Leonora Carrington got me all inspired. I’ve bought a gesso panel and some acrylic paints. I want to try to turn this scribble into a painting.
Leonora Carrington got me all inspired. I’ve bought a gesso panel and some acrylic paints. I want to try to turn this scribble into a painting.
I love it!! I can’t wait to see this happen; the ruddy colors will be so yummy. The fact that egg’s crown is askew is both strangely and faintly menacing (at least to me), I guess because of the weird reminder of internal life.
Also, I almost thought that was an Ansister back there.
Have you read any of Leonora Carrington’s fiction? I’ve only read one very short piece (“The Hyena” – hyenas seem to have been a major part of her personal symbology), but it was wonderfully, wickedly satirical and bloody-minded.
Some Googling shows that the title of the Carrington painting that you’re using as a banner now (regarding which: DREAMY SIGH…) is “Who art Thou, White Face?”, by the way.
Thanks!! Post updated. I wish I’d known about Carrington when I was younger, but better late than never.
I rather wanted it to be an Ansister, but the panel’s quite small, so there might not be room to give her a fancy head. I was thinking of just giving her a crown for a head, like a chess queen. The egg is definitely quivering and pulsating a bit. I imagine it being made of a firm, succulent material, like gummi.
I’ve read The Hearing Trumpet, which I thought was a wonderful batshit romp, and a couple of short stories. What I’ve read of her writing is a complete antidote to anything sentimental. (You might be interested in Penelope Rosemont’s anthology of women’s surrealist writing.)
I very much like the chess-crown-head idea.
“a firm, succulent material, like gummi”
This makes me so uncomfortable. I think in a good way?
“Penelope Rosemont’s anthology of women’s surrealist writing”
Ummm, YES, holy shit. Thank you for the recommendation!! I first encountered Carrington in Angela Carter’s excellent and also deeply unsentimental anthology Wayward Women and Wicked Girls.
Sorry about the gummi. I should have said ‘a firm, succulent material like a space hopper’. XD
There’s no Kindle edition of Wayward Women, chiz, but I read the hyena story online and I went ‘gah!’ and ‘gah!’ again. Such cheerful g(ah)stliness!