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Alphonse Mucha

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“Self-love is not necessarily restricted to pleasure; it requires “ethical management of the self,” pushing the self to be configured in new ways that might be challenging and difficult.”

— from Sensual Excess: Queer Femininity and Brown Jouissance by Amber Jamilla Musser

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Elena Redmond

nude in the Window

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hate when someone asks how are you and you say good how are you and they say "oh not so great" or something. it's always like ohh okay i see we're being honest i thought we were playing pretend. can i have a do-over

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I enjoyed the most perfect day, nearly on accident, and I'd like to write it down as a measure to keep it in my memory.

I started the Saturday the way I do often: a 7 am weight lifting class and then 8 am yoga class with my wonderful friend Cristina. We usually grab coffee and a pastry together after, but this day, we drove to into Princeton and had our ritual with her friend Michael. We had coffee and cardamom croissants at Chez Alice.

It was particularly beautiful and warm outside, so we walked around Princeton's campus. I enjoyed Michael's tour of the buildings and knowledge of the architecture. I implored that we should explore inside, so we walked around the student dining hall and marveled at the inspiring design choices. I felt nostalgic for my college years, when cultural events and opportunities to grow are constantly presented to you with cute posters.

When I got home, I felt a big urge to play pickleball, but instead I was presented with a huge yardwork task: a fell tree was cut into over a dozen logs, which were stacked way out back in the property. I embraced the challenge, hauling them into a wagon, over to the road, out of the wagon, into the car, out of the car, into the wagon, over to the shed, and stacked in our wood bank.

After a week of feeling restless and eager to burn some energy, I embraced this big project with joy. I felt so strong and happy moving logs around in the sunshine. I saw so many daffodils in the woods, so I picked them and presented them to Xia Wei. She loved the gesture, and put them in two vases. I learned that daffodils are the flower of springtime. Sometimes the things that make me happy are embarrassingly banal.

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Ellsworth Kelly (American, b. 1923), Red Blue 1962 oil on canvas, found at clevelandart.org

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Kafka

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Kirsten Dunst in Lars Von Trier's "Melancholia" (2011) | Ph: Magnolia Pictures

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“Listen: I am ideally happy. My happiness is a kind of challenge. As I wander along the streets and the squares and the paths by the canal, absently sensing the lips of dampness through my worn soles, I carry proudly my ineffable happiness. The centuries will roll by, and schoolboys will yawn over the history of our upheavals; everything will pass, but my happiness, dear, my happiness will remain, in the moist reflection of a streetlamp, in the cautious bend of stone steps that descend into the canal’s black waters, in the smiles of a dancing couple, in everything with which God so generously surrounds human loneliness.”

— Vladimir Nabokov, A Letter That Never Reached Russia

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Sebastian Gögel — A Quiet Place in The Universe (oil on canvas, 2002)

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Jennifer Cronin - Out There, 2022 - Oil on panel

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Wet Beast Rotation

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Friedrich Kunath (German, b. 1974)

Couldn’t Sleep Either, 2020

Oil on canvas

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