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It is hard to believe sometimes what all can transpire in the course of any single day. On the 17th of June just a couple of weeks back now, I went into to Paris to spend an afternoon with Virginia and Peter, whose blogs I was familiar with, JB, whose blog I hadn't encountered previously, and Mary, a good friend of Virginia's, who doesn't have a blog at present, but who is mad about Paris, and may soon have a blog. We met at la Place de la Bastille, had lunch there, and then strolled in the area around la Place des Vosges. From there I continued on my own, at Mary's suggestion, to visit the Picpus Cemetery, subject of the post just below this one, where Lafayette is buried. I then walked from Place de la Nation back to Place de la Bastille, before heading home. The following photographs are from that walk, late in the afternoon.
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When I saw the neon sign for a Magic Store, I couldn't resist going in to get a small dose of magic. One can always use a little extra magic in life . . .
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And I guess the magic kicked in fairly quickly; as shortly after I came out of the Magic Store, I met the following figure in a window who beckoned to me to come look more closely. What a surprise, I couldn't believe my eyes, it was the spitting image of my blogging pal Lynne Louciao Ciacco in Canada, sitting there in that intricately mechanical chair, pulling levers while her incredible brainpower was being harnessed by the headpiece, sort of like the Wizard of Oz in his control room behind a curtain .
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It should be known that in fact Lynne has two blogs, plus a couple of websites where she shows and shares the fabulous art she creates. The first blog, Décolleté Glimpes is her recreation room, or should I say "Romper Room", where she hangs out and hangs loose, where all manner of playful banter and horsing around can occur, not to mention flings with rubber chickens or tater tots. Just for an all around good time with one of the wickedest wits on the web, the opposite of a wicked witch, do go stop by and say hi to Lynne. But whatever you do, don't get her started with any puns. She is no dumb cluck, that one, and is armed and dangerous when it comes to punning around.
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However, Lynne is not only a colorful clown, she is also a talented and serious artist, when she puts her mind and energy to it, and has a second blog where her art hangs out in all its splendor : Ragzedge Arts : An Edgy Mix of Media.
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Recently she started up a website on weebly.com which serves as an on-line gallery for her artwork. Do take a look through the galleries there, you may just find something which would look mighty fine on one of your currently empty walls . . .
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Archived artwork from the past can be found on her lynneciacco.net website, also well worth a visit, to see how things have evolved over time in that mind full of wonders.
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The first order the lady in the magical chair issued was for me to pass through this door in a white wall into a secret side of Paris that few people know about . . .
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As soon as I stepped around the flowers and went through the green door, I met a warrior, who told me to go speak to a bear, for further instructions on where to go and what to do . . .
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So I went to speak with the bear, sitting at a small green table while he whispered bear tales in my ear, and suggested that if it was company I was looking for, I should go see the lady in red next door.
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So I went to see the lady in red, and asked if I could come in for tea . . . but she said not a word, so I wandered on.
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I asked this lady in mustard colored leather if she'd care to walk with me a while, but she simply continued staring into the distance with her sphynx smile, until she relented and told me to go see the lady in the cage down the street . . .
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The lady in the cage had an alligator shoe for a hairdo, and refused when I asked if she could come out to play . . .
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The magic began to take on strange turns when the cage melted away and suddenly the lady was no longer a beautiful woman with promises of warmth, but a skull grinning madly at me . . .
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The skull shifted in and out of focus in a sort of fog . . .
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And suddenly the skull disolved into this leering mask in a sea of swirling green . . .
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Stranger magic was yet to come, like a bolt of lightning, the masks exploded in ethereally barbarous flames, carrying me back to primitive pagan rituals and the vibrant beating of drums . . .
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Nightmarish creatures loomed in the dreamscape !
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And then exploded in flames so bright they became transparent, almost nuclear in nature . . .
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In the height of these paroxysms of madness, it was then that a leering purple skull appeared in one of those windows of perception, grinning insanely, accompanied by all manner of odd objects, and I couldn't help but marvel at how clearly it echoed the skull icon, the violet avatar which Lynne has been using of late in her blog profile, which shows up when she leaves comments in comment boxes. A serendipitous meeting of the skull-minds !
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I have to admit to being tremendously pleased and flattered and gobsmackingly happy when Lynne took up a few challenges I posed to her and agreed to transform some of my photographs using her digital magic wand into something totally different. The following four images appeared in my mind as a I stared hypnotized into the sparkling purple eye sockets of the grinning mask, but they can also be seen on Lynne's art website here . . . and what a long strange trip it was . . .
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