My Inspiration for August 2021

The best book I read this August was Takanobu Ishikawa’s “Romaji Diary” and I have already written a book review about it here. There were passages and thoughts that I found extremely relatable and other parts of the book felt more like dipping my finger into the sea of reverie… My other inspirations are, as you can see from the pictures, many lovely late 1960s and early 1970s fashion pictures, portrayals of circus and the sea in art, the Stone Roses, red colour, I really crave red these days, in art and other places, Pre-Raphaelite art as the gateway to the season that awakens the soul; autumn…

“And I feel so lonely and vulnerable and strange…”

(Anne Sexton, from A Self-Portrait In Letters)

“My poor friend could not understand the deep yearning and pain in life. Feeling unbearably lonely, I returned to my room. Ultimately it’s impossible for a man to make another man understand him fully. In the final analysis, camaraderie between one man and another is merely superficial. Realizing that the friend who I had thought understood me as thoroughly as I had him was unable, ultimately, to understand the anguish and pain at the bottom of my heart made me feel unbearably dreary. We are each separate, each alone! This thought left me indescribably sad.”
(Takuboku Ishikawa, Romaji Diary)

John French – Jean Shrimpton for Mary Quant (London 1964)

Picture found here.

 

Mike Berkofsky – Jane Birkin Wearing a Dress by Laura Ashley (19 Magazine 1970)

Picture by Olha Sheludiakova, found here.

Picture found here.

Picture by Marina Marić, found here.

Alexis Waldeck – Donna Mitchell (Status & Diplomat 1967)

Picture found here.

Barry Lategan – Maudie James and Louise Despointes (Vogue UK 1971)

Picture found here.

Ford Abbey and Gardens (by Annie Spratt)

Picture found here.

Found in the Internet Archive by AnitaNH

Dresses from Foale and Tuffin (Woman’s Journal 1971)

Dresses by Colin Glascoe (Woman’s Journal 1971)

By Laura Makabresku.

Picture found here.

Stuart Brown – Models Wearing Pourelle Ensembles (19 Magazine 1969)

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”)

Pic found here.

Pic found here.

Pic found here.

Found here.

Pic found here.

Pic found here.

trefriw, conwy, wales

Pic found here.

pic found here.

Pic found here.

My Inspiration for August 2017

August brought reveries of Madame Bovary, soft Edwardian lace and warm rich Pre-Raphaelite colours. I was inspired by Rossetti’s redheads, white dresses, Lord Tennyson’s poem “Lady of Shalott”, Iggy Pop, Marvin Gaye and Falco, Frida Kahlo, poetry by Langston Hughes, circus in art and the loneliness of the trapeze artist in Wings of Desire (1987), dreaminess of the sea waves and pebbles and songs of seagulls, paintings by Stephen Mackey, shabby chic aesthetic, teddy bears. I watched a few great films: Stella Maris (1918) with Mary Pickford, Before Night Falls (2000) about the Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas, “bad poet in love with the moon” as he wrote in his self-epitaph, played by Javier Bardem, Smoke (1995) which was so cool! I’ve read The Lady of the Camellias by Alexandre Dumas which I enjoyed very much, An Education by Lynn Berber (I still prefer the film with Carey Mulligan though), The Scarlett Letter by Hawthorne, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, and the most fascinating discovery The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende which has elements of magic realism and bears resemblance to Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Oh, those gold afternoons of August, writing poetry and daydreaming, gentle breeze and birdsong coming through the open window, waking up from a reverie only to step outside and admire the sunset in blazing pinks, orange, yellow and lilacs.

“Things I hold most dear: music, nature, poetry, solitude.” (Marina Tsvetayeva)

Source: here.

 

Source: here.

Source: here.

Source: here.

Source: here.

Source: here.

Source: here.

My Inspiration for August II

This month I was inspired by William Morris prints, Kate Moss, Millais’ painting Mariana, circus, Biba girls, Babyshambles, films Edge of Love (2008) and Der Himmel über Berlin or Wings of Desire (1987); the latter is a poetic masterpiece by Wim Wenders with beautiful aesthetics, set in a cold-war era Berlin. I’ve already watched it a year ago and it’s one of my all time favourite films. I’ve read three interesting books, all by Japanese authors: The Pillowbook by Sei Shonagon, and two works by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki – firstly, an erotic novel The Key which deals with the loss of communication between a middle aged couple, and secondly – In Praise of Shadows – an essay on aestheticism.

Miss Pandora

Miss Pandora

Der Himmel über Berlin or Wings of Desire (1987)

Der Himmel über Berlin or Wings of Desire (1987)

Der Himmel über Berlin or Wings of Desire (1987)