The Monk and His Whore

The Monk and His Whore
the one that got away

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Rockwell Sisters


    In biology circles there are known to be two kinds of parenting styles, investors and cheaters.  Investors are typically higher mammals, giving birth to only a few offspring during a lifetime.  Because they have few descendants, the parents make it a priority to invest sufficient time and energy into each individual to insure the survival and prosperity of each.  Cheaters, on the other hand, do not invest in the individual young.  They are usually of the lower species of animal life such as amphibians, insects and reptiles.   The cheaters insure the survival of their precious genes by creating numerous offspring.  Knowing that many will fall beneath the treadmill of life, they create multitudes of spawn in the hopes that some will live to reproduce again. 
    My parents belong to the latter category of animal life.  As Irish Catholic children of immigrants, (nouveau riche) mom and dad felt it was their personal calling to repopulate the world in their image.  I will say my folks must have had more chi, raw life energy, flow through their long lives than most people ever experience.  At the ripe old age of 86, each of them is the surviving sibling of their own large birth families.
    I was born into a big family that got bigger as I grew up.  I have six sisters and (had) three brothers.  My dad remarried twice and gave us also a half brother and a half sister.  One thing about my childhood, it was never boring.  There was always someone (or several) to play with.  I remember spending entire summers with no TV.  (My dad did not care much for TV, he cut the chord so often that eventually it was only two inches long and useless).  We developed imagination, a talent that post electronic generations are sorely lacking.
    Most of my siblings are writers of a sort.  My eldest sister, Kathleen  Rockwell  Lawrence was always there to look out for us youngsters.  I think a lot of the parenting/mothering fell on her shoulders.  She is well loved by us all and is still almost like a mother to me, in the very best of ways.  She is now a published author. The novels Maud Gone and The Last Apartment in Manhattan are among her works.
    My sister Mary Ann Rockwell was always very imaginative to the point of being almost otherworldly.  It was Mary who instigated and directed the various plays and imaginative games of our childhood.  She was a great artist as a kid and made us sit for (what seemed like) hours while she did a portrait.  The first I ever  heard of yoga or tarot or astrology (and Sonny and Cher and Aretha and Janice) was from her!  Mary still has a beautiful singing voice and is a published poet.  Her work has appeared in such journals as The Comstock Review, and Pharos.  She is also an accomplished artist, plays the penny whistle and writes a mean tarot blog (see below).
    Sister, Peggy Rockwell, barely a year my senior, was my "Irish Twin".  She was a star athelete while growing up and is also a fine writer. 
    My youngest sister, Brigid Rockwell, is also a fantastic artist.  She shows and sells her art in upstate New York. (She, too, had to put a fig leaf over the vagina of a figure drawing that was too sexy for the Hudson store window it was in). Brigid is also a very clever writer as you can see from reading her blog (listed below).
   Taine Rockwell, is also a fine writer and very creative individual.  She is busy managing a firm in Huston and raising a young son.  When she has time to write a blog, I will link it here.
   I, Terrie Rockwell, Rockwell sister #5, also self published a book called No Direction Home about life with my late brother Paul.  I am also a publishing house for my own limited edition arte prints.  If you want to see my resume and other accomplishments, go to my website, listed below.
    My brothers are also very creative.  Paul, Kevin and Gerard are (were) all musicians.  Gerard also writes stories and plays.  My half sister Alisha is a doctor and Susan is a Lawyer.  Not sure about Rocky yet... he's still young.
    I love my sisters and am proud to call them family.  Like other great creative families we will leave behind a legacy of our creative works!

Terrie Rockwell's web site
Brigid Rockwell's Art Blog
Mary Ann Rockwell Tarot Blog
Kathleen Lawrence Rockwell

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Wild Thing... The Fugitive Kind

I was flipping around on the TV last night and I happened on one of my all time favorite movies; "The Fugitive Kind".  In glorious black and white, the 1960 movie stared Marlon Brando, Joanne Woodward and Anna Magnani.  This movie was based on a play by Tennesee Williams, "Orpheus Descending"  which itself was based on the classic Greek myth of the god of music's descent into the underworld to rescue his bride, Eurydice, from death.
The sexy, guitar playing, Val, comes to the small town and falls in love with the mature Italian woman, Lady.  Their romance is hindered by the fact that she is married.  Her dying husband's spirit is as sick as his body. 
The small minded townspeople are also jealous of the lovers' new found passion.
One of the most beautiful scenes in the movie is in the newly completed "confectionery".  Val has helped Lady realize her dream of creating a darling terrace off the store, where she hoped to cultivate a sparkling night life for the small town.  She has just found out that she is pregnant... it is Val's child.  After countless years in a barren marriage, she is overjoyed that she has finally found a love that will bear fruit.          
Lady recounts the story of a fig tree she owned that never bore fruit, everyone thought it was barren.  After many years it produced a small fig.  Enchanted with the small miracle, she pulled out her Christmas decorations and embellished the fruitful fig tree with her glass birds, icicles and delicate ornaments.
Dancing through the confectionery she cries
Decorate me!  Decorate me!
They embrace tenderly.  And then... well you know if you've seen the movie, and if you don't know, I won't ruin it.
At the end, Joanne Woodward's character holds Val's snakeskin jacket and says... (to paraphrase)
wild things leave their skins behind.  they leave their skins and bones and teeth behind, as tokens, for us to follow... the fugitive kind.
It was this prose that inspired the name of my multi media painting completed at UC Davis in  2001.  My painting "Wild things.... Leave behind"  is embellished with mouse skulls and bones, feathers and footprints.  These tokens I received from friends there (Troy Dalton and Michelle Disney)  who believed as I do in the reverence of nature and its creatures.  love animals

terrierockwellart at bonanza
terrierockwellart web site
terrierockwellart at Etsy