15.3.10

Born of the Ides of March


In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar the title protagonist is warned by a soothsayer to ‘beware the ides of march’ on his way to the senate, prior to his assassination by his conspirators including Brutus. (Julius Caesar Act 1, scene 2, 15–19)
The Ides of March is really not a ‘bad luck’ day save for perhaps Caesar. Based on the Roman calendar, months were organized around three days. Each of these days served as a reference point for counting the other days. Kalends was the first day of the month. Nones was either the seventh or fifth day; Ides either the 15th or the 13th, depending whether it was March, May, July and October or another month.
So conversations would go something like: Do you have any plans two days after the Ides of March? We are traveling the day before Kalends of May.

The Ides of March falls on my father-in-laws birthday. As an activity to involve his grandchildren we made handprint art. My ten months old niece was the first to add her red hand print. This took two adults and was not captured on film. After her print dried we did Gman’s print. He was able to artistically add his prints conscious of his little cousin’s prints. Finally a few days later Sir S. made his final mark. I asked him to pay attention to the overall look of the art work and to overlap, or not, as he saw fit.

I think the overall effect is wonderful. A bit of my own exquisite corpse! Now if only I could beam these to Florida instantaneously. Happy Birthday Zadie!

5 comments:

Lovely World said...

What a coincidence - today is my father-in-law's birthday as well! And, to boot, my 9-year-old daughter's class is studying, and will perform, Julius Caesar! Yeah for the Ides of March (and thanks for the history lesson).

Mia said...

Nice to meet you too Lady Ren and thankyou for your nice comments on my blog. (Appreciate the reminder on Ides of March too. I hadn't thought of it!) :)

Ren- Lady Of The Arts said...

Lovely World that is a coincidence!
Be sure to get lots of photos of the preformance.
Luna- Thank you for visiting.

Unknown said...

what a great idea!! incorporating 2 colours at a time and making into another colour! i think little investigators would love to see the cause and effect of this :)

jacqueline said...

Dearest Ren, thanks for explaining "The Ides of March". I adore the handprint art...looks so fun and such a wonderful idea to incorporate 2 colors together. Have a lovely merry happy day and love to you!

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