My almost weekly posts have stretched to just over rwo and it seems that while I spend all of that time cooking up, so to speak, my next essay time lines have no importance. The stories can't be rushed. So, I thought of my mother the hero; the defender of the family. But I put those poignant memories aside in favor of archetypes. The Mother. Well. I'm not certain shes an archtype but she is a God. Mother Mary sprang to mind but that wasn't the tale I wanted to tell. That one will take more prayer and study. I turned to the Tarot. To the major arcana. To the Empress who is the mother of the Tarot. I've capitalized Tarot because right now She's a character in the tale.
The Empress is the always fertile, always protective, always certain queen mother. Okay, skipping sideways to visual art, I'm using pastels again. Yes I gave it all up until I didn't. I painted a soulful portrait of a rescue dog named Sugar Ray because she had a story to tell. I sent the portrait to my friends Dusty and Wright (two angels who have rescued dogs for decades and don't have the lift another finger to cross the Pearly Gates) they shared these images on FB. I had captured this beautiful soul on paper. So pastels are once again part of my storytelling.
But back to my post. I've ordered new Pan Pastel paper, I'm about to select my colors and I have my reference photos. I am going to use the Rider-Waite Empress card and the John Welford portrait of Josephine the Empress to create this new version of the Empress.
Why Josephine? Inspiration. Right or wrong. Good or bad. In an instant I knew that Josephine was the Empress. Josephine is just one example of many great and unknown women (like my own) who were great mothers. Enter this quote of what is an assumption of Napolean II's character. "If Josephine had been my mother I would have been a different man." I used this line in a talk I gave about Josphine a few decades ago. Unlike his father, the Emperor Napolean, Napolean II was reserved. While Josephine and Napolean were a flamboyant couple, the Empress Marie Louise was not. Hence the anecdote. He may have said it but he never wrote it down so who knows. But I like it because this line describes the influence our mothers have on us; or don't. Of course the same is true for fathers.
A bit about Josephine and her children. Josephine had a son, Eugene, and a daughter, Hortense. Their father, Alexandre de Beauharnais met with the guillotine during the French Revolution. Josephine and her children were released 5 days later. Moving on quickly, she met Napolean the General, and became his wife after much wooing on his part and in spite of his family. He adopted her children and they thrived. They had no children so he had the marriage anuled in favor of having a male heir. I often wonder what would have happened if Josephine had borne him a son. What would the world be like today? For that matter, I wonder what would have happened if Napolean had turned a deaf hear to his own overly controlling mother. You should read a biography of Josephine or of the couple's life together. Many Europen royals are descendants of her children. They were strong and popular. Napolean II, Emperor of Rome, died at 21. While for most people, history happens to us. But, some people happen to history and this was the case of Josphine Empress of France. In fact, I believe, it is only through Josephine's daughter Hortense that any of Napolean's family blood moved on. She was married to Napolean's brother, Louis Bonaparte and through her, the Bonaparte's continued. Please note, I said I believe. I could be wrong.
Still, Josphine is the subject for my version of the Empress. I'll post once the portrait is complete.