Will the Bond of Friendship Hold?
February 26, 2016
Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers) is an opera in three acts by the French composer George Bizet (1838-1875) with a libretto by Eugène Cormon (1810-1903) and Michel Carré (1821-1872) that premiered in 1863.
An imaginary seascape for Les pêcheurs de perles set ancient island Ceylon featuring to pearl fishers. Design by Meredith Eliassen, 2016.
Set ancient island Ceylon, The Peal Fishers is the story of two men who vow eternal friendship, which is threatened by their love for the same woman who is conflicted with her emotions related to secular love and her sacred oath as a priestess.
Wagner Tonight
February 24, 2016
Richard Wagner (1813-1883) composed and wrote the libretto for Der fliegende Holländer, which premiered in early 1843. In the story, Senta, the bored daughter of a sea captain spins her own reality about a legendary Dutchman who is cursed.
In Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer, the cursed Dutchman cannot seem to escape Senta’s head. Design by Meredith Eliassen, 2016. Flying Dutchman Notecard
A Little Opera for Mom & Dad
February 17, 2016
L’arbore di Diana=der Baum der Diana, music by Vicente Martin y Soler (1754-1806), libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, (1749-1838), design by Meredith Eliassen, 2015.
Opening night for the Trade Wind Opera Company, where everybody knows your name, they just can’t remember your face…
More popular with contemporary audiences than Mozart’s classic operas with Da Ponte librettos with audiences, this erotic comedy was quickly translated and performed in other counties. Diana, the goddess of chastity has a miraculous tree in her garden that can produce exceptionally large fruit that reveals the goodness or sins of those who pass beneath its branches.
Dante… on Love
February 11, 2016
“L’amor che muove il sole e l’altre stelle.” (The love that moves the sun and the other stars.) from “Paradiso” by Dante Alighiere, 1265-1321. Image motif inspired by a card design by Robbin Rawlings. Drawing by Meredith Eliassen, 2016.
Another Beautiful Winter Day…
February 8, 2016
“He who binds to himself a joy does the winged life destroy, but he who kisses the joy as it flies lives in eternity’s sunrise,” words by William Blake (1757-1827), design by Meredith Eliassen, 2016.
Some “Big Game” couter-programming
February 7, 2016
This little bat knows how to find the sweet nectar of life. Design by Meredith Eliassen, 2016.
The Haiku Snail’s Story
February 5, 2016
Haiku is a Japanese poetry form that originally evoked a moment in nature consisting of seventeen syllables in a five-seven-five pattern.
Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828) wrote over 20,000 haiku. Although he was a popular poet, he lived in poverty. Through his many personal trials, his poetry utilizing local dialects and conversational phrases reflects a humility and simplicity. Issa wrote 54 haiku on the snail that serves as a study of their character that I have used for my interpretation of Felix the Helix…
Drawing of Felix the Helix before magical rain storm by Meredith Eliassen.
The snail is remarkable adept at exploring new habitats and spaces. Snails are mollusks; they originated in the oceans and over the course of time adapted to life on dry land. They lost their gills and evolved oxygen-breathing lungs. Felix the Helix (also known as “Happy the Snail”), shown here, is an earth snail with rather dull coloration, though some snails are arboreal and those tend to be brightly colored. Felix has a large fleshy foot, antennae and feelers on its head, and a coiled protective shell home that serves as a vessel encasing its asymmetrical visceral mass. Felix breathes through a kind of air-breathing lung and has a rasping organ in its mouth known as a radula.
In the winter, a snail can create a door to its shell, retreat into the shell and then close the door. Here Felix stays safe from the winter elements: “Big winter rain or little winter rain… sleeping is hard.” — Issa. Drawing by Meredith Eliassen.
Felix simply moves by following his nature according to his own principles. Though he appears to be slow, he actually flows effortlessly, without purpose and without a goal: he is one with the Universe. He possesses nothing. He moves and acts spontaneously from his nature and without purpose, he has become one with the Universe.
Felix awakens to find himself transformed in the morning: “Little snail facing this way, where to now?” — Issa. Drawing by Meredith Eliassen.
The Ancients…
February 4, 2016
After visiting my parents last year, I returned with a new supply of color pens and stories from the Sedona area. Meet Petro, an ancient member of the Lucky the Lizard posse, who visited my consciousness. A petroglyph is rock art created by removing rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, and Petro is drawn in the shape of an Arizona petroglyph of a lizard.
Design by Meredith Eliassen.
More on Math…
February 3, 2016
Euclid wrote: “There is no royal road to geometry.”
Adam H. Dickey wrote: “Figures are not things but thoughts; they are mental concepts, and as such they are available to every body.”
John L. Dobson wrote: “By the demise of those with poorer eyes, we gained our visual acuity, and by the demise of those with smaller brains, we improved our capacity to understand. It is that capacity which sets us apart amongst the watchers of the skies.”
Envision Euclid and Dobson together… as lizards, conversing.
Euclid (left) examines abstract calculation as Dobson (right) gazes at the heavens. Design by Meredith Eliassen, 2016.
Introducing Dobson and Euclid, the mathematical (gecko) sector of the Lucky the Lizard Posse. Euclid & Dobson Notecard
All the World is a Stage…
February 2, 2016
“All the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Quote by William Shakespeare, drawing by Meredith Eliassen, 2016.
MME Designs's Weblog 