Fly

The 20th century is, I think, one of the most fascinating periods of history. The changes during the last century had distinct and direct influence on our society today. We may be tempted to take these changes for granted, forgetting that we only got here through the work and bravery of people such as Helen Richey, a pioneer of aviation and trailblazer for opening male dominated fields (such as piloting) to women.

Growing up near an airport, Richey was inspired to earn her pilot's license at age 20. She learned stunt flying and competed in races.

In 1933 Richey teamed up with fellow pilot and friend Frances Harrel Marsalis to embark on an endurance flight of nearly 10 days in the air in an attempt to break the record for a female pilot. A third of the trip was completed when the plane's wing was torn during midair refueling. Richey found herself crawling out onto the damaged wing with her needle and thread and successfully repaired the tear to finish the rest of the flight.

On the heels of the good press she got from her flight, she became the first female pilot hired by a commercial airline. However, she was rejected by the all male pilot's union and the company was more interested in using her publicity than her skills so she left after a short time. Amelia Earhart learned of her treatment and protested, but Richey did not return to commercial flying.

Instead, she and Earhart teamed up for the Bendix Race, where they finished in 5th place. Richey continued to push the boundaries of flight, and in 1936 she set records for travelling 77 mph in her class of light plane, and for reaching an altitude of 18,000 feet in a plane weighing less than 440 pounds.

By the early '40s, she was working as an instructor, being the first woman to earn a teaching license and also to train military pilots, until she went to England to join the Air Transport Auxiliary, a British civilian organization which ferried aircraft and personnel during WWII. She returned to the US and joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots.

After the war, she grew despondent, believing her flying days were over. She died in 1947, tragically by her own hand.

This portrait honors Richey's passion, determination, and bravery. The phrase "Spread your wings and fly" is meant to inspire us to find these things within ourselves.


Acrylic, gel pen, india ink, Sharpie, fabric on canvas.

Learn More:

237 Hours 42 Minutes In The Air ! British Pathe, 1934

Helen Richey Collection on Flickr. San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives.

Krivyanski, J. Michael. Pittsburgh Area History: Female Aviation Pioneer Helen Richey. Examiner.com, 2012.

Merry, Lois K. Women Military Pilots of World War II. McFarland, 2010.

Romanesque Architecture ACEO

Find it on Etsy

My latest ACEO was inspired by the Abbaye de Fontenay, which I wrote about last week.

Abbaye de Fontenay

Montbard, France

France has more grand, historic buildings than you can shake a stick at. My favorite so far is Fontenay Abbey, a UNESCO World Heritage site located in the Burgundy region.

Entrance to Fontenay

It was a Cistercian abbey designed to be a place where more than 200 monks could live a life of simplicity and self-sufficiency conducive to prayer and reflection. The abbey was founded in 1118, and construction of the church started in 1139 under the guidelines laid forth by the abbey's founder, Saint Bernard, which included simplicity in decoration and a single large sleeping area shared by all of the monks.

Dormitory shared by the monks. The bedding was simple and they
laid on the floor.

Walking into the church gives a bizarre feeling of both weightiness of almost a millennium of history and light airiness created by the high ceilings and soft glowing sunlight from the windows.

The high ceilings encourage you to look upwards.

The facade was stripped bare over the years, and the few remaining sculptures seem lonely and crumbled. The effect is completed with the tomb of Knight Mello d'Epoisses and his wife. I wouldn't have been surprised to find Indiana Jones hanging out behind one of the pillars.

Tomb.

13th century enamelled floor tiles.

From the church you can walk into the cloisters where the monks would have done their reading.

Hallway surrounding the cloisters' courtyard.

The other, smaller rooms in the structure have impressive examples of Romanesque vaulted ceilings.

Chapter House where the monks assembled to discuss their readings and other business.

The gardens surrounding the abbey are beautiful and very peaceful with a balance between careful sculpting and natural formation. Several statues and flowing fountains form a focal point that invites you to come sit and enjoy the sunshine and cool breeze.

The bubbling of a fountain completes the peaceful setting.

Also noteworthy is the feat of engineering that can be found in the forge. The monks used iron ore from the surrounding hills to create tools. In order to work the iron, someone had the idea to construct a tilt hammer which used water power to drive the heavy hammer. Dating to 1220, it was one of the earliest hydraulic hammers in Europe. Today visitors can see a reconstruction, or take a look at this video to see a similar hammer in operation in an Austrian blacksmith shop.

A wheel captures the force of the river...

...which turns a shaft with a cogwheel. The teeth of the cog catch the lever to the left,
which has the hammer on the other end, and the lever is first lifted and then dropped as each
tooth moves upwards.

The forge building.

The abbey declined in the 16th century after the practice of Commendation was introduced and abbots were nominated by the king rather than by the monks. It was sold off and in the early 19th century was turned into a paper mill until it was bought by the Aynard family a century later and underwent restoration.

It is still privately owned by the same family, but many of the buildings are open for tours.

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Abbaye de Fontenay

Near Montbard, Burgundy region.

Website

 

Hours

Open daily from 10-6 in the summer (with guided tours each hour), 10-5 in the winter. Please remember that the French take a lunch break from about 12-2 and many places, including the Abbey, may close for several hours in the middle of the day.

Fee

Adults: €10 for unguided tour, a couple euros more if you take the guided tour in French. Discounted rate for kids and large families.

Janis

I'm not totally satisfied with this one, but maybe it just isn't possible to capture all of Joplin's passion and energy in a single painting.

"I'm a victim of my own insides. There was a time when I wanted to know everything. I read a lot. I guess you'd say I was pretty intellectual. It's odd, I can't remember when it changed. It used to make me very unhappy, all that feeling. I just didn't know what to do with it. But now I've learned how to make feeling work for me. I'm full of emotion and I want a release, and if you're on stage and if it's really working and you've got the audience with you, it's a oneness you feel. I'm into me, plus they're into me, and everything comes together. You're full of it. I don't know, I just want to feel as much as I can, it's what 'soul' is all about." --Janis Joplin

Watercolor pencil, acrylic, Sharpie.

Based on the photo by Daniel Kramer.

Behind Blue Eyes

I'm loving these watercolor pencils. I found this 1920s photo of Ziegfeld Follies girl Marion Benda a while back, and she caught my eye again as I was looking through my collection of old photos. Originally I had thought she'd make a nice collage with knitted lace, but looking at her again, I realized a simpler drawing would let her haunting eyes shine as the center of her portrait.

The story behind those beautiful eyes is a troubled one, and difficult to piece together. The limited mentions of her are confusing in their facts, but one newspaper article indicates that she buried her first husband after a car accident, and afterwards never seemed to find peace for herself. She was Rudolph Valentino's date just before he unexpectedly died and claimed to have also secretly married him. She turned down speaking roles on stage, saying she couldn't act. Various articles mention attempts at suicide by over-dosing on sleeping pills, until she was finally successful in 1951.

This portrait uses watercolor pencils, felt pen, and acrylic on paper, and is done in shades of purple and blue with the background yellowed with coffee. I found one reference to her eyes actually being brown, but considering her hair probably wasn't purple either I'm ok taking some artistic license here! Measures 8.5" x 11".

A few of the original newspaper articles are available online. This one from the Milwaukee Journal covers her death. Another article from the same paper dated 1927 spins a bit of a story surrounding her financial troubles which may or may not contain accurate glimpses into her character.

Netherlands vs. USA

Nieuwe Kerk, Delft

No expat blog is complete without a comparison of differences between the old home and the new. Therefore, I've put together my list of observations about life in the Netherlands that is different from what I am used to in the United States.

Culture and Society

• The Dutch language pronounces every letter in a word. 
• Love of symmetry - many windows display pairs of vases, candles, etc.
• There are few public holidays, but (depending on your job) it is not uncommon to take a month vacation.
• Healthcare is reasonably priced.
• Recycling is thorough and fairly convenient.
• On birthdays, instead of wishing the birthday boy/girl a happy birthday, people congratulate their family (for putting up with them for another year???)

Doodle Postcards

Last week the painters started working on the outside of the apartment. First step: wake everyone up with a screeching sander, which upon investigation turns out to be operated by a strange man unexpectedly standing at your 4th story window. Working in my studio suddenly had less appeal, so I looked for a project that could easily be taken elsewhere. These postcards are what happened.

I had a pad of blank postcards laying around for awhile, and I weeded through our collection of dried out ballpoint pens. I started with a simple concept for each card and built up the design around that, adding new ideas as the pictures developed. So basically, a doodle.

I had a lot of fun experimenting with interesting designs. Some I like better than others, and this "Spikes and Bubbles" card is my favourite. I should say something insightful about the juxtaposition of circles and lines, but the simple truth is the idea of popping bubbles amuses me far more than it should.

All of these are currently available through Etsy.