You never know what's around the next corner

 

 

 

Early in the month, I had a bit of a surreal experience.  I was walking to a workshop in an unfamiliar neighbourhood halfway across town and came upon this gorgeous old apartment building.  As I stood open-mouthed, a friendly passerby told me that it dated from the 1920s and had been built as temporary weekday housing for day labourers – who would commute from their (and my) east side Vancouver homes to log the dense forests of the land farther west. 

 

That was surprising enough.  Then I walked on and at the next corner – oh, my – when worlds collide!

 

Isn't he enchanting? 

 

I could find no clues, nor friendly passers-by, to explain it – but it gave me food for thought along the lines of "East meets West."  I've been planning to wrap up the Commedia dell'Arte series in the next while, and I'd been thinking that I hadn't really given Pantalon a fair shake. 

 

He's a hometown boy of Venice – and in the annals of trade and travel, what more international, more East-facing city could there be?  Remember the beautiful Teatro Italia in Venice, now renovated and bustling as a grocery chain store?

 

 

I decided to give Pantalon a full-page spread, standing in front of the Teatro in its glory days and finding someone unexpected around the corner.  And who would that be?  Following Italian explorers around the world is way more time-consuming than tracing the Commedia travelling players around Europe. 

 

How about Marco Polo?

 

 

Remember the speculation, dear to our childhood, that he might have introduced spaghetti to Italy on return from his far-ranging travels to the East? 

 

And we might as well forget Giovanni Caboti – John Cabot, who set sail under England's patronage, aiming for a new route to the East, and landed in Newfoundland. 

 

You do have to wonder, though, if he returned from the "New World" with the culinary treat of Jigg's Dinner with Figgy Duff.

 

I was despairing of making an East-West match when I just happened to see another figure, famous in his own right, one of Japan's lasting gifts to the world.  Not quite in step with Pantalon, he drew and then painted this image when he was 82 years old.

 

You probably know him as the creator the "The Great Wave."

 

 

He signed his self-portrait as Hokusai – the last in a series of names he used for himself, apparently changing his name as he developed his styles.   Yes, a renowned (revered!) Japanese artist would be a great surprise, emerging around the corner of the Teatro Italia – and appropriate, too, since Japan has its own ancient theatre traditions.  Masks have their part…

 

 …and performances of classical (and contemporary) plays in theatres that carry on the traditions of elegant simplicity.

 

Here's the final encounter of Pantalon and Hokusai. 

 

Should we call it, "When Worlds Collide"?   No, let's stick with the original concept, "East Meets West" (Commedia Series, copyright 2024).

 

Doors, windows, masks, corners – who knows what's behind them, what might come next?

 

 

 

Spinning out of control?

 

 

 

It wasn't just my old washing machine that went bonkers in early February, but a whole lot of things ganged up to make me feel ill-focused and – well, spinning my wheels.  For one thing, Harlequin kept nagging at me.  I knew I had to do something big with  him – he was everywhere in my Commedia research and is easily the most recognizable "mask" of his cohort.  Wikipedia describes some of his aspects. 

"His role is that of a light-hearted, nimble, and astute servant, often acting to thwart the plans of his master, and pursuing his own love interest, Columbina, with wit and resourcefulness…. He later develops into a prototype of the romantic hero. Harlequin inherits his physical agility and his trickster qualities, as well as his name, from a mischievous "devil" character in medieval Passion Plays."

You don't have to look far for Harlequin images in any mention of the Commedia dell'Arte.

 

There's even a historic castle in Bohemia with a whole room dedicated to Commedia characters at a masked ball:

 

And in the early 20^th century, a private Italian palazzo was transformed by my new hero, artist Gino Severini, into another Commedia extravaganza.  (Scroll down in the palazzo link past the building thumbnails to read about how Severini was inspired by Picasso).

 

So what about my humbler surroundings in East Vancouver?  I went back to the description of Harlequin's physical agility and thought I might portray him pulling himself out of my new washing machine!  That thought lasted only a few minutes, and I'll blame the whole idea on the video of a friend being liberated from the "frunk" of her family's new electric truck.

 

But still, the idea stuck with me of Harlequin as acrobat – an inevitable connection that comes down through the centuries.

Meanwhile, I'd come across some recent sketchbook notes I'd made after falling for this wonderful book on my Book Club's suggested reading list:

 

One beautiful fossil photograph had inspired a spin-off on VanGogh's "Starry Night", leading me to the idea of eventually doing a whole series of "Figures and Fossils."

 

That's it!!  In my new schema, Harlequin would leap out of the hole in a 415-million year-old plant fossil, my second favourite of the book's photos.

 

I knew I was on my game when that very day (no kidding!), I came across a BBC article on the discovery of the world's oldest fossilized forest, citing among others the author of this spectacular book.

 

All right.  Away we go.  Here's a very early stage before I'd even begun to give our acrobat the face of a greatly missed young neighbour.

 

For those who look for the pet report, yes:-- he has two cats, a lovely costume-fitter wife, two sweet and scampy under-5 year-old kids, and the whole lot of them were evicted by a rule-breaking landlord…and have now moved to Vancouver Island.

 

Here's the final version of "Harlequin Escapes the Past" (Commedia series, copyright 2024).  There's plenty wrong with this picture but with an Ides of March deadline, it was perhaps inevitable.

 

However, one good outcome is that, by taking over the process, Harlequin has "thwarted his master's plans" and demonstrated that a series devoted to "Fossils and Figures" is not really a great idea.

 

Fast-forwarding to the current era, here's another circular basin, this one filled with hellebore flowers floating in water.  This one's for you, L.D., for being such a faithful reader.