The Whispering Gallery

This might be rated PG-13+ please see my note below* In 1862 Christina Rosetti wrote the narrative poem Goblin Market. It was initially illustrated by her brother--one of the three leaders/founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and later it was illustrated by one of our illustrators from the Midnight Mother Goose story, illustrator, Arthur Rackham. (Note Christina had b...

Welcome back to the Whispering Gallery podcast. Tonight we’re heading into goblin territory. In a Whispering Gallery first, I’m joined by Matt King, author of A History of Goblins and associate professor at University of South Florida. Hidden in caves, lurking in poems and folklore, tangled through fairy tales, demons, and fantasy worlds — goblins have followed humanity through centuries of storyt...

Lean in dear listener as together, we disentangle some of the fairy tale contributors who were not of the farming or peasant vein after all. Some lived as far away as across the street, another, a widow, sold garden vegetables at the market between storytelling to make ends meet for her multi-generational home, and one of the Grimm’s sources came from a huguenot, French background--so our friend C...

The story of the Whispering Gallery Podcast's Midnight Mother Goose continues from part 1 where we roamed the woods of France with Charles Perrault's fairy tales to read at salon's prior to the age of enlightenment. Across the Rhine river from France and Charles Perrault's fairy tales--in Germany (and many years later) the Grimm Brothers were gathering fairy tales from family, friends, aristocrats...

Mother Goose is not a particular person, although some have tried to claim there was one, but a Mother Goose was a -collection- of beloved stories.  Tonight our story takes us into a place of disquiet through dark coniferous forests with copses of fir and spruce trees. Strangely, at times these dark forests seem to bio-locate between Germany and France in Mother Goose stories and fairy tales of th...

In this heartfelt Giving Tuesday bonus episode of the Whispering Gallery podcast, meet Copper, Bonzai, and Frankie — three dachshunds who faced paralysis, pain, and uncertainty, and the people who lifted them back up. These stories are real, raw, full of hope--and about dogs at Rocky Mountain Dachshund Rescue. www.rmdr.org I wanted to share more about the dogs at the rescue than I usually share in...

In Part 2 of The Night Watch Mystery , we step deeper into the shadows of Rembrandt’s masterpiece. This chapter traces the strange and violent history of the painting’s attacks, explores the accusations that swirled around the militia it depicts, and considers what these stories reveal about Amsterdam in the 1600s. Alongside the canvas, we follow Rembrandt himself—his battles with loss, financial...

Step into the shadows of Rembrandt’s most famous painting. Was The Night Watch always this dark, or is something hidden beneath the varnish? In this first episode, we begin unraveling a centuries-old art mystery that’s more than meets the eye. See the Night Watch painting by Rembrandt Van Rijn at the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands (Painting Name is AKA The Night Watch Militia Company of Di...

Part 2 about the Mothman legend and subsequent art. Stories about the area the legend grew up in, Point Pleasant, West Virgina. Learn about artists Frank Frazetta and Bob Roach and their iconic mothman pieces. Mothman has been identified by some as a portent to the tragic collapse of the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant, WV. Episode Image Source: frazettamuseum.com Frazetta Gallery Store, Frank Fra...

Join me for the nickel tour, an experiment with artificial intelligence (AI), using my Phenomecon 2024 report as only the Whispering Gallery can bring it. With a velvety “blended” of spiced chai latte* and the Phenomecon mantra “we believe” which is a tad more than I’m personally comfortable with. I don’t “believe” carte blanche and personally I would have been more comfortable with “the jury is s...

This episode offers an introduction to our next spooky art pieces about a cryptid that hails from West Virginia, has been deemed a portent who was seen between 1966 and 1967, ending after the tragic collapse of the Silver Bridge. Episode Image Source: frazettamuseum.com Frazetta Gallery Store, Frank Frazetta, 1980, Art Print No. 118 - Mothman, painting, accessed 29, August, 2024 < https://www.f...

Whispering Gallery Podcast WGP: Clue of the Crumbling Cake Paintings A still life is a category of artwork that dates back to the 1600’s. A collection of things brought together (inanimate) gathered often on a table for the artist to work from and reference. The artist can work with this grouping of items, coming back over one or more sessions to complete the drawing or painting. Nothing in the gr...

Come with me my friends into the strange “inner world” of—one of the unreal hollow earth drawings. I decided I needed to narrow down to one drawing for our story. Captain John Cleves’s Symmes jr, (captain of the U.S. Army, starting as an Ensign in 1802, and honorably discharged 13 years later in 1815 as a captain). After that he tried working as a trader, but that didn’t work out so he embraced hi...

Welcome to the Whispering Gallery podcast! I’m Suzanne Nikolaisen and if this isn’t your first rodeo - er, time listening, you know that together we seek out the spooky, unusual and fascinating stories from the art world—to understand the art and the related “unknown” a little better, and boy—howdy, did I find another “strange” doozy of a pseudoscience story for you today! Im all researched out an...

On the island of Britain, between the Atlantic ocean and the North Sea, lies a haunted castle. Okay, yes—technically there are probably a bunch of haunted castles on -this- island. We’re looking for Alnwick Castle in Northumberland in northern UK, in particular. Alnwick castle (parts of which were founded in 1096) has a peculiar bamboo labyrinth in “Alnwick Gardens” that was created from 500 live,...

What would the ruins of the Palace of Knossos (nah-sohs) look like in the moonlight? An uneven grid of boxlike rooms, interrupted by darker larger forms like a midnight quilt unfolding into the night. A cascade of history—fading into silhouette, shadow and—interpretation. The Palace of Knossos (nah-sohs) was built on the largest island in Greece: Crete. The island has mountains and gorges, and app...

The last episode was all about the Franklin expedition and it had me slinging facts and quotes left and right and because there were so many interesting things related, with some more removed than others to the cursed painting. When editing the audio I had to edit out a couple of times when I had run out of breath! There was simply a lot to cover and we were just skating along the surface. Whew! W...

We’re explorers of art mysteries, unusual legends and today the story of an Arctic expedition gone terribly awry This is quite the terrifying story on it’s own and it has been turned into an AMC supernatural anthology you might have seen. ships trapped in arctic ice, lead poisoning, abandoned ships and some indications cannibalism— just a hot mess well frozen mess I mean! And then, there’s the pai...

Let’s wipe away the dusty cobwebs at the edges of our memories. Did you ever take a pencil or crayon and take a rubbing of an image? When you make a rubbing, it’s like magic seeing the reproduction of the surface appear, although you rub the crayon across the surface to get the desired reproduction. Maybe it was an embossed book or a sampler of autumn leaves showing their shapes and textures? Or m...

Join me in the Whispering Gallery for Scandinavian jul (you-lll) card art where artists are very good at making “spirits” (ahem) bright and visible! Are home, barn and mound spirits, not spooky enough for you? Just wait for the unsettling julbocken! Join me for some of the spookier side of Jul, coming up next. Special FX and Music courtesy of www.freesound.org https://freesound.org/people/ includi...

Sugar skulls are considered folk art and said to have come from Southern Mexico—they are part of the celebration for Día de los Muertos in English: Day of the Dead. This is not the celebration of Halloween—in Mexico.  The “day” of the dead is actually two days of remembering loved ones who have passed away and welcoming their spirits home. I feel like they’ve got this holiday down way better than...

So who did Circe turn into pigs? What specialty of magic could have done that? Did she really live alone on an island? Find out next on the Whispering Gallery! In the northern hemisphere the days are growing shorter, and the air, crisp as the snap of a Halloween apple, makes our cheeks ruddy—join me to finish our two parter about two hauntingly special, and magical women. Well more than one if we’...

Join me for more of the mysteries of the Oracle of Delphi, including some science about the vapors, and I attempt to sort out the multiple titles being thrown around including sybil, oracle, pythia and prophetess.  Episode Image: Pytia, by Jacek Malczewski (1854-1929). Painting: oil on canvas (1917), height: 82.6 in; width: 43.3 in. Location: Collection National Museum in Kraków, Source/Photograph...

This episode (Part 1) starts out with the Oracle of Delphi (from Greece) and some of the less known things about this "individual" and what she did that warranted such fame that has crossed the centuries. Was she simply extraordinarily gifted at prophecy? Look for the Whispering Gallery podcast on Facebook and Instagram.  Episode Image: Pytia, by Jacek Malczewski (1854-1929). Painting: oil on canv...

Is that mummy brown on your palette? If you’re unsure, we can always check for DNA. May I invite you to turn your flashlight on ? Welcome to the spooky cool (or rather, spooky ghoul ) world of paranormal and unexplained art!  Our creepy gallery of scary goodies include cursed paintings, uap phenomena, poisonous pigments, sea monsters, ghost stories, and other mysteries–frankly I don’t know if ther...