Sunday, October 22, 2006

Sunday Scribblings - Good


My actual Sunday Scribblings Post starts after these first four paragraphs about artwork. I have taken Long Necked Lady, as she has come to be known and done my version of her, in fact I did two, I got so carried away and excited by it all [inner child loves to colour]. This is the first time in over a week, due to my mother's situation that I have sat in my artroom for an extended period of time and found my concentration, in fact, I felt blissfully energised yet relaxed at the same time, when I left the room. This plus my lovely Sunday lie-in and my Sunday treats has prepared me for the coming week.

I have uploaded my favourite Long Necked Lady first, I have called her Daughter of Nature, the reasons for which are obvious in the artwork. The Long Necked Lady I did first, set me off laughing, she just turned out like this I didn't mean her to look like this, she just took off. I call her The Flapper, but really she looks like a demented Sally Bowles and I wouldn't be surprised if she burst into 'Cabaret' any minute.

Alternatively, she reminds me of a character in a story my daughter used to scare herself with about a girl who always wore a red ribbon round her neck, even when she got married and her husband asked her to remove the ribbon she told him, she couldn't and he must not ask why or mention it again. Naturally as in all these tales curiousity got the better of him and one night when she was deep asleep he gently untied the ribbon and as he removed it from her neck her head fell off! That could happen to my Flapper because of her long neck.

When I have finished posting I am going to whizz round the sites of the GPS and see how many have posted Violette's Long Necked Lady. We must do more little projects like this they are such fun to do, plus it is so interesting to see everyone else's take on the idea. Doing this has inspired me, as it has given me the basis of some cards I wanted to make for friends and people dear to me, cards, for birthdays, thank yous and just for sending with little surprise gifts. After messing around with this face I can now see the way forward to making these greetings cards as a combination of drawing and collage.



Now time for my Sunday Scribblings, this week, I missed it last week due to unexpected events, and re reading this week's see I have gone off on a fine old ramble. Hope it makes sense to someone.



Sunday Scribblings - Good


Good is a word I don’t feel very favourable towards, I tend to treat it with distain. It always sounds such a priggish word. Perhaps, its because I have never aspired to being described as a ‘good’ girl, not that I was a naughty girl, I always meant well and did my best most of the time. In my past I have been called a ’wild child’ which I could live with and now people might say ’she’s a bit of an old hippy’ or ’she’s rather individual’. I would rather be called a caring friend than a good friend.

Look up the word ’good’ in dictionary and what is the definition:-
Noun: good - Benefit, Moral excellence or admirableness
Goodness - that which is pleasing, valuable or useful
Adjective: good - desirable or positive qualities eg. ‘good news’

It is possible some of the difficulty I have with the word good is that what springs to mind is the term ‘Goodwife’ or ‘Goody’. Now this is a courtesy title of married women, used much as Mrs, or Missus would be used today. The male term is Goodman. The name Goodwife and Goodman were very popular in Puritan England and New England. I see a Goodwife as a sour faced Puritan who would always be conferring with her cronies, never gossiping, god forbid, mulling over details of the misdemeanours of more light hearted ladies. I have this idea firmly ensconced in my mind that it was through these miserable god fearing women that many prettier younger women or eccentric older woman were put to trial as witches. Move one inch outside the ideal Puritan ethics and the Goodies would pounce on you. Perhaps, I have come across them in a past life but they have given me difficulties with the word good.

The other way good is used that has turned me against it is the term Goody Two shoes. This comes from a moralistic children’s tale which was published in 1765 by John Newbery, an early London publisher of children’s stories. Basically this is about a child that went round whining for a pair of shoes, apparently she only had one. When she was given a pair she was so ecstatic that she went round pointing them out to everyone and saying ‘Two shoes’. Of course, Goody Two Shoes now refers to a smug self-righteous person, that never dares to take a risk in case they get into trouble. I would be insulted to be called one.

It seems there are a lot of horrendous snooty English phrases with ‘good’ in them such as ‘Oh good show old son’, ‘goody gum drops’ or ‘goodness me!’, an exclamation of surprise. Good is also such a lazy word, there are so many other words that you can substitute for it, it’s as lazy a word as nice is.

Therefore, for all the above reasons good is a simpering self-satisfied word.

If that is how I feel about the word ‘good’ I must now look at the opposite and think about the word ‘bad’. Yes, ‘bad’ is a bad word in the lazy sense of not looking for a better word, but there is a sort of growl to this word, as if it would jump up and sink its teeth in you as soon as look at you. There is a sort of temptation in it as in ‘keep away he’s a bad boy’ and most of us have been through a time when we had a mad crush or got involved with a bad boy, regardless of warnings, and probably ended up heartbroken.

I can’t spend too long on some of the hidden delights of bad because my prompt, after all was the word ‘good’. Suffice to say that ‘good’ seems to lie down to be walked all over by ‘bad’. Just remember that by bad I don’t mean ‘wicked’ and ‘bad’ doesn’t seem to have the hypocrisy of the word ‘good’. To say ‘bad dog’ doesn’t mean evil dog, just misguided doing something it shouldn’t be doing, just like the word ‘bad’.


Don’t forget to join in Daisy Lupins’
Halloween Ghost Story Posting
Post a ghost story, something strange that happened
To you or a tale you want to tell
On 31st October, or as near to before
As possible.
Let’s have a Giant Story Circle




Have some fun
Coming soon in early November
Daisy Lupin’s stream of consciousness game
Pick one of the words or phrases
Let it take you where it will, Go with it,
See where you end up, then post it on your site.
Come on, join in, let’s ramble




18 comments:

Lisa Oceandreamer Swifka said...

LOVE your long neck girls - I like the dimented Sally Bowles, she's got sass! it really was a great challenge and I am SO anxious to find a way we can see all of them at one time.
As for Sunday Scribblings - that was really interesting. So often if someone should ask "how's that? or how's this?" and the answer is merely "good" the lackluster nature of the word strikes a chord that it wasn't very good at all. That's why I like the larger adjectives and exclaimations - they hold more weight. To say "she's a wonderful, high spirited girl" versus "she's a good girl" just tells a better truth.
XOXO

Miss Robyn said...

ooh blogger is driving me insane! my comments keep disappearing!
I just wish I could find the long necked gal to do my colouring in! love both of yours - the first one is so YOU
as to the word good - I don't like it much either - as a child I was told to be a good girl cause good girls go to Heaven. if I was naughty (who me?) I would suffer dreadfully from guilt

J C said...

ok Mz. Wild Child, ol' hippy type, individual cybersister friend...your long neck girls are adorable. Both of them. I do have to say tho, that if someone asks me (in passing perhaps) how I am, and I reply "good", that means all is well. However if I say .."WOW I'm wonderful" it will call for a long conversation which I prolly would not be into. And if I say "bad"...same thing. So I'll prolly just stick to good. It may be a bit boring, but it makes my day easier since I'm not much of a conversationalist. LOL Mz. Daisy, you are too cute. I wanted to tell you I have my Halloween story all ready to go!!! :)

Annabelle said...

Art is Blissful! The creation of your art helps your spirit and soul heal; something that everyone needs in their life. Your portraits are just lovely and I especially like daughter of nature.

Annabelle xo

Anonymous said...

Love your long necked girls..!
I picture you as looking rather like the first one, you strike me as a flowers in her hair kinda gal.
I dislike the words GOOD, and NICE intensely...to compliment anything or anyone with either would be to 'damn with faint praise' in my book.
In fact if someone responded I'm Bad,( meaning up to something, rather than ill) when I enquired after them, I would be more impressed !!

gma said...

Ohhh I like your long neck girls...
Maybe we should all eMail them to Violette!

KaiBlue said...

Arnt these long necked girl pickies fun? I love how much diversity we can create and still see the common source, something like the GPS..
Diverse, but all the same, talented!! :)
PEace, Kai.

Tinker said...

I love your two ladies, they have such distinct personalities and flair!

After reading your post on good - I'm wondering how many people on the Web have felt insulted by my using phrases such as "good post" or "good illustration" - which is really meant as true compliment - that it IS a good, strong post or artwork. Part of that may come from the work I do, where telling a fellow artist "good work" really IS a compliment, at least in my little area, in the art world. But Southern California is pretty laid back/low key anyway - and sometimes effusiveness is viewed around here as being insincere.
Then there's the whole "so good it's bad/so bad it's good," connotation. This is part of why I love the Internet, it gives us a chance to really find out how/what other people in all parts of the world think. It can be the smallest things that can make the biggest difference in our relationships both here and in real life. Thank you for another really excellent post that gives me food for thought!
xo

Tea said...

Love your long necked ladies! My favorite is Daughter of Nature, but I aso really like Flapper Girl. What fun!
From one individula old hippy to another, have a great day :)

tea
xo

Tea said...

Must be too early in the morning for me to be paying attention to my spelling!

tea
xo

Lisa said...

Love your long-neck girls. I have mine done but haven't photographed her yet. She's pretty simple but I loved her that way, so I stopped.

Your view of "good" is so interesting. I never would have thought of good in bad terms.

It makes one wonder about communication and war and misunderstandings when one, seemingly innocuous (that word doesn't look right but I'm leaving it) word can have such different connotations for us.

Thanks for this. You've got my mind reeling!

Janet said...

The long-necked ladies are fantastic! I like them both. As for the word good....I think it's just another way it makes it so difficult to express exactly what we mean when all we have is the blank screen in front of us and whatever words come to mind. Being clearly understood using just typed words leaves the door open to interpretation by the reader. But I do agree that "good" is a rather bland word with a "bad" reputation.

couragetocreatewriteandlove said...

The moment I saw your drawing It came to my mind Cabaret, I love them both but flapper girl is my favorite. I don't use the word good that much, I try to expand my mind and heart and give a better description of everything and anything, and if a person is envolved, I love to empower that person with real and satisfying answers to their souls and my soul, too.

zuzu said...

Why Miss Daisy! =^..^=

Your Redheaded Green-eyed Nature Lady is ME! I rarely wear a butterfly in my hair, but would if one landed there more often ::smile::

Are we this much alike?
Of course we are! How silly of me!
How delightfully fun!

And Gemma, so YES! Do everyone send your Long Neck Lady links to Violette! She will adore seeing her ladies everywhere! I just know it!

I'm going to find my colored chaulks and play on the sidewalks today. Maybe i'll do a lady too!

HaPpY post this one!
Perfect timing Miss Daisy.

=^..^= Hugs ... zU

VintagePretty said...

Love the long-necked ladies - very beautiful!

I definitely was not a "good" girl, I tried to, as you say, do my best, but hated institutions and what most people considered to be 'good' and 'normal' - I was a rebel! (and still am in some ways!)

Naturegirl said...

Your long neck ladies have blossomed from your imaginative mind..they are expressions of you ms. Daisy and I see myself in "daughter of nature" Change the hair to short and blonde(well perhaps graying with blonde highlights)and color the eyes brown!I love her crown of flowers and her neck laced of autumn leaves..so original!I can see a DOLL made up like these beautys!
**Continue creating while going through this difficult time because it does help to redirect your feelings.My blogging
does that for me when I look at beautiful images that are pleasing and the prose theraputic. Thank you for wishing me a b.day greeting!
Hugs NG
****LOVE the choc. parcel you sent to KIM!! :)

Beth said...

Hey,,love the long neck girls too! So fun. I think I will try a long neck girl. And the word good has never be a description for me,,lol. Goodness gracious!!

Carole Burant said...

Your long necked girls are just gorgeous...but after reading the ribbon story, now I can't get that out of my mind!! LOL Sheesh! And as for the word "good", who wants to be a good girl anyway??? hehe I do agree with your thoughts on this word, I've never cared for it myself. Hugs xox