”A work of art opens a void, a moment of silence, a question without answer, provokes a breach without reconciliation where the world is forced to question itself.” ~ Michel Foucault

”No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.” ~ Virginia Woolf

Sascha Schneider, The Anarchist , 1894

Decisions by Darby Hudson

I'm always just a couple
of poor decisions away from 
a terrible life.
But I'm also just a
couple of poor decisions from 
stumbling across the
life of my dreams.

Eduardo Naranjo , Dreaming of Muses , 1979

"Your perception of me is a reflection of you; my reaction to you is an awareness of me." ~ Buddhist quote

"Hope is optimism with a broken heart" ~ Nick Cave

I Am! by John Clare

I am! yet what I am who cares, or knows?
     My friends forsake me like a memory lost. 
I am the self-consumer of my woes, 
     They rise and vanish, an oblivious host, 
Shadows of life, whose very soul is lost.
And yet I am—I live—though I am toss'd 

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise, 
     Into the living sea of waking dream, 
Where there is neither sense of life, nor joys, 
     But the huge shipwreck of my own esteem
And all that's dear. Even those I loved the best 
Are strange—nay, they are stranger than the rest. 

I long for scenes where man has never trod, 
     For scenes where woman never smiled or wept; 
There to abide with my Creator, God, 
     And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept 
Full of high thoughts, unborn. So let me lie,  
The grass below; above the vaulted sky.

John Lee Hooker, It Serve You Right to Suffer

Walk the Line by Jimmy Osborne

Here's to the ones
Who play the part
With a smiling face 
But an aching heart

Who ride the wave 
But all the while 
They hide the pain
Behind a smile

This is to those 
Who face the rain
When the tide is high
And days are gray

Who walk the line 
To pave the way
To a better life
And brighter days

Victor Ivanovski, A Tail (Boudoir Stories), 2001

Herbert James Draper, The Lament for Icarus, 1898

Al Cohn, How Deep Is the Ocean

Ilya Repin, Gogol burning the manuscript of the second part of 'Dead Souls', 1909

Norman Lindsay, Enter the Magicians, 1927

Odilon Redon, The Monster, late 19th century

Magnus Enckell , Boy with Skull , 1893

Akseli Gallen-Kallela , The Lovers , 1917

Horace Vernet, The Ballad of Lenora, 1839