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.

William Merritt Chase

11/15/2019

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 My mother took this photograph of me and my Dad in 2016. We were visiting the William Merritt Chase exhibition at the Boston MFA.

We got a wheelchair for my mom, so she wouldn't have to walk. She was extremely nervous about the outing. In her last years (my mother passed in 2018), she had diminished lung capacity owing to a severely dysfunctional diaphragm. We had a big argument in the car before we got to the museum.

*At* the museum, we had a wonderful, wonderful time. WMC may not have been the most original painter of the 19th century, but he is a painter's painter, with luscious brushstrokes and a sensualist's love of color. And he's one of those 19th century artists who got to spend a lot of time on beautiful beaches, and in lovely country homes, shaded by old trees. I'm glad I have this picture, to remember.

William Merritt Chase could have been another John Singer Sargent, but--he isn't. Sargent. Had something bigger or more complex going on. This said--I'd be happy to have a good WMC at home on one of my walls!
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Reconstruction

11/14/2019

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I'll be moving things around structurally here on the page over the next week. It makes more sense to have my updates on the "Landing" Page. 

This has been done hastily, I wanted to get it changed over before the distractible perfectionist in me got busy. 

In the meantime, the header picture is a generic picture of Lake George, New York (a place I love) because my photo library isn't available to me on this computer.

All good wishes for a tremendous fall!     --Katya
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Frances Carpenter, Distinguished Folklorist

11/6/2019

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I am disgusted by Wikipedia's entry.

Largely because I have been trying to find a book which I think is called Tales of a Persian Grandmother, and Wikipedia gives me only this:
 
Further reading
  • Carpenter, Frances. South American Wonder Tales. Chicago: Follett Publishing (1969). ISBN 0695482149
  • Carpenter, Frances. Tales of a Chinese Grandmother: 30 Traditional Tales from China. Clarendon: Tuttle Publishing (2001). ISBN 0804834091
  • Carpenter, Frances. Tales of a Korean Grandmother: 32 Traditional Tales from Korea. Clarendon: Tuttle Publishing (1989). ISBN 0804810435
  • Carpenter, Frances. Tales of a Russian Grandmother. 1933

I am not grateful that this Wikipedia entry offers me access to recent editions. I need a proper bibliography that gives me some sense of how Carpenter's mind was moving as she worked on these different projects.

But, as always, the gifts the Internet has given don't really do anything for us unless someone takes the time to care.  Wikipedia tells me this: "She wrote children's books and work about women artists." 

Okay. So where is the bibliography of books about the women artists? WHICH women artists?


*******

It's a few hours later, and I have a few more ideas about Ms. Carpenter's writing:


Frances Aretta Carpenter [1890 – 1972]

First (and this is a minor note)--I don't think that the Frances Carpenter who I am interested in wrote the two schoolgirl novel's published by Blackie's in the UK: "The Rebel Schoolgirl" and "Judy of the Circus." Possible? Yes. Likely? No.

Second...Wikipedia's entry (which is the best we have) totally sucks. Smith College's (& I'd hope someone there would care) is worse.

Frances Carpenter lived an extraordinary life in travel and in writing. 
​ She graduated from Smith College in 1912, and spent the next eight years collaborating with her father, a noted travel writer, taking photographs and co-writing his books. She married, at thirty, William Chapin Huntington, a career diplomat with whom she traveled all over the world, both for his work--and for hers. They had two children. Frances, under her own name, continued to produce her books. She collected hundreds of folktales from around the world, producing a book a year out of these journeys from 1926 through 1969.

And... what good books many of them were. 
​ These were folk tales that captured my youthful imagination and made me a reader.  Imprinted vividly in my memory is a story about a Persian Princess who was transformed into a beautiful white cat by an evil sorcerer. She was rescued by her beloved--who rubbed her all over with a magic balm. But--he left one small, soft patch of beautiful white fur to remain one of her shoulders.  Because--he wanted them to remember the travails they had suffered for their love, and to be grateful. Will the stories be as compelling as I remember? I don't know. But at the time and place in my life that I read them, they opened up my world.

For many years, I had to work to convince myself that these books were not a figment of my imagination.  Inter-Library loans were surprisingly unhelpful. But a decade or more passed, and  searches on the Internet got stronger (also stranger, but that's another story).  Finally, I found the first of the books.


Frances's father died in 1924. It appears that her first books were efforts to complete his unfinished projects. But in 1928, she started producing work for the American Book Company, her father's publisher, in her own right. Tales of a Basque Grandmother, the first of her "Grandmother" books, appeared in 1930. From there forward, she lived for the next forty years an active writing life. I think I have reconstructed the majority of the publications on her booklist (see below). If she did any work on women artists, as Wikipedia claims... well, perhaps it was under her married name.

I am still searching for Tales of a Persian Grandmother. Today, I have begun to convince myself that the story that I'm looking for is probably in Wonder Tales of Dogs & Cats, and my Persian Grandmother collection doesn't exist.

But maybe it *is* out there. 

Here's hoping.
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​Frances Carpenter Bibliography

  • Carpenter, Frank, & Carpenter, Frances. The Food We Eat: Journey Club Travels. New York: American Book Co., 1925.
  • Carpenter, Frank, & Carpenter, Frances. The Clothes We Wear: Journey Club Travels. New York: American Book Co., 1926.
  • Carpenter, Frank, & Carpenter, Frances. The Houses We Live In: Journey Club Travels. New York: American Book Co., 1928.

  • Carpenter, Frances. Ourselves & Our City: Journey Club Travels. New York: American Book Co., 1928
  • Carpenter, Frances. The Ways We Travel: Journey Club Travels. New York: American Book Co., 1929
  • Carpenter, Frances. Tales of a Basque Grandmother, ill. Pedro Garmendia. New York: Junior Literary guild/Lippincott, 1930.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Our Little Friends of Eskimo Land: Papik & Natsek, ill. Curtiss Sprague. New York: American Book Co., 1931.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Tales of a Russian Grandmother. NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co. Inc, 1933.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Our Little Friends of the Arabian Desert: Adi & Hamda, ill. Curtiss Sprague. New York: American Book Co., 1934.
  • Carpenter, Frances, Our Little Friends of the Netherlands: Dirk & Dientje. New York: American Book Co., 1935.
  • Carpenter, Frances, Our Little Friends of Norway: Ola & Marit. New York: American Book Co., 1936.
  • Carpenter, Frances, Our Little Friends of China: Ah Hu and Ying Hwa, ill. Curtiss Sprague. New York: American Book Co., 1937.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Tales of a Chinese Grandmother, ill. Malthe Hasselriis. NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co. Inc, 1937.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Our Little Neighbors at Work & Play: Here, There, Then & Now. New York: American Book Co., 1939.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Tales of a Swiss Grandmother, ill. E. Bieler. Doubleday, Doran & Co. Inc, New York, 1940.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Our Little Friends of Switzerland: Hansli & Heidi, ill. Curtiss Sprague. New York: American Book Co., 1941.
  • Carpenter, Frances.  Our South American Neighbors. New York: American Book Co., 1942.​
  • Carpenter, Frances. The Pacific: Its Lands & Peoples. New York: American Book Co., 1944.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Our Neighbors Near & Far. New York: American Book Co., 1946.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Canada & Her Northern Neighbors, New York: American Book Co. , 1946.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Tales of a Korean Grandmother: 32 Traditional Tales from China. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co. Inc, 1947.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Children of Our World. New York: American Book Co., 1949.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Caribbean Lands: Mexico, Central America, & the West Indies. New York: American Book Co., 1950.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Wonder Tales of Horses & Heroes, ill. William D. Hayes. Garden City: New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1952.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Wonder Tales of Dogs and Cats, ill. Ezra Jack Keats. Garden City: New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1955.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Children of Our World. New York: American Book Co., 1956.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Our Homes & Our Neighbors. New York: American Book Co., 1956.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Pocahontas & Her World, ill. Langdon Hihn. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1957.
  • Carpenter, Frances, in Best in Children's Books, Volume 24. Nelson Doubleday, 1959.  
  • Carpenter, Frances. Wonder Tales of Seas & Ships, ill. Peter Spier. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1959.
  • ed. Frances Carpenter. Carp's Washington. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1960,
  • Carpenter, Frances. The Elephant’s Bathtub: Wonder Tales From The Far East., ill. Hans Guggenheim. Garden City: New York: Doubleday & Co. Inc., 1962.
  • Carpenter, Frances. African Wonder Tales, ill. Joseph Escourido. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963.
  • Carpenter, Frances. The Mouse Palace, ill. Adrienne Adams. McGraw-Hill Book Co. 1964.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Holiday in Washington, ill. George Fulton. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1966.
  • Carpenter, Frances. The Story of East Africa. Wichita, Kan.: McCormick-Mathers Pub. Co., 1967.
  • Carpenter, Frances. The Story of Korea. Cincinnati: McCormick-Mathers Pub. Co., 1969.​
  • Carpenter, Frances. South American Wonder Tales, ill. Ralph Creasman. Chicago: Follett, 1969.
  • Carpenter, Frances. People from the Sky; Ainu Tales from Northern Japan, ill. Betty Fraser. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972.
  • Carpenter, Frances. Spooks and Scoundrels - SRA Pilot Library IIb Book 14. 1976.​
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Baroque Pearls

11/4/2019

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I find these forms irresistible. This one =>
is in the Wallace Collection in London, England.

I'll be visiting London in January, 2020 (if all goes as planned). It is a very, very long time since I've traveled for myself. I am... having some ambivalent feelings, trying to understand what this trip is for. To see beloved friends? Certainly. But... why else?

Among other ventures, I'm hoping to see the William Blake Exhibit at the Tate Gallery.  That-that will certainly be a privilege for me. But one gallery visit (or two, if I visit twice) won't take a full two weeks, which is what I'm booked for.

I'm pretty familiar with Renaissance ornaments like the Canning Jewel (actually a 19th century resurgence of the form). Originally these jewels would have been worn on the big, puffy brocade sleeves worn by wealthy cavaliers of the 15th, 16th, 17th centuries.  But this hare, which I came across just today, was a new one for me. 
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Who knows why anything catches one's imagination? But this one did (I also like the second one I found <= once I started searching--this one on the market by auction--not that I'll be putting a bid in, but I love it!)

Will I visit the Wallace, and try to see this funny, lovely thing? Maybe.

Mostly, though, I love the idea of holding these things in my hands, and examining the cleverness with which the artisan made them.
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"A Memorable Fancy" Goodbye, Sixth Chamber

3/20/2019

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For years, this was my local used bookstore. I missed buying a first edition of The Game of Thrones there. I missed buying a 12 volume set of My Bookhouse, a beloved childhood companion (the edition we'd grown up with was my father's, an early 1930s printing, and it's become too fragile to trust in a young person's hands... and many of the volumes are "read alone," not "read aloud"!).

But I also purchased many excellent books there. A replacement copy of Farley Mowat's Never Cry Wolf. Connie Willis's Bellwether. And many more. Books and Christmas shopping. But evidently, between myself and the rest of my community, not enough.

​​In all the years... I was too shy to ask "why 'Sixth Chamber'?" and after that it was so familiar that I never thought to look it up. Only as it was closing, did it post my answer, on its Facebook page. The name came from "A Memorable Fancy," written and illustrated by William Blake (1790), a passage/page from his longer work, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell":
I was in a Printing house in Hell & saw the method in which knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation.

In the first chamber was a Dragon-Man, clearing away the rubbish from a caves moth; within, a number of Dragons were hollowing the cave.

In the second chamber was a Viper folding round the rock & the cave, and others adorning it with gold, silver and precious stones.

In the third chamber was an Eagle with wings and feathers of air; he caused the inside of the cave to be infinite; around were numbers of Eagle like men, who built palaces in the immense cliffs.

In the fourth chamber were Lions of flaming fire raging around & melting the metals into living fluids.

In the fifth chamber were Unnam'd forms, which cast the metals into the expanse.

​There they were reciev'd by Men who occupied the sixth chamber, and took the forms of books & were arranged in libraries.

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"A Memorable Fancy" William Blake, 1790. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
I accept that the world is changing, but this change, this closing of my used bookshop--it's a bad one.
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Ornamental Beadwork

11/28/2018

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A friend got in touch recently about my beaded Christmas ornaments. I'd taken a break, because the process is too hand intensive. I've given myself carpel tunnel symptoms more than once, working on these pieces--and I believe that I am never going to do one as big as this big boy again. It's 3" diameter, and I really didn't give proper thought to what this meant about the spherical surface area until I was well along! But--am glad to be revisiting these again.

Check out some other ornaments (if you haven't already done so) on my Artwork/Beadwork page.
​
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Nancy Carlson's Daily Doodles

11/24/2018

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“You were wild once don’t let them tame you.” Isadora Duncan © 2018 Nancy Carlson
Carlson's books were not household favorites when my kids were young, but what she's going through right now--I have empathy for it. A beloved family member's illness torpedoed her life on every level. Through it, she produced--and uploaded a "Doodle a Day," to keep herself going.

Nancy Carlson's Doodling Process

​The first article I read about her doodling was not very interesting--but then I looked at the images. She is going through a fascinating evolution, day-by-doodled day.
In the bedroom-turned-studio of her apartment in Bloomington, her drawing table sits next to a window that overlooks a parking lot.
“Barry would have caught that,” she said. “He was the detail guy. Before we would have rented this place, he would have walked around the building and said, ‘No, let’s find a unit with a better view for you.’ ”
I wish Carlson all the best as she works her way through this painful episode. Hope she makes it to the other side & back to joy.
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Nikolai Mikhailovich Kochergin (1897-1974)

11/24/2018

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All I know about Kochergin: something in his fairytale illustrations appeals to me. I came across this illustration yesterday.  It is a cropped image from a postcard that someone sold awhile back on Etsy.

I find this illustration humorous. Yes, that fox looks like he's in trouble (yes, I'm quite certain that foolish fox is a he), equally, I'm quite sure that he's going to come out of the situation scathed, but perhaps wiser.

I can't find out anything else online about the Fairy Tale (or, the thing I'd really like to see, an uncropped verstion of this illustration).
Russian Folk Tale
Russian Folk Tale "The Fox and The Eagle" - N. Kochergin, 1963
I got intrigued. The limits of the internet fascinate me.  And the more I looked for Kochergin images, the more I realized how familiar I was with his imagery.  To some extent, he has the corner on classic Russian fairytale imagery.  He owes a debt to Ivan Bilibin (1876-1942)--one of those innocent, tremendous "Golden Age of Illustration" artists who got caught up in weird Central European Nationalism (much to the detriment of their illustrations, I'd put Alphonse Mucha in this category also). But from what I can tell, Kochergin is a creature of a different generation.

I say "from what I can tell," because the internet isn't telling me anything about these next pieces, except that they are all images created by artists named, variously, "N. Kochergin," "Nikolai Kochergin," and "Nikolai Mikhailovich Kochergin," all of whom appear to have lived 1897-1974. I am pretty sure that these are all the same person. But--this is just from the internet, so maybe not.  In any case, Kochergin's images:

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A 1920 ANTI CAPITALIST PROPAGANDA POSTER BY NIKOLAI KOCHERGIN (RUSSIAN 1897-1974)
EGE KAPITALISTU GORE, ZAGONIM EVO V CHERNOE MORE [Aha Sorrow to the Capitalist, We Will Drive Him Into the Black Sea], color lithograph, 1920, initialed in plate, 70 x 105.5 cm (27 1/2 x 41 1/2 in.)
SOVIET WWII PROPAGANDA POSTCARD, PUBLISHED IN LENINGRAD DURING THE BLOCKADE. ARTIST N. KOCHERGIN
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And then come these (POSTCARDS: 1960s. N. KOCHERGIN). Okay, I can see the Social Realism influence here, but there's a step (in history) that I'm feeling gets glossed over:
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What was the progression from the young man who created the top image to the old(er) man who created these last images? I don't know if it would make a book. But it's something I'd like to know something more about.
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Received in the Mail

10/24/2018

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I ordered it about a week back. My childhood copy had gone missing.

I love Paul Gallico's writing.  He's probably known best these days for The Poseidon Adventure (1969), but I hope not. This one, The Man Who Was Magic (1966), remains one of my favorite books--not least for its portrayal of magic. My grandmother gave me my copy, back in the day. I vividly disliked the cover at the time, and consequently it was years before I actually opened it and read it.  But from the first chapter, I was in love. I don't think I slept until I'd finished it.

Gallico was a bestselling writer in his own day, and he's one of those writer's whose prolific output hasn't served to cement his literary legacy. There is a tendency to dismiss him as a great "storyteller" rather than a writer, and certainly the archetypes in his narratives... could use some updating.i But when he hits it, he really hits it. There is a description of a little girl's uncomfortable spangled tights in this book--forty years after I first read that passage, it still has a special niche in my brain. There was an observed sympathy for her situation that Gallico understood, and I understood that he understood.

Gallico was a man who could write convincingly about human goodness, and human bravery. That's a rare and under-rated talent in our culture.

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Snihurónka

10/19/2018

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Snihurónka is the Ukrainian Snow Maiden, companion to Did Moróz, Grandfather Frost.

Moróz has been identified with
Morozko, the pre-Christian pan-Slavic personification of the snow (an animistic spirit, god, or demon, depending on your perspective), but it is widely accepted that his companion, Snihurónka, dates back only to the 19th century, and Alexander Afanasyev's 1869 ""The Poetic Outlook of Slavs about Nature."

I have yet to resolve to my own satisfaction why this should be. Afanasyev is, effectively, the Russian equivalent of the Grimm brothers, and his folktale collection techniques, where "he never tried to give any definitive version of a folktale: so, if he gathered 7 versions of one folk type, he edited them all,"* is considered to have been intellectually sophisticated and ahead of its time. Why Snihurónka should be relegated as Afanasyev's personal invention, rather than one among many folk figures that he collected--I have not seen the scholarship that tells me this is anything other than bias against the story--the Moróz figure, in other cultures, does not have a female companion.

Very little is known definitively about Slavic mythology, but one thing that is known is that the Slavic pantheon was full of unusual gender assignments, gods who are variously represented as female or male in different times and locations, and god-pairs with male and female partners. So--why not Did Moróz and Snihurónka?

The archetypal nature of the icy grandfather, ceding way to his more delicate grand-daughter--who melts away in spring, cycling back to repeat out of the depths of each winter... it feels to me that something deeper (and older) is at work here than a late Imperial Russian fantasy.
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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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