Write As You Are

“...so I pulled the sun down and crushed it, cold vanilla nights settling, and that’s just what you made me feel like. all at once. I wasn’t able to show those feelings. through all the atoms and winds and carbon bodies on the planet earth, there was no combination existing that was enough to become what you felt like.”

“I made the sun rise for you. I pulled the deepest of energies from the planes of the earth and with the last of my strength, formed the core of the burning sun with my fragile hands, now with skin burnt and flayed. for you. I fell for you, and the tears I cried filled the seas and lakes and oceans with salty water. sometimes the rain is just. there. you meant the world to me, and so I created it, abandoning the enslaving formless box of what existence should look like. it was just for you. just for you.”

“Imagine a woman in the long skirts and high collar of the early 20th century standing in front of the painting she created. It is a massive piece—about 10 feet tall by 8 feet wide—and it is not a landscape, a portrait, a still life, nor a scene from myth or history. Dominating the composition is a bold yellow form reminiscent of a plant or sea creature, glowing amid colorful, biomorphic shapes and vigorous lines. This is just one of 10 such works that she has created almost entirely alone—sometimes walking on her work as she lays down the paint—and one of 193 radically abstract paintings that she has made in a few short years, between 1906 and 1915. None of these details fit with the story told in museums and art history courses. We know the first abstract painters so well that we often refer to them by last names alone: Kandinsky, Malevich, Mondrian. We know who is celebrated for doing “action painting” on giant canvases laid on the floor—Pollock. Each of these men has been lauded for opening a way into new territory. As it turns out, that territory had already been explored by another artist. Her name was Hilma af Klint.”

“The city and sunset colored pink, the world awash with rosy glow, and music continuous,”

me: :(

Forget pulling all-nighters and chugging coffee until it’s practically coursing through your veins. You know what gets me hyped up? Earl Grey tea on slow sunny mornings after a good night’s sleep. Submitting an assignment early, knowing you’ve completed it to the best of your ability. Reading for pleasure. That feeling of limbless relaxation after a good workout. Unearthing all your buried interests and falling in love with them over and over again.