Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Images

Images

Today Linda and I will be going to the Alliant Center in Madison for an antique show. That should be fun. Since the Dump doesn’t open until 10 I have a couple of hours to do my blog and some of the chores I have been putting on the back burner.

For those who follow this blog you know that I like the female form in all its vast renderings. I like Meissen, Gobel, Armani, Capodimonde, Royal Dalton, Lladro Heutsehreuter, Royal Dux and Dresden, to mention a few. I have pieces with trademarks I can’t even identify and for each manufacture, there are examples I love and others I wouldn’t give two cents for.

Since porcelain figurines are expensive, there are definite limits on what I can buy and I often settle for broken, chipped or otherwise imperfect pieces because I marvel at the composition and feel the spirit of the author who created it. Since I am not a dealer a few warts don’t bother me.

The reason I am sharing this is because great figurines don’t have to be made by a famous manufacturer. They appear from the most unexpected of places. On line is a good place to look, but in addition to the obvious manufactures I go to sites that produce plastic models, resin figures and action (anime) heroes. Not only can one see on U-tube tutorials on how to assemble and paint these models but also how the originals were sculpted and molded.

Recently I found and bought a five-inch resin figurine from Thailand that was stunning. I discovered it on the internet and it blew my socks off. So I have been watching videos on how the pros or experienced amateurs assemble and paint them. It came in a box with no instructions, containing about a dozen parts. Yesterday I drilled and pinned it and put auto body glaze and two part epoxy putty where the surfaces joined. Then I sprayed it with a primer. I have to tell you that even before I start to paint, she looks awesome, right at home with all my other “hoi-poiloi” (a term my mother used to use) knick-knacks.

I like the imagery these figures bring to my writing. In my class I encourage my students to find images of their characters. Some of these were great and to provide examples I even included some in my writings. I was surprised recently when one of my reviewers told me to delete them. She said my words created an entirely different image in her mind which she preferred to the one I provided. She said it was like going to a movie and seeing a character cast who didn’t fit the preconception she developed reading a book. This is interesting. Recently I saw the new Stephanie Plumb movie and the heroine did not fit either Linda or my preconceptions from the book, but I was able to suspend that and enjoy the actress who played the part. My wife could not bridge the gap. Maybe it’s a guy thing, being able to adjust rapidly to changes in expectation and reality but I have also seen women who moved with ease between the two states of nature.