Rabbit Holes Galore
Just a few pieces of mind candy for your Friday
(If you’re here for the Art with a capital A, scroll by my musing to the first picture. )
I had a horrible nightmare right before I woke up - the dreams close to alarm time are the worst, or the best - so I’ve been off my game most of the morning. My husband asked if I wanted to do the grocery shopping with him. Sure, why not?
Just going on my husband’s regular errands makes me appreciate EVERYTHING he does for me. Especially the tasks that involve spending money. I am better than I used to be, but I can still squander with the best of them. I remain a consumer at heart, in spite of my years living in a frugal German village with one grocery store, one liquor store, one butcher shop, one bakery and one restaurant. Simplicity and lack of choice keeps your money in your pocket, for sure.
My husband retired before me, so his new purpose - hard to find after retirement, I’m still looking - became to make my life flow easily so I could concentrate on work. He took over grocery shopping, pool cleaning, garbage duty, mowing the grass, repairing the cars, rotating the tires, tracking our investments, handling health insurance, painting and maintaining the house.
(Hmmm. After reading that list, it’s pretty much what he did BEFORE retirement, except for grocery shopping. I think he got the short end of the marriage stick. I cook for him. And that’s pretty much my only job. Oh, and emptying the dishwasher and litterbox duty. Still, I have it pretty good.)
I’ll do the little run to Aldi’s occasionally, or grab an ingredient needed for a recipe I suddenly want to make right that minute, but for the most part he’s on grocery patrol. Hence, my ability to retire at 60 instead of 65. The man can grow investments, find a bargain and save us tons in ALL areas, not just groceries.
Today - Sam’s Warehouse to restock our chest freezer. Great news! Because looking in that empty freezer has set off little jingle bells of anxiety all week. I’m used to having it full of chicken broth, chicken gumbo, beef vindaloo, vegetables and fruit. I am ready to load it back up to the gills. Or is that gunnels?
I’d forgotten how huge Sam’s warehouse is - combine it with overstimulated determined Christmas shoppers and you’re in the seventh circle of hell. The entire center was full of every processed food you could imagine. Huge containers of cookies, chocolate, trail mix, and big boxes with individual bags of six flavors of potato chips.
Do people really eat this stuff? Well, of course they do. I did, myself, when I was working. The vending machine gave me many a tasty lunch of Cheetos and Fig Newtons. Or if I was trying to eat ‘healthy’, pork rinds and peanuts.
We grabbed a cart and walked past the teeming center to the frozen food section for sockeye salmon, tuna steaks, cod, shrimp, and frozen beans and peas. Done. We scanned, paid and dissolved into the long line of carts and shoppers waiting for the happy Sam’s worker with a headband of Christmas lights to check our receipt.
My freezer feels calmer now. Or am I projecting again? Probably. I had a cup of lemon balm tea and decided to scroll Tumblr art for a while. And came up with some doozies!
ANYWAY - let’s get to the rabbit holes.
How about this one? By Sofía Bassi (Mexican, 1913-1998) - La Lagrima del Mundo (The Tear of the World) (1974)
I’ve never heard of this artist. I trolled the search engines to find out more. Fascinating! And sort of sad. From an early age, she had a penchant for philosophy and languages. She attended philosophy courses at the National Autonomous University of Mexico for two years, but in 1964, she preferred to improvise as a self-taught painter. She married twice; she had two children from the first marriage and a third child from the second. Her works waiting for you in the Museum of Modern Art in Tel Aviv and in the Museum of Guadalajara.
In 1968, Sofia Bassi was imprisoned for five years for the murder of her daughter Claire’s husband. She painted her first mural on a prison wall, also making a book containing about a hundred of her works made while she was in prison. In addition to her work as a painter she also loved to write.
She began to paint on her own and made nearly a hundred solo exhibitions. She only gained recognition for her surrealist work as a mature woman.
Self-taught, she created impressive works, integrating poetic elements with perfect techniques. Sofia Bassi lived in Lomas de Chapultepec, where she continued to paint and write for the rest of her life. Before she died in 1998, she made the egg-shaped sarcophagus, a sign of fertility and rebirth, which was used for her funeral.
Well, I couldn’t just leave it at that. Why did she kill her son-in-law?
The Count and Countess d'Acquarone, with their daughter and Claire's mother Sofia, settled in a luxurious villa in the exclusive Las Brisas subdivision in Acapulco. And there, on January 2, 1966, the Count d'Acquarone appeared floating in the pool with five bullets in his body. Sofía Bassi herself called the police to which she told a naive story: the gun had been fired while she was showing it to the count; there had been no witnesses. Claire refused to be tested for paraffin wax until two days after the crime was committed.
Turns out that there was a lot of journalistic speculation that her daughter, Claire, killed her husband and her mother naively stepped in to help. I guess it was pretty hard to come up with an accident story with that many bullets, but she gave it her best shot. HAH! Sorry about the pun. Sometimes I just can’t help myself.
The Count d'Acquarone was a member of a well-known family of Italian nobility, closely linked to power and an active participant in the fight against fascism. Even his father was directly related to the execution of Benito Mussolini. And one of the questions that came and went in the newsrooms was that why Claire did not get divorced instead of killing him? Many explained it based on the pre-nuptial contract; if Claire divorced, she lost the Count's fortune and perhaps what mattered more to her: she would be without her Countess title; On the other hand, being a widow, none of that would happen.
So Sofia Bassi, by pleading guilty to the crime, not only saved her daughter from going to prison, but saved her inheritance, her name, her nobility and her fortune for her daughter.
Another site speculated that Claire had walked in on her husband molesting her little brother. I guess we’ll never know for sure. Sofia’s prison time doesn’t appear to have been too onerous. Or she definitely had a good attitude and just made the best of it.
She was lodged in the infirmary of Acapulco prison and there, always dressed in white and smiling, she devoted herself completely to painting. Her works were auctioned for charity purposes. She received visits from famous artists and creators such as Alberto Gironella, Francisco Corzas, Rafael Coronel, then very young José Luis Cuevas, and even David Alfaro Siqueiros, who collaborated in the creation of the first Bassi mural, painted in jail and that now it is exhibited in the Acapulco Municipal Presidency.
Here are a few more of her paintings. The last painting, with the land mass shaped liked Mexico and the woman reaching her hands into the air is the one at the Acapulco Muncipal Presidency. What do you think? I wonder if being in jail made her a better artist, gave her more time to devote to her work. I hope so.
Last rabbit hole - I wanted to see the mural she painted on the wall of her cell. I THINK it’s the one below. But I couldn’t find out for sure. While running willy-nilly down the internet to find the mural, I also found a film, Acapulco 68, about the murder. Sounds like the perfect foreign film for a rainy day. Beautiful women, European royalty, art, murder and Acapulco in the 60s. Sort of a Mexican version of The House of Gucci!
My father in law knew Sofia Bassi and owns many of her works.
Well, well, well, that took an interesting turn. My son during his teens used to threaten to call the Department of Child Services on me whenever I refused to make him something to eat. It was a running joke between us. I always told him prison sounded wonderful so please call as life was very hectic at the time and I’d look forward to bringing a stack of books with me to read .Speaking of prison, I saw a documentary once filmed in one. One of the inmates was painting using brushes made from his own hair! And his results were impressive. I think of him often when I paint and wonder why I can’t produce better results with the materials I am blessed with to use. I also am in awe of artists who are able to devote their daily time in a studio, spending the whole day painting. I only allow myself to paint if I’ve caught up on chores. I extort myself into doing things I dislike in order to not feel guilty about painting. Even then, I sometimes don’t get housework done and paint anyway! Ha, jokes on me, and I’m afraid it happens more than it should which is apparent from the state of my home. Five years for five bullets does sound like a bargain though. I’m sure many received much more time for much less. I personally think visiting Mexico now days is a risk I wouldn’t take although House Hunters shows many US and Canadians relocating there.