Sunday, October 22, 2006

Art Meme

Wow. So Vanessa (who's guesting at Feministe, btw) tagged me with the "8 images that amaze you" meme and I was petrified--this chick is not much of an art connoisseur and I wondered what in the hell could I put up? The only people I know more than some customary blurb on are Tanner and O'Keefe! There are a few paintings I like (learned about them mostly as a volunteer in my son's art class) and I tried to include them, but I sorta changed the meme to "8 10 images that amaze me or that I love." Here goes:


Fortitude. I love her for the **obvious** reasons. I'm not really used to seeing her from this angle, though.
Lord this was hard to find. I remembered the name--The Cradle--but nothing else. Still need to find the artist's name. It's sad, I know, but isn't it hopeful, too? Something about the way she's nurturing the children.

Ok, a standard. Midsummer Night in Harlem by Palmer Hayden. I love the sense of community--this is my hometown in the summer. Except we don't have brownstones and stoops--we have wood frames and/or tiny brick houses and porches. And we have to wait til the sun goes down some or we'll bake.


While on photobucket checking out a friend's pics, I stumbled upon this, by an Anthony Rodgers, and I liked it a lot. I'm trying to contact him to convince him to call it "Elle A-Straddle the World."


My mom and her beloved baby brother, mid 1950s. My uncle died a few years ago and my mom has never really recovered.


A history of military service-the first is my dad, all young and slim, in Vietnam. He reminds me (when he will talk about it) that he was old enough to be killed, but not old enough to buy a drink, during his first tour.

The second is the only extant (that we know of) picture of my paternal grandfather. He was a World War II vet.

**picture removed**


For juxtaposition, the first picture is of my paternal grandmother, 6 of her granddaughters and 3 of her grandsons (there are 21 of us in all) circa 1987. The next is of all 9 of her granddaughters (for a limited time. God, we all have the same smile!) circa 2003. Can you tell who the six grew up to be? Hint—the two oldest girls (another cousin and me) are not in the first pic and the youngest wasn’t born when it was taken. Picture number 2 is a hot commodity in my family--grainy, but the only one of its kind as my family is widely strewn and we've had one family reunion in my memory.





This spot is reserved for an image that I saw recently that I can't find. It is in the closing credits of Spike Lee's "When the the Levees Broke," an image of a black woman wrapped in an American flag--I may have posted about this already. That image was startling to me and I had to figure out why. I came up with two reasons-one, perhaps I don't really think of that flag as belonging to us and/or two, when you see people wrapped in it, the message usually is that the flag (or the country) offers support or protection--a gross misstatement in the case of Hurricane Katrina survivors.


Ok, I'ma tag a bunch, in hopes that at least a couple will find the time and desire to do it. I tag (complete at your leisure--if you're a meme person) Quinn, Gwyneth, Evanne, Ragey, Zan, Moksha, Nubian, and Ginviren. I'm too lazy to hyperlink y'all's names right now.

Update: Moksha, I started this Friday and I know you've been tagged by someone else in the interim.

8 comments:

Gwyneth Bolton said...

Great images! I'm going to try and do it. But I can't make any promises. It's only Monday and already the week is hectic... LOL.

Abadiebitch said...

Oh I love your pictures! I wish my mother would give up some pictures, and I had a better scanner.

Thanks for the invite. I just finished.

Kevin Andre Elliott said...

I love it. This is the best meme ever. Your set just adds to the amazing feeling I've been having lately, despite all the bs.

Much love.

-Kevin

elle said...

Thanks to all of you!

belledame222 said...

Lovely! love the family pics especially

Arch City Expatriate said...

Great pics. I enjoy seeing pics of black families. Thanks for sharing. I think I may do a similar feature.

Anonymous said...

Nice blog.

I remember that hurricane picture of the woman wrapped in the flag. She was very old right? It stuck with me as well because my first reaction was that the gov't had given it to her as a blanket for some PR. Maybe red cross gave it to her? It was very strange. hmmm.

I think the image is available through Time mag's website because they published a book with a lot of famous Trina photos not too long ago. (yes, I am officially refering to it as Hurricane Trina now:)

I have an old picture of my grandfather in the marines--when he talks about it he reminds me of all the same things as the last time too: "I could be killed but I couldn't walk through the white doors" "After we won the war, the president said 'thank god but I said 'thank God and the marines!'"

Isn't it strange to have them tell you the story and show you the picture when you are a child--you think to yourself, 18-years-old is old. Then as an adult you look at your young grandfather or dad and think "You were just a kid going to fight an old (white) man's war!" at least that is my experience.

elle said...

Then as an adult you look at your young grandfather or dad and think "You were just a kid going to fight an old (white) man's war!"

exactly. pisses me off.

Revelations and ruminations from one southern sistorian...