Something that's never left me.

I am moved by fancies that are curled/ Around these images, and cling:/ The notion of some infinitely gentle/ Infinitely suffering thing. - T. S. Eliot, 'Preludes' (I tried to illustrate this poem for a class once and they told me my art wasn't sorrowful enough. I suppose that is why I am also a writer. I make art when I'm at peace and I write when I am feeling deeply. Sometimes I'd like for it to all just mix together, but I think it comes naturally to me this way and so I will let it be. I'm grateful for all events and emotions that cause me to write or make art.) Anais Nin and a man named Rupert and a dog. I feel like I should know who Rupert was to her, but I am too in love with the idea of she and Henry. Someday I will investigate the Rupert.

all in green went my love riding.

I've always had a thing for couples from throughout history who were artists, writers, musicians, etc. Women and men who found another being that fueled them creatively in addition to their love. Maybe it's that two individually passionate people can make excedingly spectacular passion together. Romaine Brooks had a number of partners like this. Of course for Anais Nin, Henry Miller was the one and only inspiration for her best works. Lately I've been thinking about Georgia O'Keefe the painter and Alfred Stieglitz the photographer. He fell in love with her hands, and extensively photographed her for decades in an attempt to capture every aspect of her. Unlike the other couples mentioned, Georgia and Alfred married and stayed that way until his death. Very romantic, no?


photographs of Georgia O'Keefe by Alfred Steiglitz.