This picture ...
Boogie
Heaven Host
in All Saints
I took this picture many years ago, when I was a teacher. I've just found it in my big sort out of photographs.
Please may I ask what it says to you?
I'd love to know if it says the same things to any Shipmates as it does to me.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/qHJVyxoTqXN3tqos5
Please may I ask what it says to you?
I'd love to know if it says the same things to any Shipmates as it does to me.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/qHJVyxoTqXN3tqos5
Comments
I see a simple drawn mask with a crown on top. The face has a broad smile, blonde hair and rosy cheeks. I would interpret it as being something worn by a young girl who wishes to pretend she is a princess.
That was my first thought too.
https://www.misterrogers.org/articles/king-friday-xiii/
Me too.
The immediate thing I notice is that you have a dark-skinned girl with dark hair who has made herself a sparkly blonde princess mask. Perhaps Cinderella is her favorite princess, or perhaps this is an indictment of the general lack of representation in the princess business at the time.
It all depends - I wouldn't want to require girls to like the princess whose features most closely resemble her own: all girls should be free to like this princess's character, or the song that that princess sings (or think that the whole schmaltzy princess thing is nonsense, and she'd rather admire someone else entirely), but in order to do that, you have to have a representative set of princesses (or whatever other people are placed on a pedestal for admiration) with a whole range of different characteristics first.
And FWIW, this effect is not much enhanced by the real eye appearing on the right, in fact it would be moreso if both eyes were blank,
(*) But not like Chucky, or anyone else in the downward-eyebrowed canon. Like, people might otherwise think it looks totally pleasant, but then the creepy-ambient pieces kick in on the soundtrack...
I always found there to be something unlikable about that guy. I suspect that might've been intentional, and the psychoanalysis-based F.R. was trying to accustom kids to the idea that authority figures in childhood will, of necessity, often be perceived as somewhat unfriendly.
Well, the article which is from the Mr. Rogers people does say that he is pompous, though he does care underneath all of that.
I didn’t know that Mr. Rogers had stuff based on psychoanalysis, though of course he studied child development and was a Presbyterian minister.
And an awesome human being. ❤️
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers
https://youtu.be/kFVPkn37iFM?is=Dqv3tl1xiUBclhjP
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/02/nx-s1-5911932/mr-rogers-is-on-youtube-and-defying-conventional-rules-of-the-platform
Well, sure. But in the absence of any significant descriptors and conversational cues, everyone's mind is gonna go in different directions when looking at the photo. Some will wonder about the mood of the real-life person; some will wonder about the mood of the overall event; or about the place and time the photo was taken; some will be reminded of similar images they've seen elsewhere etc.
I, like you, get a positive feel of the real-life events serving as the context for the image, though not quite as connected to the appearance of the person's eyes. More just an assumption that it was taken at a school party on an average day, and that @Boogie would be most likely to post things she remembers as happy.
There was a scholar in Pittsburgh who did a lotta work on child-development, and Rogers based the show on her ideas, I believe. I'm not sure if it was psychoanalytical in a classic freudian sense, I'd actually see him more in the humanist school, but I really don't know.
I do know that I've seen a book on child-rearing authored by Rogers, and the index had a listing for "oedipal feelings". Didn't flip to the referenced section to see what had had to say on the matter, though I do remember thinking it curious that he seemed to be taking the concept at total face-value.
Yes, I deliberately left the context and description out to see what people thought.
I've looked at it several times over the years and it has evoked quite a variety of emotions - just as an image.
Of course, I remember the exact context and I know who chose the materials to make the mask and why etc.
But I'm still fascinated to know what it evokes in other people.
I'm doing a mini exhibition soon and I'm going to include it. I think I'll call it 'Evocative' to make people think.
Mine also
That is, indeed, a possibility. It is, for a couple of reasons, one that I'd bet money on being the case, but it should certainly be read into the record in an effort to determine what Rogers thought on the topic.
Sorry. Missed a word. I'd bet money on it NOT being the case.
It was 'special events week' where the whole school put on arts, crafts, drama and music activities. We had a rolling program so that each teacher planned one activity and the children came to him her.
I did mask making/drama. The children chose their own materials to make the masks and then made up mini playlets in groups of three.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/MwGqU3kHhYhtqUPK9
I have noticed this on a number of occasions, most recently when we went to see Nenlet2's puppet show at the Durham Fringe. In conversation afterwards I was telling him and our son-in-law some of the things it had said to me and about one of them at least they said, "Oh, yes - we hadn't thought of that."
We have also recently acquired an original painting from an artist friend of ours and one of our visitors made a really disparaging comment about it, which I struggled with and have had to get my head around the fact that the comment was probably more about her than about the painting (which we love).
@Boogie wanted to know what her picture said to us and I tried not to make any assumptions and wasn't thinking about the fact that she isn't likely to post anything which has negative connotations for her - which is true, of course. What I posted says more about me and an inclination towards pessimism - which is also true.
Your friend could have been more subtle!
I have a picture which I absolutely adore, but it's certainly not to everyone's taste and not typical of what I like. (I usually go for colourful and zany - this is monotone and very plain and calm)
People are very gentle with me when they talk about it! They use words like 'different' and 'interesting'!
I think it's not just art that this happens with: it could be music, types of beer or even churchmanship- anything about which an individual might have strong feelings/ opinions. People are often swift to disparage other people's choices on such things.
I think it's important to show kindness in expressing one's own preferences without belittling the choices of others!
Me too.