Friday, February 27, 2009

Oeuf or Oeuvre?

I was watching a show on TV last night and the word oeuvre was mentioned. Have you ever actually used it in conversation? To me oeuvre is kind of pretentious. I think the only time I ever say it is when I’m joking around with someone about my work (which I look on as a hodge-podge and never an oeuvre).
Still, whenever I hear the word, I think of an egg …someone’s personal cosmic egg with all sorts of interesting things contained inside it. But this probably has more to do with the fact that French was always my worst subject, and I recall being ridiculed by a teacher because I thought oeuvre was the plural form of an egg. Writing out oeufs a hundred times certainly corrected that particular mistake.

Somehow the two words are still conjoined in my mind though, and that was what I was trying to get across with this digital ATC. I used an egg from a Luna Girl collage sheet and a painting of a model looking at a painting. I just wish I knew who the artist was because I like the counterpoint of the slightly racy-looking model and the elegant surroundings of a painter’s studio.

7 comments:

manus said...

I like your collages and especially your thoughts around them! Thank you!

azirca said...

This is great, I love the contrast between the egg, the line graph and the painting.

A bird in the hand said...

You think she's a racy model, but in fact she is an egghead.

Oof!!!!!!!

Suze said...

Susan...you just continue to marvel me.

Ginger said...

Wow now that thinking out of the theme.I loved your art.I love it when the artise is thinking of teaching plus an honest give of talent.Awesome Susan very inspirering!

Unknown said...

Hah.

Love the post, Susan - thanks for sharing.

Not only do I also - always, without fail - think of eggs, whenever anyone uses either of the terms 'oeuvre(s)' or 'manoeuvre(s)…

…['man-oeuvres' = 'man-eggs(eses)', perhaps…? …Ahem. Not such a nice thought. Apologies. We all know 'eggseses' is the plural of (the already plural) 'eggs', at least, no?… ;) ]

[…Yeahhh. Sorry. Just bored with the global lockdown, and going slowly bonkers - as are many, no doubt. I'm sure my 'tired old yolk' egg puns have nobody - not even me - cracking up (sorry, couldn't resist one more…) so I'll stick a pin in it and crack on…]

[…Wow. I genuinely didn't even mean to drop those last two puns (stop it, Hammond - don't notice the word 'drop'. Don't go there…) above - I only realised as I was typing. We have more egg-related terms in our everyday vocabulary than I assumed, it seems…]

[…I guess on reflection that's probably true of many languages, given the prevalence of eggs and farming worldwide… (Yep, still talking about eggs. Definitely losing the plot. Sorry. There's a point here, honestly. Nearly done…)]

…but…

[…I can't believe it's taken over a decade for anyone to answer your request, by the way, and I do hope you see this - if you haven't already found out, of course…]

[…Plus, Google Lens software needs to actually take the credit, in all honesty. Not much work on my part at all. Welcome to the future, apparently…]



I (i.e. Google) have located your mystery painting online - with both its name, and the name of the talented artist!

Hope this helps. You are most welcome if so :)

Johann Georg Meyer von Bremen
Admiring the Canvas (1870)

https://www.artrenewal.org/artists/johann-georg-meyer-von-bremen/1011

Anonymous said...

"Eggseses" is plural of already plural "eggses", which itself is plural of already plural "eggs". :-)