another althingsconsidered

first posted in facebook june 14, 2026

francis cadell -- "interior, the orange blind" (ca. 1914)

"cadell was a left-handed painter. while a student, the president of the royal scottish academy tried to stop him painting with his left hand because 'no artist ever became great who did so.' cadell swiftly replied 'sir and did not the great michelangelo paint with his left hand?' the rresident did not respond and left the room quickly. a fellow student asked cadell how he had known that michelangelo was left-handed. cadell confessed 'i didn't know but nor did the president'" … wikipedia

"if the left half of the brain controls the right half of the body then only left-handed people are in the right mind" … w.c. fields

first posted in facebook june 11, 2026

asher brown durand -- "kindred spirits" (1849)

"yet the sweet converse of an innocent mind, whose words are images of thought refin’d, is my soul's pleasure; and it sure must be almost the highest bliss of human-kind, when to thy haunts two kindred spirits flee" … john keats

"if you think you're hearing something and you can't think what it is if you feel a quiet longing lift your heart into the wind there you'll find my kindred spirit there you'll meet me as a friend it is just a kindred feeling and a song to let you in…" … cyndi lauper

first posted in facebook june 10, 2026

sanford robinson gifford -- "the artist sketching at mount desert, maine" (ca. 1865)

"landscape-painting is air-painting" … sanford robinson gifford

"for me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the light and the air which vary continually. for me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value" … claude monet

"the landscape belongs to the person who looks at it" … ralph waldo emerson

"sometimes, when one is moving silently through such an utterly desolate landscape, an overwhelming hallucination can make one feel that oneself, as an individual human being, is slowly being unraveled. the surrounding space is so vast that it becomes increasingly difficult to keep a balanced grip on one's own being. the mind swells out to fill the entire landscape, becoming so diffuse in the process that one loses the ability to keep it fastened to the physical self" … haruki murakami

"the american landscape has no foreground and the american mind no background" … edith wharton

"i wanna go to maine" … noah kahan

first posted in facebook june 9, 2026

lovis corinth -- "swimming facility in jorst-ostee" (1902)

"land lies in water" … elizabeth bishop

"the stronger the individuality of an artist, the more he is exposed by the public to misunderstandings" … lovis corinth

"i caught a tremendous fish and held him beside the boat half out of the water, with my hook fast in a corner of his mouth" … elizabeth bishop

first posted in facebook june 8, 2026

benjamin west -- "venus consoling cupid stung by a bee" (ca. 1787)

"was you ever bit by a dead bee?" … eddie

first posted in facebook june 6, 2026

arthur streeton -- "ariadne" (1898)

"a labyrinthine man never seeks the truth, but only his ariadne" … friedrich nietzsche

"i sit here in the upper circle surrounded by copper and gold, and smile with joy under my fly net as all the light, glory and quivering brightness passes slowly and freely before my eyes. nothing happier than this" … arthur streeton

"upon the shores of naxos, bleached and bare ariadne woke with tangled, salty hair the ship was gone—a smudge against the blue for theseus broke the only vow she knew she cried aloud, a desolate, thin sound with nothing but the silence all around" … monica rhodes

"it will be easy for us the first time we receive that ball of yarn from ariadne (love) and then go through all the mazes of the labyrinth (life) and kill the monster. but how many there are who plunge into life (the labyrinth) without taking that precaution?" … søren kierkegaard

first posted in facebook june 5, 2026

fyodor bronnikov -- "the sick artist" (1861)

"no boundless fields here as you have in russia, no dense forests … and that's a pity. i love the vastness and our russian fields, like a limitless sea" … fyodor bronnikov

"the more i become decomposed, the more sick and fragile i am, the more i become an artist" … vincent van gogh

"pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. the really great men must, i think, have great sadness on earth" … fyodor dostoevsky

first posted in facebook may 30, 2026

hurvin anderson -- "is it ok to be black?" (2016)

"some people say we've got a lot of malice some say it's a lot of nerve but i say we won't quit moving until we get what we deserve we have been 'buked and we have been scorned we've been treated bad, talked about as sure as you're born but just as sure as it takes two eyes to make a pair, ha brother we can't quit until we get our share" … james brown

"these thoughtful and poetic paintings are not without overt political commentary. in 'is it ok to be black (2015)?' anderson includes recognizable images of malcolm x and martin luther king, important in the civil rights movement, among a collection of other significant black figures in silhouette. the work's title, as anderson explained it, is at once serious and humorous. it refers to his mis-hearing of the ubiquitous barbershop question: 'is it all right at the back?' it also highlights the barbershop as a space for the black community" … beth williamson

"this ain't no goddamn school of the blind, calvin! this is the barbershop! the place where a black man means something! cornerstone of the neighborhood! our own country club! i mean, can't you see that? hell, that's the problem with your whole generation. you know, y'all… you don't believe in nothin'. but your father, he believed in something, calvin. he believed and understood that something as simple as a little haircut could change the way a man felt on the inside" … eddie (from the movie "barbershop")

"say it loud: i'm black and i'm proud! say it loud: i'm black and i'm proud!" … james brown

first posted in facebook may 28, 2026

woody gwyn -- "pacific curve" (2016)

"there has to be passion. there’s simply no other way to approach this life" … woody gwyn

"dead man's curve, it's no place to play dead man's curve (you best keep away) dead man's curve (i can hear 'em say) won't come back from dead man's curve" … brian wilson, artie kornfeld, roger christian, and jan berry

first posted in facebook may 26, 2026

antonio mancini -- "the acrobat" (1879)

"art must be an integral part of life. it should breathe, move, and live" … antonio mancini

"sometimes a writer, like an acrobat, must try a trick that is too much for him" … e.b. white

first posted in facebook may 23, 2026

aleksander gierymski -- "in the arbour" (1882)

"the wind in the trees is whispering whispering low that i love her she puts her hand over mine down in the lime tree arbour" … nick cave

"in the painting 'in the arbour', we can see the scene of an 18th-century social gathering, which takes place in a gazebo filled with light from behind. such scenes allowed him to play with colours and light. gierymski's work can be compared to contemporary french impressionists, even though he had not yet been in paris and there was no evidence that he had seen their work" … wikipedia

first posted in facebook may 20, 2026

tom roberts -- "slumbering sea, mentone" (1887)

"the sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever" … jacques yves cousteau

"smell the sea and feel the sky. let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic" … van morrison

"my soul is full of longing for the secret of the sea, and the heart of the great ocean sends a thrilling pulse through me" … henry wadsworth longfellow

"for whatever we lose (like a you or a me), it’s always our self we find in the sea" … e. e. cummings

"it seems to me that one of the best ideas spoken to an artist is, 'paint what you love and love what you paint' and on that i have worked" … tom roberts

first posted in facebook may 19, 2026

charles conder -- "a holiday at mentone" (1888)

"oh, when the sun beats down and burns the tar up on the roof and your shoes get so hot you wish your tired feet were fire proof under the boardwalk, down by the sea, yeah on a blanket with my baby is where i'll be" … kenny young and arthur resnick

[the painting] "shows men and women at the beach relaxing while clothed from head to foot–the men in suits and hats; the ladies in long, girdled dresses with boots and pretty hats. the man and woman at the front of the painting face away from each other, yet possibly are interested in each other, each watching the other from the corner of their eye. the mood is one of simple elegance and with a relaxed feel, as in the background people are strolling along the beach into the distance" … wikipedia

first posted in facebook may 18, 2026

john frederick kensett -- "view of the beach at beverly massachusetts" (1860)

"between 1859 and 1872, kensett produced over thirty paintings of the north shore of massachusetts—then a popular vacation spot for bostonians. more than twenty works were scenes of beverly, a coastal town twenty-five miles north of boston" … national gallery of art

"never no more do i wonder why you don't never play with me anymore at any moment you could go under 'cause you're driftin’ too far from shore" … bob dylan

"so i find words i never thought to speak in streets i never thought i should revisit when i left my body on a distant shore" … t.s. eliot

first posted in facebook may 16, 2026

rupert bunny -- "jeanne reading" (ca. 1902)

"the aim of the artist should be the transmission of an emotion. he should paint only what appeals personally to himself. i do not believe in selecting extraordinary or unusual subjects. it is the quiet, everyday things that appeal to most people" … rupert bunny

"i declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! how much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- when i have a house of my own, i shall be miserable if i have not an excellent library" … caroline bingley (in jane austen's "pride and prejudice")

"then she opened up a book of poems and handed it to me written by an Italian poet from the thirteenth century and every one of them words rang true and glowed like burning coal pouring off of every page like it was written in my soul from me to you" … bob dylan

first posted in facebook may 14, 2026

nzante spee -- "feeling at home" (1995)

"the destruction of our environment gently destroys us like every cigarette we smoke" … nzante spee

"smoke 'em if you got 'em" … a phrase originating in the u.s. military during world war ii

"castigat ridendo mores" [i.e., "one corrects customs by laughing at them"] … jean-baptiste de santeul

first posted in facebook may 12, 2026

gari melchers -- "the sermon" (1886)

"waar en klaar" … gari melchers

"and this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything" … william shakespeare