Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Fun Facts: Nathaniel Hawthorne

      Greetings once again! Presented here is a collection of fun and interesting facts about famed author
Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Much is known and cataloged about Hawthorne, author of such works as The Scarlet Letter, House of the Seven Gables, The Marble Faun, and Twice-Told Tales, but perhaps these facts will surprise you! Take a look:

1. Hawthorne's father died of yellow fever while serving as ship captain in 1808.

2. Nathaniel Hawthorn changed his name from Hathorne to Hawthorn, partly due to his family's dark past.

3. Hawthorne's great grandfather severed as a judge during the Salem Witch Trials.

4. Hawthorne was an anti-transcendentalist, though several of his good friends included Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Ellery Channing, all popular Transcendentalists.

5. Nathaniel Hawthorne was discovered dead by Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States.

6. Hawthorne's lifelong friend and classmate at Bowdoin, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was a pallbearer at Hawthorne's funeral.

7. Hawthorne severed as a an American diplomat to England for four years.

8. In 2003 Hawthorne's youngest daughter, Rose, was nominated for sainthood.

9. Hawthorne's first novel, Fanshawe, was quite unsuccessful.

10. Hawthorne's father's name was also Nathaniel.

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For more information on Nathaniel Hawthorne, and for a more in-depth examination of his life, follow this link to the History Channel website: http://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-nathaniel-hawthorne.

Monday, December 22, 2014

Ode to a Whippoorwill

      Greetings once again! I know I have been absent for some time, pursuing other endeavors, but I have returned to you all again.

      This post is a little different than the typical Quill & Palette topic, today I have a bit of exciting news to report. I am pleased to announce that I have published my first collection of poetry: "Ode to a Whippoorwill." This light chapbook is my debut into poetic verse. The book is 30 pages in length and contains 15 select poems, including Ode to a Whippoorwill, Still She Smiles Sweetly, and The Dryad Nymph. "Ode to a Whippoorwill" is available on Amazon.com for a reasonable price, and I would encourage you to check it out. It was very enjoyable to assemble and organize this collection, a right pleasure creating the prose, and a delight holding the finished product in hand, but the real reward is being able to share the power of words with others. Thank you, and enjoy!

      And before I go, I suppose I should tie this post back to art somehow... The cover photograph of "Ode to a Whippoorwill" is one of my personal photographs taken on a nature walk near my home. I have spent many hours in contemplation near that tree, and I could find no better way to memorialize it than by using it as the cover art.

      I hope to begin posting more material on Quill & Palette more regularly now, only time will tell. I want to thank you all for your support. Thank you!

      Here is a link to "Ode to a Whippoorwill" on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Whippoorwill-Other-Poems-Harley-Benefiel/dp/1503087468/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419276933&sr=1-1
      If the link doesn't work, try entering my name in the search box on Amazon.com. Thank you, and happy holidays!

Friday, March 21, 2014

Artist Profile: Růžena Zátková

      Růžena Zátková was an inspired artist, one of the most fascinating yet largely unknown artists of the early twentieth century. Růžena was a sympathetic and soulful artist, a nostalgic heart for the past and a keen eye set on the future. Though she would only grace this world for a short amount of time, her legacy will endure for centuries to come.

      Růžena Zátková was born in Southern Bohemia, Czechoslovakia (present day Czech Republic), in 1885 to a well-to-do family. It was the benefit of wealth that she was privileged with personal art lessons. She and her sister both studied art, a rare privilege for young girls at the time.
      At the turn of the century the family would move to the capital of Czechoslovakia, Prague. This is where Růžena's art studies would become more serious and her passion for the craft would become cemented in her soul. It was in Prague that Zátková would receive personal tutorship from the Impressionist Antonín Slavíček, later traveling to Munich for even further training.
      For ten years Zátková would struggle to make a name for herself on the art scene; the art world was a hugely male dominated industry at the time and there were very few women who studied art  even fewer who earned notoriety. Růžena was a talented artist, there was no dispute, but her Impressionistic style was too old fashioned for the times, making it hard for her to break into the art scene and gain recognition.
      But in 1910, at the age of 25, Růžena would marry a wealthy Russian Czarist diplomat with a passion for
the arts. Her new husband was a diplomat to Rome and was very well connected in the art community there. The two would travel to Italy where Růžena would find herself in good company among the Italian Futurists.
      In Italy Zátková would become acquainted with the artists of the Futurist movement including Giacomo Balla, Filippo Marinetti, & Humberto Boccioni. Through her husband she would also befriend Natalia Gončarova and Michail Larionov  as well as composers Prokofiev & Igor Stravinsky. When Růžena saw the works of the Futurist’s she was inspired & decided that this is what she was going to do. From this point on, Rose would be known as a Futurist. Marinetti would even end one of speeches with, "In the name of Růžena Zátková, long live Futurism!" Her impact on as well as her inspiration from the Futurists is quite apparent.

      The Futurist movement started sometime in the early 1900s and lasted up through the 1920s. The main focus of the Futurists was to somehow capture the mechanized world and the new technologies of the century, the airplane & automobiles, in art. Their main goal was to create art that embodied motion. At this time in history art was all about breaking barriers and developing new styles. Other art movements that developed around this time was Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism, and Surrealism.
       The Futurists main focus was the incorporation of motion in the modern world, but they also had other things in mind as well. The Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico once said this about the direction art would need to take in this age of change:
       "It is most important that we should rid art of all that is has contained of recognizable material to date, all familiar subject matter, all traditional ideas, all popular symbols must be banished forthwith. To become truly immortal a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken it will enter the regions of childhood vision and dream."
       Růžena Zátková was an unlikely candidate for the Futurist movement. The Futurists were well know for their glorification of war & nationalism as well as their scorn for women. But while Růžena was called a Futurist she never really conformed to the Futurist ideologies.
       Zátková's inspirations and influences are quite unique when comparing her to other Czech artists of her time. While most artists were traveling to Paris for art training, Růžena was studying in Munich and Rome. Though her husband she would come into contact with various different art forms as he was an avid collector. Růžena would be influenced by Impressionism, Symbolism, Primitiveism, Russian folk art, and of course Futurism. Růžena was also fascinated with the bizarre and occult. She participated in séances and produced a few psychic drawings inspired by her occult experiences.
      While Růžena Zátková was under the influence of Futurist art, creating abstract and nonobjective art, she was still moved by Impressionist landscapes and objective nature art. Růžena practiced different art styles simultaneously; while she was creating abstract, nonobjective art she was also working in naturalistic forms. Her work took a unique parallel structure rather than a linear course. While most artists make transitions in a linear direction, moving from one style to the next, Zátková was working many different styles at the same time. This is what set her apart as an artist. While the Futurists were capturing the modern world of machines, Růžena was capturing both nature and the modern world using the same stylized concepts as the Futurists.
      Though she was well connected in Futurist circles, Růžena struggled to make herself known in the art scene. But her big break would finally come in 1916 when her Futurist sculpture, Ram, was displayed in a gallery. This sculpture would put Růžena Zátková name on the map. Though she did not actually use her real name in the exhibit. In her early exhibits she wished to be known only as Signora X.
      With the debut of Ram Růžena now had a place among the Futurists, but she still struggled as a female
Ram
artist to become known on the larger scale art scene. But at the end of World War I women in Europe began to gain more rights. It was in this atmosphere that Růžena Zátková would make her move.
      As early as 1914 Růžena Zátková befriended the Cubo-Futurist and Blau Reiter member Natalia Gončarova, a forerunner in the European feminist movement. Natalia was a known feminist and an expert on how to live as a female artist. Růžena Zátková connection to Gončarova surly opened the door to her future as an artist and as a feminist. Although Zátková was not as publicly active as her Russian friend, she practiced feminism in her own form, much like her artistic style. Růžena, rather than taking outward action, focused her power internally. She thought that by focusing on her own life and goals she might set an example to other aspiring female artists to follow in her footsteps and take charge in the male dominated world. Růžena Zátková once said this about her "female fate" and her struggles as a female artist:
      "Why is my female fate so strange, constantly outside of any order of life? Both married and single, a mother through a miracle, yet soon separated from my daughter, alone with my art that is hardly art at all, with my love bound to live far away from me. Now I understand: my star orders me to stay out of any centre and my extreme kindness, or weakness, makes me isolated. In the absence of a refuge out there I have created my own inside me. It is well founded: I have built it on proper foundations of my childish belief, cementing it with my own blood. A little garden outside, where a few real flowers have grown, has been watered with my tears. I want to keep building, to build incessantly, to grow ever stronger and to deserve life."
      At the end of WWI Růžena Zátková was finally receiving the credit she deserved. In the early 1920s she ban to organize her own solo exhibits to be held in Berlin and back home in Prague, a place she had not seen since her departure in 1910. However, her sister did not think her art would go over well with the Czech public as the dominant art form there was Cubism. In a letter Růžena's sister would actually say that she could not understand Růžena's art and advised her not to show in Prague. Sadly, Růžena would never return to Prague, and neither solo exhibits would never happen.
      In the summer of 1916 Růžena Zátková traveled to Spain to be with Gončarova, Larinov, and the troupe of the Ballets Russes. During the trip Růžena fell ill and feverish, her husband suspected tuberculosis and rushed her to a sanitarium in Leysin Switzerland. She would stay in the sanitarium until 1919. It was at this time that Růžena became very aware of her own mortality and she took a step in a more religious direction.
      Zátková would suffer from bouts of tuberculosis from 1916 up until her eventual death from the illness in 1923; Rose never would make it back Czechoslovakia. During her sickness she would sometimes have to take time away from her work to spend time for convalescence.
      Though Růžena Zátková died before she could show the world her full potential, she left her mark in the world as not only an artist and women’s rights advocate, but also as a loving spiritual person. Her unique artistic style is unlike that of any other artist. She has given the world beautiful art and memories through her life’s tale. She inspired Europe’s women to take up their paintbrushes & make a stand, and she paved the way for them to gain their equal rights in the world as people. Rose may be gone, but her art and ideals will live on for millennia to come. "In the name of Růžena Zátková, long live Futurism!"

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Minimalism & the Haiku

1915 "Black Square" By K. Malevich
When looking back though the pages of time nothing could seem more distant from one another than ancient Japan and the American 1960s. But when taking a closer look, there is actually more in common than one might consider...

In thirteenth-century Japan a movement occurred that would change the world of verse: the haiku. It was in the thirteen-century that the haiku first appeared as the opening phrase of an oral poem called renga, traditionally consisting of 100 stanzas composed syllabically. Later, in the sixteenth-century, the haiku, being much shorter than the renga, broke away completely as a stand alone form of verse. The haiku would later become mastered by Matsuo Basho in the next century.
The Traditional Japanese haiku consists of three lines of seventeen syllables in a 5/7/5 arrangement. These small, simple verses often focused on nature, emphasizing simplicity, directness, and intense images
1686 Haiku By Matsuo Basho
often juxtaposed in colourful and unique ways. Some of the greatest haiku poets include Yosa Buson, Masaoka Shiki, and Kobayashi Issa.
The idea and philosophy of the haiku is still around today and embraced by many modern poets including Robert Haas, Paul Muldoon, and Anselm Hollo.

Minimalism came into being in the early 1900s when Kasimir Malevich created a unique painting of a simple black square on a plain white background. It was this painting that set the Minimalist movement in motion.
Many different artists argued about the proper medium, materials, and messages that Minimalism needed to communicate, and in the 1960s it found its voice in Pop Art. Minimalism was to focus solely on the art itself, separating the artist's ego and any influence that the art might have on the viewer; Minimalist art should not speak to the observer about hidden messages to be discovered through clever tricks and analysis, it was to simply be a visual experience for the observer, the object as it is an object and nothing more. Some of the most well known Minimalist artists include, Dan Flavin, Tony Smith, Al Held, and Donald Judd.

1969 "Untitled" By Donald Judd
So how do Minimalism and haiku poetry meet? In their simplicity of expression. Both Minimalist art and haiku poetry express qualities of simplified directness and elegant juxtapositions on what expression really means. At their core, both Minimalism and the haiku set out to express grand schemes in the simplest means as possible. Both the haiku and Minimalist art are about the same thing: the experience and the expression. Minimalism is about the object itself, separate from any external modifier, while the haiku explores the grand in its simplest form, cutting out all the unnecessary to get to the center of what is being expressed. In the end, the haiku itself is about the image, or more so the word than the poem, a triumph of the simple over grand. Ezra Pound put it best as, "The image itself is speech. The image it the word beyond formulated language." This philosophy holds true for both Minimalism and the haiku.
Matsuo Basho