I don’t know what happened yesterday, but I feel more like myself than I have in ages. Ever since I became a mom, I’ve gone through some sort of psychological cocooning. I became a much, much more private person than I’ve ever been, and as a consequence of this unexpected cocooning and the stresses of the economy, work, and my transition into another phase of life (motherhood), I got… quiet. It’s not that I didn’t feel like writing anymore; I just didn’t seem to have the ability to find my voice outside of work. There’s also been so much noise. I never seem to find the quiet that I need in order to gather my thoughts, and it is jarring to me to have no time at all for real introspection. Over the last three years, I keep trying to rearrange things in my life so there’s time to live. For me, I’m not living unless I’m writing.
I don’t know if I’ve broken through a wall, but at the moment, it feels like I have. Huzzah?
Soon, I’m going to be mirroring my LJ posts on my WordPress blog. At the moment, I’m just trying to clean that junkyard up and turn it into somewhere that I can sensibly organize my thoughts.
Today’s question: what holds you back?
(Mirrored here.)
Glorious photo from Occupy LA by Del Howison
The Black Hours has been digitized. Via the Morgan Library and Museum:
This Book of Hours, referred to as the Black Hours, is one of a small handful of manuscripts written and illuminated on vellum that is stained or painted black. The result is quite arresting. The text is written in silver and gold, with gilt initials and line endings composed of chartreuse panels enlivened with yellow filigree. Gold foliage on a monochromatic blue background makes up the borders. The miniatures are executed in a restricted palette of blue, old rose, and light flesh tones, with dashes of green, gray, and white. The solid black background is utilized to great advantage, especially by means of gold highlighting.
The anonymous painter of the Black Hours is an artist whose style depended mainly upon that of Willem Vrelant, one of the dominant illuminators working in Bruges from the late 1450s until his death in 1481. As in the work of Vrelant, figures in angular drapery move somewhat stiffly in shallowly defined spaces. The men’s flat faces are dominated by large noses.
Although, in general, well preserved, this manuscript has some condition problems. The black of its vellum—the very thing that makes the codex so striking—is also the cause of some serious flaking. The carbon used in the black renders the surface of the vellum smooth and shiny—a handsome but less than ideal supporting surface for some of the pigments. The Morgan’s Black Hours is awaiting conservation treatment. In the meantime, we are pleased to offer a virtual facsimile.
