Theoph

quote from S which I like. Chil and theof are a lot alike. Anonymous toilers. Just workin' at something they like. I think that must be true of real artists. That the work is its own reward. But Theof is such a nut. Here is the tribute from S.

"the most valuable thing among his possessions-the little chest in which he kept the tools of his trade and his books. It is a small wooden chest, completely covered with his own paintings- Iphigenia in Aulis, heroes of the War of Independence like Diakos, Botzaris, Grivas-and it is decorated with the strange and startling flowers of this gardener of eager manhood and of love. The friend who saved it keeps it as it was found by the side of the dead painter on the eve of the feast of the Annunciation in 1934. Open it, and you will find yourself( it is a shattering experience) gazing at the footprints of the life of a great man. By "great" I mean "whole." One feels the presence of that very rare thing-a being who never once wasted anything at all. From the commonest and most ephemeral articles-things manufactured to stay with us only for a very short time, things made only to amuse the pathos of a life that wishes for nothing except to forget itself-the life of simple people or of children; paper flowers tossed by the wind in the narrow streets of some provincial town at carnival time or at Easter or at a local merrymaking-the things are there to show from what small origins springs the force of the fascination of a master. His books: penny leaflets or school texts, worn out, about the lives of the Ancients, lives of saints, the Octoechos, Erotocritos, the story of Puss in Boots, of Little Red Riding Hood, ballads of war and of love. And next to his books his gallery: postcards, cheap chromos, collected when he was a door guard at the Greek Consulate in Smyrna; manly heroes; beautiful women like the ones we used to see on the hand organs; sea battles of the Russo-Japanese War; receptions of the Great Mogul; couples of the old sentimental times; and among all these his notebook, a big copybook of cheap paper, in which he copied out from books and newspapers landscapes and scenes of ancient times, statues of the gods, battles of Alexander the Great and innumerable busts of heroes, ancient and contemporary."

"he goes on painting till the end of his life, on every surface he can lay his hands on-wood, cloth, tins, rags, walls of houses or shops."

"Theophilos sometimes took his figures from photos, lithographs, or postcards."

What he is is a modern figure, like Estes or Marsh. He goes on the seen, the commonly seen and see it anew. That is what Chilson does too.

Theophilos G. Hajimihail from Mytilene

In the eyes of the world he was a lunatic.

He could be seen rushing about the streets dressed up as Alexander the Great and escorted by a flock of street urchins dressed up as "Macedonians."

But this peripatetic painter gave his all, like a true artist, to his creation.

this poetic rhythm

"who have worked in the dark but found their way searching along the dark passages of what is, I believe a very cultivated collective soul-the soul of our people."

"an outlandish figure in his antiquated costume, who goes round the villages of Pelion with paintbrushes stuck in his waistband and is described by the village women as a lunatic and a loafer."

"Greek cultural heritage is so vast that no one really knows who is going to be called to carry out its designs in practice. There are times when this heritage is in the hands of the most famous men in the history of the world, and there are other times when it goes into hiding among the nameless, waiting for the reappearance of the great names."

This quote then continues.
"Our folk song can....throw fresh light on Homer and fill in the meaning of Aeschylus. This is no small thing, and it is a thing that could only happen in Greece."

Just nice knowing he is here. Theophilos as Seferi describes his contribution.

12-29 Maybe the next Greek piece will be on Theofilos. The idea is the charm of ordinary life. As seen in the pictures of Rowlandson, the fact that there was an airport and a tank ride on Bob's parking lot and the fact that a lady guards the lot day and night. Now they have a new bright light to illuminate her at night. What a curious term! At night.

I may be incredibly tired and scared. Nothing new really. But it may finally paralyze me and render me unfit for human reproduction of words and ideas. That is not good.