Blueinkedfrost

Young Page in Florentine Garb, 1881 - oil on canvas

Turandot’s outfit and hair is based on the Baoshan tomb frescoes from the Liao Dynasty, dating to the 10-11th centuries. The color palette and use of gold leaf is also inspired by the frescoes; despite being 1000 or 1100 years old, the colors are still vibrant, and the gold still visible on the walls! The uncolored version of this piece will be available for purchase in the new edition of my opera coloring book, ‘Manga and Mozart,’ available in Fall 2023.

Born into slavery, Dorothy Thomas (1756–1846) bought her own freedom, liberated her family, and built a vast business empire.

Dorothy steps forward

First known as Dorothy Kirwan, she was born in the Leeward Islands in 1756. Her mother had been the property of the Kirwan family, an influential local dynasty. Dorothy’s father was white and likely one of the Kirwan men.

By 1780, Dorothy had three children—Elizabeth, Catherina, and Edward—each with a different father. In 1784, she was purchased and brought to Dominica by William Foden, a planter and estate manager. Surprisingly, although the transaction had been made in Foden’s name, it was Dorothy who had supplied the money for her own purchase. After Foden’s death, Dorothy oversaw the execution of his will, insisting on receiving a formal deed of manumission.

Not only did she secure her own freedom, but she also obtained that of several family members, including her children William, Charlotte, and Nan, her son Edward, and a woman likely to have been her grandmother.

Nan’s father, Joseph Thomas, would become a lasting presence in Dorothy’s life. The two lived together as husband and wife, and although Dorothy later insisted on being called Mrs. Thomas, their union was probably never formalized.

Business beginnings

In 1787, Dorothy and Joseph moved to Grenada. The bustling port of St. George offered many business opportunities. Because she was not legally recognized as Joseph’s wife under English law, Dorothy had full control over her money and her enterprises.

By 1793, she was doing better financially than Joseph. Undeterred by her successive pregnancies, she established a thriving business. Judging from her later ventures, she was probably engaged in huckstering—employing enslaved women to sell goods door to door and on plantations. She likely owned at least one shop and possibly a hotel in St. George as well.

Dorothy turned her attention once again to her family, determined to free them. Over the next sixteen years, she arranged the manumission of her two eldest daughters, as well as several relatives, including her mother and sister.

The queen of Demerara

After Joseph’s death in 1799, Dorothy moved to Barbados. Records from this period of her life are scarce, but after the British takeover of Demerara, she relocated there and began building what would become her business empire.

In Demerara, Dorothy ran hotels or boarding houses and employed hucksters. By 1808, she had moved to an affluent district where she owned several lots. A shrewd networker, she cultivated strong mercantile connections, and by 1817 she had opened a fine dining restaurant.

Because her ventures were not exposed to losses from shipping convoys or French privateers, her fortune continued to grow. Dorothy became a local celebrity. Nicknamed “the Queen of Demerara,” she was considered the wealthiest person in the colony. She secured advantageous marriages for her daughters and provided for their families.

Though illiterate throughout her life, Dorothy understood the value of education. She paid for her grandchildren to attend an elite private school in Britain—an investment that ensured her family’s continued success.

Her influence in the colony was undeniable. In 1820, she obtained justice for the death of her slave Sally, ensuring punishment for the four men responsible. Dorothy herself owned many slaves until the end of her life. She was not known for leniency—there is no record of her manumitting any of her slaves, and she always ensured the recovery of any who tried to escape.

A long reign

Dorothy remained remarkably active, traveling frequently between Demerara, Britain, and Grenada to manage her properties. She boasted of having met King George IV. Though the story is difficult to confirm, it is possible she met Prince William Henry, the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV.

She also successfully petitioned for the abolition of a discriminatory tax imposed on free women of color like herself.

Throughout her later years, Dorothy continued to assert her status and wealth. She strode through the streets in extravagant dress, accompanied by slaves carrying a box of gold coins, dispensing both advice and patronage.

She lived to an advanced age, surviving a yellow fever epidemic that claimed several of her children, and remained mentally sharp to the end. Before her death in 1846, she carefully dictated her will, ensuring the distribution of her vast fortune and estates.

Her life inspired the novel Island Queen by Vanessa Riley.

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Further reading:

Barker Matthew Henry,  The Victory: Or, The Ward Room Mess

Bell Carole V., "A New Novel Gives Wings — and a Megaphone — to a Complex Woman"

Taming of the Shrew but as one of those Hallmark "country boy meets city girl and teaches her simple living" movies. Leans heavily into the "psychological horror disguised as a romcom" aspect of the play that's often performed by having things just be ever so slightly...off about the small town in, like, New England she's moved to.

This is what I had in mind for the plot:

Kate is a no-nonsense, hardworking office worker at a financial company in Manhattan. She has a comfy apartment, but that somehow isn't enough for her. Not to mention that she's in a rocky relationship with her city boyfriend Derek. Then her family, who lives in a quaint town in the Berkshires (or maybe the Quiet Corner of Connecticut) invite her over for a visit. If it's on Christmas, it's the annual lighting of the Christmas tree and the Christmas pageant. If it's going to be anything else, it's the harvest festival. Soon she packs her bags and travels to the quaint New England town of Seven Pines, a charming, rustic little town with a little secret (imagine Bedford Falls meets Summerisle). There, while trying to settle into life in a small town, she has a little meet-cute with Peter (our Petruchio), seemingly a kind, gentle man who teaches her the way of life around here, sharing folksy aphorisms from his family, and teaching her how to whittle wooden sculptures. But, over time, he starts to control her in many subtle, insidious ways. There's always some kind of delay or obstacle when she wants to get back to her apartment: bad weather, staying a bit too long for lunch, even her car breaks down but the local mechanic isn't there to help. Outside help is limited, since cell service is spotty around here, and Peter's one of those "live in the moment" guys. Peter starts gaslighting Kate, whittling her into the perfect woman-shaped trophy for him to have. Soon, the big event happens, the mayor gives a little speech about the spirit of the town or whatever holiday it celebrates, everyone celebrates with a big dance at the pavilion.

Eventually, of course, Kate agrees to settle with Peter, she breaks it off with Derek, and they get married. At their wedding party, Kate gives a speech about a wife's submission to her husband, and how the simpler ways of living are best, calling for a return to the olden days.

All of this, in keeping with the original spirit of the Shakespeare play, turns out to be a movie a young present-day couple decides to watch out of boredom in a hotel room, after a long day of unpacking luggage, much like Christopher Sly's play which turns out to be Taming of the Shrew. Once the movie-within-the-movie ends, the couple are just as baffled and deflated as we are after seeing our female protagonist get gaslit into submission to her quite obviously sleazy country lover. I imagine the man of the couple just goes "What the hell was that?"

Medieval garden vase, ready for the kiln!

I found a botanical manuscript and was possessed

I also underglazed a bowl I threw ❤️❤️❤️

"Yet this prejudice toward old age...is ultimately self-destructive."

Zennyo Ryūō by Hasegawa Tōhaku (1539 – March 19, 1610). Ishikawa Nanao Art Museum.

Zennyo Ryūō (“Dragon Queen Zennyo”) is a rain-bringing dragon deity in Japanese Buddhism, also known as the eight-year-old dragon girl and Seiryū Gongen. She is described as the wise, compassionate daughter of the dragon king Shagara, enlightened from a young age through her devotion to the Lotus Sutra. In the sutra’s famous episode, she proves that even a young girl can attain buddhahood instantly—defying beliefs that women could not achieve enlightenment—by transforming, perfecting the path, and becoming a buddha before all present.

In Japan, she is closely associated with the monk Kūkai and is worshiped at temples such as Shinsenen and Kongōbu-ji, as well as at Daigōji in Kyōto under the name Seiryū Gongen.