Let us leave the mythopoesis of youth, love, death, and all that lies between for a day. Just for awhile. Let's just take an ambling walk through the fields and bramble of the vast landscape. . . no, wait. . . that is another trope for something we shall avoid. Selah.
I've been looking at some old files, things I've never considered, photos that have never been touched. Much is there, and I decided to try cooking a few of them up to see if I still had the old chops. I still have chops, but they are not the old ones. They are good chops, nonetheless.
Masks serve different purposes, no? Some are used to protect us, others to hide us, and still others to call the attention of the gods. This mask is certainly a call to trouble. I know that in the Time of Covid, I look better with a mask. It will be a shock when I must reveal myself fully to the public again. As you know, this blog's a shield. As Q used to like to say, it is my Bat Cave.
Victorian society was heavily masked. There were veils behind the veils. Revelation was improprietous. Deception enacted with faces bared.
In pictures, however, I always thought of the mask as a reveal. It allowed one to offer what might not have otherwise been expressed. You can't imagine how a mask can put a person at ease. Concealed, they are willing to divulge, disclose, display.
There are many secrets in a mask. The better truths often come from the shadows. Secrets and truths can be terribly intertwined.
There are secrets I will never know, but I still want to unveil the mystery. I know how the story ends. I just want to know what happened.
The emergent theatres all used masks: Ancient Greeks, Ibo Masquerades, commedia dell'arte, and others.
ReplyDeleteThey worse masks because they spoke directly and truthfully. One cannot speak truthfully in any society without the armor of a mask.
The theatre dispensed with masks when it started lying, realism in the theatre being the most pronounced of all lies
Of course there are always dissenters:
We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
ReplyDeleteQ. sucks. He don't write no mo. I always blame myself cause I can be trouble. I say shit. And it is totally suitable for a Libra to be self-centered enough to believe that they are the cause of everything.
Plus I'm just a bad read of a room. I mean - if it is my room - totally good. But people freak me out a lot.
I do miss selling art in rooms that were mine tho. I texted my buddy Ed to let him know I was available for work. I told him I'd go on the road with him. He travels up and down the coast - buying shit from the rich and famous and then selling it. He's terrible in the living room. We made a formidable team.
"Oh! Is that a Francois Gilot? I absolutely adore her work."
oh God no. I don't want to hustle anymore. Too bad they don't pay those old ladies in the museum who walk you around telling you stuff about art. I'd love that job.
How the hell did I get there?
Thanks for the reprieve. I mean - do U obvs. I was drowning and then it just got creepy for me. I have written loads of letters in my life (all about me) and I started to feel like I wanted to find out who kept what and ask them to burn everything.
And I still haven't a clue what you are after in all that but I do appreciate a Free Pass today.
Going away was goodnotgood for me. I want to get in my car and drive to Graceland or the desert. I drove all over Cape Cod today. But stayed away from the bridges - cause who knows, if I went over, if I'd make it back again. And I got Ma.
I love the girl in the picture. Everything about her and I don't know a thing about her. I think that might be good thing, tho.
Hey! Make the maquette.
Okies. I've dispensed the nightly medicines. I'm trying a new "Avocado Retinal Sleep Mask" that I received from my hair dresser - I'm hoping tomorrow I don't feel crazy.
Is anyone else suffering from episodes of mania? Just curious.
x
Superheroes wear masks, don't they?
ReplyDeleteOh. . . you wouldn't believe the story this girl had.