inspired by my daughter's personality. It shows her progression toward adulthood, which is the underlying theme of my White Album series.
This work began as a candid snapshot of my artsy daughter at 16. We were visiting my son at Kent State U, Ohio, for Homecoming. She was really wearing the cheap top hat around campus that day, she had gotten it for her Halloween costume. The Kent Homecoming committee were passing out the balloons and she took one, and for some reason decided to name it "Tuesday" and wrote that on the balloon with a sharpie. It was a windy day with large puffy white clouds, and she was standing on the hill where the Kent State Massacre had occured. This is an important detail about my thought process for the piece, as the tragic event happened in May 1970 - the year the Beatles broke up, and around the time John Lennon began his life with Yoko and did the Baggism, Bed-In and "War Is Over" song and campaign.
I saw the shot that day as she stood on the hill, and my daughter held the pose for just a moment. She hates when I take her photo - but she's so damn quirky and cute I can't resist! I got down low to have only the sky for a backdrop. Her expression is actually more resigned exasperation with me than anything deeper. Somehow her signature stoicism works.
I played with the image in photoshop and liked the sky reversed, with darks where the whites had been. The blue sky turned the opposite on the color wheel, "marmalade" colored. The white outline is a remnant from the photoshop effect I was using, and since she was backlit in the original photo, I thought it was cool, and again, a bit surreal. The balloon was really blue, but the effect reversed that, too. It's not meant to be realistic. I had just watched "John Lennon vs. the US" at the time and thought I'd add the words "War Is Over" to the balloon, as a flashback to the 1970's and a hopeful premonition for today. "War is over Tuesday" may have worked as well ;) My daughter is an activist against the war and while she doesn't like her likeness here, she does like the message.
The flowers on the balloon could be a reference to "cellophane flowers of yellow and green towering over your head" but that didn't occur to me til today :)
My friends have been interpreting this piece in different ways. One wondered if the balloon is her hallucination. Another says the clouds are post-war colors. I like that.
