Something Around My House: My Renoir

I like a painting which makes me want to stroll in it.

~Renoir

I love this quote!

That is why I always get a certain calendar each year:
 I want to look at a new picture every month
that inspires me to wish myself into the painting......

Today, in response to a question by one of our commenters, Vicky, asked of me in a comment: 

what Renoir print do you have hanging in your living room?

I will play "show and tell" with Willa.


This is the Renoir print hanging above our couch in our living room.

Young Mother (Jeune mère)
1881
by

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1841–1919

Here is the framed print in my home:

(please excuse the messy house......lots of company just left in the last two days)

There is a story of how it got to my wall. Of course.

I love to tell stories.



One day, maybe 15 years ago, a friend and I were shopping at the mall in Reno, Nevada. 
It was more like window-shopping. 
Somehow we found ourselves in the furniture department at JC Penney's.

Looking through the large, framed prints, we were imagining each one in our house.
Of course, they were out of our financial ability to purchase.

Until we got to this Renoir.

My friend decided that she must have it. 
I think it was about $200 dollars.
She might have had a 50% off coupon.....
I could not talk her out of it.
I tried.

So, she bought it and placed it in the family room at my dad's house
because she was kind of a housemate there.

And there it hung for almost a decade, where I enjoyed it whenever I was visiting.

In the meantime, we recieved a baby grand piano, which caused an upheaval in our living room arrangement. This opened up a large wall space.

I spent at least a year looking for something to place there......but everything was out of my price range.  How could I  justify spending $100 or more on a decoration?

I finally decided that the "fine art" on my wall was going to have to be five Impressionist prints I had picked up at the National Gallery of Art, when they were only $1.00. I bought the frames, got the pictures into those frames.......and only needed to get the nails placed on the wall......when......

This friend was making plans to move out of my dad's house. 
She was packing and purging.
And, I was there for a visit with my dad.........having a conversation with her,
when she suddenly said: 

Do you want that print?

Do *I* want that print???

And, just in the nick of time, before the first nail made that first hole in my clean, blank wall.......

I received that painting that I could not afford, way back then, or now.......for FREE.

Her timing was most convenient for me.

I have yet to tire of this Young Mother.

This painting is a nice memory of the time when my friend and I were young

and our children were young and best friends.

We were kindred spirits and had much in common.

That is no longer the case......but the picture and the memories remain.

Please whisper a little prayer for their family.

Thanks.

Blessings,

            Chari

Something Around My House: La Pieta

A few months ago Willa started a blog "game" called  Something Around My House

      I have yet to join in....though I do have several drafts started, thinking they would be quick to post.....but as usual for me....they are still in draft form (you should see the quantity of drafts I have!!).  Nothing is quick for wordy little me.  :)

       So, in the end, when I do finally post to play with Willa......I still choose an item not in draft form.


        Because it is Holy Week, I looked around my house to find something that meant Christ's sufferings to me.....and my eyes immediately landed on this:

La Pieta by Michelangelo

       This beautiful little statue sits year-round on the baby grand piano (oh!  is that a wonderful story to tell of God's gifts to my family!  I have a lot of writing to do!  May God grant me numerous years and time to write of all of His grace in our lives.) in our smallish living room.  It leaves its usual perch to make room in Advent and Christmas for other decor.....otherwise we see it daily.


       It came into our family in this way:   We lived in northern Nevada, just east of Carson City.......on Highway 50 (one of the loneliest highways in America.....).  Down the highway was this "junk store"....part junk, part thrift.  For years I would drive by this store...thinking:  someday I have to go in there.

      When my oldest was about five months old, on a whim, I pulled into this junkyard of a parking lot. My sweet baby and I, wandered around.....not too interested in the junky merchandise......until my eyes landed on this gorgeous sculpture.  The lady wanted twenty bucks for it in 1988.  That was all the money I had in my pocket.  As newly married and newly parenting, I just could not justify $20 for a piece of decor. 


        So, I went outside my comfort zone........I haggled.  I loathe haggling.  It feels confrontational.  I plucked (prayed) up the courage to take it to the counter and I asked the not-very-friendly-lady if she would take ten dollars for it.  She argued about "why should I give it to you for that?"


      No wonder outside my comfort zone....it WAS confrontational!  I probably mumbled some words.....including something about I only have twenty dollars and we need to buy food.......blah, blah, blah.  Probably a stretch of the truth........we may have been in better shape then than now.  :)


     Either way, she denied me the price.  So, I walked around the store, praying about what to do.  I really wanted this!   I knew I could not yet do it.  I would go home, about a mile  down the road, and think about it.......and then if it was still there when I came back, I would just suck it up......because I knew it was mine.  And if God thought it was mine, too, He would save it for me. Of course.  My child-like trust.  :)



        As I was about to leave the store, as the only customer in this junky store, miles away from a real town, she stopped me and said:  Okay, you can have it for ten dollars.  I know Who changed her mind.  I was so appreciative. 


        Besides a beautiful reminder of how Our Lord died for us....and of His mother's heartbreak, it has also come in use quite frequently for our art history studies.  Did you know that there were questions about whether someone else carved La Pieta?  Legend has it that Michelangelo sneaked in the night, to carve his name on the sash across Mary's chest......well, just read this paragraph from Wikipedia on this:


 The process took less than two years. The Pietà's first home was the Chapel of Santa Petronilla, a Roman mausoleum near the south transept of St. Peter's, which the Cardinal chose as his funerary chapel. The chapel was later demolished by Bramante during his rebuilding of the basilica. According to Giorgio Vasari, shortly after the installation of his Pietà Michelangelo overheard (or asked visitors about the sculptor) someone remark that it was the work of another sculptor, Cristoforo Solari, whereupon Michelangelo signed the sculpture.^[2] Michelangelo carved MICHAELA[N]GELUS BONAROTUS FLORENTIN[US] FACIEBA[T] (Michelangelo Buonarroti, Florentine, made this) on the sash running across Mary's chest. The signature echoes one used by the ancient Greek artists, Apelles and Polykleitos. It was the only work he ever signed. Vasari also reports the anecdote that Michelangelo later regretted his outburst of pride and swore never to sign another work of his hands.^[3][4


     

       When we read about this, we ran over to see if our own little La Pieta was signed...and sure enough, our sculpture was a very close replica. 



       This piece of art work has been such a blessing in our family.....and it is now priceless.  At least to me.


       Thank you for letting me share this special item, Something Around My House. 

+++++++++++++++++

      If you have "Something Around the House" that you want to blog about, please do play -- and leave a link in the comment box.

1. Share a picture of something around your house or outlying area.  
2. Tell about in a few words......or more, if you are like me!
3. Post a link in our comments, if you would please. 

     May you find the ability to comfort Our Lady in this, her sorrowful time, 

                         Holy week Blessings,

                                          

                                                            Chari

Something Around My (Mom's) House: Our Lamb Has Conquered

This "Something Around the House" is from Wasilla where as Chari mentioned I (Willa) am staying at my Mom's house!

This glass ornament is hanging on the back bay window of my parents' house in Wasilla.    After I took the picture I started wondering what the inscription stood for.     If you look here,  you see that it is the Moravian seal and says:

Vicit agnus noster, eum sequamur 

 ("Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow him.").

 The image itself is very old, dating back to the Middle Ages.

I thought it was timely for the Lenten season!   And how Eucharistic it sounds, though the Moravians unfortunately are among our separated brethren.


I don't know where my parents got the seal --  when my father worked in the Alaskan bush when I was a toddler, my parents had several Moravian friends, so maybe it was a gift from one of them. 

You can see beyond the Lamb the outdoor landscape which is very bleak and grey.   It has been snowing pretty steadily the past week here in Wasilla.     On the bright side:   snow keeps the air way warmer!  Whenever the snow stops, the temperature drops, or is it the other way around!   Another bright side:  Wasillans don't get the same kind of snow that Sierran Californians do!   They have totalled maybe 6-8 inches in this past week, where we might easily get 5-10 times as much in the same time interval?

Now I had really planned to blog frequently during Lent, but instead, Chari has been doing most of it, in addition to her job and homeschooling.   I hope to participate more frequently now but it may be sort of scattered and impressionistic, like this post has been.  

I love getting the chance to spend quality time with my Mom -- though I miss my boys who are with their father down in the Lower 48.

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us!

If you have "Something Around the House" that you want to blog about, please do play -- and leave a link in the comment box!

Willa

Something Around My House: Family Shamrock

Chari and I decided that once in a while we would play a game on here called "Something Around My House".

It's simple to play!

1. Take a picture of something around your house or outlying area. 
2. Tell what it's about in a few words.

If you try it please link to your post in the comments!

 

Here is our family shamrock.

Kevin's grandmother was from an Irish family who originally came from Tipperary. She had a shamrock plant growing in her garden here in central California.

When she moved to assisted living a dozen or so years ago, Kevin's oldest brother (named after his grandpa and father) had the forethought to import it to his own garden. A few Christmases ago, a couple of years after she passed away, he gave each of his siblings a pot with a slip of the original shamrock. This one is ours.   It is a nice memento of a wonderful Catholic matriarch who so graciously welcomed me into her clan almost 3 decades ago.

(If you feel called, please say a prayer for her eternal repose along with the other faithful departed we are remembering this November!)

Kevin's brother Mike said his part of the shamrock is growing profusely in his garden, but we weren't sure it would like snow as much as valley sun and warmth, so we kept it in its pot inside the house.

It seems slightly constrained and wistful there looking out at the huge incense cedars and sugar pines but has kept growing and green for about five years or more now.

I wonder if it ever feels homesick for the green turf and soft air of the distant island!  

Looks like winter has come to the Sierras!

Wishing you a happy Sunday, and keep warm!

Willa