Katya Reimann, Writer & Artist
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Katya Reimann : 2020

Katya has been telling stories, building worlds, and creating the art to go with them for most of her life.  

The content of these pages reflect her diverse interests over time.

A Joyful Kupala to All

7/22/2020

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Ivana Kupala Day is celebrated in Ukraine July 6-7. It's more a festival than a holiday: the celebrations roots are ancient, as a celebration of the summer solstice, but it ... had a hard time making it intact through the 20th century, under the Soviet Regime.
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Lego Circa 1981

2/28/2020

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This photo has been circulating on the Internet since at least 2013, when someone first sent it to me, along with the caption, "Before girls were told that every single last thing in their life must be pink."

But it's not just about the pink. It's about... Well, this is the way I was able to dress when I was 7 years old.  Blithely... No. Blithe. "Blithe to my gender." What I had of one at the time.

It is not possible for an ad like this to be produced today.

Note also that the little girl (or the marketer) did not believe she needed a kit to decide for her what she should build.
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Sargent & Tonks: A Favorite Artist, & a Long Friendship

2/26/2020

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One of my favorite artists is John Singer Sargent, who is best known, perhaps, for his society paintings. "Portrait of Madame X," etectera.

Like most artists revered for their portrait work, Sargent... got tired of doing it by the time he was forty. And, lucky for him, by that time he had enough money to travel and indulge himself in making some very beautiful watercolors--many of which are my personal favorites of his work.
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John Singer Sargent's watercolor "Brook among Rocks," circa 1900 to 1920. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
"Reverence," "Indulgence," "Sumptuous," "Entitlement"--this is the vocabulary that comes to mind when I think "John Singer Sargent."  But then there is Sargent's friend, Henry Tonks. With whom none of these words can be associated.

Tonks was not an easy man to know. A physician before he became a painter--and during World War I, he became, for a time, physician again. Appointed an official war artist in 1918, he painted a series of uncompromising portraits of wounded soldiers which I do not recommend looking up on the internet unless you want to be upset. One of Tonks's early students, from the time Tonks was teaching in London, wrote:
"Tonks cared nothing for other authorities and he disliked self-satisfied young men….His surgical eye raked my immature designs. With hooded stare and sardonic mouth, he hung in the air above me, like a tall question mark, moreover… of a derisive, rather than an inquisitive order. In cold discouraging tones he welcomed me to the Slade. It was evident he considered that neither the Slade, nor I, was likely to derive much benefit.
I find myself according Sargent deeper respect, for maintaining a friendship with this man... past the superficials of disdain for "making nice."

And, even better, some great satirical images remain for us, out of that decades-long friendship.  They were "official painters" of the war together (~1918), but also traveled and enjoyed each other's company both before and after that. The details of these images are particularly fine.  Note that Sargent, in the third picture, is being "belayed" on his mountain perch by two rope-wielding assistants, and he has set up his easel on the top of a mountain route--as evidenced by the heavily packpacked climber, trying to crawl up into the picture...!

The images are all linked through to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts--click through, if you like, for more details.
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"John Singer Sargent Painting," Watercolor & graphite pencil on paper, 35.6 x 33.7 cm. Henry Tonks, 1918 (Boston Museum of Fine Arts)
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"Sargent Sketching in the Alps," Watercolor on paper, 17.8 x 22.9 cm. Henry Tonks, ~1907 (Boston Museum of Fine Arts)
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"Sargent Sketching in the Alps," Watercolor on paper, 25.4 x 37.5 cm. Henry Tonks, ~1907 (Boston Museum of Fine Arts)
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"Caricature of Velázquez's "Las Meninas," with Sargent as the Painter," Watercolor on paper, 26.7 x 24.1 cm. Henry Tonks, ~1920-24 (Boston Museum of Fine Arts)
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My Great Uncle Served at Ypres

2/20/2020

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We live in an amazing age when it comes to family documentation.  Philip Sampson was my grandmother's older brother.  He was one of the soldiers who participated in that famous "Christmas in the trenches."

Thanks go to my cousin Julie, for finding, and sharing, this article with me.
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Clearing the desk

2/4/2020

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As I clear my desk & toss old envelopes...

Comical dog in lifejacket, ~2015

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Epictetus, ca 100

2/1/2020

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If you are told that such a one speaks ill of you, make no excuses against what was said, but answer, "He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone!"
Epictetus (~55 - ~135) was a Romano-Greek philosopher who lived during the reigns of Nero, Domitian, and Hadrian, as the Roman Empire was slowly collapsing. No writings by Epictetus are known--his discourses were transcribed and compiled by his pupil, Arrian. Many versions of the above quotation float across the web. For me, this one is the strongest.

His work is largely concerned, from what I understand, with distinguishing between those things in our power (
prohairetic things) and those things not in our power (aprohairetic things). 

Why I love this quotation: so much in life is, or can be, dictated by caring about other people's perceptions. And here, ~2000 years on, is an idea from a man, born a slave, deliberately crippled, it is believed, by his master. But--his mind was slave to none.

Obviously Epictetus knew that long before he gained his freedom.



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Unattributed portrait, probably 18th c.
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Helen Sadowy Reimann, Portrait of the Artist's Daughter, ≈1972

1/30/2020

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When I was young, my mother did a number of bad portraits of me. Or so I thought, at the time she was doing them.

My feral child self thought this one in particular was hideous, and especially was furious that she gave me yellow eyes.

Now that I am not young ... I better appreciate that my Mother was a patient painter.

​I was not a patient model.

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T.H. White's The Sword in the Stone

12/10/2019

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“I can see that you spoke in ignorance, and I bitterly regret that I should have been so petty as to take offence where none was intended.”
― T.H. White, The Sword in the Stone
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It is not uncommon, among a certain type of readers of a certain age, to proclaim this book as, if not a favorite read... a seminal influence.

It certainly was for me. I owned it as a young person. Initially, it was a stubbornly avoided book with what I considered to be... an uninspiring cover. As a consequence, I would not pick it up. But when, finally,  I did--it's really not too much to say, "delight and wonder awaited." 
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The Sword in the Stone is, just as another enamored reader says, "an enchanted retelling of the childhood of King Arthur of England. The book's magical adventures, talking animals, and questing knights provide life lessons that foreshadow the rule of the most legendary king of all time." Yes. Enchanted--or enchanting--is definitely the word!
And yet--circa 2010, I was dismayed to find that it was one of the few books that I found impossible to share with my children.

One of my friends gave them a copy for a very early birthday. I didn't like that cover either. But I did think... they would grown into reading it. It sat and waited on the shelf.  And then, yes... my voracious readers gave it a try--and they set it down again.  Nope.
​It took me some time to understand exactly why.

​The edition that I owned as a child was not a particularly good edition. Which is to say, it was not a particularly good 
version of the text. Seymourebel, in a nice blog post, gives a more well-researched overview than I can put together in this quick jaunt of a Tuesday morning post. There are at least three variant texts, owing to squeamishness on the part of White's publishers in the UK and in the United States, and White's own changing views on warfare subsequent to his experiences of WWII.

But there was one thing that my edition did have that many don't. And that was--T.H. White's personal illustrations of the text.
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Katya's childhood edition
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No one will ever claim that White was a master draftsman.  But the drawings are less dispensable than the modern publisher must believe. Certainly there are drawings that are cute, and add to the book's tone (especially for a young reader). There are humorous sketches of King Pellinore, anthropomorphized dishes washing themselves in a bucket--as if at a public bathhouse--along with the various animals that the Wart (future King Arthur) and his tutor Merlyn encounter on their adventures. But the drawings also included political references (a brutal giant appears, adorned with a swastika and the soviet hammer and sickle), and, more importantly, in early chapters they are directly referenced in the text. Merlyn tries to teach his charge about the confusions of living with "second sight" by having the Wart draw on a piece of paper--while looking only in a mirror. There is a one way that these drawings can be laid out properly on a modern typeset page--and clearly the paperback edition of TSitS I am reading from (which follows the beloved 1938 version of the text) didn't bother to set it up that way.  I had to crop together pictures from two pages to demonstrate how badly Wart manages it.
This is a book I have reached for through decades. In the 1990s, at least, the publishers honored White's inventive play. Perhaps King Pellinore and the playful dishes were gone, but the M (which should have been a W) and this delightful page were included, in which Merlyn attempts to conjure up his own pointed wizard's hat, and ends up shrieking, in an sulky passion, "This is an anachronism! That's what it is, a beastly anachronism!"

Modern publishers evidently know better, eliminating the intertextual illustrations (and the expense of producing them).

But what remains?

A book... which has been stripped not only of its humor, but of its capacity to be comprehended.

So--what this post is saying: I fear that ​The Sword in the Stone is lost to us as readers.
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It's a small tragedy, but a real one. I imagine a few decades hence, and some future publisher thinking, "Hey, how about a classic edition of that old book The Sword in the Stone? You know the one that old Disney cartoon is based on? It's just come out of copyright, so we can put it out real cheap!" So--away they go, and pulp and print a bunch of paper--into a poor version of a text that has become increasingly unintelligible, all illustrations stripped out. "Why did Great-Auntie Katya say she loved this book so much?" some future kid will wonder.

Reader-of-the-Future--it wasn't the same book.
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Practicing Foxes

12/7/2019

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Practicing drawing foxes, because pen and ink is not very forgiving... (sketch for an illustration of a few years back)

I send out Christmas cards, yearly. When I have time, I do an illustration. When I don't have time, they become... New Year's cards, or even Valentine's Day cards. I have lots of reasons for sending them, many of which have changed as the years go by. At this point in my life, having reliably updated mailing for my friends and the people I care about are definitely a big part of it. An "Addressee Unknown/Returned to Sender" rubber-stamped envelope is a pretty good way to be sure you've lost track of someone you once had much love for!

This year, with our late (U.S.) Thanksgiving, I am doomed. Lots of New Year's cards, for sure.
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Yes, I bought it for the label.

11/26/2019

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    Sites I recommend

    These ones are maintained by long-time personal friends.

    William Reimann
    is a consummate artist.  There are so many images to enjoy on this site.  His carved wooden long-leaf red pine Rhinoceros (which he made for me when I was ~11 years old)  is a personal favorite.

    Starless River
    Is the U.K. based caving gear store run by serious hard-ass Tony Seddon. This link goes to the 'caves' section of the store's site--complete with alarming portrait photo of Tony ("After 7 days underground and 700m prussiking").

    The Oxford University 
    Cave Club
    Maintained by Steve Roberts, a guy who is extraordinary in so many ways, I'll just limit myself here to saying "Steve is a man who knows about motors."

    Bensozia
    John Bedell is an archaeologist, historian, and father of five living in Maryland. His blog is a fascinating grab-bag of historical, artistic, and political materials.  This entry about work and leisure gives a good example of his voice.

    Earthsign Studios
    This is Liz Manicatide (now Liz LaManche), principal at Emphasis Creative's personal art & graphics site.  I love Liz's work, panache, and aerial artistry, which leads me to-

    Flying Squirrel Consortium
    Phil Servita's site, and the place to go for custom fabricated circus equipment (either freestanding or fixed point), and aerial classes, if you happen to live in the area.

    Paul Nordberg
    Paul's site is... unique, authentic, & expressive, and pretty much exactly what I think of when I think of a website as an artform.

    Metro Bikes Trails Guide
    (St. Paul, MN)
    "Reviews and Reports on over 70 bicycle paths in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area!"
    Maintained by the tireless Seamus Flynn, and a great little site for those local to the Twin Cities area.

    Green Ivy
    I enjoy the Ukrainian/Russian artisanship on this website.

    Sites I enjoy

    I don't know these people, but I appreciate their work.

    What's That Bug?
    The title says it all.  A useful site for both the non-bug-phobic & the consummate bug-phobe.

    Margaret & Helen
    Best Friends for Sixty Years and Counting…

    Raging Grannies
    I'm not a grandmother (or raging!), but I appreciate this site.  Especially the fact-checking part.
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