10-30-14. Clothespins.

10-29-14. Seed pod bowl by Newman Ceramic Works (based in Oregon).

10-28-14. Man wearing a turtleneck.

10-27-14. Cookie unmentionables.

10-26-14. Hookah-smoking caterpillar from Apeiron, one of my favorite 90s games. "Yeaaahhh!!!"

10-25-14. Another one of Harold's rarely-worn neckties.

10-24-14. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Diouana (427)

"Diouana (427)", oil on canvas, 24x24". For sale on Etsy.

Diouana, a young woman from Senegal, gazes upward with admiration for her new surroundings as she strolls between whitewashed walls. The setting is Antibes in the Côte d'Azur (or French Riviera) in 1966. She is hopeful here, when she first arrives at her new home, but her tale ends in tragedy. This portrait is based on a still from the short film "Black Girl" (or "La Noire De..."), an early work by Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène. (One of Sembène's better-known works was his final film, Moolaadé (2004), about genital mutilation.) Diouana (pronounced joh-ah-nah) worked as a nanny for a white French family in Senegal. She is thrilled when they move back to France and ask her to work for them there. But her dreams of cosmopolitan life in the south of France are quickly crushed. She is forced to be a servant, not just a nanny, responsible for cooking and cleaning. Her employers suddenly begin to treat her harshly, screaming at her and intercepting her letters home. She never gets to go out and enjoy the place that she dreamed of seeing. In the end, her sense of entrapment and despair leads her to suicide.

As a side note, the actress who portrayed Diouana, Thérèse M’Bissine Diop, also experienced some troubles in real life, though with a happier outcome than the fictional character. Diop's family and friends ostracized her for her participation in filmmaking, which was poorly understood and frowned-upon within their traditional culture in the 1960s. Despite this unfortunate reception at home, Diop went on to have a career designing textiles in Paris. So she did live happily in France, unlike the character Diouana.

This painting connects two randomly selected topics: Côte d'Azur (a shade of blue that is color #427 in Naomi Kuno's Colorscape book), and southern Central Africa (from my DK Family Encyclopedia). I didn't find an exact match for that region of Africa, so I compromised with the connection to Senegal in West Africa.

10-23-14. Triops lava lamp.

10-22-14. Man with a croquet mallet.

10-21-14. Cornish turnip Jack-o'-lantern.

10-20-14. Our cheap little toy ostrich.

10-19-14. World War I propaganda poster.

10-18-14. Door knocker.

10-17-14. 1968 Olympics Black Power salute.

10-16-14. The only television we own, which has been non-functional for over a year.

10-15-14. A zigzag bridge.

10-14-14. Navajo eagle necklace.

10-13-14. Surfboard.

10-12-14. Maxwell riding his tricycle, wearing my jacket.

10-11-14. A woman checking her wallet.

10-10-14. Kids playing on the jungle gym at our subdivision playground in June.

10-09-14. Maxwell's favorite puppet, even though he hasn't watched Sesame Street yet.

10-08-14. Maxwell playing with our oven mitts last month.

10-07-14. Maxwell is 2 years + 3 months old today. So is Serena.

10-06-14. Some goggles from our garage.

10-05-14. A random quarter from my purse.

10-04-14. Bald head.

10-03-14. Me today. I'm 7 months pregnant.

10-02-14. Gymnast Frankie Jones with the David Dixon trophy at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

10-01-14. Man on a surfboard.