A Profile on Profiles!

Today's Wonder of the World is...the Silhouette!

Flickr photo by mgm photography
Knowing how talented you people are, you can probably do this free handed...

(Public domain photo)
but it absolutely blows me away.
Do you like silhouettes?
Before photography came along, there was no way to record one's appearance except through art. Silhouettes were the cheapest way to go.

In fact, the word silhouette was sort of a put down, named for Etienne de Silhouette, an unpopular French finance minister who forced all the rich folks to melt down all their goldware and silverware to help pay for the Seven Years' War. Making cut paper portraits was a hobby of his, so the word silhouette came to mean two things: anything cheaply done and the portraits cut from black paper.

Of course if Jenny Lee Fowler had been around back then, she might have suggested he trade in the paper for birch bark, or maybe poplar leaves.

Photo by jennyleefowler.etsy.com
Leaves and bark are free. Plus they're so much more interesting!
Click on the photo and have Jenny do yours!

Emily Dickinson's silhouette is one of my favorites.

Silhouettes preserve an air of mystery, so they're perfect for poet Emily.
That particular silhouette was made by Charles Temple, Emily's French instructor when she was fourteen.
I'm pretty sure Emily preferred silhouettes to photographs anyway. When Thomas Wentworth Higginson asked her to send him a photograph of herself, she replied, "Could you believe me--without?" She said she had no portrait at the present but gave the following description of herself, "[I] am small, like the Wren, and my Hair is bold, like the Chestnut Bur--and my eyes, like the Sherry in the Glass, that the Guest leaves."
What a woman.

I wonder what she'd think about all the silhouettes hanging out around Greer.
You know, ones like this.

Flickr photo by alafia53

If you live in the city, you see your share of silhouettes too.
This kind.

Flickr photo by StGrundy
What? Yours don't hula hoop?
Maybe they ride bikes!


Silhouettes of architecture can be pretty.

Flickr photo by blende

But I like the ones of children best.

Flickr photo by Butterfly923

I wonder if Tanner the Slobber Dog could sit still long enough.
Maybe if he had some good tunes to keep him occupied.

Flickr photo by Mr. Mark
No, he'd suck those cords down like spaghetti.

Before you leave me in the dark, (ha ha,) please indulge in this Friday treat. I'd never heard of the Pilobolus Dance Theatre until my fabulous friend Louise posted this video on her blog.
Take a few moments to enjoy the dance in silhouette!




Have a wonder-full Friday and a super weekend, everybody!
Love, Becky