My Inspiration for January 2023

This January dragged passed me so slowly and days fell on their knees, to paraphrase David Bowie’s song “Stay”. It truly seemed never-ending and how glad I am it is gone! Still, despite the cold weather outside, and the general grey and drab mood, this January has given me many sweet, warm and precious moments, many beautiful letters that awoke a smile on my face as bright as the candles burning continuously in my room these cold evenings. The ethereal, dreamy voice of the dreamy and mysterious Hope Sandoval and the neopsychedelic sound of Mazzy Star have kept me awake many a night in January, and I’ve also found myself enjoying Depeche Mode’s 1990 album Violator, in particular the song “World in My Eyes”; how hypnotic! Cactus and desert landscapes from Mazzy Star’s video for the song “Fade Into You” and Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ “Scar Tissue”, Georgia O’Keeffe’s watercolours of canna flower, green hills and starry nights, early 1990s fashion, in particular the floral baby doll dresses and platform shoes from the season four of Beverly Hills 90210, the purple swirls in Klimt’s painting “The Virgin” and the golden rainshower in “Danae”, Diego Rivera’s women weaving, selling flowers or fruit at the market, whimsical illustrations by Florence Harrison, vibrant and sensual art of Olga Costa, beauty and intricacy of William Morris’ prints… I look forward to February because it means that spring will be just around the corner. Oh spring, how my soul aches for you! Come please and shower me in flowers! I already have a vision of what the next month on the blog may be…

“I suppose I shall have to live now.”
(E.M. Forster, A Room with a View)

“I wanna stay inside all day
I want the world to go away
(…)
Yeah, I wish I’d been, I wish I’d been, a teen, teen idle
Wish I’d been a prom queen, fighting for the title
Instead of being sixteen and burning up a bible
Feeling super, super, super suicidal

The wasted years, the wasted youth
The pretty lies, the ugly truth
And the day has come where I have died
Only to find, I’ve come alive”

(Marina and the Diamonds, Teen Idle)

“I want to hold the hand inside you
I want to take the breath that’s true
I look to you, and I see nothing
I look to you to see the truth
You live your life, you go in shadows
You’ll come apart, and you’ll go black
Some kind of night into your darkness
Colors your eyes with what’s not there
Fade into you
Strange you never knew
Fade into you
I think it’s strange you never knew…”
(Mazzy Star, Fade Into You)

Pia Riverola

Hope Sandoval, photo by Andrew Catlin

Mazzy Star (1990), photo by Laura Levine.

Hope Sandoval, photo by Laura Levine.

Saguaro National Park photographed by Bella Nugen.

 

Glowing barrel cacti, Mojave National Preserve, California by Scott Gibson via Flickr https://flic.kr/p/beeUcH

Floral book cover ( Kashmir School, early 19th century), Lacquer painted on papier mâché.

Fireworks, Los Angeles – July 4th, 2020

Instagram: @matthewgrantanson

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