Arty Farty Friday ~ Some Wild Exaggeration

The Sun has recently begun its journey, for this year, through zodiac sign Sagittarius, one of Sagittarius' keywords is exaggeration (courtesy of ruling planet Jupiter). My husband, coincidentally, brought my attention the other day to a photographer who made his name, and his fortune from exaggeration - one W.H. Martin. Husband had been researching for information to add to his list of 19th century and early 20th century photographers (See Lost Gallery HERE), whose names and occasionally addresses often appear at the foot of old cabinet cards. He had searched in connection with "Martin", one half of Gilkey and Martin.

As husband noted:

"It appears that the Martin of “Gilkey and Martin” was actually William H. “Dad” Martin who began the “Tall Tales” postcard business. These were cards depicting giant grasshoppers, rabbits, cabbages or onions, promoting some exaggerated comical tall tale.

Martin took over the photograph studio from Gilkey in 1894 and began making his photo-montage comic cards. He sold the photography studio the next year in 1895, to work full time on his post card business.

He became very wealthy and sold the postcard business in 1912. He then started the National Sign Company."

W.H.Martin was born in 1865 in Illinois. One census return accessible at ancestry.com gives his birth date as "Feb. 1865" - that's the only clue available. I'd hazard a guess that he was born in later February, with Sun in Pisces, ruled by Jupiter (exaggeration) and Neptune(fantasy). He'd likely have had some Sagittarius input too, inspiring him to portray these fantasies of exaggeration.

From Photography Museum website

Tall Tales have an honored place in American culture. From Paul Bunyan and King Kong to the legions of fishermen boasting about "the one that got away," there is something about exaggeration that appeals to our sense of national grandeur. Perhaps it's also our view that in the modern world, anything is possible. Giant hybrid crops? Sure. Rabbits the size of Buicks? Well--maybe.

Exactly this formula proved the key to oversize wealth and success for a photographer named William H. "Dad" Martin. In 1894, he took over a studio in Ottawa, Kansas. Martin began using trick photography in 1908, producing a series of wildly exaggerated post cards. These were so popular that he sold his studio the next year to concentrate on the post card business.

Within three years, Martin's trick photos earned him a fortune. Demand was so strong that his firm reportedly purchased photographic emulsion by the railroad tank car-full (or was that another tall tale?) Martin sold the business in 1912 and founded the National Sign Company. So far as we know, he never again ventured into the darkroom. But during his brief career as a post card photographer, "Dad" Martin tapped into the national psyche with his own imaginative brand of homespun surrealism.

From In the Inbetween

Martin’s technique was one which many photo-montage artists continue to use today: first, each element of the scene was photographed, then elements from multiple photographs were cut and pasted together, and finally the resulting montage was re-photographed, creating a seamless effect. This aesthetic of the “believably unbelievable” remains extremely popular even in modern photo-montage. Martin’s photographs were so well made and in such high demand that many of them were plagiarized and sold under other names.

EXAMPLES

Clicking on the images will bring up clearer pictures.

 Our Barn is Full

 Great Sport Fishing Here

 Harvesting a Profitable Crop of Onions

 A Pair of Hungry Pike

 Carving One of Our Watermelons

 Angling for Bull-Frogs

Arty Farty Friday ~ Boris Vallejo, Master of Fantasy Art

Born in Lima, Peru on 8 January 1941, into a family of distinguished lawyers, he gravitated to art and music at an early age. His first aspiration was to be a concert violinist, took violin lessons for seven years. Changed track and studied medicine for two years. His study of human anatomy was almost certainly a great help to him later on when he became a professional artist and illustrator whose works almost always prominently portray a perfect specimen of the human body. With encouragement of friends who had seen his artwork, he decided to apply to the National School of Fine Arts in Lima and was granted a 5-year scholarship to the graphic arts division. He graduated with a "best student" accolade.

In 1964, with a portfolio of some of his works, and 80 dollars in his pocket, he emigrated to the United States, arrived in New York with no knowledge of English. Fellow-Peruvians helped him settle and he was soon producing artwork for advertising, greetings cards, book and album covers, movie posters. Over the years he has produced a huge volume of work for his current specialty, the Fantasy field. His latest art tends towards the erotic rather than straight-ahead fantasy.....sign of the times, I guess!

"I had already been working successfully as an illustrator for a few years, when I discovered fantasy art on an American comic magazine cover. It was a heroic woman fighting a prehistoric monster, and suddenly I knew that this was what I wanted to do. I have always had a special love for the perfect structure of the human body, and fantasy art enabled me to depict muscular and sensuous bodies in all variations in my works. And as I love human bodies, I always try to paint them as beautiful and as perfect as possible".

See
HERE

Vallejo's mastery of oil painting is obvious. His classic sensibilities stem from his admiration of Old Masters such as Vermeer, Rembrandt, Leonardo: "During my early years I used to study the works of such masters again and again. The painters I liked best were two Spanish ones, though: Murillo and Velazquez".

Vallejo married his second wife in 1994 - a fellow-artist of the Fantasy genre, Julie Bell, who also models for him and is a former nationally ranked competitive bodybuilder.

A quick look at Mr Vallejo's natal chart to discover whether his gravitation to his particular style of painting and his choice to paint fantasy/erotic art is indicated.

I see it at once - a Grand Trine (harmonious linked configuration of 3 X 120 degree angles). Linked planets Sun/Mercury in Capricorn with Uranus + possibly Moon in Taurus, and Neptune in Virgo. All the Earth signs - in this case I think that signifies an honouring of traditional art technique in his style, while remaining commercial and successfully business-oriented. Planets involved in the Grand Trine link Sun and Mercury - the artist's core self and mode of thinking to Uranus (and depending on time of birth) Moon: Uranus brings a futuristic modern "feel" to his traditional painting style; also linked is Neptune, the fantasy planet. That pretty much covers it, in context of his art, except that the erotic aspect isn't clearly indicated by the Grand Trine. I can find no time of birth for the artist, his ascendant is a likely key, perhaps a Scorpio ascendant, or Pluto rising?

I'll add just a few of examples of Boris Wallejo's artwork, the best place to see more, in large format, is at the online galleries HERE where his wife Julie
Bell's work can also be viewed - to be honest it's not easy to tell their work apart! Typing the artist's name into a Google Image search will also bring up a huge selection of examples. Much of his work was produced to relate to specific fiction or myth. His painting at the top of the post is titled Atlas (as if you hadn't worked that out already!)

Pygmalion & Galatea

(I think at some point Vallejo must have illustrated a calendar, using the 12 zodiac signs here are 3 examples; the rest can be found via Google Image)

Aries

Aquarius

Scorpio

Mistress of Fire

Mistress of the Air

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"Stardust" and Neil Gaiman

A name for movie buffs to watch in the near future will be Neil Gaiman, born November 10 1960 in Portchester (Portsmouth), UK. He's the author of "Stardust" a book made into a movie, just released. A couple more films based on his writing are due for release later this year. He has lived in the USA since the 1990s.

Gaiman is another writer of the J.K. Rowling, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett style. Fantasy, magic, fairytales, all spiced with humour and a soupcon of modern-day "cool", are his stock in trade. He started out writing for comics (known to the elite as graphic novels). I felt I'd seen Neil Gaiman's name somewhere before - he wrote "Don't Panic", which is the story of Douglas Adams' wonderful "Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy", and its rise to fame.



(12 noon chart above, no birth time available)
The planets fall into one half of the chart - this configuration is known as a "bowl" pattern by astrologers. I've noticed that it's quite common among famous people. This may be due to the energy of the chart being concentrated on just six zodiac signs - more intense focus on the chosen career or interest, perhaps?

Sun, Mercury, Neptune all in Scorpio at 18, 11 and 9 degrees respectively. And some synchronicity here - I wrote about planetary nodes yesterday - well Neil Gaiman's natal Sun is on the planetary South node of Mercury at 18 Scorpio ! What better line-up for a fantasy writer? Mercury (writing planet) and Neptune(fantasy) in Scorpio (magnetic) conjoin to give his pen, or typing fingers, that essential touch of magical know-how. I don't know his time of birth, but whatever it is, the Moon would have to be in showy Leo.

I was at first surprised to find there are no planets in Air signs in this chart. The element of Air in astrology is usually connected to communication, e.g. writing. Perhaps the unknown ascendant provides some balance. But on second thoughts, Neil Gaiman isn't a cool airy intellectual, he's a storyteller, a weaver of magic, as described by those Scorpio planets.

This author is prolific, in addition to his other work he even writes a blog daily (HERE) - how surprising is that? Saturn in the sign it rules, Capricorn, is opposite Mars in Cancer, forming the base of the "bowl". Mars trines and Saturn sextiles Sun, indicating that energy for, and application to his work are permanent factors in this man's personality. Venus in Sagittarius trines Uranus in Leo. I wonder if Venus in Sagittarius relates to his immigration (I have this placement too).

We saw "Stardust" at the weekend. I enjoyed it, but didn't feel it was a good as it could have been. The basic plot was fun, but I was jarred by some of the dialogue and a few of the performances were definitely second-rate. I'd have preferred to see unknown actors playing the lead parts. Claire Danes (the fallen star) and Charlie Cox (the hero) had little appeal. A couple of unknown amateurs could probably have brought more magic to these characters. Ricky Gervais's dialogue, and costume for me, was way out of place. I felt quite embarrassed! None of this is the fault of the author, of course. I haven't yet read the book "Stardust", but I intend to do so, as well as another of Mr Gaiman's works "American Gods".

There's an illuminating article about Gaiman, from 2005 in the UK Daily Telegraph HERE, also an hour long YouTube presentation "Google Authors" featuring Neil Gaiman . I found it fascinating. He comes over as a very likeable guy, and he looks SO Scorpio! An audience member asks him, towards the end of the interview, whether he's interested in Tarot. He is. Of course!