Invitation To Carnival - Reprise

   
     In my blog entry for last weekend, my thoughts about the poor response we have
made, to abate the pandemic, became my primary focus, so once again I didn't say
much about the painting.  I will try to correct that now, but I have to first take note
of some of the developments which have occurred this week.
     Things seem to be growing a bit darker with each passing day.  The death toll is
now nearly one hundred and fifty thousand, and we are loosing over a thousand more
victims every twenty four hours.  If that continues, more than a quarter million Americans
will have perished before our presidential election in November.  If we think about that,
it will be as if all the people in an American city of a quarter million, were wiped out
in just a matter of seven or eight months time, leaving nothing behind but the forgotten
dreams of its citizens, and a dead and abandoned city.
     Trump's falling, popularity-pole numbers have convinced his new campaign team,
that he has to start acting like he is concerned with the health and welfare of people
other than himself for a change.  So, he is finally saying that we should wear masks,
to slow the spread of the infections, but when he says that, his hollow sincerity level
is something like what we might hear if Pinocchio were president.

     Now, as to my choice of subject matter for the painting Invitation To Carnival,
the theme is probably self explanatory to some viewers, but some additional, factual
references and information may be helpful.  The well known Carnival of Venice, is a
popular, annual event in that fabled city.  During Carnival, people compete to win the
competitions for the most elaborate masks and costumes.  One of the more frequently
seen mask and costume variations, is that of the court jester or "fool", and another is
the mask of the plague doctor, a visual reference to the long history of plague in Venice.
The combination of those two characters seemed to reflect what is happening in
America today.   They symbolize the foolish, suicidal behavior in which some of us
are engaged, while our health-care professionals are struggling to cope with the mounting
toll of infections and deaths.
     I chose to leave the face mask of the fool, plain and understated, rather than
painted and jeweled, because I wanted to place the emphasis on the eyes of the
person, peering out of the holes, with a perhaps sinister motive, as he or she invites
the viewer to come to Carnival.
     The background figure is a hybrid combination of monk and plague doctor.
During the plague pandemics of Venice and the rest of Europe, the monks and other
tender, care-givers were among those most likely to fall victim to the disease, because
of their close contact with infected patients.   It was the plague doctors who wore
the face and head covering masks, with the big, bird beaks and goggle eyes.  They
also wore an outfit of full, protective covering, from head to toe, including boots
and leather gloves.  They stuffed their beaks with fragrant herbs or vinegar soaked
sponges to ward off the smells, which they considered the possible sources of the
infection, and they carried canes to uncover and examine patients from a distance.
There is an engraving by Paul Furst, from about 1791, of a plague doctor in Marseilles
he called Dr. Beeky of Rome.   I 'm showing that image here.

     Now that we better understand the origins and causes of new contagious diseases, our
dedicated, modern scientists are working rapidly to try and come up with a preventative
vaccine, and there seems to be some hope that this medical miracle could be available
next year, or even a bit earlier.    But in the meantime, an increasing number of homes
across America, will have newly vacant chairs around their dinner tables, and nightly,
tear-stained pillows on their beds.

                                                       Eugene P. McNerney

To Mask, or Not To Mask?, and - Invitation To Carnival

                                                  Invitation To Carnival
                                                  An original acrylic painting, on primed canvas panel
                                                  24" X 20", unframed

                                                   ( click on image to enlarge )

     "To be, or not to be?"  That was the question that Shakespeare's Hamlet posed for
himself, and that life-or-death question is still the one which remains for us today,
although in a slightly different form.  Now the debate asks, "To mask, or not to mask?".  
     Masks seem to have become as much of a political issue as they are a beneficial
means of reducing the spread of the pandemic.  The irrational refusal of some people
to comply with such a sensible precaution, seems to be increasing exponentially with
the surging rise of infections and deaths.  The most shocking examples are the reports
of people entering stores and brandishing weapons, demanding to shop without the
inconvenience of wearing masks.

     The madness of crowds is also still evident in some areas, despite the efforts of
some governors to restore a shutdown of bars and clubs.  Our nightly newscasts
continue to show us examples of happily, oblivious party-goers and revelers, gathered
in crowds, without a sign of masks.  When these new groups are questioned about
their irresponsible behavior, they tend to proclaim that they have the constitutional and
God-given right to risk their lives in any manner they choose.  Again, they don't seem
to give any thought to the notion that their actions could put other people's lives in
danger, nor do they question what kind of God it would be, who would condone
their possible transmission of this lethal disease to dozens of their fellow party-goers.

     Some unbelievable examples of this kind of stupidity, are the stories about the people
who attend "covid-19 parties", where the first one in the group to catch the virus is the
"winner".  If we did not know it was true we would swear it was fiction.  It sounds a bit
like some kind of drunken, Russian roulette game, where a revolver, with only one of it's
bullet-chambers loaded, is given a spin and passed around to see which man would get
the final, fatal pull of the trigger.

     One man who became seriously infected at one of the covid parties, said that he
had thought the disease was a hoax.  We can all recall where he may have gotten that
warped idea.  One of Donald Trump's first claims about the spread of the virus was
that it was a hoax, created by "the Dems", as a political attack on him.  How insane does
a man have to be, to say that some mysterious, political entity created a world-wide
pandemic, just as a personal attack on him?  And yet he still continues to try and hide the
truth about the growing danger to all of us, by weakening and hindering the work of the
Center For Disease Control, and making personal attacks our medical authorities, just
because they are telling us the truth about what we need to do, to slow the spread of the
disease.
     Trump expresses no empathy for the victims of this cruel pandemic.  His attitude
is much like that of the observations of Samuel Pepys during the Great Plague of
London ( 1665 - 1666 ).  Pepys wrote in his diary, about the inconvenience to him,
of having to step over the bodies of plague victims, which would accumulate in the
streets at night.  Because of that hazard, he tried to leave earlier from his government
office in the evenings, when there would be fewer corpses cluttering up his route home.
     Trump continues to act like this disease is simply going to melt away, and that we're
all going to get back to normal, with everyone working, and the economy booming,
before the November elections.  He doesn't talk about about the true nature of plagues.
The history of plagues shows us that they can linger for years, and then come back
again, in repeated waves of death and disaster. The Italian peninsula was struck by
outbreaks of plague in sixty eight percent of the years between 1348 and 1600.
There were twenty two outbreaks of plague in Venice between 1361 and 1528.
An especially deadly outbreak struck in the republic of Venice from 1478 to 1482.
During those years, in the Venice-an territories, well over three hundred thousand
people died.
     Now, with Trump's encouragement, the madness continues.  He holds his
no-mask political rallies, like a performing, court jester, where hundreds of people
can sit side by side to applaud his clownish inanities, while some giant amusement
parks are also opening to senseless crowds of people.  It's party time!
     So, come one, come all! Come to the party. It's Carnival!  Don't sit at home!
Drop all your cares and worries and join in the fun.  There's nothing to fear. Just drop
those masks and join all the  people.  Listen to the bands, drink the wine, spend some
money and have a good time.
       "Welcome to Carnival!" ...........( Or should that be, "Welcome to Cabaret?",
and should I be singing that, in English, French and German? )
     Oh, and by the way, don't pay any attention to the guy in the plague-doctor mask.
he's a real party-pooper!
                                           Eugene P. McNerney

Mort Noire - second page

     I am adding this second entry to my post from yesterday, because my post became
so long-winded with my thoughts about irresponsible people spreading the pandemic,
that I failed to say anything about the woodblock print in the title.   But at least, in the
hours since I posted my views, I am glad to see that the governors of some states are
now closing down some of the bars and clubs where the most thoughtless individuals
have been congregating. ( That's not to say that my words have any influence anywhere
or on anything. )

     The woodblock print is an old one: it dates back to a time when I still had some
living grandparents, and before the horrors of Vietnam, and more decades ago than
I like to calculate.  I ran across the print in storage recently, and since the image of
the dark, mask-hidden figure, seemed to fit in with my observations about all the troubles
our nation is having now, I decided to include the print in yesterday's, blog posting.

      Artists have always used the death figure as subject matter in their work.
The traditional image is a usually a skeletal, shrouded figure, carrying a scythe
and an hourglass, to symbolize lives being cut off, as our time on earth runs out.
Sometimes the artist's used such simple reminders as skulls, placed somewhere
in their compositions, perhaps labeled vanitas, or perhaps  Thanatos, for the Greek
god of death.
       It is those imponderable questions of life and death, which always occupy the
minds of our philosophers, poets, composers, playwrights and artists.  It is not
just how long we live which is their major question, but how well we use the time
we are given to be on this earth, and then how well we face our deaths, when our
time comes to go.  We see the results of their thoughts about those questions,
when we see their creative work, on stage, or on canvasses, or in great books,
or when we listen to their music.  Those great questions may not always be overtly
visible in the work, but they are always there, at least in subtext, or else the work
will seem fairly shallow.

     The woodblock was never really completed.  In my youthful enjoyment of all
things dark and macabre, I hadn't considered the idea that most art collectors
might not find death to be an appealing theme, no matter how abstract and
strong the artist's composition might be.  At the time that I was cutting the design,
I was planning to add other elements, including a skeletal hand emerging from
the robe, to hold the mask, and a skeletal foot below the robe's bottom hem.
Later on, as I was beginning  to have second thoughts, I decided that perhaps
I should change those particular elements to be a gloved hand and a fancy,
dress shoe.  But then, before I could continue, as so often happens, there were
interruptions of some kind, and the block was stored away, to be finished at a
later time, and then it was eventually forgotten.
       After I discovered the print, I went digging to see if I could find the
woodblock, and to my surprise, I found that I do still have it.  So now comes
the question of whether or not it has been worth keeping it all these years.
Is it likely that I will ever pick up the block and work on it again, after all this time?
Who knows? ........But I'm not dead yet.
                                                                  Eugene P. McNerney