City Girl & a Wooly Pig
The Postcard & A Story
Vintage Postcard Inspo - Riss, Meran
I don’t want to infringe on anyone’s copyright. Any concerns with the edited image above, please email me.
A Brief Description of the Postcard
Besides being yellowed from what I estimate to be nearly 100 years of time fumbling around in this world, the postcard has an image of a baby, presumably Baby Jesus, laying in the lap of, again presumably, mother Mary. There are two angels flocking the woman and baby with a line of angels behind them rounding a bend to the outside of what appears to be a cave. The title listed is “Im Stall zu Bethlehem” which seems to translate to “In the Stall at Bethlehem.” From what I was able to gather online, the artist is Thomas Riss and he painted it during his 29-year stay in what is now Merano/Burgraviato, Italy.
The back of the post card has a perfectly calligraphed script in what I assume to be German based on what I was able to gather after Googling a few of the words I was able to make out. Stamps are Austrian (1925-1927), confirming that assumption.
The story I generated populated in my head after spending hours headed down various interesting paths on the internet while researching first the stamps, then the artist, then the town featured in the postcard. So while the story has no relation to the art specifically, it is derivative of all of the context. After the story there are a few things I learned listed, accompanied by links, and I encourage you to check it all out.
My Postcard Inspired Story
Requirements: must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. This story is entirely made up as a creative writing exercise.
I’m American. Visiting the beautifully historical Merano, Italy. I can sit in my living room, look out my window at the Alpine landscape and see the overly romantic, quintessential castle of all time, Brunnenburg. It’s the perfect landscape to inspire romance and writing, both of which I need in my life. Seems as though my wit and charm don’t always land on counterparts. Escaping away from New York city for a bit to this wonderland is my “eat, pray, love” adventure. This - sitting in my understuffed armchair in my rented home, with the espresso heating up on the stove top - is what I’m doing when I realize I must not have fully latched the front door. It’s brought to my attention when I’m greeted with a snort and rather startling squeal.
Yes. Because here in the gorgeous mountain town touting a history running so deep and, in a lot of cases, so painful, there are these wonky, yet incredibly fascinating creatures roaming around known as the wooly pig. I knew they were around, but seeing them from the safety of a vehicle is very different than having one wander into your living room.
I’d like to remind you, I’m American. I’m from NYC. I have no knowledge of what to do when any pig wanders into my house, let alone one with such an odd…. “fleece”. What do pigs even eat?
The pig snorts. I name her (I decide it’s a her due to her fluff, as anti-feminist as that may seem) Joanie. All you Joanies out there, I mean no offense, it’s just the first name that popped in my head. Joanie is now head-butting my garbage can, but to no fruitful avail since I’m an American writer from NYC, so the only thing in there are coffee grounds and paper.
Joanie is now snorting around my feet. So I draw them up onto the understuffed chair. I have become too stunned to even try to leave it.
I reach for my phone and Google (because, well, this is all I can think to do…): “how to get a wooly pig out of my house”. Turns out the results weren’t entirely useful.
Joanie is now on her hind legs with her front hooves on my legs snorting me. You know… hooves hurt. That’s going to bruise, Joanie, I think, just as she head-butts my hand, almost like my at-home-in-NYC-golden retriever would, sending my cell flying across the living room to land in the upturned garbage of coffee grounds and paper.
Saved by the whistle, the espresso pot starts to announce its boiling contents which sends Joanie into a fit of snorts and squeals and hoovey running around. She has wreaked havoc on what was a living room, slamming herself into a few delicate looking tables before plunging her way back out the door she left open.
So, I invite Wikipedia and Google to update their findings. “how to get a wooly pig out of my house” should return the result of: “perfectly time your espresso making and prepare to have to redecorate.”
Now you know. You’re welcome.
This story is entirely made up as a creative writing exercise. I actually have no idea how to get a wooly pig out of a house, so please do not take any of this literally. Also - this is officially protected under the copyright for 2020 JA Murphy Consulting LLC, all rights reserved. Reposted / shared under copyright for 2022 JA Murphy Designs LLC.
Some Things I Learned Along The Way
Overall
I’ve come, in recent years, to have a completely new appreciation for history. I think it’s a combination of nostalgia, loss, and getting older.
What I found so much fun about this first postcard is I decided to pick an extremely difficult one. Not only is it hard to read handwriting from the early 1900’s, it was in a different language. This required a significantly more detailed search on Google, but it lead to a learning experience and a fun challenge of adjusting my querying to get the best returned results.
The power of the internet is real, my friends.
The Stamps
Through much squinting, glasses on the head, and querying the Google-machine, I found the stamps. They’re listed as Austrian from 1925-1927.
These new definitive stamps utilize four different designs with them being, in order of appearance, a denomination numeral, telegraph lines over a landscape, a white shouldered eagle, and the Church of the Mennonite Friars in Vienna. (link to source)
The stamps on the back of this card fit the first set of criteria: numeral, telegraph lines over a landscape.
The sense of relief and awe was surprising to me when I saw the EXACT stamp on my card returned as a result on the internet. I didn’t expect to feel so attached to the outcome of my Googling skills.
The Artist
This required much less squinting, but the added “Austria” to the Google query really helped find useful resources.
Thomas Riss, I learned through the use of Google Translate, arrived in Merano in 1898, before it was absorbed by Italy after WWI. He was born in Stams (Austria now; about a 2 hour drive north of Merano, Italy) in 1871 and died in Innsbruck in 1959. He has a wiki page here. As you can see, there just isn’t much information about him. My sense is the front of the postcard is labeled with his last name and the city he painted the “In the Stall at Bethlehem” (“Im Stall zu Bethlehem”) in. I was unable to find any reference to this specific painting outside of the postcard it is printed on.
The Postcard
Here is a photo of the postcard as being sold on eBay. I used the front (the name of the painter, what I later found out to be the city it was most likely painted in, and the name of the piece) to help add context to the Google search queries in order to add more context to my story. I used the stamp / postmark on the back of my copy of the postcard to continue to develop context, spending a bit of time refreshing my WWI / WWII history.
The History
I am by no means a historian, but it was great context to be reminded the Merano portion of Italy was actually part of the WWI aftermath and terrorized by the Fascists during WWII. As an Italian major, this history was greatly explored and the impact of these two wars on the small, originally disparate, city-states, is part of the artist’s, Thomas Riss’, life. Putting Thomas’s travel in perspective of the wars: he left Stams to head to Merano when Merano was not quite yet part of Italy (per the only source I could find, he lived in Merano from 1898-1927).
If I’m not a historian, then you KNOW I’m also not an art-historian. I’m not going to pretend to understand the symbolism of the postcard and the art on it.
Merano
I know I’ve challenged myself plenty picking a relatively obscure postcard written in a different language. But I wanted to go a step beyond and not draw on the war-conflicted storylines that exist in this time period in this place.
So instead, I visited tourist sites and went down the rabbit hole of Merano.
Mangalica Pig: these are touted as being fun for kids to see. I don’t know if I should be offended. Why not adults, as well?? Because I’d love to see one of these wooly guys roaming around.
Twisty-Horned Wallachian Sheep (Racka Sheep): OMG. And here I was watching videos about the pigs… these guys. These guys are something else too! See what I mean about a rabbit-hole??
Castle Brunnenburg: But then I landed here and had to put an end to the rabbit-hole on a great, wonderful note. There are few things more romantic than a castle in the mountains covered in vines (and surrounded by the previously mentioned animals…).
Reminder
The Why
[Updated 8/11/2022 to reflect new intent]
Originally posted and written in 2020, the intent behind the creative writing project inspired by vintage post card was to enhance my data skills. Being a data-anything (scientist, engineer, statistician, etc) in the real world requires creativity and problem solving skills. The data isn’t always going to be there, it’s definitely not going to be of the quality you want / need. The business unit isn’t always going to be able to express their exact needs and they’re going to lean on your expertise to help them innovate and integrate into their operations. You’re not always going to have access to nifty software, requiring interesting solutions to get the job done. All of those obstacles require new thoughts, new ideas, and is the art behind the job. As a data-person who neglected her creative side, please, learn from my mistake, and look for your own outlet to work this skill to better your solutions as a data-problem-solver.
Now in 2022, I’ll be revitalizing this project as a purely creative exercise. While I’m no longer in data, most of the above still holds true for life in general, and thus, creative living is still a very important part of my process.
The project
My husband and I have been using old vintage postcards we bought off eBay for our birthday greetings. There are a number of them that are filled out and mailed already and, in most cases, decades and decades ago. I’m going to use these postcards to be an inspiration for a short piece. Might be a story or, if you’re unlucky, I’ll try my hand at a haiku or something. The idea here is for me to learn something about the content of the postcard itself, and then tell a story to fit it. I’ll post that writing here and on social media for you all to see. I welcome feedback as that is how we all grow.
Call to Action
What’s your creative project? If you need someone to share it with, consider emailing me! If you’re afraid of being vulnerable, unsure of yourself, and want help building your creative muscle, maybe it’s a journey we can venture on together!
[Originally published in “All Things Data” under JA Murphy Consulting in August 2020. Reposting / reusing as JA Murphy Designs LLC in August 2022. Copyright 2020 by Jess Murphy; All rights reserved.]
