My mid-month post has slipped by a day – a time management luxury I allow myself when my many manias compete for attention. For the past few weeks, I've been grabbing the occasional spots of sunshine to get my spring bulbs in the ground and – whoo hoo!! – to make progress on brickwork in my back yard (thank you, L and B for your very special deliveries of recent years – North Vancouver bricks and Galiano rocks).
The site is a bit muddy now, but in another 5-6 months when the bulbs emerge from under my funky squirrel baffles, this will be spectacular, won't it? Oh, I feel a sidebar coming on, devoted to that last stone in the line-up on the right:-- the biggest rock I've excavated from this rocky soil. When my trowel clinked on something 8" down, I couldn't resist dig-dig-digging. But once it was fully exposed (a good half-hour later) how would I get it out of its hole? I channelled the Egyptians and thought of the stones at the top of their pyramids – and then, inch by inch, I nudged it up a slope, propping with smaller stones as it ascended to ground level!
Egyptians?! Do I feel another mania coming on? Maybe another day, but here's a very interesting ancient Egyptian textile. Its "rescue" was perhaps simpler – just a matter of unwrapping it from a you-know-what.
But onward to the competing mania – my current infatuation with the Commedia dell'Arte
All I could possibly want to know -- but in German! No matter. Here's the plan. There's a line-up from Actors Equity, hoping to audition for the many characters in the traditional Commedia dell'Arte theatrics – and we aim to give them every assistance to make it a success. Their costumes need to fit just right so the first stop is The Fitting Room.
It's very skillfully staffed by my young ex-neighbour, a young mum who's a professional seamstress working on garment prototypes for the renowned Vancouver-based firm of …oh, I shouldn't name names. Let's call it "C-C Citrus." First out of the sewing basket is the costume for Arlecchina, the female Arlecchino or Harlequin.
In the original Commedia plots, Harlequin was presented as a tramp-figure, dressed in patched clothing. But now those patches have transformed into downright elegance. So, let's get started.
I was playing this by ear – or eye – and as I began to add colour, I had the idea that individual figures in this series might be modelled on my actual neighbours. (They ARE an amazing bunch, several of them involved in the film or design industry).
I paused at this point to do a study, hoping for the face of C-C Citrus but having mixed success.
I realized, too, that it would be tricky at the small scale of 14" x 18" to suggest much more than the curly mop of hair. Here's the final version: "The Fitting Room – Audition Series" (copyright 2023).
Lots of room for improvement, but we'll have some fun with this crowd. As I was about to close out this post, thinking about the Tulipomania that inspired the title engraving, I happened to wonder….Isn't there a variety called Harlequin Tulip? Well, by Jove…No, let's make that "By Mercury!" – the patron of my astrological sign and a well-known trickster figure – a natural addition to the Commedia dell'Arte. Here it is:
