BLESSED MEN

 Hello, Music Lover,

My first square is about Cwm Rhondda, by John Hughes. There is a glorious recording of this hymn by Harry Secombe and the Treorchy Male Choir on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watchv=dm93QW08yZQ.There is nothing quite like the sound of a Welsh male choir singing this, whether it is made up of rugby supporters or miners. I chose to paint a miner with coal dust on his face, over a photograph of a closed pit in the Welsh valley of Rhondda. This one is a gift for Stan, who has liver cancer, and who would like the hymn played at his funeral.

Beatus Vir, by Monteverdi. I had a lot of fun with this one. The text of “Blessed Man” is taken from Psalm 112, so David the Psalmist is presumed to have written it. King David must have had a pretty good opinion of himself; it’s pretty clear he was writing about himself - the God-fearing man whose seed will be mighty on earth, who is full of compassion and righteousness, until he gazes on his enemies, and whose house is full of wealth and riches etc! So I thought I would make this square about him. The background is a photo of the Valley of Elah, recorded in the Bible as the site of Goliath’s slaying. The road which appears to the left of the statue is supposedly the road the Philistines fled down after the death of their leader.

It also occurred to me that Monteverdi probably saw Michelangelo’s mighty statue of David – perhaps even was inspired by it. He was born just three years after Michelangelo’s death, and while I have found no record of his ever living in Florence, and the city states kept pretty much to themselves except when they were fighting, I am sure he must have visited the city at some point. If so, he could not have missed it, positioned as it was to defend the city against all comers.

Since 1873, The statue of David has been housed in a specially built room at the Accademia Gallery in Florence; I went to see it when I was in Florence exhibiting at the Biennale. It is placed in a kind of niche, with the full frontal view facing out, and its position doesn’t allow a full view all around it because of the columns beside it. There is now a theory that Michelangelo never intended the first look to be the full frontal view, but rather where David is looking - at Goliath perhaps, or any other threat to the beloved city which commissioned the statue. This makes a lot of sense when you think about it; like a pitcher standing sideways on his mound about to throw a baseball, his right leg is tensed while the left one juts forward. His right hand is tensed around the stone. Here is what you perhaps should see, as you enter the special gallery, (because of the column involved, this has to be a digital re-creation) and beside it, I have placed two photos of baseball pitchers winding up on the mound.

Sorry, but just before I shut up about this – I can imagine the movers struggling in with the gigantic 17 foot statue 140 years ago, plonking it down and saying – “this where you wanna put it? Okay – d’you think it goes this way?” And then the curator’s assistant comes along, checks that it's in the middle of the space, but no-one stops to look at the statue and think what it's about!

For those fibre artists reading this, you may wonder about how I painted the fabric on these two squares. I used Pebeo Setacolor, opaque black and white, and a Premier 705 No. 4 brush. It is a superior student quality brush and will stand up to a certain amount of dry “scrubling” to do the shading.  I also diluted the paint for larger areas, (even though you are not supposed to do this with opaque paint) and of course it tends to bleed at the edges. The trick is to do this well within the boundaries you are covering, so it doesn’t bleed further than you want, and then tidy up with a dry brush after the fabric is dry. There is also a little more control on the ink jet prepared Jacquard cotton that the background is printed upon, especially if you leave it on its backing paper. Don’t forget to iron the square carefully when you are finished, to set the paint. Otherwise it will not be washable when you place the piece in a quilt.

The Sound of Silence, by Simon and Garfunkel is the final square today: 

Nothing is ever truly silent, but in the hush of water falling off the edge of an infinity pool, in mediation, it comes pretty close. This one is for Leigh. Peace and quiet are very important to her, after a busy day at her executive job. This song was also played at her wedding, and hearing it reminds her of special times with her husband.

See you next time - happy listening!
Susan