The beauty of art part 2: the answers

In my last blogspot, I shared this painting:

and I asked you a number of questions. It seems they were easier than part 1, maybe because I chose the most known of the four versions of the painting. Here are the other three:

Here are the answers to the questions I posted:


What is the name of the painting?
Skriet / the scream

Who painted it?
Edvard Munch

What is this type of art called?
Expressionism. It has been said that Expressionist artists want to express the meaning of emotional experience rather than physical reality. Something we clearly see in the Scream.

Where can the original painting be seen?
Nasjonalgalleriet / the national gallery in Oslo

How does this painting make you feel?
No right answers to this one of course, but these are the feelings you have described:
Anger, anguish, despair, awful and cannot watch

I deliberately chose this painting as part 2 in this series, since the painting shared in part 1 gives most people completely different feelings.

Art has an ability to inspire many different types of emotions. Therein lies its amazing strength. 

The Beauty of Art, part 2

In the Beauty of Art part 1, I shared a painting that made many of you feel harmony, calmness and alive.

Earlier this year when my husband and I visited Museo Thysssen Bornemisza in Madrid, there was an exhibition that included a painting that invokes completely different feelings - at least for me. The painting we saw was one of four versions of the below painting.

Just like in part 1, I ask you a number of questions about the painting and I will provide the answers in a later blogspot.

What is the name of the painting?

Who painted it?
What is this type of art called?

Where can the original painting be seen?

How does this painting make you feel?

Let me know what you think - I will provide the answers in my next blogspot!

Goodbyes and gratitude

"Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say good night till it be morrow"

This quote from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is a good description of our lives right now, when we are down to our two last weeks in Spain after two lovely years in this interesting and beautiful country. 

The sweetness comes from all the great times we have had and from the fact that we make our goodbyes as great as we can with parties (fiestas!) and  meetings of different kinds.

There are times when we do not get a chance to say goodbye, because we did not know the parting would come so soon. We may lose loved ones unexpectedly (Liv och död, I wanna die old,  Only life knows its length) and it is hard to find sweetness in such sorrow.

James Dean supposedly said:

"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today."

It's a great quote and maybe this approach may reduce the sorrow of partings, but preparing for your own or a loved one's death on a daily basis has practical limitations.

What I apply myself is Daily Gratitude.

Each morning when I wake up, I feel gratitude - not for waking up, I am still at an age where I take that part for granted - but for all the great things I have in my life; my husband, our children, our pets, our extended family and friends. 

It only takes a minute or two but it can change the entire day, your entire life.

There are studies that show that people who pray regularly handle sorrow and disappointment better than those who do not. Since I am not religious I did not use to pray, until a wise man opened my eyes for the obvious.

“You can pray without being religious.”

My praying is not directed to any God. When I feel gratitude, I express my gratitude to life, in whatever form that may be.

This habit ensures I do not take the people and things around me for granted.

When you feel gratitude that a person is in your life you are more likely to let them know, making each meeting with them vibrate with happiness and energy.

If life decides that it is time for parting, your gratitude will have made you more prepared so that even in deep sorrow, you will be able to see the sweetness about having had this person in your life – and having let them know how much they mean to you.

"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others." Cicero

The beauty of art part 1 - the answers

In a previous blog spot, I showed this painting:

and I asked you a number of questions. 
Thanks for your comments - here are the answers!

• Do you know the artist?
• Yes - all of you did. He is an artist that many persons, also those not particularly interested in art, know of: Claude Monet.
• The name of the painting?
• This one was trickier, since Monet often painted the same theme many times to show the different impressions the same view can give, depending on different lights or seasons. Some of you thought it was this painting:

Which is the same theme, but still a different painting called Bridge over a pond of waterlilies, or, in Claude's language: Pont au-dessus d'un bassin de nymphéas.

The painting I posted has a very similar name in French: Nymphéas et pont japonais; in English called: Water lilies and Japanese bridge.

• What is this type of art called?
• That was another easy question, you all recognized that this artform is impressionism - the name comes from Monet's painting: Impression, soleil levant (in English; Impression sunrise):
  

Impressionism has been described as: "writing what you see, not what you know is there".

• In what museum can the original be seen?
• Le bassin aux nymphéas / water lily pond hangs in The Art Museum Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. Claude's art is spread all over the world though, and you can of course see a lot of his paintnings in Paris - where I saw original paintings by  Monet for the first time.

• How does this painting make you feel?
• There is no right or wrong answers to this one of course. The answers you have given are, related to harmony, calmness, feeling alive and feeling well.

It turns out several of you enjoy Monet and his art just as much as I do. :-)

There is also a Part 2 of the Beauty of art, if you are curious you can find it here. 

The beauty of art: Part 1

I discovered the beauty of art when I was 19 years old and worked as an au-pair in France. What better place than Paris to enjoy art? The mother in the family where I worked was interested in art and I read many of her books about different painters.

Every time I had a day off I would go to Paris and stroll through museums and watch different exhibitions.

One of my favorite artists painted this:

He is seen as the founder of a movement within art and he often painted the same scenes multiple times, to show how it changed depending on the time of day and time of year.

• Do you know the artist?
• The name of the painting?
• What this type of art is called?
• In what museum the original can be seen?
• How does this painting make you feel?

Let me know!

The answers are available in this blogspot.

I know all about your annoying colleague

"He drives me crazy!" 

Johnny flopped down on the armchair next to Sondra.

"We agree on what needs to be done, he gets the action point - we even add the action point to the minutes of meeting for goodness sake - and then still, he stands there looking all surprised when I ask him about it. Like; Oh, was I supposed to do that?"

Sondra put down her phone. The time for checking her private mail over a cup of coffee was apparently over. After listening a few more seconds to Johnny’s ranting she interrupted: 

"That book you borrowed from me. Did you bring it today?" 

He looked up, bewildered. 

"What? What book? What has that got to do with anything?"

"You borrowed it from me last week and you said you would give it back today, since I need it for the lecture tomorrow."

"Really? Was that tomorrow? I didn't know it was tomorrow." 

She started humming.  

"What? Why are you humming? You can't even keep a tune!" 

She stood up, getting ready to leave. 

"I hum it well enough for you to hear what song it is, right?"

"Well, yes, but..."

"Which one is it?"

"A Michael Jackson song." 

She rolled her eyes. 

"Which one?!”

"Well, the one... what’s its name... Man in the mirror."

She smiled triumphantly and clapped her hands so loud he jumped. "Exactly!"

As the saying goes:  

‘You see the mote in your brother’s eye, but you do not see the beam in your own’

Picture: The Parable of the Mote and the Beam by Domenico Fetti 

You may not like to hear it, but often what annoys you in others (and we all know this is not only applicable to colleagues but also to partners and - definitely - our kids…) are things you don’t like about yourself.

Not convinced? 

Take 5 min and check out this video with Marshall Smith...

One day she won't mind. Today is not yet that day.

"Growing old is a lot better than the alternative", he said.

She knew that of course, having lost friends who died far too young. She knew her advancing age was a blessing rather than a curse.

She knew her age (even though she often had to remind herself of the exact number by subtracting her birthyear from the current year) and she did not mind being the age she was. Of course it was so much better than the alternative.

"Being old is one thing, looking old is another", she muttered, 

and she simply had not gotten used to looking old yet. In fact, she was not even aware of how age had gotten to her face and hands until his casual remark made it blatantly clear.

Wrinkles are just the scars or all your smiles, he added, 

slowly realizing how her thoughts had turned his childishly innocent remark into a sharp arrow. He, who had once said it was her smile that had caught his attention so many years ago.

She knew that of course, she knew it so well. She tried to pull the arrow out of her heart by saying to herself that she would rather be wrinkly and smiling than expressionless and blank.

Her rational part also knew she would continue to look with pity at those using botox to stop a natural process in its tracks instead of just aging with dignity.

It was easy to know all of that when she was not the one with the wrinkles. When she was not the one being approached in shops by people who tried to sell her creams that would "reduce her expression lines".

She knew it, but she was not yet ready to accept it. Not yet ready to look at her hands and see her mother's instead.

 Not yet ready to look in the mirror and notice that the wrinkles around her mouth did not go away even when the smile did.

One day she knew she would not care.
One day she knew she would look at her wrinkles the same way she looked at her big butt and sharp nose;

Like good old friends that you like; not despite but because of their oddities. 

One day she won't mind.
But today is not yet that day.