OTHEMUSE

Viktor Lyapkalo Artwork: 'Blowing bubbles' & 'Evening' Painted 9 years apart.

ID 2: Two identical images of the sun in the sky labeled as Today and Tomorrow.

ID 3: A Reddit post by u/BigMeaning in r/rs_x titled, You need to do whatever the fuck you want. Tagged Girl Posting. It says, "Once I was 23 and in the throes of a very painful lesbian situationship wherein I was being brutally betrayed. My friends and family despised my evil girlfriend. I knew I had to stop seeing her. During this saga I went out for corporate drinks with my very glamorous manager. She was in her 50's, beautiful, rich, athletic, and lived an incredibly adventurous life. I told her my pathetic fiasco and waited to hear the same therapy style drivel I'd heard from literally everyone in my life: leave her! respect yourself! yadda yadda. Instead, she sipped her martini, leaned in very close to me, and said: you need to do whatever the fuck you want. We sat in silence for a few moments - each paralyzed by the sincerity and intensity of what she'd said. It meant the world to me. I went on to do what I wanted - see my evil girlfriend for a few more weeks until I tasted the sweet asphalt of rock bottom for my damn self - and then I was free.

I share this story because a lot of young women come to this forum and ask about who and what they should be. They seem truly fearful of the consequences of their actions on the entirety of their lives. The best thing you can do when you're young is whatever the fuck you feel like doing. Things will even out. Learn something, love yourself."

ID 4: A drawing of a yellow bird with a big eye. It's captioned, "How scary it is to admit to yourself I want to live a different life."

ID 5: A poly art image of a burger with eyeballs. It's captioned, "you deserve better than to have a gut wrenching feeling like you've done something horribly wrong all the time."

ID 6: Text titled, The Different Ways You Abandon Yourself. The text reads, "Saying "yes" when you're aching to say "no." Apologizing to someone who owes you the apology. Digging your heels in deeper when you know you're the one in the wrong. Over- explaining your truth to someone who stopped listening a long time ago. Romanticizing the bare minimum. Begging for basic decency. Chasing people who do not want to be caught. Building a life based on what you think looks "good" but not on what actually feels good. Ignoring your intuition. Ignoring your body. Ignoring your needs. Contorting and bending and breaking to fit in places you know you've outgrown. Staying in a relationship that has run its course. Not allowing time for deep rest. Running on fumes. Staying quiet when someone disrespects you. Refusing to allow what already is. Lying to yourself. Never asking for help. Never taking a chance on yourself. Never living up to your own word. Celebrating those who only tolerate you. Wishing you were someone else." Written by Molly Buford.

Viktor Alexandrovich Lyapkalo Виктор Ляпкало

"Lady with Balalaika" 2012

This is by a patient of mine with early late stage dementia, who was a poet for most of her life. Her new poems are dictated to me during writing workshops I run at my hospice job. She hadn't written since her diagnosis. This is one of seventeen poems I've written with her so far.

I put copy in quotation marks because the two artworks are very different. Van Gogh made 21 copies after Millet’s works from the asylum in Saint-Remy, and he called them « translations ».

The original title of the painting posted by op is actually First steps, after Millet.

Here’s the drawing that inspired him :

come over. the doors are open,

my flat's a mess and

so is my heart

but the doors are always open.

come over. i will make soup,

probably from frozen but

the important thing is

we will both eat.

you don't have to be dying,

but if you are,

or you feel like you are,

or if living's been hard,

call me, and i will show up.

it doesn't have to be that bad,

it doesn't have to be bad at all,

but if it is, please call.

do you want me to do the groceries?

do you want me to mop the floors?

do you need to be held;

you don't have to be dying to be held.

if you want me to be there, i want to.

i'm on the bathroom floor again,

and breathing is hard,

and eating's been hard, and sleeping,

the world is a laden thing

rolling around on my chest lately.

just being alive is heavy tonight,

but we have enough dead friends.

come over.

The unsettling art of illustrator Walter Molino for “La Domenica del Corriere” Italian weekly magazine.