portraitist and self-portraitist francien krieg ... entering a tussle with anxiety and mortality ... and winning

 

https://www.francienkrieg.com/

https://www.francienkrieg.com/about

https://www.wg-gallery.com/

https://www.wg-gallery.com/lifebeyondtheflesh

bluestones and modes of haulage ...

 

a series of ifs ... if stonehenge stood at a crossroads of neolithic and bronze age trade routes ... if there were already large scale seasonal movements of tribes and their herds ... if there was a traditional annual migration of welsh people and their herds to and from stonehenge, maybe twice a year ... if oxen had already been domesticated and could be traded ... if the winter and summer solstices were the time for gatherings and trading and feasting in the area of stonehenge ... then there are plenty of compelling reasons why the people from west wales might have hauled a few bluestones to stonehenge every year, twice a year, using their oxen ... party on ! ... just sayin'

albert hoffman ... through the prism of time and human ingenuity ...

MY TEXT superimposed on a famous image shamelessly derived from alex grey's lovely portrait

and from XXXX??????'s clever lash-up BICYCLE DAY blotting-paper / tab-card design

Leda ... as a theme for an ornamental funerary vase ... The Apulian Red-figure Loutrophoros, Southern Italy, 350.BC-ish

https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103WEG

https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/artifact?name=Malibu+86.AE.680&object=Vase

https://www.theoi.com/Heroine/Leda.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loutrophoros

When he was fifty-ish ... William Blake got two drawing commissions to illustrate Milton's Paradise Lost ... the first commission was from the Reverend Joseph THOMAS in 1807 ... the second, for a set of much larger sheets, was from Thomas BUTTS ... Wikipedia present the sets very well, although their numbering of Butts & Thomas seems to contain a transcription error at one point ... ... I'd just like to show the first and second versions that have survived as comparable pairs ......

the full text of the wikipedia article seems very helpful ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake%27s_illustrations_of_Paradise_Lost

Thomas 1

Butts 1

Thomas 2

Butts 2

Thomas 3

Butts 3

Thomas 4

There doesn't seem to be a version in the Butt set.

Thomas 5 ( ??? )

Butt 5 ( ??? )

Butt 5 ( ??? )

Thomas 6

Butt 6

Thomas 7

Butts 7

Thomas 8

Butts 8

Thomas 9

Butts 9

Thomas 10

Butts 10

Thomas 11

Butts 11

Thomas 12

Butts 12

prob'ly the best celadon moon flask you will ever see ...

 

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2024/the-dragon-emperor-chinese-art/a-superb-and-possibly-unique-celadon-glazed-dragon

yatagarasu hopes you've found your easter egg ...

 

william orpen ... prolific self-portraitist

i never knew his name until, in my late twenties, i was awe-struck by a large allegorical painting in the national gallery in dublin ... only in the age of internet imaging searches did i begin to understand his complex character and dry humour ... i've never thought to assemble his self-portraits until now ... it might take some time to place them all in order ... many are hastily drawn to be included in letters to his friends ... i get the impression that he enjoyed seeing himself through others' eyes ... etc ...  as a war artist he saw terrible things ... he was scrupulously honest in depicting the horrors he encountered ... these experiences were surely traumatic ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Orpen

1898

1903

1904

1906

1907

1909

1909

1910

1910

1910

1912

1913

1917

1917

1917

1919, maybe

1920

1922

1924

1924

1924 ... remembering his much younger self ...

 ... to be continued, as and when ...