Arty Farty Friday ~ Round Trip

Undecided on a subject or artist to feature this Arty Farty Friday, I cast around for ideas.

First, I noted that American artist/illustrator John Schoenherr was born this day, 5 July, in 1935; he died in 2010. He is best-remembered as illustrator of the now iconic 1965 sci-fi novel Dune by Frank Herbert.


I could never match the information on this artist already available in the bog of his son, Ian devoted to the life and work of his father.

So....onward I went.

Noticed that an arty photographer died recently (26 June): Bert Stern who will be remembered most for his 1982 book of photographs The Last Sitting, a collection of 2,500 photographs taken for Vogue of Marilyn Monroe over a three-day period, six weeks before her death. The camera loved Marilyn and the feeling, it appears, was mutual. Who else, before or since has managed to depict such joie de vivre and/or sexy come-hitherness? The skills of the photographer, no doubt, had a lot to do with it too!

Not enough there for a post though.

On Father's Day one of my husband's sons gave him a book Outsiders (Art by People); looking through its numerous illustrations I noticed some artwork by Sage Vaughn, a contemporary artist, born 1962. His website is HERE. I felt especially drawn to his delicate paintings of butterflies, one reason being that for the past 24 hours an old song kept buzzing around in my head - Bob Lind's Elusive Butterfly - I always loved that song, but why I should suddenly think about it and keep hearing it in my head was a total mystery.

Sage Vaughn specialises in delicate paintings of wildlife - birds, butterflies abound - in juxtaposition to foggy illustration of aspects of modern life and its technology: a tension between the natural world and the artificial.

I'm wary of showing any of Sage Vaughn's work for fear of copyright slapped hands (or worse), but I'll risk a small representation or maybe two, to illustrate the point which brought me full circle to where I began this post:

See....a coincidental round trip from the huge Dune worm illustrated by John Schoenherr to Sage Vaughn's butterflies and a wormy looking creature.... via Bob Lind:



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Music Monday ~ Elusive Valentines

Another V-Day will be upon us in less than 24 hours. The attendant flurry of commercialism has been around since stores cleared away the tinsel of Christmas, but the concept of a day to honour love can never be totally spoiled by all that money-grubbing.

For this Music Monday I've been digging around in the far recesses of memory and found a couple of songs which, in years too long gone, always had a very Valentine-ish feel for me. Bob Lind's Elusive Butterfly, and, oddly enough another "elusive" one: My Elusive Dreams. Maybe, back in those days, I tended to look on love as being an ever-elusive entity.

These songs still do appeal to me, both have simple attractive melodies, the first for a certain delicacy of feel - almost like a pretty watercolour painting; the second for its celebration of loyalty and love in the face of difficulties. Love isn't all beer and skittles, cakes and ale, fluff and fancy. It can be hard work, overcoming disillusion to find a diamond beneath the mud; and it can be heart-breakingly tragic.

On any day other than Valentine's Day (or in this case V-eve) these two songs might draw a caustic response, even from me: "Too sugary, too sentimental, too mawkish", but for today, and mainly for tomorrow, they'll fit my mood.

Bob Lind sings Elusive Butterfly, his self-penned Top 5 hit from 1966 (nobody does it better). Bob, by the way has Sun/Venus conjoined in Sagittarius with Mercury and Mars nextdoor in Scorpio. Moon in either Gemini or Cancer - either would fit. Cancer excels when it comes to sentimentality. Gemini would be a match too, for Bob wrote numerous songs for other artists and, after leaving the music business for some years, wrote several novels. He's back on the music scene again though - possibly appealing to a niche audience who "get" his particular brand of thoughtful poetry set to music.

A snip from the lyrics:

You might wake up some mornin'
To the sound of something moving past your window in the wind
And if you're quick enough to rise
You'll catch a fleeting glimpse of someone's fading shadow
Out on the new horizon
You may see the floating motion of a distant pair of wings
And if the sleep has left your ears
You might hear footsteps running through an open meadow
Don't be concerned, it will not harm you
It's only me pursuing somethin' I'm not sure of
Across my dreams with nets of wonder
I chase the bright elusive butterfly of love

My Elusive Dreams was written by Curly Putnam and Billy Sherrill. Astro notes ~ Similar astro flavour to Bob Lind's as it happens. Sherrill has Sun and Mercury in Scorpio, Venus and Jupiter in Sagittarius. Putnam has Sun in late Scorpio, Venus and Mercury in early Sagittarius, Moon in either Sagittarius or Scorpio.

My Elusive Dreams , a #1 hit from 1967 was performed, as one might expect, mainly by country music artists: Tammy Wynette, George Jones, Dolly Parton, Charlie Rich, Marty Robbins, Bobbie Gentry et al. I've chosen a version with a little less "twang" by a fellow-countryman of mine: Tom Jones ~~~

A snip from the last verse:

And now all we have is each other and a little memory
To cling to and still you won't let me go on alone.
I know you're tired of following
My elusive dreams and schemes
For they're only fleeting things,
My elusive dreams.

All three songwriters have a distinct Sagittarius/Scorpio blend in their natal charts. The deeply emotional factor in both songs connects to Scorpio and the element of Water, while Sagittarius and the element Fire connect to a feel of movement and of freedom - differently expressed by the songs, but present in both.



Very sadly, we've lost two wonderful voices this year, already.

RIP
Etta James 25 January 1938 - 20 January 2012
and
Whitney Houston 9 August 1963 - 11 February 2012