Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

[Ze-man]

I'll be honest. I was not quite sure what to expect when I clicked on this thread, but I'm glad I did.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

 

[Cimm]

This is my all-time favourite thread. Michael, thank you so much for sharing the stories, the art and most importantly the perspective. This thread may have been born in a moment of whimsy, but the erudition, wisdom, knowledge and sagacity herein shared have been heart-warming, humbling and enthralling. My sincere thanks!

[Cat-Man_America]

[font:Times New Roman]Other influences: SF and the art of recycled maintenance.

 

Most of the artists who influenced my work are from the era of classic pulp illustration, including George Rozen, Howard V. Brown, Maxfield Parish, and most notably Hannes Bok (who was himself heavily inspired by Parrish)...

 

George Rozen...

 

 

 

 

 

More on Rozen's work later...

 

 

Howard V. Brown...

 

 

 

 

Maxfield Parrish...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hannes Bok...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alas, there is a sad irony in the fact that Bok perished before his mentor. (Sorry 'bout that; couldn't resist).

 

More on Hannes Bok later...

 

 

[/font]

 

Edited January 6, 2013 by DavidMerryweather

[Pat Calhoun]

Like Cat Sfantasy fed my young fancies- the gestalt of the art & words paramount, and the art itself beautiful, but the words always had a special fascination for me, and I’d cite Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E Howard as major influences. Both used verse epigraphs (REH quoted a lot), and I would wander for days mumbling their incantations. Here’s CAS in fine form, followed by a coupla my old reflections since Alanna spoke of water and mirrors…

 

 

[comicnoir]

I love Maxfield Parrish when I discovered him in art school. I was disappointed to find out, years later, that he was dimissed as kitsch by the art world. Of course it's a world that embraced abtract expressionism and rejected all else.

[Pat Calhoun]

The term "Abstract Expressionism" was first used in Germany in connection with Rusian artist Wassily Kandinsky in 1919

 

[jimjum12]

Alanna asked me to post a few of my paintings.....mostly subjects of Christian Mystical nature. They pale next to the stuff already posted, but they sure helped me work out some of my own inner turmoil. GOD BLESS.....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Alanna asked me to post a few of my paintings.....mostly subjects of Christian Mystical nature. They pale next to the stuff already posted, but they sure helped me work out some of my own inner turmoil. GOD BLESS.....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

 

 

 

 

Jim I think your paintings are just great - in an earlier time you might have been painting covers for the pulps!

 

 

 

Do you have more?

[Flex Mentallo]

 

Pat, I love your poems! Please post more if you feel inclined.

[Larryw7]

Alanna asked me to post a few of my paintings.....mostly subjects of Christian Mystical nature. They pale next to the stuff already posted, but they sure helped me work out some of my own inner turmoil. GOD BLESS.....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful work, Jimbo.

[Mutie Fan]

Jimbo those are great!

[Flex Mentallo]

Sometimes my times in the village seem like a dream...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

But when I go there, it is life in the West that feels unreal...

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Of course I'm only one of thousands to hear the siren call of India, so there are thousands of lives to tell.

 

Among them is the extraordinary story of Father George Hess and the De Nobili School. The author of the following passage, Rajat Bhatia, studied at De Nobili School from 1975:

 

The Life of Father Hess

 

 

The Early Life of Fr. Hess

 

Father Hess was born on 10 October, 1919 in Bayonne, New Jersey to David and Julia Hess. His Father, was a self-made civil engineer and a consultant to JP Morgan. David Hess was also a close friend of Mr. Rayens, the Chairman of AT&T and in the good old days, the young George Hess would visit the estate of Mr. Rayens on Long Island with his parents. It was this privileged lifestyle that Father Hess gave up to make the journey to Bihar as a Jesuit in 1952.

 

 

 

A Tribute to Father George A. Hess, S.J.

 

 

 

Father Hess became a Jesuit in 1937. Several years before that he had weighed many professions including engineering, music, acting and decided upon aspiring to become a priest. The Jesuits with whom he came into close contact with in high school lead to his requesting permission to join them. He chose to come to India in 1952 because Jesuits from the Province which he joined were assigned to India rather than to any other country. It was the beginning of a memorable joumey that would eventually lead to Father Hess making India his own home.

At his desk.

 

 

In his own words “My reason for volunteering was that without doing so I would be shutting the door on a primary aspect of being a Jesuit, that of universal availability. When offered a choice between that and doctoral studies in Physics for which I showed high aptitude I pointed out that volunteering precluded the making of a choice.”

With Mother Teresa

 

He came to India in 1952 at the age of 32 at a time when India had just become independent from colonial rule in 1947. Today, 53 years later, Father Hess has lived longer in India than most Indians and continues to do yeoman work for our country and its people. During his seventeen long years as the Principal, Father Hess built De Nobili School into one of the finest educational institutions in India. The quality of education at De Nobili School, especially in the sciences, is borne out by the numerous engineers, doctors, army officers, air force pilots and business executives that have passed through the hallowed portals of De Nobili School.

 

 

With the Pope John Paul II

 

 

The selfless dedication of Father Hess to promoting education in India is borne out by the fact that in 1970, there was just one teacher at De Nobili School who had a Bachelors degree in Education and that was the Honorable Mr. Manik Midde. When Father Hess left De Nobili School in 1979, almost all our 80 teachers had received formal training in education and had graduated from the Loyola College of Education in Jamshedpur.

 

 

 

Father Hess is now 92, and still working.

 

After starting the Serendipity thread I received a pm from Roger, aka Weird Paper. Given my long time association with Nirmal, he wanted to know if I had met Father Hess, since I had related how Paddyfield School had been built with the aid of the Jesuits from St Xavier's College in Calcutta?

 

As Roger told me "He is my late grandfather's first cousin, so I think that makes him my third cousin. I've never met him, as far as I know (unless it was as a small child), though my mom and her sister correspond with him."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

As it happens, I had not been familiar with the Life of Father Hess - however, he would surely have been well-acquainted with the Jesuits of St Xaviers, so the two men would have had friends or acquaintances in common. I ti is interesting to speculate on whether these two ever met. If so they would have found they had a lot in common! Both men were teachers of physics. One of Nirmal's earliest forays into the village was on behalf of a charity called Science for Children. And I think they would have shared a similarly enlightened outlook about empowering young people to learn from their mistakes and make their own decisions.

 

Having been given some links about Father Hess by Roger I though to look for some newspaper articles about Nirmal so I could send them to Roger in return.

 

I couldnt find them - but to my amazement I found photos dating back to the Kasauli Art Camp I had attended in 1981, wher I first met Nirmal! Kasauli is a hill station in Himachal Pradesh high in the foothills of the Himalayas. In the late '70's and early 80's, international art camps were run there every summer.

 

It seems photos taken during the camp have recently been posted by the camp organisers, after all these years! I had had no idea they were online and would not have found them if not for Roger.

 

And there are even photos of the young student I was when I met him there. [i promise, I havent changed a bit!]

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

There is a photo of Nirmal from a previous camp in 1978, looking hale and hearty 3 years younger than when I first met him. In the photo is his lifelong friend, the sculptor Meera Mukherjee.

 

 

 

What struck me forcibly on seeing this photo for the first time just a few days ago, is how youthful and energetic he appears, just three years before I met him.

 

Then it struck me - the photo would have been taken at the height of summer - in India this is April and May, before the blessed monsoon falls in June.

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

I know that soon after their return to Calcutta following this camp, Nirmal and Meera were walking the road that leads to the village of Bonhooghly and Paddy Field School from Elaichi, where Nirmal kept a tiny house, but which had a very large verandah and a garden where Meera would do her lost wax casting every autumn. Her work is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London as well as collections around the world. in this sketch from 1985 she is working on a piece called "O beloved, I cannot see."

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Incidentally, Meera had rescued the dog in this sketch from the gutter on the brink of death. It's name was Bulu, and it was quite, quite mad. The only people it never bit were Meera, and me.

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Mohan Ghosh accompanied them on that evening walk in 1978.

 

There happened to be an eclipse of the moon that night. As the moon turned red, Meera suddenly stopped and said "Someone will die!" No more was said, and they continued on their way.

 

Then the monsoon came…

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

The Death of Mohan Ghosh

 

 

Scroll forward seven years to 1985. I am sharing Nirmal's tiny house. He sleeps in the bed in the single upper room, I more precariously on a wooden palette at the foot of the bed. One night in his sleep I hear Nirmal distinctly say "The king is dead!"

 

 

 

 

Edited January 6, 2013 by alanna