Fever Sick

Fever Sick is a painting inspired by my readings of pre-enlightenment faiths and folklore. It was commonly believed that an amulet of three spiders worn about the neck would cure the ague. Although the text didn't specify, I imagine that those spiders would have been dead and perhaps tied in a little sack. I took some artistic license and imagined how it would be to wear three live spiders. I lengthened the neck to Alice in Wonderland proportions so we can get a good feel for the little creatures and how they must feel crawling over our neck. The painting is filled with lots of undertones of sickly greens and yellows. All these elements combined give the picture a very feverish, swooning, and hallucinatory sort of feeling. 8" x 10" acrylic painting on acid free paper by Julie Kwiatkowski-Schuler.

 You can get a closer look at this painting Here at My Good Babushka.

Fever Sick

No one uses the word "ague" very much anymore. Pity.
So I will call this one "Fever Sick"
Another day of progress. This is an acrylic painting on paper 8" x 10". I almost always forget to include the dimensions.

Ague

 There was a pre-enlightenment tradition of wearing three spiders around one's neck to cure one's self of the ague. I am making a painted illustration of this custom.

 Here I've been working on the foldy sheets. Something that's hard to stop once you get started. I'm pretty happy with the sheets under my patient, but the ones draped over the leg need work. I like knobby leg. It's got a lot of good reds and greens in it.

Did a little work on the face. Making it dark around the eye. Sticky hair clinging to the neck. No one likes that.

Ague

 Continuing with my ague painting today. If you want to know what's going on in this painting, you can see yesterday's post.

 Making a big column of a neck. I think it will be a good place to show off the spiders. It has an Alice in Wonderland sort of surreal feel. Also invoking the surreal feeling of a fever delirium.

Ague

 Ague is my painted illustration of the pre-enlightenment practice of wearing three spiders about one's neck to cure the ague.

 I'm working on a wrought-irony, coppery, rusty looking sort of bed. I like metallic textures. They are fun.

The bed is casting greenish stripey shadows on the yellowish wall. I'm putting in lots of sick colors.

Ague

 D'oh! I posted these out of order.
This is an illustration of the pre-enlightenment practice of wearing three spiders about the neck to cure one of ague. I've picked a lot of sickly yellows and greens for this picture. And a very exaggerated neck, the better to see the spiders that will eventually be crawling there!

Sketchbook

 I've been working up a sketch based on some knowledge I've come across in a book of superstitions and folklore. It says that three spiders were worn about the neck in medieval through enlightenment times to cure an ague. It doesn't say that the spiders had to be dead, so that's what I've been running with. How would you wear three live spiders on your neck? The top sketch seems to have a very John Tenniel, Alice in Wonderland, flavor to it. The lower picture also has some fantastical neck stretching and even some bending. But so far, the upper picture is more interesting.

 "All Fours" is a game for entertaining children, in medieval times as now, where the adult gets on the floor and the children ride around on his or her back. I've tried to depict this in an exaggerated way. The adult looks pretty uncomfortable, but I think I could do better.

Matthew Asleep

I drew this picture of Matthew sleeping. He has been having a rough time with an ear infection that won't quit. He has to take a very thick and gloppy antibiotic, not the pink one. Then he caught a cold. Also, he has a lump in his lower eyelid that won't go away. This particular evening he had a fever of 103. So I put him into bed with me. Since I was staring at him anyway, I thought I would do a quick sketch.
My poor sweet hunnybunny. We had such a relatively good winter without much illness, but when it rains, it pours.

Josephine Baker Portrait

Half finished portrait of Josephine Baker on a wood panel. This decorative panel has a jute cord hanger attached to the top.

I've been laid low again by some sort of bug. I can't stop touching my stomach, crampy, shivery, sweaty, headaches, pain in the joints. Delicious foregrounding of the body, pondering death. Too sick to really enjoy it. Dozing off and on through marathon showing of old Twilight Zone episodes. Happy New Year!

When I shake this off, I have some needlework with skeletons I hope to share.