To everything...

...there is a season...

No? Not funny? Okay.

An Unlikely Survivor

I recently found this slate tablet, which was used by a school child about 100 years ago. The slate surface is slightly recessed from the wooden frame, which enabled the survival of the lightly-drawn plump fellow in his top hat and double-breasted coat. I know that it's safe to handle, because it's clearly labeled "Germ-Proof." The owner's name is written in pencil along one border, maybe Milly or Miller.

Show of Hand

Felix Bonfils

Albumen Photograph

c. 1875

Museum of Giza, Statue of Wood

About the Power of a Photograph

This photograph was taken April 29, 1975 - 35 years ago today - by Hubert Van Es, a Dutch photojournalist working for UPI in Saigon, Vietnam. It shows a CIA helicopter evacuating desperate Vietnamese employees of the agency and their families from the roof of an apartment building, often misidentified as the US Embassy, the day before the fall of Saigon.

The image is grainy and cropped, the composition more straightforward than artistic. Surely it was experienced meaningfully by millions, in millions of ways - to paraphrase Walt Whitman, it is large; it contains multitudes.

What I wonder is whether it has resonating power only for those of a certain age, say, over 50 - those who were in some way "there," who supported or opposed, fought, feared, suffered or suffer still from that war, and who knew what that moment captured on film meant. Or whether, like some scene from the Crimean War, its power will fade into wondering what that was all about.

You Can't Take It With....Well, Maybe You Can

A custom-made, full size coffin from Ghana, by Nii Anum, circa 1995. It's for sale on ebay here.

Sing Robin Sing

To honor our burgeoning spring and an unknown artist, one of my all-time favorite folk art textiles. This pillowcase is hand-embroidered with a scene of two brown women and a baby, relaxing by a stream bordered with cattails and flowers. Over their heads, two giant blue jays engage as they bend the branches of red-flowering trees. The maker stitched in a lovely poem:

A kind heart are the gardens
A kind thoughts are the roots

A kind words are the blossoms
And a kind deeds are the fruits

Sing Robin Sing

Hems and Hers