Clown #9 - December - Santa?

The bum on the street or the celebrity under cover, living it low out in the open, passing the time, or preparing the schemes to come...

Well, I'm sure we've all seen those curious characters that make us think, "...Santa?"

Happy holidays, merry Christmas, and may your new year in 2015 be bright!

Cheers!

Clown #8 - November - The Smiling Story

It's the gentleman with the secret story, the life well lived but undivulged, the wisdom and the wisecrack wit of long years yet in action. And he smiles gently, like a know-it-all and a kindly guru, one and the same.

Native? Impostor? Travel junkie? Journalist? Fighter turned well-wishing wayfarer?

Still, he smiles to himself, through the world, like a pro.

Smile on.

M

Clown #7 - October - Bluebeard (Trick or Treat?)

October - in this part of the world, the month of official Autumn colors, foods, and the celebration of Halloween.

I thought it fitting to theme the Clown for this month in the vein of Halloween spirit, and acknowledging that that 'spirit' is so many different things to different people, I went with something that alluded to a number of things, albeit sedately grusome, on the whole.

The mythology of Bluebeard is rich with various interpretations, one of my favorites being from the archetypal 'Animal Groom' and its psychological dangers played out. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D addresses this figure in her dissection - pun intended - of the tale featured in 'Women Who Run with the Wolves; Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype', 1996.

For those who are not familiar with the iconic villain Bluebeard, his presence is a gory one. Having been the suspected literary result of numerous historical murderers, such as the serial-killer nobleman Gilles de Rais and the ancient Breton King Conomer, his antagonist role charms young women into marriage, only to trick them into discovering his secret chamber for butchering his wives, wherein the story's heroine is nearly killed herself.
But there is a trick in escaping and defeating the infamous blue-beard mage...

Incidentally, the blue beard is a symbol of the character's association to magic, the 'Otherworld', or having fallen from grace, so to speak, in his practices.

So, myth and the style of 'All Soul's Night', celebrating those passed on, honoring the dead, and so forth, is alluded to here.

And then there are those who like a plain, spooky holiday on Halloween, featuring haunted houses, hayrides, and various decor or entertainment themed with dungeons, dismembered bodies, scary scenarios, murderous captors and the like. If that be your taste for this time, I've included a candy bag full of something (certainly not candy) seeping darkly onto the floor...Perhaps a sampling of Bluebeard's unwitting wives...I'll leave that up to you.

Trick or treat?

Happy Halloween!
-M

Clown #6 - September - Eve

...And now, for the 'better half' to join the pairing! Last month's 'Adam' was a gentle nudge in a few directions, with three symbols, including the Wary Evil Eye on his shoes.

Here, in all her glory - as I see her - and less gently, the infamous and vital force that we can call 'Eve':

'Eve', C6 September, Watercolor, 2014

'Eve', C6 September, Detail, Watercolor, 2014

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Clown #5 - August - Adam

This is a two-parter, in that, as the name might hint, his 'partner' will follow for the 1st of September. She will have her own gentle 'twist' as well. So, I might expound more officially on these two, once the 'better half' joins the show next month! Visit back...

There is the use of - gasp - symbolism, here. Three specific ones, to be exact.

With no further ado, I give you: Adam

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Clown #4 - July - The Arteest

I had only just finished C#3 in time for the beginning of June when I was setting up to doodle from Aaron Shiflet, founder of The Fulton Street Arts Cooperative, who was one of two models for our Figure Study day. I found my moleskine was hungry for attention, started taking down marks, and realized I was drawing the fourth Clown, unintentionally.

I've changed the face, so it is not Aaron, and I've altered some of the garb he was wearing, lending a neglectful, shabby, arguably 'starving artist's' disarray to the more classical, academic robe-jacket and scarf attire.
As an artist, it amuses me that he might paint on his clown white in an eye-mask shape, like a hero...or villain; we all have been known to indulgently label our skills as 'powers', admit it...
And he stands in a kind of inward-gazing daze, focused and committed to his craft, or tired and directionless, or tripping on an induced high, eccentric to the last brush stroke...The Arteest. I feel, in my lifestyle and experiences, I have the wiggle room to simultaneously poke fun at and soberly nod my head towards those sorts of fellow artists, students and masters, all.

Oh, the arteests!

Grant us all strength, and good luck to all of us. We need it.

Clown #3 - June - Killjoy

I heard 'killjoy' in a conversation, and my mind jumped. Mind you, it was one of those conversations with myself, but...so these things go.

I am alluding to the ever-popular Grim Reaper association of 'cutting down' the life force, upward-lifting things...The 'party' for all intents and purposes.A synonymous term here that I am acting on is 'party-pooper'...Hence the little hat. Non-committal grays, the shearing abuse of the scythe, and a frank stare of what I consider to be a killjoy attitude looks out at the wrap up of May and the beginning of June.

Here's to a more 'heartening' next month installment.

Clown #2 - May - Romeo

I had so much fun conceptualizing, roughing in, and painting this chap, I can't even describe it sufficiently. And it was fast. Mind, there was some of the usual annoyance in arranging the in-progress documentation and scanning process, but that is essentially of no importance here.

Suffice it to say, this love-struck, doomed fellow was out of nowhere, and - on a thoroughly uncreative late night, near the end of April - I got my Clown II.

For those who are centuries behind the times, Romeo drinks poison and dies at the end of his brief but torrid romance with the infamous Juliet...So here you go: Romeo

And almost fittingly for the romantic holiday, happy May 1st!
C3 - June 1st!

Mairin-Taj

April Fish! Poisson d'avril! Pesce d'aprile! Aprilvis! - #1 April Fools

In an innocent browsing through attics and closets - not my own - the gears clicked serendipitously upon the instant when all the imperative ingredients for inspiration were ripely gathered, and so here begins CLOWN - A Madcap Credo - The way of wise fools and punk pierrots, romantic rogues, butch mavericks, and reinvented femme fatales; the indivisible soul, the willing rapscallion. The artful bad-ass.

This is a monthly dalliance with the concept above, cataloging saturated sneaks into the epic of the painted personalities humanity has reinvented for centuries. Consciously or no, with wit and wisdom, the Clown is a conviction that can underlay even the most stoic of masks.

Clown #1
Who's the April Fish near you this month?

In Canada, France, Italy, Belgium, and other countries, to pin a paper fish onto a friend's back come April 1st - without them knowing - is to mark a 'fool', a 'fish', a 'gowk' of the day. They are someone unwitting or slow to change, someone behind the times, someone clumsily aloof.

But how much of a fool is the fool willingly 'fished', willingly owning the name and the game, being wise to choose the joke, taking the laughter as his reward, not his degradation? They are no longer slow to catch up, but ahead of the rest, and reminding us of our moment. The ultimate nonverbal quip.