Thursday, 23 February 2017

The reading stopped at: “when was that 93” (18.555)

Catherine Meyer sends a painting to illustrate a passage from the last reading, which she describes as tricky and not all that easy to do in a group due to its intimacy and outspokenness (it mentions titties and thighs, a man's “two bags”, bodily actions etc.). For her picture she chose a description of Molly and Poldy discussing what kind of hat suits her, how much it costs and the advice he gives her while trying to buy one:

“if I went by his advices every blessed hat I put on does that suit me yes take that thats alright the one like a weddingcake standing up miles off my head he said suited me or the dishcover one coming down on my backside on pins and
needles” (18.520)

The title of the watercolour is “Molly and the dishcover wedding cake hat”.

Molly and the dishcover wedding cake hat by Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2017

Thursday, 16 February 2017

The last reading stopped at: “alone in the carriage that day going to Howth” (18.371)

Catherine Meyer sends a painting inspired by the passage just read and adds: 

While reading through these pages, the words “he was shaking like a jelly all over” (18.315) caught my eye and the description of wobbly, pink jelly looking at Molly’s orange petticoat animated my imagination. I wanted to paint a Molly who enjoys being renowned and highly coveted. She is voluptuous, lifting her orange petticoat and aware of how her sex appeal is making Bloom shake. She is also recalling how he once wrote her “that letter with all those words in it” (18.318). We don’t know them, but we can imagine them.

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2017

Thursday, 9 February 2017

The Thursday group stopped at: “cutting her teeth too” (18.159)

Catherine Meyer sends another great painting to illustrate last week's reading, accompanied by the following comment:

Once again and now from Molly’s perspective we read about oysters and their supposed aphrodisiac effect: “he must have eaten oysters I think a few dozen” (18.149).

Having read about oysters in previous chapters, I found notes about them and sketches in my notebook and of course a reference to Fritz’s joke about a man asking, “What’s all this mystic about oysters? I had a dozen and only nine of them worked”.

In my painting two ostyers are open and one is closed – as the joke has it, not all of them work. The open ones stand for “being able” (to eat etc.), the closed ones stand for “not being able” (to eat, being inedible etc.)

 

I enjoyed painting the oysters and the oyster eyes. It is, according to my previous notes, a word that appears many times in the book and it has now received a tribute from my side.

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2017

Thursday, 2 February 2017

The group has reached the end of episode 17, “Ithaca”.

Catherine Meyer was inspired by the final large dot at the end of the text and sends her amazing painting for this week's blog entry:

Catherine Meyer © Zürich 2017