Pamela C Smith: Her painting of music

Thoughtful

If only she had been able to create her very own tarot, it would have been so readable and artistic. Her artwork is so lovely and expressive and combined with her intuitive nature and the gift of relating sound to it, it would have been a mighty deck. Such a shame she was bound by Waite into providing such uninspiring images for his deck.
 

Tanga

I came across this just now:

http://www.autostraddle.com/fools-journey-the-fascinating-life-of-pamela-colman-smith-267673/

Although I have never been taken by her art, that painting there is stated as her painting of Bach (her painting of music).

She had synesthesia (crossed nerve links between the senses - you "see" music and "hear" colour etc.) "Queer as a nine bob note" made me laugh (Looks like she was. The lady she retired to the country with seems to have been her partner.).
I went to a lecture about her (I missed this year's - they run one on/near her birthday, mid-Feb time at the esoteric bookshop, Bloomsbury, London) - and saw a selection of her other work, which I liked alot more. :)

If there is a deck with all her paintings of music or created based on it/them....... I am so getting one!

There isn't.
Some of her stuff is split up and squirrelled between private collectors.
I have the PCS Commemorative box set - which has prints of some of her other artwork in it.
 

The Happy Squirrel

She had synesthesia (crossed nerve links between the senses - you "see" music and "hear" colour etc.) "Queer as a nine bob note" made me laugh (Looks like she was. The lady she retired to the country with seems to have been her partner.).
I went to a lecture about her (I missed this year's - they run one on/near her birthday, mid-Feb time at the esoteric bookshop, Bloomsbury, London) - and saw a selection of her other work, which I liked alot more. :)



There isn't.
Alot of her stuff is split up and squirrelled between private collectors.


Yeah I guessed as much. I would imagine it would be an absolute nightmare trying to coordinate the various paintings, owners, and locations all over the world.

Having said that, if a deck can be created using Klimt's or Mucha's style, why not one with PCS's....? :D

Not so much her more commercial works, but those ones of the music she painted.... It seems almost as if she was a different painter during those ones.

Her painting of Bach is mesmerising .....
 

Shade

Well I'll be darned, this is the first I've ever read about her being a lesbian. Seems quite plausible.
 

Teheuti

Well I'll be darned, this is the first I've ever read about her being a lesbian. Seems quite plausible.
While there is no direct evidence of this, several of her closest friends were.
 

Teheuti

If only she had been able to create her very own tarot, it would have been so readable and artistic.
I agree that she might have created a very artistic and charming oracle deck, but there is no indication that she had anything to do with Tarot besides doing the art for the RWS deck.
 

Zephyros

While there is no direct evidence of this, several of her closest friends were.

Since so little is known about her life, I suppose any theory is as good as any other. But it is difficult to fathom how different those times really were. Evidence of this can be seen all over, especially in the sort of formal relations people had, many of which don't exist anymore. As the article mentioned, women did live together for protection and expenses. It was a time when men took women "under their protection" in a wholly formal manner, nothing sexual there (for example, a survivor of the Titanic wrote in his diary of being the protector of several women for the duration of the voyage), merely making sure they were alright, perhaps escorting them to their tables at dinner, that sort of thing. It was a time of strict social structures and customs when if you wished to visit someone it was impossible except when they were "at home" (a special time set aside for receiving guests) and even then only if you left a card at the door announcing yourself ahead of time. There were strict rules about what to wear even if you were dining at home with your family.

Emily Post's original Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home from 1922 shows quite a different society in which many things seem strange and, seen in a certain light, could be seen to hint at things sexual but didn't.

Not that I'm saying conclusively wasn't gay, but that her behavior should be judged according to the standards of its time in order to understand it better. She was a rebel, sure, but still a product of her time.
 

Teheuti

Since so little is known about her life, I suppose any theory is as good as any other. But it is difficult to fathom how different those times really were. Evidence of this can be seen all over, especially in the sort of formal relations people had, many of which don't exist anymore. As the article mentioned, women did live together for protection and expenses.
I agree. Still her roommate in NY, Alice Boughton, was notably and publicly lesbian, as were many of her closest friends, including Edy Craig and Christabel Marshall (Christopher St. John). There is no mention anywhere of her personal involvement with anyone in particular.