Thursday, 21 April 2016

The reading stopped mid paragraph at, “In the sunny patches one might easily have cooked on a stone a batch of those buns with Corinth fruit in them that Periplipomenes sells in his booth near the bridge” (14.1149).

The watercolour Catherine sends in for this blog depicts a scene read earlier, though (the previous week). Here's what she writes about it:

The passage in gothic style with some impressive sentences such as “the spider pitches her web in the solitude” and “the nocturnal rat peers from his hole” had inspired my imagination (14.1034–37).

I have put the scene on the stage with buck mulligan reciting the gothic story, Haines with a portfolio of Celtic literature in one hand and, in the other, a phial marked “poison”. The black panther is with Haines as a ghost who reminds him of the killing of Samuel Childs.

I chose a thick paper, which allowed me to work with watercolour, gouache, coal and drawing ink. I also used brushes, pens and a sponge. The rest was some imagination and a steady hand.

© Catherine Meyer, Zürich 2016

Thursday, 14 April 2016

The reading stopped mid paragraph at: “the cases of human nativity which Aristotle has classified in his masterpiece with chromolithographic illustrations” (14.977).


The many medical terms made it rather confusing, even dizzy in Catherine's case. She began to scribble around on an empty notepad and ended up with an umbrella as a diaphragm for the sentence: “One umbrella, were it no bigger than a fairy mushroom, is worth ten such stopgaps” (14.785). Then, she tells us:

I scribbled some Tête de femmes, because of the note

“their testiness and outrageous mots were such that his intellects resiled from” (14.850). « mots » is french, but in irish it also means girl, girlfriend. Pronounced mu. In french môme is also a young girl. And I drew other objects that I happened to see next to me such as pencils, fingers, hands, books etc. Maybe that is why my contribution to the blog is a scene of the reading group. The composition was of course made at home, composed of various sketches.

© Catherine Meyer, Zürich 2016

Thursday, 7 April 2016

The reading stopped at, “The spry rattle had run on in the same vein of mimicry but for some !arum in the antechamber” (14.737)

The group seemed particularly amused by the bull story, Catherine tells us, maybe also because it never fails to trigger laughter and stories from Fritz Senn. The description of the bull with a full belly and soon to “rear up on his hind quarters to show their ladyships a mystery and roar and bellow out of him” (14.907) also always makes him think that Joyce must have seen the bull at the Bürkliplatz (near the lake in Zurich). This was enough to tickle Catherine Meyer's creative nerve. She sends the following:

On Sunday I wanted to pay the bull at Bürkliplatz a visit and fix the rearing creature on paper. Unfortunately, the place was full with the fun-fair and the only side from which I could focus on the bull and its master was from the right. I would have preferred drawing the bull from the front, showing its rearing up „on his hind quarters“ at its best. But there was no place to put myself with half an hour's peace. The monument is made out of shelly sandstone and was donated to the town by Arnold Geiser, Stadtbaumeister 1876-1907. Now there is a bit of Zürich bull  history on Thursday-Ulysses-blog.

© Catherine Meyer, Zürich 2016

Thursday, 31 March 2016

The reading stopped mid paragraph at, “but God give her soon issue” (14.515). 

Catherine Meyer sends her visual rendering. She notes the following:

As a contrast to my mental fatigue (french influence in the elizabethan time) I have decided to paint a realistic scene  which does not ask you too many questions.

In Chandra’s blog for the Tuesday Ulysses group, I found the roundup of who is present at the maternity hospital and, therefore, I have put them around a table, drinking and talking. Stephen is leaning against the window being struck, figuratively, by lightning.

I'm sending the watercolor and the sketch, which is to my mind always interesting to look at.

The blog for the Tuesday reading group can be found at:

http://tuesdaysulysses.blogspot.ch

© Catherine Meyer, Zürich 2016

© Catherine Meyer, Zürich 2016