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There are these shapes which talk to me
I have a new housemate.
It's a ten o'clock photo under living room light, but this is the watercolor I couldn't afford two Sundays ago at Consignment Galleries in Somerville. When I saw it for the first time, I thought of some boyish lead in a '30's film. It turns out to be a self-portrait of the artist, Richard de Menocal—no date that I can find, but he was born in 1919, so I am guessing either the late 1930's or the '40's when he was illustrating for The New Yorker, dressing windows for Lord & Taylor, and designing costumes for Radio City Music Hall. It had belonged for years to a gay couple who lived on the Cape, one of the proprietors told me, both doctors. I don't know if they knew de Menocal, but he was originally from Boston (graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, according to the single bio I've been able to find online—I think a library visit is in order), eventually returned to Cambridge where he died in 1995. In between, he seems to have spent a lot of time in Brazil and monasteries. I had to work out a deal with my parents in order to buy the portrait. I still feel very fortunate. The other proprietor said I was meant to have him.
As for today, I spent most of it with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
derspatchel at Zoe's and then at the MFA, where we went to see "Silver, Salt, and Sunlight: Early Photography in Britain and France" and then moved on to being distracted by things like dawn and sunset by Winslow Homer and a Sparton 558-B Sled radio (for which you can find the schematics on the internet! Not like I am ever going to build a radio from 1937 with a two-band five-tube superheterodyne receiver, but I approve of knowing that I could).
And then I came home and I have a lot of work to do. That's okay.
It's a ten o'clock photo under living room light, but this is the watercolor I couldn't afford two Sundays ago at Consignment Galleries in Somerville. When I saw it for the first time, I thought of some boyish lead in a '30's film. It turns out to be a self-portrait of the artist, Richard de Menocal—no date that I can find, but he was born in 1919, so I am guessing either the late 1930's or the '40's when he was illustrating for The New Yorker, dressing windows for Lord & Taylor, and designing costumes for Radio City Music Hall. It had belonged for years to a gay couple who lived on the Cape, one of the proprietors told me, both doctors. I don't know if they knew de Menocal, but he was originally from Boston (graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, according to the single bio I've been able to find online—I think a library visit is in order), eventually returned to Cambridge where he died in 1995. In between, he seems to have spent a lot of time in Brazil and monasteries. I had to work out a deal with my parents in order to buy the portrait. I still feel very fortunate. The other proprietor said I was meant to have him.
As for today, I spent most of it with
derspatchel at Zoe's and then at the MFA, where we went to see "Silver, Salt, and Sunlight: Early Photography in Britain and France" and then moved on to being distracted by things like dawn and sunset by Winslow Homer and a Sparton 558-B Sled radio (for which you can find the schematics on the internet! Not like I am ever going to build a radio from 1937 with a two-band five-tube superheterodyne receiver, but I approve of knowing that I could).And then I came home and I have a lot of work to do. That's okay.
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Nine
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Thank you! He's lasted all these years . . .
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I like the way my life is developing lately.
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Sounds an interesting day. Hope all goes well with the work and everything.
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Thanks. I have to sort through a lot of papers from college and graduate school this afternoon, which is an activity essentially designed to crash me; so it will be interesting to see how it interacts with my unusual levels of cheer as of late. For science!
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If I get a bioluminescent housemate, you'll be the first to know.
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I was sufficiently struck by it the first time that I called back a week later to see it was still on the gallery's wall. When I said I wanted to buy the painting, the proprietor thought of that call: she was so happy to hear that I was the same person.
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I'm glad you approve!
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I'm afraid the Bluebird is less obvious.
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I was lucky enough to see an entire exhibit of cars from that era a few years ago. It made me even sadder than usual about the state of automotive aesthetics these days.
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No, no, it's a fair point . . .
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I don't know! I have very little information on de Menocal at this point, except that he's most famous for the still lives he began painting in the 1950's. He's in the Smithsonian, but not so far as I can tell the MFA. The back of the watercolor has his birth and death dates and a brief note about Boston.
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Oh, I do like that radio! I'd have that; but I'd probably use it to house a theremin.
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Thank you! I hadn't thought of Peake, but you're right. I wonder if I could find later self-portraits to compare.
Oh, I do like that radio! I'd have that; but I'd probably use it to house a theremin.
Break my heart, why don't you!
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I'm sorry. I wish you did. Everybody ought to have a theremin.
I think it is awesome that you have Stylophones.
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Yes, but—due to finances—not for quite some time. The occasional poster or postcard. The vintage photograph from the flea market at the Armory. I think the last painting-type thing I bought was a print by
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I'm so glad you have it. He looks like he was meant to be a friend of yours.
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Hm. Alison has been hoping I'd learn Portuguese for years.
I'm so glad you have it. He looks like he was meant to be a friend of yours.
Thank you. I liked the look of him.
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Glad to see or hear of other Homer fans. over the last year or so i have come to really appreciate his brush work. hopefully, this will influence my paintings somewhat. I distinctly remember intently viewing "Sunset" at my last visit to the MFA.
I still have a cassette tape of Pylon somewhere around the house... and enjoy your new "housemate"!
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He has sentimental paintings, but he is also a great painter of the sea.
over the last year or so i have come to really appreciate his brush work. hopefully, this will influence my paintings somewhat.
What sort of thing do you paint?
I still have a cassette tape of Pylon somewhere around the house...
Nice!
and enjoy your new "housemate"!
He's propped up on the futon. I like him.