I’m having a bit of a struggle with my writing. I invented a setting where I think about choices that people make, and how they work out what they are willing to do to make their choices real. Written like that it sounds like any long novel, but in fact I’m writing short stories about [...]
Category: national gallery of art
In honor of Minnie the cat
... who once pushed open a door that had heavy weights against it, to wake her oversleeping owner. You might think it was about food but ... it wasn't. Here is a Woman with a Cat, Auguste Renoir, 1875. Here is Julie Manet Holding a Cat by Berthe Morisot, 1889, printed by someone else in [...]
A Reading from the Acts of the Apostles — Tuesday, Sixth Week of Easter
The First Reading at Mass today is from the Acts of the Apostles, Acts 16: 22-34. Paul on his missionary journeys was arrested, beaten, and jailed in Philippi. He and his companions were in Philippi, a city in Macedonia, because Paul received a vision begging him to come and preach the gospel in Macedonia. He [...]
Moonlit art…
The Shy Museumgoer has a new article about painting the night. In this case she comments on the difficulties of portraying the night time without new (1500's) oil paint and techniques. https://theshymuseumgoer.com/2026/04/28/nocturne-painting-origins/ I love to go look for other artwork that shares the theme or artist that the Shy Museumgoer is writing about. The National [...]
May 1 odds and ends…
May 1 is supposed to be some Communist deal, but when I was a little girl we had our own little ritual that was supposed to honor Our Lady at the start of her month. On the first day of May, we went out and picked flowers, tucked them into homemade paper cornucopias, and took [...]