The Green Sheaf

Cerulean

Oh yes, and thanks Roppo and others...am looking in related areas..

...so if others are interested in the book, but want to wait for a review, I'll try to report back. I think I understood from reading other authors that P.C.S.--as any artist would-- was not happy for being judged at as merely 'a natural' channel for other people's visions...and she was proud of her recognition as a British Artist.

Debra says:
"It's that line about the "Freudian-inflected trope of the 'woman-child'" in regards to O'Keefe, on whom this book seems focused...."

Thanks for pointing that out and when I do receive the book, I'll check out the focus and find out what they say on Ms. PCS! As someone has pointed out, PCS might be just a small mention and not given as much air-play as the wonderful site that Roppo has established with the information and art.

I want to thank Roppo for following up the Yone Noguchi poetic links and providing food for thoughts...

Cerulean
 

rota

Let me join the chorus in thanking you for your efforts, in particular for bringing this hundred-year-old small-press work to light! This is wonderful, particularly the insight you've provided into the life and work of Pixie Smith.

One can easily see her images as potential tarot imagery... It's almost as though these were 'lost cards' or 'outtakes'.

❤❤❤❤❤
 

rota

Fulgour said:
A Broad Sheet No. 10 has a very interesting image...
we can easily see an early view of The 4 of Swords.

Here shown with image flipped to match the card~;)

...which makes me wonder something: just how many of the cards, and which ones, had been made using earlier imagery she had already done before the Waite commission happened? I'm curious, from an artist's point of view, to know what amount of the Smith/Waite deck was 'recycled', so to speak.
 

roppo

Behold!

I've just updated my website and added a new section "Pamela Colman Smith 2". I believe some of the pictures shown there are very rare, perhaps the first time to see for many of us. I was yelling and dancing joyously like a mad man when I discovered PCS's SadaYacco (you're right, I'm mad!) As to the supposedly original self portrait of PCS, well, I want to hear your opinion.

http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/pcsworks2.htm

I've been updating my website every Thursday morning since 1999, but this time I simply can't wait to show the world what I found.
 

HoneyBea

Thank you for posting these images, I am so taken by what I see :)
 

Teheuti

roppo said:
the supposedly original self portrait of PCS

http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/pcsworks2.htm
Roppo - I have a clearly different portrait in my copy of Widdicombe Fair #304. Mine doesn't look much like PCS - though yours looks a little more like her.

The second attachent is a drawing of her by Marius de Zayas from the O'Keeffe and the Women of the Stieglitz Circle exhibition catalog Modernism and the Feminine Voice. It clearly shows her in the midst of her story telling.

Mary
 

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Cerulean

My color pictures of SadaYakko shows 1900, 1902, 1903...

...and a Japanese-inspired hoppi coat circa 1905 from Parisian 'all the rage'. ( I checked my larger British edition of "Madame Sadayakko" which has color pictures not in the U.S. version...

From what Kenji posted, I like comparing what I have to PCS' delicate rendering of Madame Sadayakko---there's much grace and fluidity in the scene.

The charming and lovely 'self-portrait' of PCS--what a lovely find, Roppo!

And thanks Ms. Teheuti for posting the book pictures from the Stieglitz Circle--my book is on order and I look forward to seeing some new images.

Altogether, a glorious Spring zing to Pixie-lovers.

Cerulean
 

roppo

Polish Victims' Relief Fund

hello friends, I'm very glad you enjoyed the pictures of PCS.

Today I added to my PCS corner2 the WWI posters of hers I found in the public domain digital archive of the Congress Library. The one "Polish--" is especially interesting because it's very like a Tarot scene - "Judgement". Take a look!

http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/czenstochowa.jpg

Beautiful, isn't it? Pixie's usual PCS signature can be seen at the lower left corner, very small.
 

Teheuti

Roppo - feel free to include the portrait from my copy of Widdicombe Fair on your website - perhaps you could eventually get a little portrait gallery from different copies of the material.

Mary
 

Cerulean

I received my copy of Modernism and the Feminine Voice...

...which is the art catalogue and art exhibit of "O-Keeffe and the Women of the Stieglitz Circle."

Just a quick view from pages 47-57 of the text...I know there's more mentions of PCS in the book, but this is a quick bite:

The following might be only my mad cold musings...I need to be doing a careful reading of the text will help me write more clearly of a balanced view of Ms. Pamela Colman Smith. PCS as someone who understandably 'fit the niche' of an artist persona being developed by not only Stieglitz, but others of the time. It is true that people of the 1900s might breathe and utter wonderful oohs and ahhs of what seemed new and beautiful to them...and it seems a kind of 'mystical' touch was given play to those enchanted with her work.

I remember first hearing (from good teachers such as Teheuti) of that natural talent of drawing the visual from music (I've seen Debussey mentioned more than once in association with PCS' work). More people do such integrated things in the modern day, so the rare and beautiful way she integrated all those things might be less recognized now... (Film/television shows seem to form a storyline and show scenes that showcase pop musician's work all the time now...maybe not the same thing?)

I'm paraphrasing some of the text and partly timelines others have developed; She was after all 15-19 years old (born 1878, graduated Pratt in 1897) when attending the Pratt art school in Brooklyn...and the art catalog points out her publishing company was considered 'successful' in the late 1890s. Her art was sold by a New York dealer from 1897-1902...She is said to have returned to England in 1899 after a rejected publishing project and the Lyceum Theatre was her new focus...Throughout 1906-1909, her work included Golden Dawn interactions, stage settings for the group with William Butler Yeats involvement and the tarot card designs...

The book says her tarot card design involvement could have been as early as 1906, so when she was about 26 years old to 29 years of age...a young artist, still...

Forgive the cold medicine ravings. Suffice to say for me, a great book that is reawakening some ideas...Thanks for posting these gorgeous pictures and inspirational discussions, everyone! Hope my notes help a bit...perhaps to raise curiousity or answer the question"...say, would this book be worth it?"

Cheerfully signing off,
Cerulean