It was Halloween 1974 or maybe 1975. I was helping plan a Halloween party for my college dorm. Not really a very imaginative job; parties were all the same: beer kegs or a big plastic trashcan of a very potent punch known as PJ, which consisted of Everclear, Hawaiian Punch, and fresh oranges and lemons, and a few jars of maraschino cherries. We were health conscious drinkers.
We decided to require everyone to wear a costume, after all, it was Halloween. We were so creative. I decided to go as a fortune teller. After wrapping my head in a colorful scarf, I added dangling earrings, dark lipstick, and a crimson floor length caftan with a touch of glitter sprinkled throughout it's wine color.
I didn't have a crystal ball but I did have a deck of Tarot cards, so I settled myself at a table and began to entertain the party goers with a little palm reading and for the more adventuresome, a reading of the Tarot cards. Little did I know that I was tapping into a previous lifetime; indeed, I may have never realized my past life as a soothsayer if not for the discovery of a 17th century painting by Georges de la Tour, appropriately entitled The Fortune Teller.
Oh okay, actually the artist is my friend Mark Olmsted who modified Monsieur de la Tour's painting just a tad, but I had you going for a minute, didn't I?
The original work:
Henny, this took me a minute. . . HILARIOUS!
ReplyDeleteAnd on top of everything else, he jazzed up the clothing considerably! I really, really like that.
Henny--I didn't mean to step on your post with my ATC! Mine was scheduled for 1:00 am and it appears yours was posted at 12:26. Great minds think alike, I guess!
ReplyDeleteLove this, by the way.
Henny, I love the possibilities here! You think you could get Mark to work on The Last Supper? We could use a few women at the table.
ReplyDeleteI showed up at my daughter's kindergarten Halloween party dressed as a gypsy. I didn't foresee that the poor chicklet would freak out by how radically different I looked!
ReplyDelete*grin*
ReplyDeleteFurther evidence that Mark Olmstead is awesome and you are All Powerful! Please tell Mark I've always been partial to that Girl With A Pearl Earring piece.
ReplyDeleteP.S.
ReplyDeleteThe title is your favorite line from Romeo and Juliette. And you loved the way Joseph Fiennes delivered it in "Shakespeare In Love."
There. See? I can read minds, too.
I don't know how he does it so well, but Mark has a wonderful eye for composition. Sally, I'll have to check with Mark. This was a gift from him to me for my birthday a few years ago but he does this type of work for a small fee. He did a great image of my dad as Napoleon my sister and I commissioned for my dad's birthday. I'll post a link to it when I can fid the blog entry that it's in!
ReplyDeleteIma, no harm no fowl! I couldn't help myself.
Nance, I tink that you would be perfect in a Girl With A Pearl Earring.
Marylee, I also really like the way he jazzed up the clothing.
Nance, you can indeed read minds.
ReplyDelete"Shakespeare in Love" is one of my favorite movies. When Gwyneth Paltrow was "auditioning" dressed as a man, her speech from "Two Gentlemen of Verona" was wonderfully done:
ReplyDeleteWhat light is light, if Silvia be not seen?
What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by?
Unless it be to think that she is by
And feed upon the shadow of perfection
Except I be by Silvia in the night,
There is no music in the nightingale;
Unless I look on Silvia in the day,
There is no day for me to look upon;
She is my essence, and I leave to be,
If I be not by her fair influence
Foster'd, illumined, cherish'd, kept alive.
I fly not death, to fly his deadly doom:
Tarry I here, I but attend on death:
But, fly I hence, I fly away from life.
I think your picture looks more real than the real one!
ReplyDeleteI thank you all kindly, and I have sent Sheria three older hy-arts which anticipated your requests by several years! I imagine she'll post them.
ReplyDeleteI also have to say I didn't really jazz up the clothes! It was too hard to change the white breasts to Sheria's skin tone on Photoshop, so I just threw a jacket on her!