A Whiter Shade Of Pale

Having finished my painting of the Vestal virgins, it is time to dress it ( the painting ) up properly.  That being a painting done on Xuan paper, I am going to mount my painting the traditional way, with starch for wet mounting.

I also want to try something that I've been contemplating for a long, long time; and that is to mount border strips onto the painting, creating a built-in mat look, like the pros do.  Since I don't have any brocade material for my borders, I shall settle for the same gold flaked Xuan paper that I painted on, but a white one to contrast with the yellow that the painting sits on.  My theory is that I need to do the border mounting before the mounted painting is dried.  This is to avoid differential drying of the Xuan papers if the adhesion process is done after the initial mounting is dried.  

Before I permanently seal the fate of my Vestals by fixing them onto my backing Xuan paper, I obviously need to correct the apparent 3rd leg of No.2 vestal and the exceptionally long forearm of No.8 vestal. 

The painting is wet mounted with starch on a regular backing of white Xuan paper.  The placement of the painting and the size of the backing are critical to allow room for the borders that are yet to be attached.

The next step is to fix the border strips that I pre-cut to proper width and length.  The photo below shows the border strip on the top of the frame.

The bottom border strip is then attached.  I use the width of the painting as a guide for my top and bottom border strips, making it that much easier to line up and place the borders properly.  I really don't want to take any chances with these wet, floppy strips of  wet tissues, in essence.  

This is the view of all four borders attached to the mounting when all the pieces are still wet.

The mounting is left to dry and will be harvested after drying.

Now I have a painting that is inspired by the song "A Whiter Shade Of Pale", by the band Procol Harum.

And so it was that later

As the miller told his tale

That her face, at first just ghostly

Turned a whiter shade of pale

She said, there is no reason'

And the truth is plain to see

But I wandered through my playing cards

And would not let her be

One of the sixteen vestal virgins

Who were leaving for the coast

And although my eyes were open

They might have just as well've been closed

And no, I still do not make sense of the above lyrics, and there are various versions of explanations, some of them more colorful than others.

I've not read the Canterbury Tales, of which The Miller's Tale is one. I never dabbled in English Literature in my studies.  Suffice to know that story the miller told was about marital betrayal and debauchery, albeit a little raunchy.  There's a theory that the reason "she turned a whiter shade of pale" was perhaps the "tale" mirrored her predicament.  "Skipping fandango" and "turning cartwheel" at the beginning of the song might be describing our female protagonist having fun dancing and being crazy while out partying, not necessarily with her spouse.  Thus she turned "a whiter shade of pale" upon seeing the similarities between her and the "tale".  Of course there is also a belief that turning a whiter shade of pale describes the effect of too much alcohol, or as in the 60's, alcohol and other illicit substances mixed together; "the room was humming harder, as the ceiling flew away", so goes the song.

A plausible explanation for the Vestal Virgins to leave for the coast is that they failed to uphold their duties as guardians of the sacred fire at the hearth of the goddess Vesta.  Somehow the fire went out and they are fleeing the punishment for their dereliction of duty.

Thus I am unabashedly assuming the role of the "miller" here, and weave my own story as an one-up to the original miller's tale.  My "tale" says one of the Vestal Virgins actually breaks the vow of chastity and her belly is betraying her and therefore the whole cabal is being condemned.  I am borrowing this storyline to portray the gamut of human emotions when dealing with the consequences of indiscretion.  From denial, to bargaining, acceptance and despair.  One of the Vestals is seen examining a giant sieve, to see if the Vestal's magical power of carrying water with a sieve is still intact.  A light just went off in my head, could our lady in the lyric also be having a pregnancy outside of wedlock?  Thus turning a whiter shade of pale?

Hence my painting. 

I imbued it with my own twist.  I sincerely hope Keith Reid does not mind. 

Secret Asian Man

 "There's a man who leads a life of danger, to everyone he meets he stays a stranger.  With every move he makes another chance he takes, odds are he won't live to see tomorrow.   Secret agent man, secret agent man"

Those are the lyrics of Johnny Rivers' song "Secret Agent Man".

For someone who speaks English, those lyrics make sense, especially on paper.  However, once the lyrics are mixed with music tracks and whatnot, some of those words get obscured, especially for a non-native English speaker.

As I was growing up in Hong Kong listening to "pop" songs, I was more enamored with the melody and rhythm of a song, and lyrics often didn't mean much, not unless it was a slow love ballad.  Mostly because I didn't understand or couldn't figure out the words.

Thus for the longest time Johnny Rivers song became the "Secret Asian Man" for me.  All I could hear was the refrain "secret Asian man, secret Asian man".  Those were the only phrases I could sing along with to the transistor radio broadcast.  Frankly I didn't care why he was singing about a secret Asian man.

Fast forward 50 years I come across an old song that I loved "Whiter Shade Of Pale" by Procol Harum.  Now that my English proficiency is better than 50 years ago, I am now listening with a lot of curiosity and wanting answers; aside from the usual attraction of melody and chord changes.  First off I still don't see any connection of this song with Air on a G string.  I just don't understand how this work can be eponymous with Bach.  Then words like "miller" told his story, and 16 Vestal Virgins intrigued me.  What was Keith Reid trying to obfuscate?

Fortunately I have these avuncular search engines that never scoff at my ignorance.  I am being taken down the rabbit's hole.  At the end of the day, I am no closer to comprehending the meaning of the song, but at least I can understand the references.  I find myself being teased with the idea of painting the 16 Vestal Virgins.

For some reason my mental image of virgins are more in line with nude figures than what the Holy Book portrayed, but that's another topic.  So if I am to proceed with this "tease", how am I going to approach it. 

I am immediately faced with two challenges: I've not studied painting of a human body and how do I walk the fine line of nudity and obscenity.  I recall watching a presentation of some movie director and he alluded to the same dilemma when filming scenes with nudity.  His answer was in the lighting.  He went into great depth as to how he orchestrated the shadows and highlights and staged them on the human body in such a way that one would not hesitate to watch that movie with their parents.

I am going to try my best to eschew vulgarity.  I wonder if the inclusion of a sieve as a prop could validate my noble intent, since it is often associated with the magical power of the Vestals.

I had received some antique colored Xuan paper with golden flakes as a present, so I am going to use that as my inaugural paper for my Vestals painting.

I am hoping that the random golden flakes could either diffuse the painted images of nude bodies or add some semblance of art (yes, sarcasm ).

I sketch out a body on my Xuan paper and write in the dark areas with ink brush.

A brush with just water running alongside the dark brushstrokes draws out some of the ink and fills in the rest of the body.  Pretending that I am the director, I am placing the model in a backlit environment and a much weaker diffused high front lighting on the ventral aspects of the body.  In my mind the body shall don highlighted contour lines.

I am using opaque white to write on the contours of the body and also to hash wavy lines on the illuminated parts of the body.

I try to fine tune the hash marks a little, especially relative to the dark background.  I am trying to strike a balance between a representational form and a somewhat abstract rendering of that form.  I don't know, to make it more wholesome???  If this works, I shall continue to build on this painting.  

I know this is somewhat a departure from what I usually do, but the kid in me urges me to be a bit sophomoric.  For now I'll give myself a chance to ruminate on that possibility.