Posts Tagged ‘women’

14 items.

In Which The Artist Complains About the Bifocals.

by Colleen Doran on February 20th, 2010
Posted In: Blog, Colleen's Work, Humor

I have absolutely awful eyesight, as in I can’t see the big E. At all. I see a fuzzy blank wall.

Since I was 20-ish, I have needed bifocals. I resisted taking the dual-peeper plunge because I have an extremely odd, expensive prescription and can buy 3 pairs of glasses for the price of one pair of these fancy bifocals. Prescription sunglasses are handy, so I’d spend the extra moolah on those.

In the past I kept an old pair of glasses on hand for reading, and used the updated glasses for everything else. As my eyes deteriorate, the old glasses become reading glasses, and the new glasses become everything else glasses.

Recently, the bifocals have become an imperative. My new eye doctor spent a ridiculous amount of time dancing around the issue of what he perceived to be female vanity, fearing that the pronouncement of my bifocal necessity would send me into a swoon. Apparently, ladies get in a tizzy when they don’t have perfect eyesight.

I could not parse the conversation at first. When I finally translated the mansplaining, I exclaimed, “For God’s sake, what the hell do I care about bifocals! It beats being blind!”

I proceeded to mock the dude to his employees for the rest of the visit.

Warned that bifocals would take “some getting used to,” they took no getting used to at all, except when I sat down to use the computer. My 21 inch screen and monster Cintiq sit too high. I have to lean back so far to see the screen, it is impossible to do work on the thing. The Cintiq can be laid flat, so it’s not as big a problem, but it looks like I will be using my old glasses as computer reading glasses after all. I don’t seem to have any trouble drawing with the new bifocals.

My new doctor is the best in this area of the state, and all the best people go to him. I know this because every celebrity with a country mansion on this side of the mountains got name dropped by staff, and I never knew that particular Charlie’s Angel lived out here. I am not immune to a taste for harmless celebrity gossip, and had a good ol’ time tittering with employees.

I wish somebody would titter the mansplaining eye doctor into the 21st century.

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Girl Comics UPDATED

by Colleen Doran on December 30th, 2009
Posted In: Blog, Culture, Comics, Culture, Comics, Comics History, Culture, Comics, DC Comics

Allan Harvey is quietly producing one of the most entertaining nostalgia blogs EVAH. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of comics, and a great sense of humor. If you enjoy classic comics – especially ones with scenes that make you go HUNH? – you will want to bookmark Gorilladaze.

Allan often features mainstream comic industry attempts to produce work of interest to the fairer sex. Check out this gem from DC Comics, with art by the lovely Liz Berube!

Whenever I want beauty advice, I turn to comic books. Yep.

Romance Comics are always a great way to get the gals rushing to the bookstore!

And in this classic, Jerry Lewis meets Wonder Woman.

Then Brawnhilde, the most, er, homely Amazon you’ve ever seen, arrives with news that Diana’s mom, Queen Hippolyta has been kidnapped by the evil Zodor. Jerry is still feeling sick, and so gulps down a potion indicated by Bratwurst — but it’s the wrong one, and Jerry finds himself impervious to pain!

Diana reliases that with her mother gone, Paradise Island needs a new leader: Jerry!!

Seriously.

“My hero!” cries Brawnhilde, her head awhirl with little hearts.

Hours of wacky fun for the whole family. You will love Gorilladaze.

EDIT: Crikey, how could I forget The Art of Kissing? The whole thing makes me throw up a little in my mouth, so artful kissers beware my pucker.

Speaking of Wonder Woman, Sarah Beach, who has contributed several guest blogs on this site, posted this interesting essay on The Problem with Wonder Woman.

She’s “a babe,” a confident woman, beautiful and bold. And yet, Wonder Woman remains difficult to peg. That is, perhaps, part of her enduring power to fascinate us. We try to sort her out, to figure what makes her tick, because we don’t really want to deal with someone as completely committed to truth and justice as the Amazon princess is. She’s not some wild woman who needs taming, nor some insecure heroine who needs coaching.

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The Lady Was Sir Galahad: The Story of Ellen Terry

by Colleen Doran on May 6th, 2009
Posted In: Blog, Culture, Culture, Fine Art, Culture, Illustration, Culture, Literature, Culture, Theater

If you came here looking for info about From Eroica With Love, the blog migration moved those posts here.

This famous 1862 painting of Sir Galahad by George Frederick Watts was modeled on the artist’s wife, an actress named Ellen Terry. Terry’s beauty gave Galahad the androgynous purity Watts wanted to convey in this contemplative portrait.

The original Sir Galahad is housed at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard.

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Watts’s Sir Galahad became a symbol of the British warrior, used to memorialize the pure and noble spirit of fallen soldiers.

The painting was reproduced in stained glass at Freshwater on the Isle of Wight.

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Model Ellen Terry was only 16 years old, already an accomplished stage actress, when she married the 46-year-old Watts.

Here she is in Choosing, another portrait by Watts.

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The marriage was not a success. Terry regretted leaving the stage, and left her husband after only 10 months. She went on to become one of the most successful women in the history of theater with a career spanning more than 50 years.

Ellen Terry may be the only person in history to portray both the stainless Sir Galahad and the sinful Queen Guinevere. A production of the play King Arthur, written by Comyns Carr, was designed by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Burne Jones. Here is Terry as Guinevere in promotional photographs from the show:

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A scene from the play, which must have been quite a spectacle. It ran for over 100 performances at the Haymarket Theater, and toured the USA.

Source:

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Ellen Terry was best known for her roles in Shakespearean plays. Her turn as Lady Macbeth was immortalized in this painting by John Singer Sergeant.

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Terry’s beauty was the inspiration for many artists in the Pre-Raphaelite circle. She modeled for Julia Margaret Cameron, one of the first and most prominent of 19th century photographers. This shot has a remarkably modern feeling.

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I used to have a lovely volume which collected the work of Cameron. I sold it back in my starving artist days. I still regret that.

Ellen Terry’s colorful and romantic life is well documented online, but you might enjoy downloading this free, public domain copy of her autobiography The Story of My Life which also has a file of many wonderful photos and paintings of her in her theatrical splendor.

Terry’s family of famous actors walked the boards of the British stage for more than a century. She is the great aunt of actor Sir John Gielgud.

All images used in this article are in the public domain and are scanned from items in my personal collection or from online resources. A photo gallery resource can be found here. The UK National Portrait Gallery Archives are here.

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Thanks for reading.


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The Real Gerber Baby

by Colleen Doran on April 25th, 2009
Posted In: Blog, Culture, Comics, Culture, Comics, Comics History, Culture, Culture, Illustration

The famous Gerber baby, the chubby-cheeked infant who has graced Gerber food products for nearly 8 decades, has been incorrectly identified time and again as a portrait of the infant Humphrey Bogart, classic film actor. His mother, Maud Humphrey Bogart, was a successful illustrator. She often used little Humphrey in her pictures, and once used his baby face to advertise Mellin’s baby food.

However, Humphrey Bogart was nearly thirty-years-old when Gerber began manufacturing baby food. gerberbaby

The real Gerber baby has a comics connection.

She’s Ann Cook (nee Turner), daughter of comic strip creator Leslie Turner, the man who wrote Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy for a whopping 27 years. The original baby sketch was by the artist Dorothy Hope Smith. She submitted the sketch and was paid $300 for it. It became the official Gerber trademark in 1931. Ann Cook was paid a cash settlement of $5,000 for the use of her image in 1951.

annecookturnerCook became a mystery writer and lives in Florida.

Photo from Anne Turner Cook’s website.

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The Women Who Made Tiffany

by Colleen Doran on March 26th, 2009
Posted In: Blog, Culture, Culture, Fine Art

Louis Comfort Tiffany’s contribution to the decorative arts encompasses a wide range of glassware, lamps, windows, jewelry, and other items.

The Tiffany Girls, circa 1904-1905, (The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, Winter Park)

The Tiffany Girls, circa 1904-1905, (The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, Winter Park)

An exhibit at the New York Historical Society, highlighted the Tiffany Girls, and their most prominent designer Clara Driscoll. Recently discovered letters covering Driscoll’s work at the House of Tiffany from 1888 to 1909 show that women artists and designers contributed a great deal to the success of Tiffany, even while they faced discrimination at the studio.

Dragonfly Lamp, shade designed by Clara Driscoll

Dragonfly Lamp, shade designed by Clara Driscoll

Not only did women who married have to leave the studio, but while men were allowed to form a union, the same rights were forbidden to the women workers. In a work dispute, the male workers at the Tiffany Studio even demanded that the female staff be fired until Tiffany agreed to limit the number of women employees to no more than 27. Typically, women were paid lower wages than men, and male workers feared their rates could be undercut when women were hired for less money.

Cobweb Lamp, Shade designed by Clara Driscoll

Cobweb Lamp, Shade designed by Clara Driscoll

I hope you will take some time to click the links and read about these remarkable women.

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