Collage 603

Princess Marya has decided to go back to Moscow to find her brother, Prince Andre. It is an almost impossible trip, but "what was difficult or not difficult, possible or impossible, she did not ask and did not want to know.

Lucy Arrington
from page 461-462, volume 2 of original text
collage, ink, dried leaves and grass from Yasnaya Polyana
made 9/9/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 975-977

Collage 602

Oh, how I love Princess Marya. She really shines in this passage. She is undertaking a dangerous journey from her country estate to Moscow where her brother Prince Andrei lies dying.  She is so brave, and she is in love!

"Princess Marya had experienced the best happiness of her life. Her love for Rostov no longer worried or upset her. That love filled her soul, became an inalienable part of her, and she no longer fought against it. Most recently, Princess Marya had become convinced -- though she never said it definitely to herself in clear terms -- that she loved and was loved."

Finally! After all the emotional abuse doled out by her cranky father.

And another bit I like:

"As always happens during a journey, Princess Marya thought only about the journey itself, forgetting its goal." 

That's kind of like this whole project -- enjoying the journey. Which we've been on for 2 years now! -- Lola

Lola Baltzell
from page 459-460, volume 2 of original text
collage, ink
made 7/29/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 974-975

Collage 601

In the shed that Pierre entered and in which he stayed for four weeks, twenty-three soldiers, three officers, and two officials were held prisoner.

Later Pierre pictured them all as in a fog, but Platon Karataev remained forever in Pierre's soul as the strongest and dearest memory and the embodiment of everything Russian, kindly and round...the unfathomable, round, and eternal embodiment of the spirit of simplicity and truth. --pp 972-4 in P/V

Lynn Waskelis
from page 457-458, volume 2 of original text
collage
made 7/29/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 972-974

Collage 600

"Well, the worm gnaws the cabbage, but dies before he's done: That's what the old folk used to say." Said by a beggar who's sharing his potatoes with Pierre.
Sometimes that's how we feel about this project. It's a massive cabbage that we're gnawing away at, but it's so big... will we ever finish? Do we want to?
Lucy Arrington
from page 455-456, volume 2 of original text
collage, embroidery thread, ink
made 7/29/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 970-972

Collage 599

I copied out the word for "little falcon" which transliterates to "sokolik". In this poignant scene, Pierre had just witnessed the execution of many soldiers, and narrowly escaped the same fate. He is thrown into a shed where he meets Platon Karataev whose nickname is "little falcon". Platon addresses Pierre with his own nickname. Pierre is clearly traumatized and experiences flashbacks. Platon had been lying in hospital, dying of fever, when he was arrested by the French. They have an interesting interaction. Platon is a kind of spiritual teacher to Pierre, helping to process what he has just experienced. He helps bring Pierre back from the brink of madness when he shares some baked potatoes with him. He even has a small bag of salt, tied with a string. Pierre has never experienced anything so delicious. There is also this little dog in the scene who to me represents the life force. I have a dog who I adore -- she even has a Russian name, Sasha. The presence of an animal brings a certain energy and unconditional love into the mix. Platon in a sense saves Pierre -- he shows him some human warmth, understanding and kindness at Pierre's greatest hour of need.

Team Tolstoy did a collaborative collage workshop last weekend at The Eliot School in Jamaica Plain, Massachsetts. Please check out their blog entry here.  -- Lola

Lola Baltzell
from page 453-454, volume 2 of original text
collage, embroidery thread, ink
made 7/29/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 969-970

Collage 598

After the executions, Pierre is separated from the other prisoners and left alone in a small, devastated and befouled church. He is haunted by what he has just experienced and seems on the verge of insanity. Then he meets Platon Karataev, a peasant soldier full of wisdom whose simple understanding of life comforts Pierre.

"(After carefully unwrapping his footcloths, Karataev) folded the knife, put it under his pillow, and, settling himself more comfortably, put his arms around his raised knees, and fixed his eyes directly on Pierre. Pierre felt something pleasant, soothing and rounded in these deft movements, in this well-arranged domain of his in the corner, even in the smell of this man, and he looked at him without taking his eyes away. 'So you've seen a lot of misery, master? Eh?' the little man suddenly said. And in the man's melodious voice there was such an expression of tenderness and simplicity that Pierre wanted to reply, but his jaw trembled, and he felt tears rising."


"Pierre did not fall asleep for a long time and lay in his place in the dark with open eyes, listening to the regular snoring of Platon, who lay beside him, and he felt that the previously destroyed world was now arising in his soul with a new beauty, on some new and unshakeable foundations." -- Otto

Otto Mayr
from page 451-452, volume 2 of original text
collage
made 9/2/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 967-969

Collage 597

A surreal scene. Here a few key sentences. The actual description in the book is much longer.

"The criminals were place in a certain order, which was on the list (Pierre was sixth), and led to the post. Several drums suddenly began to beat on both sides, and Pierre felt that with this sound it was as if part of his soul was torn away. He lost the ability to think and reason. He could only see and hear." 


"The convicts, having gone to the post, stopped and, while the sacks were brought, looked silently around them, as a wounded animal looks at the approaching hunter. One kept crossing himself, the other kept scratching his back and made a movement with his lips similiar to a smile." 


"Pierre, much as he tried to recall later, did not hear the slightest sound of the shots. He only saw how the factory worker suddenly slumped down in the ropes for some reason, how blood appeared in two places, and how the ropes became loose under weight of the sagging body, and the factory worker sat down, lowering his head and tucking his legs under unnaturally. Pierre ran to the post. No one held him back. Frightened, pale people were doing something around the factory worker. The lower jaw of one old, mustached Frenchman was trembling as he untied the ropes." 


"They all obviously knew without question that they were criminals, who had to quickly conceal the traces of their crime." -- Otto

Otto Mayr
from page 449-450, volume 2 of original text
collage, fire, acrylic paint
made 9/2/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 966-967

Collage 596

"Vous n'étes pas ce que vous dites," Davout said again.

You are not what you say.

Pierre and five other "criminals" are led to the edge of a pit to be shot.

"Pierre did not remember how long he walked or where. In a state of total senselessness and torpor, seeing nothing around him, he moved his legs along with the others until they all stopped, and he stopped, too."



~Trish

Trish Crapo
from page 447-448, volume 2 of original text
collage, graphite, acrylic paint
made 6/29/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 964-966

Collage 595

"Qui etes-vous?"

French general Davout, known for his cruelty, accuses Pierre of being a spy. Pierre has been taken prisoner and his fate is uncertain.

Odd how frightening this question can be: Who are you?

Trish Crapo
from page 445-446, volume 2 of original text
collage
made 6/29/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 962-964

Collage 594

"... the whole of Moscow, all that Pierre could see of it, was one charred ruin." 

It was satisfying to move from the pink palette of the previous two collages to these blacks and greys. I folded black magazine paper to distress it, drew with ink, then ran a wet brush over it to make it run, and layered opaque grey vellum to invoke the sootiness of Moscow as Pierre sees it. The manuscript page I tore into shards, imagining the many sharp pieces of shattered windows and crockery strewing the streets.

Trish Crapo
from page 443-444, volume 2 of original text
collage, graphite
made 6/29/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 961-962

Collage 593

Trish Crapo
from page 441-442, volume 2 of original text
collage, ink
made 6/28/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 960-962

"'But what does it mean?' Natasha asked thoughtfully.
'Ah, I don't know, it's all so extraordinary!' said Sonya, clutching her head."

Continuing on the theme of the pink quilt Sonya imagines she saw covering Prince Andrei in her vision, I went pinker!

Pink is not a color I usually am drawn to, except at Valentine's day, so it was interesting to work with it. I used marbleized papers given to me by my mother years ago, music scores, sewing paper patterns, rice papers, marker and silver foil.

Collage 592

Trish Crapo
from page 439-440, volume 2 of original text
collage, graphite, watercolor
made 6/28/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 958-960

In a monastery hostel, the Rostovs encounter Prince Andrei, lying in bed, wounded. With a start, Sonya remembers that at Christmas, she had had a vision of Prince Andrei lying on a bed, covered with a pink quilt, his eyes closed. Though, at that time, she had told everyone that he was covered with something red, both she and Natasha now remember the vision to fit what they are currently seeing, a bit of déja vu created by their shifting memories.

"'Da, da, precisely pink,' said Natasha, who also now seemed to remember the mention of 'pink,' and in this she saw the chief extraordinariness and mysteriousness of the prediction."

Collage 591

Nikokai and his poverty-stricken, orphaned cousin Sonia have been "promised" since they were children. She loves him passionately; he feels trapped by this obligation. The once-rich and proud noble family has fallen on hard times. In part due to Nikolai's gambling loss to ever-bad-boy Dolokhov (I love him, too), the family is practically impoverished. Marrying a wealthy woman would solve their financial woes. And he has fallen in love with Princess Marya who he rescues from her country estate when surrounded by enemy French soldiers. In this scene, he receives a letter from Sonia, releasing him from his promise to her. She writes him a letter from a monastery.

I used an old photograph of a cemetery on this piece as well as text from a liturgy that says "a vow". Then hand-wrote in Russian:

Sonia's letter to Nikolai, which was the realization of his prayer, had been written from the Trinity Monastery.

He is now free and clear to pursue Princess Marya. -- Lola

Lola Baltzell
from page 437-438, volume 2 of original text
collage, ink
made 6/25/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 956-957

Collage 590

I made an emergency call to Christiane in Atlanta this morning. I could not remember which line from the text I used on this collage! That clearly speaks to how poor my Russian still is. The only word I knew for sure was "face".

That pale, fine, sorrowful face, that luminous gaze, those quite, graceful movements, and above all that deep and tender sorrow which showed in all her features, stirred him and called for his sympathy.

Nikolai is falling in love with Princess Marya. Whenever I think of her -- my favorite character -- I recall how Tolstoy always refers to her "luminous" eyes, gaze. When she was first introduced, I thought she was thoroughly abused by her brutish father. She never struck back at him. I wanted her to! She is the most "spiritual" of all the characters. I would love to see her eyes, to meet that gaze. I am happy that she if falling in love and will marry and have children. I only wish it wasn't to Nikolai! He is bad-tempered and arrogant. -- Lola

Lola Baltzell
from page 435-436, volume 2 of original text
collage, ink
made 6/25/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 954-956

Collage 589

Trish Crapo
from page 433-434, volume 2 of original text
collage, graphite, rice and sewing pattern papers
made 6/25/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 953-954

"On receiving the news of the battle of Borodino and the abandoning of Moscow, Rostov did not experience despair, anger or vengefulness, and any similar feeling, but for him everything in Voronoezh suddenly became dull and vexing, everything was somehow shameful and awkward. All the conversations he heard seemed artificial to him; he did not know how to judge it all, and he felt that only in the regiment would everything become clear to him again."

I found it interesting to think that Rostov had trouble understanding the world when he was not with his regiment. The rules of war have become the defining structure for him and everyday life feels fake and confusing. I tried to convey this confusion in my collage.  ~Trish

Collage 588

Princess Marya is in love. She had been anticipating the arrival of Count Rostov, and the world changes for her when she sees him: "If Princess Marya had been able to reflect at that moment, she would have been more astonished than Mlle Bourienne at the change that had taken place in her. From the moment she saw that dear beloved face, some new force of life had taken hold of her and made her speak and act apart from her own will."

Lucy Arrington
from page 431-432, volume 2 of original text
collage, ink
made 6/25/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page  951-953

Collage 587

Princess Marya has just met Nikolai and love is in the air.

At the end of Volume IV, Part One, Chapter V, Nikolai is at a party and talking with the governor's wife who is encouraging him to marry Princess Marya. At the bottom of this collage I used the phrase "Il y Maniere et maniere" which means "there are ways and ways". She is playing matchmaker.

A few paragraphs in Chapter VI:

"But in the depths of her soul there was a harmony with herself, coming from the consciousness that she had suppressed in herself the personal dreams and hopes that had begun to arise in her with the appearance of Rostov."

Princess Marya is in love! -- Lola


Lola Baltzell
from page 429-430, volume 2 of original text
collage, ink
made 6/25/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 950-951

Collage 586

Trish Crapo
from page 427-428, volume 2 of original text
collage, thread, foil, ribbon, chocolate bar foil, ink
made 6/25/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 948-950

Rostov, pledged to marry his cousin Sophie since they were young, has been having stirrings of feelings for another. These are roused again at the governor's soiree where, "At the mention of Princess Marya, Rostov experienced a feeling of bashfulness, even fear, incomprehensible to himself."

I love the mysterious quality of old photographs, whether they are people I know or don't know. Here, the woman is clearly the object of someone's affection, as Marya is. The black ribbon and thread refer to a later passage in which Rostov visits Marya at home and Mlle Bourienne, Marya's friend, notices how how beautiful Marya looks as she rises to take his hand. Mlle Bourienne thinks, "Either black is quite becoming to her, or she has really grown quite pretty, and I haven't noticed it. And, above all—that tact and grace!"   ~Trish

Collage 585

On these pages we have one of the last of the society evenings. Nikolai is in high form, flirting: "Nikolai, with a smile that never left his face, slightly curved in an armchair, sat bending closely over the blonde, paying her mythological compliments."

Lucy Arrington
from page 425-426, volume 2 of original text
collage, copper leaf, acrylic paint, ink
made 6/25/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 946-948

Collage 584

Trish Crapo
from page 423-424, volume 2 of original text
collage, marker
made 9/4/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 945-946

Nikolai Rostov, on leave from active duty for the first time in many months, goes to the estate of "an old bachelor, a cavalry officer, a horse fancier, a hunter, the owner of a carpet room, of century-old honey vodka, old Hungarian wine, and superb horses.

"After a couple of words, Nikolai bought seventeen stallions for six thousand, choice ones (as he said), to make a display of his remount. Having had dinner and drunk a bit too much Hungarian, Rostov exchanged kisses with the landowner, with whom he was already on familiar terms, and galloped back over the abominable road in the merriest spirits..."

It was fun to find, thumbing through old magazines, this image from Edweard Muybridge's famous photographic motion studies, done in the late 1800s. These, and the backgrounds of car ads showing the blur of motion, gave the feeling, to me, of Rostov galloping happily home.    ~Trish

Collage 583

Trish Crapo
from page 421-422, volume 2 of original text
collage: magazine images, Russian wallpaper, Moscow bus tickets
made 9/1/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 943-945

This is a passage that steps back from the action and comments upon the history as a whole. Tolstoy writes that "we, who were not living at that time, involuntarily imagine that all Russian people, great and small, were taken up only with sacrificing themselves, saving the fatherland, or weeping over its loss."

Instead, he asserts, "The majority of the people of that time paid no attention to the general course of things, but were guided only by the personal interests of the day. And those people were the most useful figures of that time."

Thus, the everyday images of laundry, tableware and bus tickets and wallpaper acquired on our trip to Russia this summer.

~Trish

Collage 582

Trish Crapo
from page 419-420. volume 2 of original text
collage, graphite, acrylic paint
made 8/13/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 942-943

The language of this passage, like many in War and Peace, moves between French and Russian (or English, in the P/V translation), as a French messenger, Michaud, brings the sovereign Alexander the news that Moscow has been abandoned. It's interesting to observe, that while Alexander is unquestionably in power, Michaud exercises some power through his choice of words. This got me thinking about "chain of command" and how powerful language is, in and of itself.

~Trish

Collage 581

Reality sets in – They learn that Moscow has been abandoned and surrendered. Their samovar is destroyed. -- Chris


Christiane Carney Johnson
from page 417-418, volume 2 of original text
collage, oil pastel, chalk, dried flowers from Yasnaya Polyana
made 9/2/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 940-942

Collage 580

Their samovar is tipping over – life as they know it is tipping over. Helen Bezukhov dies unexpectedly. Is this a wake up call? Did anyone like her anyway? Tolstoy surely did not. Her death is a minor point in the action. Frankly, we are not that upset over it either. -- Chris




Christiane Carney Johnson
from page 415-416, volume 2 of original text
collage, Russian chocolate wrapper, chalk, dried flowers from Yasnaya Polyana
made 9/2/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 938-940

Collage 579

The samovar represents peaceful Russian life...relaxation, calm, sipping tea within the family circle.

Anna Pavlovna is having another soiree in St. Pete. Tolstoy contrasts the light and airy atmosphere of their cozy aristocratic circle with the raging war in Moscow. It is quite inconvenient for these French speaking Russian aristocrats to reach out of their puffy circle and pay attention to the important issues of the day-–their brothers and sisters in Moscow.

What a very moralizing Tolstoyian scene! I can just see him shaking his finger at them all! Chris

Christiane Carney Johnson
from page 413-414, volume 2 of original text
collage, oil pastels, foil, dried flowers from Yasnaya Polyana
made 9/2/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 937-938

Collage 578

"Petersburg and Moscow"

Opposites like "war" and "peace" form a theme that Tolstoy repeats over and over in the novel. The chapters preceding this page contain long descriptions of the capture and burning of Moscow. Now we are suddenly in Petersburg, and the contrast to the violence and destruction taking place in Moscow is stunning.

In Petersburg, in the highest circles, a complex struggle was going on with greater heat than ever between the parties of Rumyantsev, the French, Maria Feodorovna, the grand duke, and others, drowned as always by the humming of the court drones. But the calm, luxurious life of Petersburg, concerned only with phantoms, with reflections of life, went on as of old; and beyond this course of life it took great effort to realize the danger and the difficult situation the Russian people were in. -- Otto


Otto Mayr
from page 411-412, volume 2 of original text
collage, ink, sulphur (burning)
made 9/1/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 935-937

Collage 577

This feels like a decaying landscape- a backdrop for the elaborate, aristocratic parties which continue in Petersberg as war rages elsewhere in Russia. - Adrienne


Adrienne Wetmore
from page 409-410, volume 2 of original text
made 7/26/11
collage, ink
Pevear/Volokhonsky page 934-935

Collage 576

But the calm, luxurious life of Petersburg, concerned only with phantoms, with reflections of life, went on as of old; and beyond this course of life it took great effort to realize the danger and the difficult situation the Russian people were in. There were the same levees and balls, the same French theater, the same interests of the courts, the same interests of the service and intrigues. Only in the very highest circles were efforts made to keep in mind the difficulty of the present situation.

p. 935 in P/V

Lynn Waskelis

from page 407-408, volume 2 of original text
collage, rubber
made 7/29/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 931-932

Collage 575

Moscow is in flames. Chaos rules the street. Tolstoy uses Pierre to convey the urgency and disorde. rPierre is in the midst of it. He saves a child from the fire, confronts a looter and is taken by the authorities. All in a few brief paragraphs in a few short pages.

Lucy Arrington
from page 405-406, volume 2 of original text
collage, embroidery thread, ink
made 7/29/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 930-931

Collage 574

Emma Rhodes
from page 403-404, volume 2 of original text
collage, embroidery thread, ink
made 7/29/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 928-929