This August I very much enjoyed rediscovering some wonderful and underappreciated seascapes by the Romantic painter John Constable, and also many other beach scenes by artists such as Maurice Prendergast, Eugene Boudin and Philip Wilson Steer… As you may have seen in my book review, I read Shirley Jackson’s novel “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” and I thought it was amazing, I also read and enjoyed Stephen King’s novel “It”, John Ajvide Lindquist’s vampire-novel “Let the Right One In”, Jack Kerouac’s “Dharma Bums”, poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay and Tennessee Williams. I’ve had moments of great inspiration, particularly for collages and playing with words, but also moments of intense waves of inexplicable sadness. I am now assured that Kierkegaard is right when he says; “do it or do not do it – you will regret both”, for which ever thing I choose in life, misery seems to come along with it. A desire fulfilled is always tinged with a regret for something else and a longing for something that’s lost. My biggest discovery this month is surely the Cannadian singer-songwriter Michelle Gurevich and her songs “Lovers Are Strangers” and “The First Six Months of Love” which I absolutely adore.
“Life was then brilliant; I began to learn to hope and what brings a more bitter despair to the heart than hope destroyed?”
(Mary Shelley, Mathilda)
“I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations — one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it — you will regret both.”
(Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or: A Fragment of Life)
“Why was life so unsatisfying? (…) Each smile hid a yawn of boredom, each joy a curse, each pleasure its own disgust; and the sweetest kisses only left on one’s lips a hopeless longing for a higher ecstasy.”
(Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert)
Picture found here. March 1995. ‘What makes a good finale? Gowns that look just as good on the way out.’
Picture: untitled by christanoelle.tumblr.com on Flickr.
Picture by Alex Murison, found here.
Picture found here.
Photo by Elisabeth Novick, 1970.
Picture found here.
Picture found here.
Picture found here.
A Meandering Path: A walk in the desert, Willwood Badlands, Wyoming
by riverwindphotography, March 2017
Picture found here.
Alexandra Spencer by Sybil Steele for Spell Designs February/March 2016
Picture found here.
Picture found here.
Picture found here.
Picture found here.
Thay Temple- Hanoi, Vietnam
farandaway.com
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Byron's Muse 
Kierkegaard’s “I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations — one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it — you will regret both”: so tragicomically true!
Right up there with Kafka’s “There is abundant hope–but there is none for us.”
Thanks for this labor of love.
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I love Kafka as well! Thank you, I’m delighted you enjoyed it.
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