Rec
🖼️
the flowering orchard/vincent van gogh/1888
when i was in college for (tw) musical theatre we were given an assignment to go to the met and sit with a painting we liked for 20 minutes. no distractions, just you looking at the painting for a full 20. it was supposed to be an exercise in attentiveness and spatial awareness, in noticing your thoughts and letting them pass. very meditative and honestly a wonderful experience to give to an acting student. except i was 19, insufferable, and genuinely considering the possibility that i was having a spiritual heart-to-heart with the long dead painter vincent van gogh.
I remember choosing this painting because of the brown streaks across the branches; they looked harsh, quickly slashed with the brush that carefully painted other parts of the piece. i wondered if they were intentional. i wondered if anyone else thought that they weren’t. i wondered and wondered and wondered until i began to feel as though i knew exactly what those slash marks were, why they were there, how they had come to be. I couldn’t tell you now, though.
i took this crooked picture and left the room. I don’t remember what vincent and i spoke about, but i’ve now stood before countless other paintings and spoken to their artists, too. i’ve learned that this mediumship isn’t esp, it’s art, and it’s actually the whole point. lmk what vinny says to you if you visit him 🫶
when i was in college for (tw) musical theatre we were given an assignment to go to the met and sit with a painting we liked for 20 minutes. no distractions, just you looking at the painting for a full 20. it was supposed to be an exercise in attentiveness and spatial awareness, in noticing your thoughts and letting them pass. very meditative and honestly a wonderful experience to give to an acting student. except i was 19, insufferable, and genuinely considering the possibility that i was having a spiritual heart-to-heart with the long dead painter vincent van gogh.
I remember choosing this painting because of the brown streaks across the branches; they looked harsh, quickly slashed with the brush that carefully painted other parts of the piece. i wondered if they were intentional. i wondered if anyone else thought that they weren’t. i wondered and wondered and wondered until i began to feel as though i knew exactly what those slash marks were, why they were there, how they had come to be. I couldn’t tell you now, though.
i took this crooked picture and left the room. I don’t remember what vincent and i spoke about, but i’ve now stood before countless other paintings and spoken to their artists, too. i’ve learned that this mediumship isn’t esp, it’s art, and it’s actually the whole point. lmk what vinny says to you if you visit him 🫶
3d ago
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Imagine trying to become a master painter in 1872 in New York and there's no high resolution images on google to study but there is a collection of European paintings at The Met so you go there to look at them and they actually let you set up an easel and make a copy for you to take back to your studio. This is how artists have been learning for centuries, by looking at art, painting stroke for stroke. This program is still running at The Met and you can apply! It’s so special, you enter through the education wing with your materials and tell the security guards that you’re in “The Copyist Program,” there’s a special room you store your work in progress. You have a 4’ x 4’ canvas tarp that you lay on the ground and for 4 hours once a week for 8 weeks that’s your special little island to work from. Then there’s the special thrill of carrying a wet painting through the museum halls. Very sacred, very special!Â
Sep 19, 2024
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🧑experience as art. i love that art instructions like this piece by mieko shiomi were intended to be given to other people and that the art is not the instructions but what you do when you follow them. art is for the people and these pieces get to the heart of that in a way that a museum piece cannot.
< giving is a gift >
bring a close friend to your home
sitting on the floor, hold their hands in yours
have a gab session, give them one recommendation, or tell them one thing you love
Jan 23, 2024
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🖼at my local art museum on valentine’s day, i watched an older man walk up to his companion (another older man), put his hand on his shoulder, and say, “i have a personal story to tell you” while guiding him to the piece that evoked said personal story
i don’t know how long they had known each other, but they got to know each other a little better in that museum ✨
i don’t know how long they had known each other, but they got to know each other a little better in that museum ✨
Feb 16, 2025
Top Recs from @shanlee
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the only reasons i keep my facebook account are for my facebook-loving boomer mother and for the absolute treasure trove that is facebook marketplace, specifically in nyc. amid the most gorgeous guitars, the antique furniture, and the reupholstered cushions, you will also find the wildest items and unhinged seller descriptions. it’s the best thing in the world. i torture myself on a regular basis looking at the stuff on there and you can too 🫶
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one of the best shows ever not even kidding i DONT wanna hear it refusing to watch anime is such loser behavior and you are only denying yourself the privilege of watching one the most affective and intense stories ever told
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đź—Ł
ppl talk a lot about avoiding the news to focus on self-care and there is merit to that for sure cuz we're not meant to see all these horrors so much all the time. but lately i've been thinking about how essential and cathartic it is to protest in small and big ways. to say with our full chest that actually things ARE fucked up rn. activism honors our humanity in a way that is deeply transformative. feeling all the grief and anger--and doing something with it--means we're not cut off from ourselves or our fellow earthlings. it's so healing to live in line with our values!!!!
3d ago
