Aunt Ruth: Ruth Henshaw Miles Bascom (1772-1848)

Ruth Henshaw Miles Bascom, also known as “Aunt Ruth” was a twice married woman who raised children, many many children in her household (sometimes as many as 10)—being paid to help them, teach them and if their parents were not around, to foster them. She was a good wife of a minister—doing good works, caring for the poor, tending to the sick. She was also a solid diarist, who had kept diaries since her late teens through the end of her life….with notations from the weather and daily activities (in the early diaries) to details about her town’s statistics, births, deaths, weddings, expenses, cashflow and the like. The American Antiquarian Society has a very interesting pdf with notes and a list of the diaries they have in their collection. Worth taking a look.

Her portraits according to the Fenimore Museum in Cooperstown, NY

“As a minister's wife, Bascom began drawing as a pastime, but was soon traveling to other areas to draw portraiture on commission. She kept a daily journal in which she recorded making over a thousand portraits for money, services in kind, and as tokens of affection. Bascom rendered all her portraits in life-size profile. In order to create a realistic image, she first outlined a cast shadow of the sitter on her drawing paper. She then colored the picture using pastel crayons.”

The way I see it is that Aunt Ruth, in the tradition of parlor activities, would trace the sitter’s profile like a silhouette artist would have done. What is interesting — another point of intersectionality—is that sihouette cutting was popular in America from 1790 until 1840. Why 1840? We know this…the advent of photography!
Silhouette cutting was an activity that was either hired, or something one would do at home for amusement. The twist that Aunt Ruth brought to the process is she took the profile and painted it, using pastels and sometimes colored paper/ foil to dimensionalize the work. What we have is a singularly fresh, modern representation of the sitter that presents the sitter in 1840 as someone we could meet today. This work reminds me of children’s book illustration, and Alex Katz’s portraits.

Profile Portrait of a Young Woman, Her Braided Hair @orn with a comb

Profile Portrait of a Young Woman, Her Braided Hair @orn with a comb

I particularly love the sensitivity of her line work, the blends she does with the back of the women’s hair, and the flat background colors—that complement the sitter, but not overwhelming the likeness.

The image to the right—she takes one step further. Aunt Ruth uses the foil that she used as accents in her portraits and makes it dominant—feeling almost renaissance in feeling and tone. I am so taken with this from the odd placement of the figure on the field, to the use of materials, color, the gradient hair, the linework…its all pretty elegant given the world of 1840, of Ammi Phillips’ grand portraits, the triangular ladies of Field, and the advent of daguerrotypes. Surprisingly, these are not rote images and to me, transcends the change in technology as Bascom changed the process and technique—-bringing silhouettes along with her engaging work.

Society of Illustrators Los Angeles: Illustration West 50, Accepted!

I was delighted to see that no, I hadn’t missed this one…and that the pieces above and to the right have been accepted into the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles Illustration West 50 Show. The portrait is of Domenic Labino for the Corning Museum of Glass’ Masters of Studio Glass Exhibition for Labino. Top beehive is a personal image. The Wheatman is from my Greenman series. The image to the right is from my Ganga Devi inspired whimsical illustrations (yay!).

I am delighted with this selection as it is a push to keep going. Each of these images talk to a different hand I have been working on, and two of them representative of two of my little imaginary worlds I find myself floating in.

Thank you Society of Illustrators LA and the judges that selected these images. You make today an even sunnier one!

Boo!

Halloween Mask: Frankenstein, Q. Cassetti, 2011, Adobe Illustrator CS5Funny what happens! Kitty called yesterday around noon. Hampshire had evacuated campus due to the electricity being knocked out—and she was trying to figure out what to do. Twenty four hours later, we have Kitty, and two friends here, eating, watching t.v. and hopefully carving the pumpkins and making Halloween for tonight’s activities. They all have had snuggly beds, hot tubs, cups of tea and soup and slices of quick bread. So, yesterday’s proposed afternoon of cooking became significantly bigger with a vegetarian Pizza Rustica, two cranberry recipes (one sauce made with mulled cider and lemon juice and a cold one), the gravy for bird day. Lots of prepping and cooking.

New week, new work. Trying to close down some projects as so many are opening up. Can you imagine, its almost November 1? What happened?

New masks in process. A pretty wierd witch. Then, I think Uncle Sam…

More later