This or This.

If you're around Houston this weekend and like creative stuff, you should take part in Art Workshop: Dyeing in America at Bayou Bend. Make your own organic pigments with textile expert Katie Knowles! Ever since my short stint at the Fabric Workshop and Museum where I created unique chemical dyes in the dye lab, I've been interested in mixing colors. Our summer adventure included a trip to Ikonium, a felt making workshop, where they also make their own organic dyes for wool and silk. The end results are gorgeous. I'm totally going to start doing this on my own. Look at these colors made from onion skins!

Oh man I really wish I were going to this dye workshop (go for me and report back!), but instead I am fulfilling a long standing dream of attending this...

Fourth Annual Anne d’Harnoncourt Symposium - The Art of Sculpture 1100-1550: Sculptural Reception.

Yes! Two days of medieval madness. 
The University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), l'Institut national d'histoire de l'art (Paris), and Philadelphia Museum of Art announce a series of conferences and study days organized over the course of 2012 to advance the study of medieval sculpture:

1. January 2012: Paris, Institut national d'histoire de l'art (30-31 January) (with study sessions at the Musée du Louvre)

2. May 2012: Kalamazoo, Medieval Institute Annual Conference

3. November 2012: Philadelphia, Phila. Museum of Art & Univ. of Pennsylvania(with study sessions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Glencairn Museum)

I didn't make it to the first two conferences, but the third is the most interesting to me anyway. 

I'm especially excited about this lecture: They Are All the Work of Artists (Jer. 10, 9):  The Romanesque Portal as Liturgical Performance, Manuel Castiñeiras, Professor, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. I can't wait to hear what this Catalonian scholar has to say regarding the expression of liturgical performance in Romanesque portals. I wonder if he will mention my beloved Ripoll, which has sadly been ( temporarily!) abandoned by me. I have very high hopes for this conference as it, in many ways, falls in line with my QP topic from Tufts. Now that my library has arrived from Boston I can get back into inspired research and finally open that major book I actually bought at Ripoll.

¡¡Me at the Ripoll portal!! September, 2011.

To get in the medieval spirit and because it's Halloween, we watched Army of Darkness last night. It's fantastic and Bruce Campbell is dreamy.

Army of Darkness, 1992.

Best Lesson Plan Ever: Early Medieval and Romanesque Art.

I learned recently that you should not present your "best lesson plan ever" to your students on the day before any kind of holiday break. Ah, my Romanesque presentation. You were beautiful, even if only 70% of my students saw it.

Since there are so many elements of Early Medieval art in both Romanesque and Gothic art, it is necessary to first look at the genesis. The art of the Early Middle Ages was made by pagan migratory tribes throughout modern Europe and Scandinavia.

EARLY MEDIEVAL: Shoulder clasp from Sutton Hoo, found in a ship burial site in England, 7th c. 

Detail: Cloisonné with garnet and animal interlace. 

The pagan art of the migratory tribes was later assimilated into Christian art in various and interesting ways.

Stave Church, Borgund, Norway, 12th c.

Painted Reproduction of the medieval Jelling Rune Stones, Copenhagen.

Carpet Page, Lindisfarne Gospel Book, 7th or 8th c.

As part of our discussion on Romanesque art, I was able to visually explain why I missed an entire week in September. It was wonderful to be able to talk, even briefly, about my particular area of interest. The students that were in class were very interested and had lots to say. It's a rare treat to discuss one particular style and region at length. And I got to show them Ripoll. Hooray!


One of my many wondrous experiences in Spain included the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona. Sadly, we arrived just before closing time, but we did get a chance to run wild in the Romanesque section for about thirty minutes. It was glorious! Full of frescoes that had been removed from at risk church walls and lovingly placed inside the museum. These are all from eleventh and twelfth century.

ROMANESQUE: Frescos from the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, SP.

Apse of Santa Maria d'Àneu: Seraphim.

Apse of Sant Climent de Taüll.

"This is one of the masterpieces of the European Romanesque. Its genius lies in the way it combines elements from different Biblical visions (Revelation, Isaiah and Ezekiel) to present the Christ of the Day of Judgement. Christ appears from the background causing a movement outwards from the centre of the composition, which is presided by the ornamental sense of the outlines and the skillful use of colour to create volume. The exceptional nature of this work by the Master of Taüll and its pictorial strength have reached out to modernity and fascinated twentieth-century avant-garde artists like Picasso and Francis Picabia." (MNAC website)

Christ in Majesty.

Ripoll, SP, 12th c. Notice the similarity between the painted Christ in Majesty and the stone one.

To close the discussion on Romanesque art, I shared select clips from the Pillars of the Earth. Especially the scenes that talk about relics, pilgrimage, Abbot Suger, and new technology in the shift from Romanesque architecture to Gothic architecture. Of course these bits are little gems found in the company of bloody violence, sex, intrigue, torture, and other kinds of HBO material. Oh religion. 

These Are The Things That Can Happen To You.

I've returned from Spain where I had my first Stendhal experience.

Argento's Stendhal Syndrome, 1996. Filmed in the Uffizi, Florence. Asia Argento stands near Piero della Francesca's 15th century double portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino, this painting marks the beginning of modern portraiture based on antique coins.

My woozy time travel experience in Ripoll, Spain.

In Argento's film, the lead falls prey to intensely overwhelming Renaissance paintings (and also to some other unsavory experiences). Another example of a film maker granted access into a sacred space (see also Herzog). Even as I watched Stendhal Syndrome on our small and ancient television, I felt moved by the paintings. Dangerously moved, toward a joyful madness. Meeting these icons that I have admired for so long seemed destructive. If felt as though I could destroy the present while these seductive figures from the past reached out like magical ghosts inviting me to join them. Colors begin to mesmerize with great strength, faces begin to move a bit, the concrete barrier begins to dissolve and then, the art work seems penetrable. I think I've animated too many Art History articles in my head.

This is similar to the feeling I had when I arrived at Ripoll, coming face to face with the sculptural program pictured above. Experiencing a mild devastation tempered with euphoria, I momentarily lost touch with the modern world. Both physically and mentally, I drifted into the Middle Ages where this church was once alive. My breath caught in my throat and I felt frozen, both drawn to and afraid of the art. Maybe I thought I would be trapped in the 12th century. Maybe that didn't seem to be a negative thing as I so desperately wanted to truly know their world. For me there was a strong presence in the air, it gave me chills. Yet I came away from this burning with renewed passion that was subtle at the time, but has matured since I've been home. The very large book that I purchased there, filled with exhaustive documentation, still stands on my shelf wrapped in plastic. It intimidates me so I keep it there, but knowing that it waits for me, brimming with information and memories, is the most exciting thing I can think of.

In any case, this moment was one of the highlights of my life so far. A thrilling moment, complex and unwilling to be pinned down by mere printed words.

Before this day, I attended and presented at my first conference as a post-grad: alone and in another country. Wait, not completely alone. Alex gave me support more valuable than anything I own: in the many difficult months of researching and writing this paper, in the hours before the conference, right after my presentation, and helping me get to the church to finally meet Ripoll and Wilfred the Hairy.

In Other News:
School Days Travelogue: To most driving is mundane, but to me it is symbolic and the feeling I get from another four hour drive complete is that of accomplishing something rather than getting something done with. I've learned things about myself as I take on this new role. I like to drive fast, but I like to be kind to other drivers (many hours alone in the car lead to imagined inter-car dialogue and negotiations, good thing I'm carpooling next semester). I like the stimulation of aggressive drivers and the challenge of unrelenting rainstorms, which seem to occur every single day I make the trip. To reach my destination is to feel alive, never dull. It doesn't hurt also that the route through mountains is stunning, even in a monsoon.

New Hampshire, I underestimated you. 

I'm looking for a yellow exclamation sign to place atop my blue car. I saw one in Tokyo Drifter and I've been obsessed with getting one for myself. I was hoping that Alex would surprise me.

I love exclamations points.

If anyone finds a picture of this exclamation car, please send it!

My nascent career, I will call it that for a long time I think.
The sign on my door says: visit Professor J.C. Teich during these office hours to discuss your study habits. What it says to me: I am your badge of honor, here is a record even more satisfying than your diploma. It means that I have survived an ongoing challenge and here I am, still alive and better yet, still in love with the field though it tried to weed me out. Grad school is such a test. Every morning I think of this. Even if a class doesn't go as smoothly as planned or I mess up or my students mess up, we are working together to understand and fit into the world. It isn't easy work, but who wants to spend their time doing things that are easy?

"I am pleased to inform you that your proposal has been accepted."

Kursaal Congress Palace, San Sebastian, Spain

Greatest news ever! Now I will spend the entire summer in the library preparing my paper for peer review and possible publication in the affiliated journal. I am so incredibly excited to be a part of this.

Spain has everything I need. The conference is located directly, exactly in between two of the most important places (Ripoll and Santiago de Compostela) relative to my paper. Fate?

San Sebastián: in the Basque region of Spain, known for being one of the best food cities on earth. It has more Michelin stars per capita than any other city, even Paris. YES!

Abbey Church of Ripoll.

Santiago de Compostela

The prospect of visiting these places: magical. The prospect of having to present at my first conference, in another country: petrifying.

Oh, AND the conference is being held in conjunction with this film festival which will work magically with my topic. Hooray hooray!!