Nuns, Names’n Noses – The Holy Sisters of Nowhere
Nuns, Names'n Noses - Watercolor Sketch in my Moleskine Notebook
©estandrea – Parisdreamtime 2010
I’m not a religious person, however I like angels and nuns and god has a white beard.
More musings in my Moleskine Sketchbook, I have not yet found out what my writing around the nuns has to do with them, but I’ll give you an excerpt of my chaotic Nuns, Names’n Noses brainstorming anyway:
16/10/2010
JUST A NAME
Funny how today you can find almost every face on Internet. The Internet. I mean, before, you didn’t often know what the author of your favourite books or magazin articles looked like (annotation: Well, perhaps you had seen a bad reproduction of Tolstoi’s Head somewhere in a Dictionnary, or one of those frozen protraits of Ms Higgins-Clark) So the work was just attached to a name. JUST A NAME. No face behind the work. Same thing for painters, sculptures, etc.
Today, artwork is so often associated to a name and a picture of a person, visible on the Internet. What about all those artists who do not have Internet access? Is Internet art crap, no, is art which is not on the Internet crap? Surely the artistic work of those who aren’t internetted is not worth less than those who are, so what am I trying to tell myself here: stop the crap, don’t rely on the Internet, stay independant.
THE HOLY SISTERS OF NOWHERE
Why would anyone (want to) be a nun? Well, ask the nuns. I like the idea of those swimcaptype-nuns. It’s fun to draw NUNS, TONS OF NUNS. HAVE FUN DRAW A NUN.
HAPPY SUNDAY!
PPS: very important message just to tell you that I AM NOT responsible for the titles in the automatically generated “possibly related posts” section, which pops up under my post when you hit the comment button. Just for fun I checked the option ” enable” . I’m just saying this cause it talks of ‘lap dancing nuns’ today:) ….
Art is art, no matter who makes it or where it is seen. It all has value……just think, I would have never found my dear Ms. Doodle without the internet. Oh and those lovely photos you took of the Eiffel Tower that you gave me permission to print…..soon to hang in my NEW office!
Oh yeah, and Nuns……a mystery to me. Although I once made a painting of two nuns, in beautiful print habits that I named “Women In A New World”. Don’t know where that inspiration came from but I am nearly always inclined to make images of women into nuns……wow, until you brought this up I’d never really given it much thought. Something to think about !!
Well, you have me going here Andrea! I am laughing so hard about the nuns! I am sure I do not understand the need to become a nun and stay a nun. I suppose they really wanted to be a priest, but that is impossible in the Catholic faith anyway (at least that is my understanding). Of course there are also the Buddhist nuns who shave their heads, did they become nuns because they, too, can’t become priests? I think it is the strict rules which befuddle me…what if you can’t access spirit within the set of rules? Then what happens? Of course, it seems as though artists would not be called to the nun-ship since we really love to express ourselves individually and there are the nun rules which we would probably only wish to break to see what happens. You know? Here, I don’t see too many nuns with headgear any longer. Usually, if you see them, they only have a particular dress, but I am not thinking that happens too much any longer…maybe it is the group (order) to which they belong with dictates this or maybe there are just not that many nuns any longer! I don’t know.
As for the internet and the art work, I think remaining independent is a good thing. Having a presence on the web is positive but surely not necessary, but maybe the “selling” of the art still needs to take place via a physical presence. You know? The key, then, is finding the right venue. Oh, also I think it depends on the kind of art one creates, don’t you? Some works seem to do well with web marketing. Mine sure doesn’t! LOL
Stay Strong! Stay Independent! Hold Onto Your Creativity and Keep Painting!
Thanks Andrea!
Paula, thanks for the thoughtful comment, and I hope you’ll find out why you like to make images of women into nuns:)
Kim, I thought you might laugh about this one, you’ll laugh even more if you look under the post when you look at the commentaries, where it says ” automatically generated” maybe related posts:):)
Very interesting what you bring up, the rules perhaps not allowing access to the spirit, wow. I wouldn’t have thought of this. When I think of it, some even have to break them to finally have access to the spirit, often you hear of ruefull sinners who finally come to a stronger faith than lifelong Sundaychurchgoers? Just a thought, LOL
Oh yes, I did see that. I was particularly blown over about the lap dancing nun! I just might have to read that one! LOL Can you imagine those bishops and cardinals? I wonder if she did pole dancing, too? Tee Hee
You know the rueful sinners vs the Sundaychurchgoers dilemma (or spiritual vs religion) is a subject I have had lots of conversations about with people. It is an interesting one and I absolutely have my own feelings on this subject and probably this is not the venue for that discussion.
Now I am off to read about the lap dancing nun!
So the lap dancing nun no longer lap dances, but uses her dancing body as a prayer to god. I wonder if it involves pulling on his beard?
I know, I am so bad!
Never discount a nun. I studied with them for nine years. They were elegant, educated and selfless. Later I found out that the Catholic Church did not support them in their retirement (unlike priests who are treated like princes). In fact, some orders of nuns were so poor that they could not bury their dead and had to beg funeral homes to help them. The orders rely on the money that these women bring with them…creating an endowment (dowry) of sorts.
If any of your readers was educated by nuns you will be happy to know that they can make donations to the orders. They are always grateful.
Patricia, thanks so much for you thoughtfulness and for sharing your experiences, having studied with them for nine years! That is impressive. And it’s wonderful to hear you describe them. I have French (female) friends who have been educated by nuns too in the late 60ties , some have told good experiences and others less good. I don’t know, perhaps it’s that nuns just are people like you and I and can be partial too, or injust or whatever we could reproach them. I hope I did not hurt your feelings with my shallow brainstorming, but I love to just throw these thoughts into the blogpond here to see what comes up:)
Andrea die frisuren ähneln ein wenig die von deine engeln von gestern. Nicht ganz so ausgelassen, aber ja, es sind eben keine engeln.
Ich denke ohne internet muss ein künstler einfach noch besser sein!
Und eine nonne sein? Nein meine liebe, aus verschiedene gründe möchte ich das nicht.
Geniesse deinen sonntagabend!
XXXm
Oh Andrea, you are so sweet to contact me…the anger that you hear in my voice is my annoyance with the Catholic Church that is so sexist. Nuns are only people…teaching children is always difficult…they could be good and they could be difficult personalities…just like the rest of us.
I know that those who were drawn to these religious orders were expected to do so much and then were just dropped in a dust bucket when they were no longer useful.
I agree that nuns can be parodied. Their often archaic form is fit for that, see Bemelman’s Madeline. The British/French painter, Gwen John often painted them.
I would never be angry with you, my friend…just anger towards injustice to women.
holy sisters of nowhere:-)
what a good name for them….
i wonder what moves a woman to become a non…..
xxx
klaproos
Martine, Du hast Recht, die Nonnenhauben ähneln den Engelfrisuren von gestern, und weisst Du, ich habe die Nonnen VOR den Engeln gemalt:) Die Engelfrisuren sind sozusagen aus den Nonnenhauben entstanden, es war so schön, diese grossen Hauben und kleinen Gesichter zu zeichnen:) Manchmal wär ich gern eine Nonne, aber nur damit ich mal ein paar Tage meine Ruhe vor der Welt hätte:) Dir wünsch ich einen schönen Abend!
Patricia, thanks for re-assuring me, and it is sure that teaching children is always difficult, I have done that for a year and it was desastrous, cause I had no talent and will to do this. And the Catholic Church’s history is so full of injustice to women…
Klaproos, me too I wonder, though sometime I guess I admire their courage to live a selfless life in service of god and the others, if that’s the motivation;;;
Andrea, I too got a chuckle out of this. I wish I had some brilliant thing to say but I am blank. Sorry.
I am afraid I have a hard time seeing some thing sold for very high prices that I think is junk.,and other wonderful art not even recognized. As for selling I think one needs an agent working for them. I am an Artist but not a good agent for myself. LOL
Hi Cris, oh, I’m just happy if you got a chuckle out of my chaosbrainstorming here:) No need to say brilliant things, you know, although your agent idea IS brilliant, I will think about it:)
Great post and comments too. although I would never be a nun, I always found them fascinating and haunting back in the days when they wore habits out of the dark ages. I loved some of the old nun movies which titles escape me now. I am not religious per se but spiritual and there sometimes seems something appealing about withdrawing from the world to pray. However, I know nuns do a lot of work out in the world and dont just withdraw to pray.
The internet adds another option and dimension to display ones work for an artist. To be free and independant though is certainly most importatn. I wonder what all this will look like though 30 years from now??
Hi Suki, to me too it sometimes seem appealing to withdraw from the world, though I would have trouble with the praying part.I am attracted by the idea of a little room with nothing in it but a bed, a table, a chair and an easel, well now I see that I just want to be a hermit:)
Thanks so much for your insights, have a great week
There’s something very pleasing about nuns. I’m not Catholic, but have always been fascinated by their various garments. And I do believe in angels. Delightful sketches.
justement en regardant tes petits persos, je me disais que les nonnes étaient des femmes voilées.
Sympa cette vue de ton cahier à croquis.