Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Love & Art & Dumbarton Oaks

Art created in the name of love, especially romantic love, is a concept I've always found highly appealing.

So many great works of art from the Taj Mahal to Shakespeare's Sonnets to Layla have their origins in romatic love.

I owe my theatre career almost entirely to romantic love. When I was 30 I was a graphic artist hoping to throw myself completely into illustration or even pure painting once my daughter was independent. But then I met Chris, the most beautiful man in the world, who happened to be involved in community theatre, and one thing led to another - playwriting-wise - and eventually I was in Manhattan, watching a performance of my play MONKEY'S PAW 2000, directed by my boyfriend Jonathan. A few years later Jonathan produced my play TAM LIN. After we broke up he had nothing further to do with theatre, and always claimed to hate actors, so I can only conclude he had done it all for love.

I recently heard Concerto in E flat - Dumbarton Oaks on the radio and became intrigued because it was written on commission by Igor Stravinsky for Robert Woods Bliss to celebrate his 30th wedding anniversary. In spite of this, and being a diplomat and having his home become a research library, Robert Woods Bliss has no entry in Wikipedia. I want to know more about him because I want to learn if he and his wife were truly devoted to each other after 30 years of marriage. I hope so.