My Inspiration for August 2019

August had not yet passed and already I am starting to daydream of autumn, its richness and colours, the final flash of abundance and joy before winter’s dreariness. As every year in August, I watched “Dark Shadows” (2012) and the scene where the train is passing through autumnal forest and the song “Nights in White Satin” playing in the background is making me so excited for autumn. The costumes and the music in that film is all I want in my life right now! Pre-Raphalite paintings have been on my mind a lot, and there are posts to come about a certain Pre-Raphaelite painter and some of his very beautiful paintings. I finally read Gay Daly’s book “Pre-Raphaelites in Love”, recommended to me by a very lovely person, and I love it to death! Love, art and gossips; always a wonderful combination if you ask me! I am slightly sad that the last official month of summer is gone, but I am at the same time ecstatic and thrilled about the joys of early autumn days which are upon me. I love the idea of a fresh start. What sweet melancholy, to be able to experience transience and yet not be able to do anything about it, like a leaf carried by the wind…

“Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow —
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.”

(Edgar Allan Poe, “A Dream Within a Dream”)

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trefriw, conwy, wales

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Story Aesthetic – Nocturne, Mist, Faded Pier

On a distant shore, miles from land
stands the ebony totem in ebony sand
a dream in a mist of gray…
on a far distant shore…

The pebble that stood alone
and driftwood lies half buried
warm shallow waters sweep shells……

I’m trying
I’m trying to find you!
To find you…

(Syd Barrett – Opel)

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Photo by Molly Dean.

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Sea, found here.

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My Inspiration for July 2019

This has been just the most wonderful month! The books I read, the films I saw, the daydreams, the letters, the flowers, the dresses, the joy ahhh…. I read the wonderful, vibrant and amusing novel “The Rum Diary” by Hunter S. Thompson which I reviewed here, then an equally fun memoir “I’m with the band” by Pamela des Barres, first part of the Lemony Snicket’s “Series of Unfortunate Events” and I plan to read the rest too, “Coraline” by Neil Gaiman which was as interesting as the film, I was afraid to read it because “The Graveyard Book” was too slow and too boring for me but I think “Coraline” is great, “Fight Club” by Chuk Palahniuk, poetry by Delmira Agustini, in particular her first poetry collection “The White Book (Fragile)” from 1907, and then the most wonderful new discovery a Chilean author María Luisa Bombal and her two fairly short novels “The Shrouded Woman” (La amortajada) and “House of Mist” (La última niebla). I was mind blown by her writing style and the themes of her novels; she writes the kind of sentences and passages that you wish to read again and again and suck the words in your mouth like bonbons until they melt and fill you whole and you are left delirious, longing for more, desperate and still smiling because she takes you to a dream land of a sort. I watched the film “The Piano” (1993), recommended to me by a very dear person, and wow I was absolutely captivated by the mood and aesthetic and the wonderful performance of Holly Hunter as a mute pianist, and there’s of course Harvey Keitel and beautiful piano music and romance and the mysterious misty shores of New Zealand, this is easily one of my top ten films ever! And I also watched “Say Anything” (1989) with John Cusack and Ione Skye again and …. once again and I smitten by Peter Gabriel’s song In your Eyes and the boombox serenade scene. How very romantical!?

“Love I get so lost, sometimes
Days pass and this emptiness fills my heart
When I want to run away
I drive off in my car
But whichever way I go
I come back to the place you are…”

Monet’s garden, picture by Milamai.

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Cornwall, picture found here.

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Monet’s garden. Pic found here.

John Corbet, “Two girls singing”, found here.

By Fed J. McKinnon

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Syd Barrett & Record Player 1969 by Mick Rock

Pic by Stefany Alves

Pic by Stefany Alves

My Inspiration for June 2019

The most beautiful and thrilling things about this June, along with the cheerful fragrant flowers, sunshine and strolls by the river, were the books I read: Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Coockoo’s Nest” which was funny and amusing at first but it stops being so amusing after you see the power and control the mental institution has over a normal, healthy man whose only madness is that he is full of life and rebellious. Suddenly it isn’t funny anymore, but tragical… Here is what the Nurse Ratched tells her patients about solitude: “You men are in this hospital because of your proven inability to adjust to adjust to society. The doctor and I believe that every minute spent in the company of others, with some exceptions, is therapeutic, while every minute spent brooding alone only increases your separation.” So, according to her judgement, Morrissey, Richey Edwards, so many writers, musicians, painters and poets that I admire, and me too, would all the fit for a treatment because we are brooding alone in our bedrooms.Crazy to think that such a person can decide a man’s destiny! My blood boils when I think of it.

Then, two amazing books by a Croatian writer Slavenka Drakulić: “Marble Skin” which is written in the first person and the narrator is a woman sculptor who remembers her childhood with a beautiful but emotionally distant mother, and the other is a biography of Frida Kahlo called “Frida’s Bed”; it was beautifully written and I recommend it to everyone who is interested in Frida Kahlo’s life and art. Drakulić has the ability to say so much, and say such beautiful, poignant and meaningful things in so little pages, each of the books was less than 200 pages long. Then, I enjoyed the humour of everyday life in books by a Czech writer Bohumil Hrabal, I read “Closely Watched Trains” and “The Little Town Where Time Stood Still”; both were humorous and full of fascinating observations from day to day life, but also, when you think of what you read, you realise how sad it is. Hrabal conceals the tragical aspects of life with humour, and succeeds in making us blind to the sadness and loneliness that an individual faces. And finally, I at last read a novel “The Stream of Life” (Agua Viva) by a Brasilian writer Clarice Lispector and it was very psychedelic and full of vivid ideas and descriptions. Here is a quote from the novel: “Oh, living is so uncomfortable. Everything presses in: the body demands, the spirit never ceases, living is like being weary but being unable to sleep–living is upsetting. You can’t walk around naked, either in body or in spirit.”

“…the June nights are long and warm; the roses flowering; and the garden full of lust and bees…”

(Virginia Woolf, from a letter to Vanessa Bell, June 1926)

Tenby, Wales (by Sion Esmond)

Sunset in Cornwall (by Frank Fаrrell)

Shirley Jackson, from The Haunting of Hill House

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Sea thrift in Wales, pic found here.

Miss Patina

Northern Ireland, Instagram: emmaneagu

Poppies, pic found here.

Photo by Laura Makabresku

Zagreb, Croatia (by Alesha Brown)

Photo by Laura Makabresku

Ynys Llanddwyn, by Dylan Arnold

My Inspiration for May 2019

Month of May being such a romantic and flowery time of the year my imagination took me to the world of Gothic novels, castles with their dungeons and towers, white Regency gowns and handsome Byronic heroes, flower gardens, brides, painting of girls in white having their first communion, cozy cottages, Chateau de Chillon and the Romantics who visited it… Still very much captivated by the film “Taxi Driver” (1976) and Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights which I am thinking about reading again. I started reading a book “The Madwoman in the Attic” and I loved all the chapters that I have read so far, but in particular I enjoyed the chapter about Emily Dickinson and I found the ideas from her poetry and letters highly relatable. I definitely recommend the book!

Also, these lines from Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy” cannot seem to leave my head:

“I was ten when they buried you.
At twenty I tried to die
And get back, back, back to you.
I thought even the bones would do.”

My discoveries this month were one pretty little poem by Keats called “Where be ye going, you Devon maid?”, Milan Kundera’s short story collection “Laughable Loves”, Anais Nin’s dreamy stream of conscience novel “The Children of the Albatross” which I enjoyed but I still think her Journal of Love is way more interesting, I started reading H.D. Lawrence’s novel “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” and I find it interesting, but not as much as I had hoped. beautiful melodies by Fauré such as Dolly’s Garden and Élegié, Paul Weller’s song “Brand New Start” and his cover of the song “Wishing on a Star”.

“If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.”

(Wuthering Heights)

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Photo by Stefany Alves.

My Inspiration for April 2019

I can hardly believe May has arrived already! Days drag slowly, yet time flies. Another May upon, another sweet May with its roses and sunshine. This month I finally read Charles Bukowski’s novel “Ham on Rye” and I really enjoyed it, it was interesting and funny, his witty remarks, cynicism towards society and other people, disregard for society’s customs and the proper way of living sure appeal to me, but at the same time I, as a big romantic and idealist, feel that the main character’s negative outlook on life is making him forgetting the beautiful little things in life such as flowers, birds, special moments in nature, dandelions, watching clouds. There is so much beauty to see for eyes that want to see. And speaking of beauty in everyday life, I was also into studio Ghibli films and watched “Spirited Away” and “When Marnie was There”; these films are so aesthetically enjoyable to watch and they make everything seem so magical, even if it’s mundane and boring, especially the little things in life like making bread, tending to your garden, everything is veiled in quiet gentle beauty and it makes you feel glad that you are alive so you may enjoy it. A dead person cannot smell flowers, so being alive is a luxury. I discovered new songs by The National, a really cool band that I think everyone should check out. And tulips, yes I must not forget tulips, I feel such affection for them, my heart beats faster when I see them. How could I not see their beauty all these years, I wonder.

“I’m always dreaming, even when I’m awake; it is never finished.”

(Peter Beagle, The Last Unicorn)

 

Edwardian blouse, photo found here.

Photo by Stefany Alves.

Photo of a little Edwardian girl, found here.

My Inspiration for March 2019

The air is filled with flowery scent and that sweet spring indolence! The most beautiful of days are upon us as the flowers start blooming one by one. I scarcely had time to do anything else apart from admiring every blooming tree that my eyes saw; cherries, apples, magnolias… I have spring-themed paintings in mind, Monet’s waterlilies and meadows, and doll-like fashion. But I did read two great novels, very exciting reads; “Sputnik Sweetheart” by Haruki Murakami and “Shanghai Baby” by Wei Hui. In both novels, the heroines are aspiring writers and topic of sexuality and finding success as a writer is tackled. Both novels were originally published in 1999. I really recommend them both. In “Sputnik Sweetheart” the main character Sumire falls in love for the first time in her life in the spring of her 22nd year, and her love interest is a woman seventeen years her senior. In “Shanghai Baby”, the main character is a 25 year old struggling writer Coco (based on the writer herself) who lives with her impotent, artistic and very gentle boyfriend Tian Tian who later becomes addicted to opium. I loved the fact that it was set in Shanghai because Wei Hui really brought the atmosphere to life and I loved the sensuality and rich lyrical writing, and the fact that every chapter started with a quote from some Western writer. I love references to other novels and artworks.

“Take good care of your love. Love’s the most powerful thing on earth. It can make you fly and forget everything else. A child like you would be ruined in no time without love – you’ve no immunity against life.” (Shanghai Baby)

Picture by paperdolly.

Christophe Jacrot (French, b. 1960, Paris, France) – Oil 6, 2009-2011 Photography

Magnolias, by Hannah Queen.

Monet’s house&garden, Giverny, France by  Rick Ligthelm

Cottage garden by  Georgianna Lane

Laura Makabresku, Der Erlkönig, 2015