Last month, we managed to slip in at the end of the Arts and Crafts Show in Gatlinburg, TN to view an incredible show of jewelry, paintings, wood carvings and other wood work, tools, quilts, rugs…My son-in-law, Brad, who had come up from New Iberia, LA and who builds beautiful furniture, surveyed all the objects of art and ended up buying a homemade broom to put on his hearth in New Iberia. I came away from the show with a large children’s book entitled HOPALONG JACK AND THE BLUE BUNNIES, written and illustrated by Jeri Landers.
The author’s illustrations of animal characters in paintings and books leaped into my sight and caused me to stop abruptly in front of her display. “Beatrix Potter reincarnated,” I said to the author. She was sitting at a table in front of the display, signing copies of the HOPALONG book. “My mentor,” she told me, knowing she had a sale after seeing the delighted expression on my face. I stood before her display, turning the pages of the large book for at least fifteen minutes, awed by the detailed drawings of bunnies pushing wheelbarrows, watering grapes, swinging, riding roosters and encountering a magnificent peacock surrounded by mockingbirds and wrens. Coons, owls, elk, bears – all types of wood folk appear in the magical illustrations that I’ve not seen in a children’s book to equal Beatrix Potter before finding this bit of serendipity. I walked away from the display, enjoyed all the exhibits, then went back to Jeri Landers table where she was beginning to pack up HOPALONG and her paintings. She gave me a look as if to say “I knew you’d be back,” and inscribed my copy of HOPALONG with an on-the-spot verse.
Landers’ mentor, Beatrix Potter, the 20th century British author/illustrator, observed animals for hours and produced 23 fascinating children’s books featuring animals she observed. She privately published 250 copies of her first book TALE OF PETER RABBIT, but her work was then picked up by Frederick Warne and Co., London, and subsequent book sales gave her enough money to have an independent income. Potter’s books featuring bunnies, squirrels, pigs, and other creatures in the animal world are still popular with children and adults throughout the world and have expanded their imaginations for over 100 years.
In addition to Jeri Landers’ Potter-like books, she specializes in painted paper cutting and European scherenschnitte which requires skill to paint detail meticulously. The end papers in HOPALONG JACK, as well as two pages of the book, were originally rendered in paper cuttings. Scherenschnitte is a German word meaning the art of paper cutting, and the process originated in China when paper was invented. Germans who settled in Pennsylvania created paper cuttings for Marriage and Birth Certificates, according to Jeri Landers. After viewing the work of some of these artists, Landers decided to use the German and Swiss style of paper cutting in her art work.
Storehouses of jellies, pumpkins, peas, cabbages, and carrots fill the pages of HOPALONG – again, they are very reminiscent of Beatrix Potter’s work. In one illustration rabbits sip tea while sitting under a bower of bluebells near the 19th century restored farmhouse where Jeri Landers lives in northeast TN. The author’s own menagerie includes cats, dogs, goats, and sheep, and the woods nearby provide models for the beautiful watercolor drawings. Over 108 small blue bunnies are hidden in this fascinating book and add to the charm of a volume that received “Book of the Year for Children’s Picture Books” awarded by “Foreword” magazine. Jeri Landers’ newest book, THE JOURNEY OF BUSHKY BUSHYBOTTOM, includes a CD of Landers reading aloud, giving the characters their own voices. She also has a line of greeting cards and provides lesson plans for students to learn the art of paper cuttings. This artist’s affection for animals, unique imagination, and ability to capture details of nature in faultless perspective in her rich drawings would certainly challenge her mentor Beatrix Potter!
Friday, August 29, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
ZANE GREY IS EVERYWHERE
Recently while sojourning at a friend’s home in FL, I kept eying the fishing pier that was only a short walk from the edge of the back gallery facing Silver Lake. The pier beckoned me to “drop a line,” but I was too busy to succumb to this idle pastime. Actually, last year, I caught 22 perch in Silver Lake while standing on the same pier and only stopped pulling in my catch because I knew I’d have to help clean all of the beautiful blue gill and sun perch I caught.
As I pondered the possibility of casting out from the end of this pier in FL, I thought about several of my favorite authors who had spent time fishing in FL, Ernest Hemingway and Zane Grey being the most notable ones. Many people who have read Grey’s western novels don’t realize that he not only loved the desert terrain, he was a big game fisherman and often left his family to go deep sea fishing in FL…and to write some of his adventure stories. Although Grey’s biographers claim that he could never write a sea epic, he revered the waters that seemed to soothe the depression which plagued him most of his life. I’ve read Grey’s biographies by Stephen May and Frank Gruber (the latter’s work three times) and recently re-read a statement Grey made about his love of the sea that is quoted in Gruber’s book: “The sea, from which all life springs, has been equally, with the desert, my teacher and religion.”
Zane Grey’s books and his biographies have always fascinated and inspired me. It’s true that his later novels are formula-type narratives, examples of so-called popular adventure stories, but who could fault an author who published over 90 books, with book sales of over $40 million?! One summer, when I traveled to California to see my daughter, we boarded a boat out to Avalon, Catalina Island, to spend a few days in the Zane Grey Pueblo Hotel which was once Grey’s getaway home, a pueblo-type residence at the top of a steep hill overlooking the blue-green waters of Catalina Bay. In this place, Grey relaxed and dreamed up stories while he looked out at the waters that he declared provided religion and inspiration for him.
Another summer, I traveled to Sedona, AZ and to nearby Oak Creek Canyon, the spot where Grey based his famous CALL OF THE CANYON. After discovering an old cabin that must have been the habitat of one of the characters in this western novel, I haunted all the bookstores in Sedona until I found and purchased an expensive edition of CALL OF THE CANYON…and pondered the idea of writing a western, finally deciding that anything I might write couldn’t equal the writings of this master of western narrative.
Just yesterday, I read a book about the Cumberland Plateau and came upon a reference to Grey’s SPIRIT OF THE BORDER, which focuses on the frontier of the Appalachians when pioneers were pushing westward. I was surprised that he had written about the Appalachians, the chain of mountains near my present residence. This novel first inspired Russ Manning to explore the Cumberland Plateau and, ultimately, to write THE HISTORIC CUMBERLAND PLATEAU. After reading that small tribute to Grey, I decided that Zane Grey follows me around, or perhaps I follow him around. The only place Zane Grey frequented that most of my friends refuse to accompany me is Death Valley, scene of one of his novels. However, I saw a wonderful documentary about the Valley several months ago, a film featuring a resort hotel that just might entice me to make another Zane Grey trek – during the winter, that is.
If I could write one book that connected its characters to the environment as well as this inimitable adventure writer, I’d “rest easy.” Like Grey, I appreciate and love the Grand West and his words about that region of the U.S. resonate with me: “The so-called civilization of man and his works shall perish from the earth, while the shifting sands, the red looming walls, the purple sage, and the towering monuments, the vast brooding range show no perceptible change.”
As I pondered the possibility of casting out from the end of this pier in FL, I thought about several of my favorite authors who had spent time fishing in FL, Ernest Hemingway and Zane Grey being the most notable ones. Many people who have read Grey’s western novels don’t realize that he not only loved the desert terrain, he was a big game fisherman and often left his family to go deep sea fishing in FL…and to write some of his adventure stories. Although Grey’s biographers claim that he could never write a sea epic, he revered the waters that seemed to soothe the depression which plagued him most of his life. I’ve read Grey’s biographies by Stephen May and Frank Gruber (the latter’s work three times) and recently re-read a statement Grey made about his love of the sea that is quoted in Gruber’s book: “The sea, from which all life springs, has been equally, with the desert, my teacher and religion.”
Zane Grey’s books and his biographies have always fascinated and inspired me. It’s true that his later novels are formula-type narratives, examples of so-called popular adventure stories, but who could fault an author who published over 90 books, with book sales of over $40 million?! One summer, when I traveled to California to see my daughter, we boarded a boat out to Avalon, Catalina Island, to spend a few days in the Zane Grey Pueblo Hotel which was once Grey’s getaway home, a pueblo-type residence at the top of a steep hill overlooking the blue-green waters of Catalina Bay. In this place, Grey relaxed and dreamed up stories while he looked out at the waters that he declared provided religion and inspiration for him.
Another summer, I traveled to Sedona, AZ and to nearby Oak Creek Canyon, the spot where Grey based his famous CALL OF THE CANYON. After discovering an old cabin that must have been the habitat of one of the characters in this western novel, I haunted all the bookstores in Sedona until I found and purchased an expensive edition of CALL OF THE CANYON…and pondered the idea of writing a western, finally deciding that anything I might write couldn’t equal the writings of this master of western narrative.
Just yesterday, I read a book about the Cumberland Plateau and came upon a reference to Grey’s SPIRIT OF THE BORDER, which focuses on the frontier of the Appalachians when pioneers were pushing westward. I was surprised that he had written about the Appalachians, the chain of mountains near my present residence. This novel first inspired Russ Manning to explore the Cumberland Plateau and, ultimately, to write THE HISTORIC CUMBERLAND PLATEAU. After reading that small tribute to Grey, I decided that Zane Grey follows me around, or perhaps I follow him around. The only place Zane Grey frequented that most of my friends refuse to accompany me is Death Valley, scene of one of his novels. However, I saw a wonderful documentary about the Valley several months ago, a film featuring a resort hotel that just might entice me to make another Zane Grey trek – during the winter, that is.
If I could write one book that connected its characters to the environment as well as this inimitable adventure writer, I’d “rest easy.” Like Grey, I appreciate and love the Grand West and his words about that region of the U.S. resonate with me: “The so-called civilization of man and his works shall perish from the earth, while the shifting sands, the red looming walls, the purple sage, and the towering monuments, the vast brooding range show no perceptible change.”
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
A SALUTE TO NURSES
Several weeks ago, during early morning services at St. Mary’s of Sewanee, we celebrated Florence Nightingale’s contribution to the vocation of nursing. Appropriately, Sister Miriam, who is an RN, as well as a member of the Community of St. Mary, read us the biography of Florence Nightingale from LESSER FEASTS AND FASTS. She also read the Florence Nightingale pledge that nurses recite when they graduate from the School of Nursing, which includes a phrase “I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous.” When she read this phrase, I couldn’t resist smiling widely since Sister Miriam often flashes a mischievous look my way when she’s supposed to be in “bowed head position” as we begin services. On a more serious note, she read “The Nightingale Tribute,” which is delivered at the funeral of any RN or LPN in Kansas to honor their years of service. It includes a poem praising nurses entitled “She Was There,” a poem that recognizes the omnipresent, dedicated nurse.
The biography of Florence Nightingale Sister Miriam read was short but conveyed the clear message that Florence elevated nursing to a respected profession during her lifetime. She was born in Florence, Italy and trained at Kaiserwerth and Paris in response to God’s call to the vocation, and soon became superintendent of a hospital for invalid women in London. She then served as a volunteer during the Crimean War and introduced sanitation and hygiene methods to British hospitals of Scutari and Balclava, drastically reducing the number of deaths from infections rampant in field hospitals during the early 20th century. Following Florence Nightingale’s war-time service, she was given 50,000 pounds to establish an institute to train nurses at St. Thomas Hospital and King’s College Hospital in the UK where she brought nursing to a high level of professionalism. In addition, Florence Nightingale contributed to public health services in India and authored a much-touted manual entitled NOTES ON NURSING. An Anglican described as “mystical,” she had many spiritual conversations with the prominent church leaders of the day (early 1900’s) and gained a strong reputation as a healer throughout the world.
As Sister Miriam read the short biography, I was reminded of Miss Katherine Avery of Avery Island, LA (home of Tabasco), a public health nurse who was often called “Florence Nightingale of Bayou Country,” for her work during a major flood in Acadiana in 1927, just a few days after Charles Lindbergh landed in Paris, France. As flood waters rose, Katherine assisted refugees into boxcars which transferred the victims to higher ground and served as head of an emergency hospital set up in Cade, LA, eight miles north of New Iberia. Katherine also traveled over Iberia Parish with a physician, helping families re-establish their homes, making certain that they were using proper sanitation practices. She often sacrificed her own funds to see that indigent children received medical care and accompanied a trainload of them to New Orleans so that they could undergo tonsillectomies and appendectomies. She took crippled children, at her own expense, to be treated by an orthopedic specialist at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. I wrote a profile about this remarkable woman in my book entitled THEIR ADVENTUROUS WILL, Profiles of Memorable Louisiana Women, a book now out-of-print.
Sister Miriam continues in the tradition of these Florence Nightingales and has served as a nurse for special cases of AIDS, HIV, including babies and children with AIDS/HIV, worked as a psychiatric nurse, as an OB/GYN nurse and formed the first birthing unit in Grand Junction, Colorado (for which she was named to WHO’S WHO AMONG HUMAN SERVICES PROFESSIONALS). Sister Miriam received training in the UK, not to become a nurse but to become a member of the Sisters of Charity. She also graduated from an Ignatian School of Spiritual Direction, completed four years of Education For Ministry, a four-year course called “Equipping the Saints,” and has certification from the National League of Childhood and Parenthood Educators. She completed 400 hrs. of Clinical Pastoral Education in Maryland, graduated from a Hospice training, and was in the ordination process in West Virginia before moving to Sewanee. When the Mother House of the Sisters of Charity closed in West Virginia, approximately a year ago, Sister Miriam and two other sisters transferred to the Community of St. Mary.
Sister Miriam has a crown of curly red hair and often becomes fiery and passionate about justice issues and children. She provides medical supplies and medical attention at a Port au Prince orphanage every year and is the person who inspired me and my friend Vickie to raise money for a water purification system that will be set up for the orphanage in Haiti in November. She’s also the Sister who bade me sit and hold my head down when I experienced an episode of heat exhaustion on July 4 while watching a dog and cat show. It’s refreshing to know someone who has a dual calling in care-giving, particularly one with a streak of wit and a penchant for mischief, both of which are leavening agents in the serious vocations to which she has been called.
The biography of Florence Nightingale Sister Miriam read was short but conveyed the clear message that Florence elevated nursing to a respected profession during her lifetime. She was born in Florence, Italy and trained at Kaiserwerth and Paris in response to God’s call to the vocation, and soon became superintendent of a hospital for invalid women in London. She then served as a volunteer during the Crimean War and introduced sanitation and hygiene methods to British hospitals of Scutari and Balclava, drastically reducing the number of deaths from infections rampant in field hospitals during the early 20th century. Following Florence Nightingale’s war-time service, she was given 50,000 pounds to establish an institute to train nurses at St. Thomas Hospital and King’s College Hospital in the UK where she brought nursing to a high level of professionalism. In addition, Florence Nightingale contributed to public health services in India and authored a much-touted manual entitled NOTES ON NURSING. An Anglican described as “mystical,” she had many spiritual conversations with the prominent church leaders of the day (early 1900’s) and gained a strong reputation as a healer throughout the world.
As Sister Miriam read the short biography, I was reminded of Miss Katherine Avery of Avery Island, LA (home of Tabasco), a public health nurse who was often called “Florence Nightingale of Bayou Country,” for her work during a major flood in Acadiana in 1927, just a few days after Charles Lindbergh landed in Paris, France. As flood waters rose, Katherine assisted refugees into boxcars which transferred the victims to higher ground and served as head of an emergency hospital set up in Cade, LA, eight miles north of New Iberia. Katherine also traveled over Iberia Parish with a physician, helping families re-establish their homes, making certain that they were using proper sanitation practices. She often sacrificed her own funds to see that indigent children received medical care and accompanied a trainload of them to New Orleans so that they could undergo tonsillectomies and appendectomies. She took crippled children, at her own expense, to be treated by an orthopedic specialist at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. I wrote a profile about this remarkable woman in my book entitled THEIR ADVENTUROUS WILL, Profiles of Memorable Louisiana Women, a book now out-of-print.
Sister Miriam continues in the tradition of these Florence Nightingales and has served as a nurse for special cases of AIDS, HIV, including babies and children with AIDS/HIV, worked as a psychiatric nurse, as an OB/GYN nurse and formed the first birthing unit in Grand Junction, Colorado (for which she was named to WHO’S WHO AMONG HUMAN SERVICES PROFESSIONALS). Sister Miriam received training in the UK, not to become a nurse but to become a member of the Sisters of Charity. She also graduated from an Ignatian School of Spiritual Direction, completed four years of Education For Ministry, a four-year course called “Equipping the Saints,” and has certification from the National League of Childhood and Parenthood Educators. She completed 400 hrs. of Clinical Pastoral Education in Maryland, graduated from a Hospice training, and was in the ordination process in West Virginia before moving to Sewanee. When the Mother House of the Sisters of Charity closed in West Virginia, approximately a year ago, Sister Miriam and two other sisters transferred to the Community of St. Mary.
Sister Miriam has a crown of curly red hair and often becomes fiery and passionate about justice issues and children. She provides medical supplies and medical attention at a Port au Prince orphanage every year and is the person who inspired me and my friend Vickie to raise money for a water purification system that will be set up for the orphanage in Haiti in November. She’s also the Sister who bade me sit and hold my head down when I experienced an episode of heat exhaustion on July 4 while watching a dog and cat show. It’s refreshing to know someone who has a dual calling in care-giving, particularly one with a streak of wit and a penchant for mischief, both of which are leavening agents in the serious vocations to which she has been called.
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