Arty Farty Friday~ Black Magic Woman shows up in Matilda

This is the third post on what I call my Black Magic Woman. A re-airing so soon after the previous one in July is occasioned by a new comment, received this month, on my 2008 post, "Black Stuff".

The original post published in 2008 has collected several comments overtime from others who have a similar decor piece and are, like me, curious to know more about it. It's obviously a mass-produced piece from the 1970s, probably produced in Austin Texas, possibly not in enormous quantities I'd guess, due to its size and heavy weight.

A comment from TED on 6 October 2012 brought some information:

Copy of comment and my response:

TED said on 6 October...
I also have the one armed black lady with morfy on the top right side of the base. I was told it was made by a artist in Pittsburg pa. It was in the movie Madeline with Danny DiVeto when he is saying "I buy you all these beautiful things". The black lady is on a table in the back.

Twilight: TED ~~ Thanks so much for letting us know this. Interesting! Now I have to find a DVD or VHS tape of the movie :-)
Later ~~~~I've looked around Amazon's DVDs for Madeline, but Danny DeVito isn't in that one, he is in Matilda though - some DVDs have the 2 films packaged together.
I'll try a used copy of Matilda, will report back in due course. ;-)

So, DVD acquired.....around two-thirds of the way through a viewing of the movie Matilda (1996) I spotted Black Magic Woman! It's not in a scene as described by TED though, perhaps it appears elsewhere too, but I didn't spot it. This screen capture is the clearest we could manage:

There are probably still quite a few more of these pieces around in the US - they're big and heavy, not easily broken. If anyone else has one, knows of one, sees one, or finds one in an attic or garage sale, do let us know.


UPDATE ~~~ See comment from "mike" below, and my response. There are one or two sculptures like this one shown on various sites (some may relate to long gone sales). I don't think there was ever a huge number of these around, and they likely will increase in value. We can hope! The production company no longer exists. "Morfy" remains a mystery, and doesn't seem to appear on any other design but this, or if it does it's not mentioned.

Arty Flighty Spaced-out Friday

Mixed bag today, but there are fleeting links between items.

Last week I received a comment on a 2008 post about a piece of sculpture I'd bought back then in an Oklahoma junk store. The commenter told me that she/he has a similar piece. This commment is the third of a kind I've received during the past four years, from others who own similar sculptures. We'd all like to know more about it. There's an engraved name "Morfy" (or in one case "Morphy") on top of the base. It must be either the artist's name or perhaps the model's. On the back of the base is imprinted: "Austin Productions Inc. 1972 (c)". It's big, and very heavy. I promised to bump a photograph of the piece into 2012 to test whether some new information would surface.

Here she is, I originally spotted her on a very high shelf in a murky junk store. She was coated with grime. I bargained for my "Black Magic Woman".


Any information will be gratefully received!

Going off at a slight tangent - another piece of artwork I bought five years ago, whose origin and artist were unknown to me until just yesterday:



Pure Uranus this one, which is why it attracted me as it hung in a display tent at an Arts Festival in a nearby town. It now hangs by my desk with assorted other artwork. The limited edition print is around 18" square, marked 239/500 and, I now know it is by Brad W. Foster. Just yesterday I discovered more about it after finding the artist's own website. I obtained Mr. Foster's permission to show a small image of the print here -its title is The Stars at Night are Big and Bright (or Remember the Alamo?)

"Deep, deep, deep in space, the multi-species space cruiser Asimov and it's fleet of various support craft have come across a singularly unique artifact floating in orbit around a newly discovered ringed planet system. Many of the crew members with ancestors from the long lost planet of "Earth" insist that there is something very familiar about the design of this structure..............."

I took a quick look at the artist's natal chart from birth data given at Wikipedia.

Taurus Sun and Mercury (Taurus is ruled by Venus planet of the arts) reflect his obvious artistic talent, but it was seeing Jupiter conjunct Uranus (eccentric, futuristic, avant garde) that really "sealed the deal" astrologically. The artist is definitely Uranian in style - even the title of his website and publishing company "Jabberwocky Graphix" is Uranian. (Jabberwocky is a nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll who had Sun, Jupiter and Uranus in Aquarius, the sign ruled by Uranus!)

The artist also recommends:

"...that you look at it once it is up on your wall (at least six times a week is considered the minimum), or else it will get sad and lonely, and the tear-stains will make it look less attractive."

I've looked at the illustration many, many times and found new ingredients every single time! Love, love, love it!

Which segues rather well into:

Last Friday we were in Weatherford, 2 hours drive north west of our home, and coincidentally in the area where I bought "Black Magic Woman" (above). While nosing around town, with less than an hour to spare before closing time, we found the Stafford Air and Space Museum:

"Weatherford is the birthplace and childhood home of astronaut and flightpioneer General Thomas P. Stafford. The Stafford Air & Space Museum houses an amazing collection of air and space exhibits featuring flown-in-space artifacts and historically important aircraft. Founded in 1981 it is now thepremier museum of its type in the southwestern area of the United States."

Because it was so near to closing time we were allowed in without entry fee, to have a quick look around. The husband, a keen airplane fan, was thrilled to bits to see so many exhibits of planes from the earliest scary contraptions to more recent, terrifying, bombers. After our quick look-around I did my usual poseur inpression with a sculpture of General Stafford at the museum's entrance.


I preferred the space exhibits and wondered at the highly complex "guts" of space ships, sliced open and on display. The real thing reminded me of that print of mine (above). Those innards of a beast whose power can send humans all the way to the Moon and beyond. Somebody - many somebodies - understand how these are designed and manufactured with such precision, then put together, again with such precision! Not to mention the courageous individuals who actually choose to operate the things! Makes me feel such a darned ignoramus!

I picked out a small exhibit whach appealed to me as showing the essential normalness of those exceptional men and women who travel into space - especially the earliest pioneers. In a display case were some almost empty Scotch whiskey and vodka bottles covered with signatures and an explanation:







As it happens, today, 20 July, marks two space-related anniversaries:

1969: Apollo Program: Apollo 11 successfully makes the first manned landing on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility. Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon almost 7 hours later. (US Time).

1976: The American Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.

Black Stuff

No, not that black stuff! Nor is this about race issues.

At home and away we enjoy stopping off at junk and antique stores, he to search for old photographs, me to nose around everything - I'm just naturally curious. It's amazing what can be found in these treasure troves. The merchandise is certainly different from what's on offer at the usual mall stores, which is exactly the same whatever the state or city. That's their main charm for me - something different to explore, and often little whiffs of nostalgia: "Ooooh! - My grandma had one just like that, back in Yorkshire!"

Recently I've felt drawn to black ceramics and sculptures, and have watched for these on our junk store visits. Maybe it's natal Pluto (dark things) in my astrological first house, and Sun in 8th : a housey mutual reception. 8th house belongs to Pluto, 1st house belongs to the Sun and self, and they are in each other's house or domain. Pluto and its zodiac sign, Scorpio (where my natal Mars resides) both connect to the colour black. Transiting Pluto just now is forming an almost 150 degree angle (quincunx) to Pluto in my natal chart - an itch that needs scratching.

A recent junk/antique store acquisition pictured below. I spotted her on a very high shelf, coated with grime, and bargained for her. My "Black Magic Woman". It's signed "Morfy" and marked on the back of the base "Austin Productions Inc. 1972 (c)"
It's very heavy.



And one I bought a while ago, no marks on this one - it's probably just a fairly run-of-the-mill factory produced large ceramic, but eye-catchingly unusual.



UPDATE

SEE ALSO THIS POST (Oct. 2012) and comments there.