split me open

Kurt Vonnegut wrote: “When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of “getting to know you” questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes.

And he went WOW. That’s amazing! And I said, “Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.”

And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: “I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.”

On Ugliness, Umberto Eco (2007)

The Hollow Crown – Richard II, dir. Rupert Goold (2012)

Sex, Violence and Faith: The Art of Caravaggio, Amelia Arenas (2016)

The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew, Caravaggio (1599)

Judith Slaying Holofernes, Artemisia Gentileschi (1620)