The Maid

 I made this apron as a meditation on the role of the maid- a helper both looked down upon and fantasized about. I did not use a pattern, rather imagining and measuring using my body. 

I saw the painting that is featured in the cyanotype at the Holburne Museum in Bath, England in June of 2023. I was immediately stuck by her coyness and sass, a painting born of fantasy. Who is watching her? And what do they want with her? And what exactly is she washing? What was her (or any 'servants') level of consent in this? Did she welcome or hate it? Or both? A true lady's maids hands would never be that pristine..Right.. a lot of thoughts. As someone who works in a professional role of service as a public librarian, I’ve felt like a maid. People in turn concoct their own fantasy about you, while others treat you like a servant. 

A Lady’s Maid Soaping Linen by Henry Robert Moreland. C. 1765-82.

Though I saw this painting at the Holburne, the image I used to make the cyanotype is one in the collection of the Tate, featured above. 

The cyanotype hands were made using paper cutouts of my own, the idea being that they are trying to “grab at” the maid. Greedy hands versus helping ones. The two in the center are actually pockets. I had hoped that the apron would come out rather sexy. On the flip, within my personal life I  find the maid trope incredibly sexy. Seduced by falling into the role of the helper or one playing into a fantasy. It is interesting to think of the piece as a muddling between 'professional' and 'personal' life. Consent and boundaries being paramount. 

The apron is made from a simple muslin and sari ribbon around the neck. 

"She enters, as though once and for all, circumspectly deposits her vital paraphernalia beside the door, then crosses the room to fling open (humbly yet authoritatively) the curtains and the garden doors: there is such a song of birds all about! Excited by that, and by the sweet breath of late afternoon, her own eagerness to serve, and faith in the perfectibility of her tasks, she turns with a glad heart and tosses back the bedcovers: "Oh! I beg your pardon, sir!" - p. 94-95, Spanking the Maid by Robert Coover 

Integration

 Marie Howe♥️ another from her collection of poems “Magdalene”

I Pine, I Weep, I Mourn

 

On Men, Their Bodies

 

Delectable 

LÙNASTAL

Or Lughnasadh as it is more commonly known (lunastal is the name of the festival in Scottish Gaelic) is a Gaelic harvest festival celebrated on August 1, as it is the midway point of the Autumn and Summer Equinox. It usually is close to the new moon. It is one of the four Gaelic holidays, the others being Samhain, Imbolc, and Beltane. Children conceived on Lughnasadh would be born on or around Beltane on May 1. The name comes from the god Lugh, a warrior, king, and master craftsmen in Irish mythology. He is a member of and Irish race of supernatural beings the Tuath Dé . A Christian festival called Lammas is celebrated on the same day .

My second block print. A stamp of my braided hair.

Torso painted from silver acorn ink that I foraged for along a path by the Prettyboy Reservoir. 

 

Pennyroyal Tea

 

This year I decided I wanted to grow mint. In my research, I became intrigued with pennyroyal and decided to grow some. Pennyroyal has been used since Ancient Greek and Roman times as an emmenagogue (more specifically an abortifacient) and a way to dispel afterbirth and dead fetuses. Unfortunately, over the years the abortifacient aspect got misinterpreted and amplified, resulting in many deaths. The most recent documented death occurred in 1994 in California. Also, there was a death of a 16 year old girl in Maryland in 1912 who took 36(!) pennyroyal pills to induce abortion. I can only imagine how many more women have died or been permanently injured. There are a lot of feelings and history (and poison!) in these little inconspicuous plants. I planted them on a waning gibbous phase of a cancer moon (I'm a cancer moon, but born under a waning crescent). Apparently, just a tablespoon of pennyroyal oil can cause a person to go into multi organ failure. 

An interesting article on pennyroyal from the Museum of Contraception and Abortion

"Drawing from a 13th-century manuscript of Pseudo-Apuleius's Herbarium, depicting a pregnant woman in repose, while another holds some pennyroyal in one hand and prepares a concoction using a mortar and pestle with the other. Pennyroyal was historically used as an herbal abortifacient.

Source: scanned from Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance by John M. Riddle." - from wikimedia commons

Palomino Willow

 

Dyed some antique linens with willow branches and leaves two weeks ago. Found a tree by a little stream on a back road to harvest from. I got this buttery soft palomino color.

I remember being little and driving past a Rutter's convenience store just over the Mason Dixon Line, and loved seeing this horse in the window. It is now a Palomino from the sun.