Hearts and Flowers

Well, given that Valentine's Day is tomorrow, I wondered once again who the heck St. Valentine was and how a Christian saint got hooked up with a holiday celebrating romantic love. After all, most Christian saints are martyrs who met their ends amid nastiness and violence, not love poems and flower petals. So this year I decided to sit down and do some research. I was lazy, so the following is brought to you largely by Wikipedia.

As it turns out, there were several early martyrs named Valentine, and none of them had even the remotest connection with love and romance until Geoffrey Chaucer came on the scene in the 14th century. In his Parlement of Foules, a poem written in 1382 to celebrate the first anniversary of Richard II's engagement to Anne of Bohemia, Chaucer writes:

"For this was Saint Valentine's Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate." 

It is thought that the reference was to St. Valentine of Genoa, whose saint's day was celebrated May 2, also the day the treaty was signed providing for the marriage. The only connection between Valentine of Genoa and romance was that his saint's day happened to fall on this anniversary, and happened to be during the spring mating season for birds in England. Chaucer never could have foreseen how his poetic license would spawn an avalanche of commercialized bliss.

The further evolution of the holiday is a bit murky, but certainly by the 15th century the name of St. Valentine had become associated with love and romance in the popular imagination. (Those of us familiar with the "Sweetest Day" phenomenon can probably imagine the process pretty clearly.) February 14th was the saints' day of two more saints named Valentine. Apparently, any Valentine would do in a pinch. And thus was born Valentine's Day. Bring on the hearts and flowers!

Rose Hearts framed flower petal earrings

From my own studio on ArtFire, Daly Craftworks, come these earrings which celebrate the fact that many rose petals are heart-shaped.

Next are these beautiful heart-shaped glass earrings from Shadow Dog Designs on ArtFire. The salmon red color with the sterling silver is wonderful.

Handmade Hearts Padparadscha Swarovski OOAK earrings

I don't think I've featured anything from Chrysalis Jewelry yet, and she makes great pieces. Here are two wonderful Valentine themed bracelets. 

Valentine Charm Coral Bracelet

The first uses red coral and a gorgeous heart charm she made in fine silver. 

Desert Valentine Bracelet

The second takes a desert-hued look at the holiday, using a subdued Southwestern palette.

For our transition from hearts to flowers, here's My Girly Gear's combination of two in one! Yep, that there is a rose carved into a heart, folks.

Carved Flower Heart on Pink Jade and Black Agate necklace and earrings

Because this is my blog and I can do what I want to (do what I want to!), I will begin the flowers portion of the program with a flower photo of my own from Daly Art Works on ArtFire. This is a pink lily lovingly planted by my Dad.

Pink Lily, color, botanical flower photo 8x10

And this is a necklace lovingly made by Sage's Cupboard. Look, it's a pink lily! See, there is a method to my madness. And if you click through you can see more details of the wonderful beadwork on this and other items in her shop.

Lampwork Lily Pendant

Next is another floral lampwork piece, this time a rose pendant by Ragamuffin Jewels. Gotta love that rich burgundy shade accentuating the spiral patterns.

Pink Floral Lampwork Pendant

And I'll close with one more piece by Designs by Chaz, because I love these chain maille patterns and they always look like stylized flowers to me.

Gay Pride Celtic Vision Pendant

All of the work I've featured is by the members of the Jewelry Creators Unite in Numbers guild on ArtFire. They are a very talented group! Even though this post is ridiculously late for Valentine's Day shopping, I hope you'll agree that any of these pieces would be perfect for expressing your love and affection any day of the year. Meanwhile, have a happy Day of Christian Martyrs Transformed Via Chaucer and the French (TM), also known as Valentine's Day!

Punxsutawney Phil is Clearly Corrupt!

Tired of being lied to by Winter? Vote for Summer. For a brighter future.

Don't You Ever Interrupt Me While I'm Reading a Book!

With over a million views, I'm sure you've seen this already. But I just saw it today, and it's brilliant. Including the random bagpipes. Enjoy!

Life is Beautiful...and Terrifying

Today was a day for photojournalism. First, I read through a book so I could return it to the library. Next, I went on-line so I could get caught up with email and the various newsfeeds and blogs I follow. I really wish now that I had done that in the opposite order.

The book I read--well, looked through is perhaps more accurate because it is actually a collection of photos with a few brief essays and quotations--is National Geographic Simply Beautiful Photographs by Annie Griffiths.

As I said, this is a collection of photos culled from the huge archive of the National Geographic Society and organized around six aesthetic concepts that the book's editors felt contributed to beautiful photographs: Light, Composition, Moment, Time, Palette, and Wonder. Photographer Annie Griffiths, in charge of the project, determined that the book would limit the concept of beauty in important ways. As it says in the book's foreword:

In creating a book that said "simply beautiful," we all wanted a set of images that would transport the reader to a beautiful place, be that space physical, emotional, or spiritual. First we had to ask ourselves, "What is the definition of beauty?" Can there be resilience and grace in tragedy? Yes. Is there an awe in a perfect mushroom cloud overpowering the horizon? Yes. But is that the beauty we wanted to portray? No.

Encouraged by the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Beauty is its own excuse for being," we decided that this book should take us to a world of beautiful dreams, memories, and meditation.

The book is a visual meditation on beauty, as captured on film.  It stays away from overt politics, violence or tragedy, featuring the most attractive aspects of our world. The accompanying quotes and essays celebrate the excellence of human artistry and the ability of art to elevate human nature. It is indeed a beautiful dream.

Then I went on-line. And got another kind of human nature thrown at me in the reports and photos from Egypt. People lying beaten and bleeding, bound and clearly terrified--even from thousands of miles away, I find some of these photos terrifying, and yet I know that these have been vetted for publication and probably represent far from the worst of what there is to be seen and experienced there. As described by Anderson Cooper of CNN, this is classic mob violence:

...the crowd kept growing, kept throwing punches, kicks...suddenly a young man would look at you and punch you in the face.

One of our jobs as artists and as humans is to stand witness. We need to see clearly both the good and the bad in ourselves and our fellow humans. Life is both beautiful and terrifying, sometimes at the same time. It is not that I think artists are all sweetness and light and can do no wrong. I just wish that I felt as much faith in my fellow humans en masse as I do in my fellow artists. That is how I feel right now.

This is the often schizophrenic impetus of art, the struggle between creation and destruction in our lives. So I will witness. And later I will choose to create beauty, even from this.

It's officially a blizzard.

It's about 10 p.m. outside of Chicago, and here is what it looks like right now. Not sure how much of this is falling snow and how much is just being blown around by the gusting wind. Pretty wild out there. Yesterday, the forecasters were predicting over a foot of snow. I don't think we've hit that yet here, but we'll see by tomorrow morning. Stay safe everyone, and stay inside!