Tricking myself into painting...
Added 2020-07-25 17:18:43 +0000 UTC...by making Bill even brighter and more cheerful than intended. ;)
The cheer is probably needed, as my usually morbid self has found a most depressing (and compelling) audiobook to accompany the work: "The Radium Girls" by Kate Moore (Asfaloth was accompanied by a podcast on the Golden State Killer. I don't know what's wrong with me).
It's an incredible story about young girls, painting clocks and watches with radium paint during World War One, most of them dying gruesomely several years later. They used a painting technique called lip-pointing, using their lips to bring the brushes back into shape. They fought for years to make the firm they worked for accountable, and pioneered modern work safety laws, though most of them never lived to see it. I love those sorts of modern horror stories far too much. O_o
Comments
Oh dear, yes. And recently, working with soapstone has been prohibited in schools, and watercolour companies stop using cadmium in their paints... I had one friend at my watercolour workshops who used the lip, dip, paint technique, and if I'd known of the radium girls back then, I'd have had some stories to tell him...
Jenny Dolfen
2020-07-25 21:22:57 +0000 UTCOh wow! I've heard of the play. I'll definitely check it out - even if it's just for a cast of characters, for starters! "Radium Girls" is a difficult book to listen to; so many characters that are hard to remember when you don't see their names in writing.
Jenny Dolfen
2020-07-25 21:18:53 +0000 UTCMaybe it's me, but I often feel that open-minded people can't help but become more liberal over time. ;)
Jenny Dolfen
2020-07-25 21:17:28 +0000 UTCWe learn slowly, as humans -- we're horrified now by what happened to the Radium Girls, but at the time it was a nifty new way to see your watch without using a light. A similar personal story: as a child in school (back in the 1960s) I can clearly recall our art teacher having a big bag (similar to a large bag of cement) from which we each scooped out a few cups of a gritty grey powder, and added water to, as a sculpting medium. Asbestos.
"Blade" McMicking, D.I.
2020-07-25 19:56:09 +0000 UTCAwww, Bill. Who doesn’t love Bill? Glad you’re picking up your art again, Jenny, and good luck with your surgery.
Madge Doty
2020-07-25 19:55:27 +0000 UTCLast February I played Catherine Donohue in the play based on that story of the radium girls! It's called These Shining Lives and it's an incredibly beautiful piece of writing. I highly recommend it when you've finished listening to the book! You can usually find the script online.
Maria
2020-07-25 19:02:37 +0000 UTCScary stuff. The older I get the more activity liberal I get. It's my mother's fault. She taught me how to think.
Steven Tryon
2020-07-25 18:11:05 +0000 UTCBill is delightfully cheerful!
Jennifer Tifft
2020-07-25 17:37:28 +0000 UTCThat seems like a heart-wrenching story, but a very interesting one! I'm all here for cheerful Bill, because Bill deserves all the best, and all the joy in the world (and so do you)!
Litsen
2020-07-25 17:25:34 +0000 UTC
