Double Lives

      "Of course, I live more than one life all the time anyway.  Don't we all, who read books?"
                                                                                                      -Mary Oliver

     Actually, I don't know who Mary Oliver might be, but she's right about living more than 1 life at a time if you are a reader.  Some people read 2 or 3 books at a time.  Do you think that gives them a "split personality?"  I often have two books going at the same time, but one must be fiction and the other nonfiction.   It's best if their topics aren't too similar either (like two books about women artists) or my brain will occasionally cross wire and I'm not sure which character - the real one or the make believe one - is doing what.

     Over the years I've tried to read some of the classics, and see a big difference between some of them and many of the books being written by contemporary authors.  One of my all-time favorite authors is Pearl Buck.  Her 70 or so books are set in China and are fascinating to me. John Steinbeck's East of Eden is another good book written with great style.  A few years ago, I reread The Great Gatsby  by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  I just can't see why this book is considered such a great one.  It wasn't by my standards.

     Once I bought a book of Fitzgerald's short stories because it had the most charming cover art.  My favorite story was called, "Bernice Bobbs Her Hair."  She bobbs her hair after being goaded into it by her cousin, Margorie.  Bernice regrets her hasty action and really wishes she hadn't let her nasty cousin push her so far.  How to get back at Margorie?  Bernice finds the perfect solution.

"Bernice Bobbs Her Hair" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Art Journal Page
Creative Idea #9

     This journal page started with a watercolor wash before some paperdolls with bobbed hair were added.  Its a simple page, but a good reminder of  Fitzgerald's clever story.

     Smarty and I'll be back soon.

                        Carol

Shot Dead

      Recently during a short camping trip with my sister and brother-in-law, we visited the Little Bighorn Battlefield near Hardin, MT.  The Custer National Cemetery is located within the battlefield although General Custer isn't buried there - he's at the West Point Cementery because he was a graduate.

     While we were looking through the cemetery information booklet, I came across the name of a woman  laundress who is buried there.  According to the booklet, Julia Roach was the first woman known to be shot dead  in Montana Territory.  Her husband did it, but he was never punished.

     I thought to myself , "Oh sure.  If he shot another man, he would have been hung."



Custer National Cemetery

  
   Well, the story may not be so simple.  The shooting actually took place at Fort C.F. Smith where Mrs. Roach had tracked down her husband who was known as Corporal John Doyle.  Mrs. Roach and several of their children arrived as a "surprise" for her husband who hadn't seen her since leaving them in New York City.  While on the trail of her missing husband, Mrs. Roach had been warned at Fort Phil Kearney about her promiscuous, profane, and abusive behavior.   Apparently Corporal Doyle was a mild-mannered man who got fed up with her verbal misbehavior.  After she insulted him about his "fathering" skills, he shot her dead.

Grave marker of Julia Roach.

    
     Why wasn't he punished?  Corporal Doyle was placed under arrest, but the commander of Fort Smith didn't think it was an army matter.  He promised that Doyle would be turned over to the civil authorities.  However, the closest civil authorities were a couple of hundred miles away.  It never happened.  Corporal Doyle was returned to duty and transferred with the rest of his unit when Fort Smith was abandoned.  Soon he deserted and was never heard from again.

     Mrs. Roach was buried at Fort Smith, but when the fort was closed, her body was reinterred at Custer National Cemetery.

     Did Corporal Doyle try to escape from Mrs. Roach and her nasty personality by changing his name and joining the army?  Was she right to trail him like she did?  Army pay was quite low, there was no such thing as child support, and divorce was extremely difficult to obtain in those days of the eighteen hundreds.

    What do you think about this case?

     Smarty and I'll be back soon.
                Carol

Don't Wash, Dry Clean Your Hair

     Did you ever wonder how those gorgeous movie stars of the 1950s kept their hair so perfect? 

     Recently I read a 1957 book called Eleanore King's Guide to Glamor where Ms. King explained some of the mysteries used by them.  She, herself, went to a beauty operator to keep the gray out - not by dying her hair but by plucking it. She did this 1 1/2 hours weekly for 13 years.  If I'd done that, by the age of 35 I'd have been bald!

     Ms. King also mentioned that many dark-haired women of the time didn't wash their hair very often so that their natural hair color would remain.  She personally met many women in their 60s who had gorgeous hair which they dry cleaned most of the time with only semi-annual shampoos.



  Idea #5: art journal

     
     After step #1, you "scale" the head by parting the hair every quarter of an inch, and with a comb, loosen as much of the dead cuticle on the part as you are able to do. With vigorous shaking, the scale should fall out.  If a woman wanted to add her favorite perfume to the witch hazel (step #4), she could but she would take a chance of making streaks in her hair.

     So, I'm thinking that this whole process sounds like a bit too much work for me.  Some how I don't remember the shampoo of the 50s being so harsh on the hair that it damaged it, but I was just a child then so maybe it was that bad.  And, I can't really believe that not washing your hair will keep it the color you had at the age of twenty. 

     How often is often enough to wash hair?  Ms. King suggests that a middle of the road schedule might be to wash once a week and dry-clean the next week or wash one week and dry-clean the next 3 weeks.  Which ever you choose, good luck.

Smarty and I'll be back soon.
Carol 

 

The Story of Adrianna

     I was born in 1867 with pale china skin and hand painted blue eyes like most of my friends. My molded hair has such a beautiful shine to it.  My name is Adrianna.  My mistress, Miss Mary Louise, sewed me a fine cloth body by carefully following a magazine pattern.  Although many of my friends had molded jewelry, Miss Mary Louise enjoyed changing my jewelery to match my different outfits.

      My green velvet promenade dress matches the one worn by my mistress.  She makes calls, but we are "at home" every Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.  That's when others can come call on us and we'll be sure to be here.

 
      Here's an example of the type of dresses I wear when Miss Mary Louise and I read, write, paint with watercolors and sew.  Sometimes we play dominos or paste pretty scraps in books.

    
     We go to a ball or the opera some of the evenings.  All the ladies dress in silk and lace which makes such a lovely rustling sound when they walk by us.  I have pierced ears so I can wear many different earrings just like they do.  Underneath my dress, I wear whalebone stays and a crinoline so my dress will stay puffed out and my waist will look as small as possible.  It's hard to bend over in all these clothes!

      The main thing a woman is to do these days is to be a proper wife.  There are rules for everything, and the men don't think the ladies are as smart at them.  The men are positive that women aren't  nearly smart enough to vote, but I'll be around a long time and I plan to watch it happen...with my china blue eyes.

    

Creative Idea #4

Here I am in the body Miss Mary Louise made for me.  I'm so
embarrassed!

My book was made from a report cover with white paper
 pages stapled inside.
All my clothes and accessories are cut seperately - many of
them from magazine pictures.



Smarty and I'll be back soon.   Carol



Advice from Coco



Idea #3:  Art Journal page



  Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel was a gifted designer, but this quote makes me think her 

 take on the roll of women might be a bit limited especially in today's world.

As a French designer, during the 1920s Coco influenced women to wear their hairshort. After WWI

she made simple dresses from wool jersey which were worn with cardigans.  She began to wear slacks with pullover sweaters starting a new fashion trend. 

Coco loved jewels!  Soon she encouraged everyone to wear costume jewelry, and she reproduced

copies of her own fabulous jewelry ornamented by rubies, diamonds, emeralds, and pearls. 

It's said that in 1930, Coco was offered $1,000,000 to design Gloria Swanson's clothes for the

movie Tonight or Never along with her personal fashions.  By the time the movie was released, Chanel's

simple clothes looked out-dated. 

  

The art journal page above began with one of Coco Chanel's famous quotes.  When looking

through my magazine stash, I came across the perfect picture to go with the quote.  Since I paint the watercolor backgrounds for many pages at one time, the background was ready. I just needed to add a chair, the dog stand, the quote, and a border.

 Smarty and I'll be back soon.  

                Carol

    

Woman Arrested for Indecent Exposure

                                                    

Idea #1:  Cut paper collage card

      Try to imagine actually swimming in the outfit shown here.   Made of the favorite swimsuit fabric of the day - wool in nearly any color of your choice - you could order one from Sears or make it yourself.  Of course, most women at that time didn't really "swim"; they waded.  There was a real danger of  drowning

while trying to swim in such a heavy, wet costume.  It's been said

that some ladies even wore their corsets under their suits!

      In 1907 or 08 (books vary on the date) a pretty young lady by the name of Annette Kellerman was  arrested at

Boston's Revere Beach because she "showed too much leg." The charge of indecent exposure seems ridiculous to us, but she was hauled off to court.



   

 



Ideas #2:  Art journal page

     When asked by the judge why she was dressed in a man's style of swimsuit, Annette explained that she wanted to swim 3 miles out to a lighthouse and couldn't do it in the costume worn by women.  The judge must have agreed with her because he allowed her to wear the suit, BUT only if she covered herself up with a robe until she was in the water.

      

       Born in Australia, Annette learned to swim and ballet dance as a child to strengthen her legs weakened from a bout with polio or some other muscle disease. That wasn't the last people heard about her.   In America, in addition to working for swimsuit reform, Annette Kellerman  became a famous silent movie star.

        Esther Williams starred in the movie about her, and  The Original Million Dollar Mermaid by Emily Gibson tells Annette's  

 story.

 Smarty and I'll be back soon.

Why 1000 Creative Ideas and More?

Mrs. Delany was widowed at 68 and started her life's biggest accomplishment four years later.  Her goal was to create 1000 paper flower "mosaiks".  She didn't quite make it.  Her eyesight failed after 10 years, so she only finished 985 of her fabulous pictures.  Just as amazing as the number she made is the fact that Mrs. Delany was born in 1700 when supplies were quite hard to get.  Her flower pictures have been preserved for over 200 years and can still be seen in a museum in Britain.

Mrs. Delaney just proves that we're never too old to begin.  Although I wasn't quite as old as she was when her husband died, I too am a widow trying to find my own way.  My goal is to make 1000 creative pieces about women of the past, their lifestyles, their fashions, their stories and then  share them so you may be motivated to learn more about our remarkable sex.  After all, at least 50% of the world's population is female!

There is one special male in my life who wants to be part of this blog.  At nearly 3 years old, Smarty Phineous Welsh Corgi has become a good companion to me.  Not great, but improving.  At first, the division of power looked like this: Smarty 80% Me 20% I'm now thinking it's more like this: Smarty 60% Me 40% Of course, that might be optimistic of me. Smarty's pretty much his own "man."

Smarty & I will be back soon.