Art Notes - feb 21
Connecticut’s state seal features the grape vines - a symbol of enduring sustinence. One of my minis here for it.
The wise man said that a man can DO art, OR talk about art, but not both, but "I am no man" I quote Eowyn in Lord of the Rings as she fells the Witch King who cannot be felled by Man.
There are places at my site to show a lifelong timeline in an arts focus, and its delightful integration in a woman’s life.
At six, “Artiska” was a nickname - simply studied and put to work lifelong, education and career goals often blocked or denied or impractical but still “ we do something”. In my mind, I see the movie - the days and nights, painting, drawing, designing , sewing, studying, learning , learning, one hand at the work and the other holding on to my angels, and letting go and letting them do their job, while I did mine.
The arts are timeless and have a place in things that holds like no one but the Source of all Life. Process changes, style changes, popularity changes and yet Art IS.
As a girl, I’d be impressed by a person place or thing and want to tell them, but not always sure - is it right to tell them? If it is right, how to tell them? In our day’s work paths we were expected to DO. It was more than that though, that was happening sometimes. It was a thing that felt like life itself - an energy created by the day and its people and their actions.
Art was a way to discover, to make the virtual into a bit of something actual. And maybe to share the journey of it all, and hope that others felt the same and might say so.
This is my Artist’s Valentine for you:
Fine Art at ElleFagan.com - the artwork here to view or purchase in original or reproduction or imprinted merchandise
Women in Portraits Valentines fun, it begins with the famous "Morphing Portraits" by Philip Scott Johnson.
Five minutes after humans began to interact, there was art, made by men, women and children, according to the history pros. Art, somehow, is essential and never biased.
Working with children's arts & crafts, paid and volunteer in schools, private & public, and neighborhood groups, pro and redcross in wars for arts and crafts timeouts, I learned that my first shown works were classic child - almost. For most children, it begins with The Mandala, or drawn circle with radiating straight lines. And my beautiful Mother NEVER punished me for my hallmark as a toddler: over and over I would draw in the flyleaf of one of our family library books - the mandala - and near it "Done By Ellen" - it looked like an odd bookplate, as though I could not bear being too little to write or publish my art and writings, so I put MY name on the works of others.
That soon changed and by the time I was six, was called "The Artists" or "Artiska" by Mother's Polish friends. A beginning that makes me happy to recall now. And my own first things read in public when I was ten. And it went on in a logical path because and in spite of life’s way with people.
This website is my work as well, my second site, as it were. I coded every page of the first one - addicted to tech - but I am enjoying more time to actually get the art & writings done and shared, with this one, thanks to Squarespace, my host. I am very proud of this second online place and am enjoying being not quite so newbie about it and I hope you find your time at ellefagan.com , now 17, worth the visit!
patron saint of artists
St. Catherine of Bologna was born on 8 September 1413. Her father was in the service of a marquis and this encouraged the marquis to choose Catherine to become an attendant to his daughter. Catherine and Princess Margaret, the daughter of the marquis, attended school together and received an excellent education in both literature and the arts. While at school, Catherine learned how to illuminate manuscripts, one example of her work is currently kept in an English museum.
When Princess Margaret married, Catherine left her service and followed a call to religious life. She joined a group of women following the Rule of St. Augustine and eventually convinced them to follow the Rule of the Poor Clares. In 1432, the whole community took the habit and vowed to follow the Franciscan Rule. After a few years, the community had experienced so much growth that a group of nuns were sent to Bologna to start another convent. Catherine was chosen as head of this group and served as superior of the new convent until her death.
As superior of the convent at Bologna, Catherine offered guidance and instruction to the other nuns. A large collection of autobiographical information and Catherine's advice can be found in her work "Treatise on the Seven Spiritual Weapons." Catherine died during Lent of 1463. Soon after her death, her body was exhumed because of miracles attributed to her intercession, and was found to be incorrupt. Her body remains incorrupt and is held at the Poor Clare convent in Bologna.
Catherine was canonized in 1712 and is the patron saint of artists.
