A friend suggests my convoluted brain does a lot of mind yoga. For example, a month of sundays for June 9th. The post began as a delve into what the date was dedicated to; evolving out to awareness/celebratory week and month. (That post might yet appear before the end of June).
But, I got caught up in a new-to-me artist, Frederic Leighton, and his exquisite portrait, Flaming June. (And, no, I don’t miss the irony of the term flaming within the LGBT community, and that June is Pride Month. In addition to the unclear nature of Leighton’s sexuality and his rather unusual-in-the-Victorian-era house design.)
The Wikipedia article on the painting suggests:
“While the body of the woman remains a mystery, there is speculation that the face is that of either of Leighton’s two favourite models in the 1890s, Dorothy Dene or Mary Lloyd.”
Mind yoga posing continues:
“. . . the playwright George Bernard Shaw was rumored to have been inspired by the dynamic between Leighton and his favorite model, Ada Alice Pullan, [Dorothy Dene] to write Pygmalion (later to be adapted for [Broadway and] the film My Fair Lady), and not only by a classical myth.
. . . The phonetics professor Henry Higgins’s fascination in tutoring and molding the working-class Cockney woman Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady perhaps mirrors how Leighton found Pullan’s working-class background and undeveloped character appealing to his slightly obsessive and controlling personality, Pérez d’Ors said during his lecture at the Frick on June 10[, 2015].”
GBS and Pygmalion, the original cast album of My Fair Lady, and the movie, with Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn, are all smoothing stones. [a small, smooth stone rubbed between thumb and fingers; also called soothing or worry stone]
A selection of other art works with June in the title.
June 16, 2019 at 9:44 am
Such a beautiful and magical painting. And love that shade of orange/tangerine. xo
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June 10, 2019 at 11:43 am
the happy wanderings which lead one to new discoveries 😖 and connections, re-wired in fascinating ways – so all hail and praise to “mind yoga” ….
I always find it curious, the images you’re most drawn to – they have a very soft, almost veiled for colours, hues, lines, forms – volume. They are very voluminous and billowy. Diaphanous. Yet very full-bodied. And definitely are shaded with a taste of “romantic” …. just saying. And oh, very dream-like … as in floating, wending, airy – light + lovely. Soothing.
yes – soothing.
calming
(I wander away pleasantly content…)
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June 10, 2019 at 5:41 pm
I do have an email in embryotic form — my mind is bopping all over. Heard stuff on NPR that is fascinating; wild dreams; thoughts on your thoughts.
Thanks for all the visiting. Hope my bopping takes me by your “place.” Need a dose of your “stuff.” (At a loss for words.)
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June 10, 2019 at 6:02 pm
no worries my friend, I’m lagging in emails, but feel a “slow down” (on site) so I’ll try to gather myself for my own splits and licks (?!?) it’s both stimulating and invigorating when “bopping” (if following a curious trail of bread crumbs), yet also tiring – but in a good way, mostly – but then it’s like a “slam” into “waaaaah” -suddenly completely run out of …. everything – including words (I was having same problems earlier in the day)
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