Backstory: I spent last semester vigorously studying William Blake in my art history seminar class. You see Bill was not just a poet, as you probably know him ("Tiger, tiger burning bright" and all that) but an engraver of epic proportions. Those poems weren't just prose but an explanation of the mythology that he created to explain his artistic philosophy. He then fused both poetry and engraving (well technically it was this etching process that he invented) to create these radiant illuminated books. Basically he was this wonderfully eccentric whackball visionary, whom I love excessively as his basic artistic philosophy is beautiful. Instead of believing that there was one all powerful god, he thought that god was actually something called Poetic Genius, that it is found in every person and that to reach it we must experience art to transcend our human limitations. Awesome right?! Seriously I could go on and on, but I will spare you.
Are you getting why seeing one his works would make my head explode from happiness? Oh and I forgot to mention my 25 page paper/20 minute presentation was on "The First Book of Urizen". I know! It is fate that I live within driving distance of one of the 8 editions (Blake printed them all himself) in the world in a public collection. So I got the special permission to see it. Upon arriving at the library I had to present two forms of picture ID, lock up my backpack and hang my coat as nothing but a notepad or laptop are allowed into the Reading Room. I get in there and find out that the curator I had been conversing with wasn't there yet and no one can get it out but her so I hung out for 40 minutes. Then this guy brought it out for me. All the pages are individually mounted in a folder with a piece of plastic and he just put them down on the table to let me look at at my leisure. YEAH. I couldn't believe it-I would have been happy just to look at it from afar. To be afforded the privilege of picking each one up in it's folder was more than I could bare.
Now I thought I knew what to expect because on blakearchive.org all of the editions are scanned in so you can see them in detail. But the old adage holds true-you just have to see it in person to truly appreciate it. Upon holding the pages a hairs-width from my nose I could see just breath-taking details. The lines as thin as hairs, vibrancy of color and even the texture of the ink were plain as day and completely non-existent in the images online. About 5 pages my excitement had reached a point at which my hands were shaking and my breathing was bordering on hyperventilating right at that point which you just want to scream and run around just to get some of this anxiousness out of my system. It was around this point when the curator came by to see how I was doing and I stared at her in a daze of joy. I think she was a bit taken aback by my level of enthusiasm and the fact that trying to explain to her how thankful I was for her allowing me to see it that I was crying just a little. She responded by telling me I could even move the plastic out of the way and gave me a magnifying glass to see better. I feel she was a kindred spirit of my art history nerdiness.
Anyway I stayed for an hour and then left to meet up with Rachel. We then went to a place called "Upstairs on the Square" for lunch. It was delightful. Then we took the T to the North End of Boston and walked on the Harborwalk. It was sunny and gorgeous except for the 40mph wind which made it impossible to feel my appendages after an hour or so. But these things matter naught when one is surrounded by a beautiful city and good company. It was fabulous to catch up with Rachel and be regaled with some Boston factoids that she has gleaned from her 5 months living there. After 2 hours we made our way to a starbucks to warm up with some coffee on our walk to Mike's Pastry for cannolis.
After that we took the T back to her place, regrouped and met up with her boyfriend for dinner. We went to this lovely restaurant/bar called Saloon. It is done up to look up a prohibition era pub with beautiful wood paneling, the bartenders wear suspenders and the waitresses wear black pseudo flapper dresses. The food was incredible, but more importantly the drink list was an extensive selection of whiskeys and scotches. Seriously a very good time. I will be back there.
Then today we went to breakfast at a place called Three Little Figs, a greek restaurant. All I can say is I had a lavender biscuit that was to die for. I am now obsessed with lavender bakery and will be attempting some recipes soon. Then I caught the bus back to Manchvegas and proceeded to grocery shop, make scones, do dishes and zone out in front of the tv.
Twas a very fine weekend and I hope to keep up this level of wonderment in the weekends to come.
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