Author Archives: Linnea

Life-changing Proust?

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No, I’ve not been drinking the lime-blossom tea with madeleines that slipped me into a delicious reverie on childhood, as did Swan, Proust’s hero in In Search of Lost Time. I’ve only read the first two volumes of that masterpiece. However recently I read Alain de Botton’s much shorter book How Proust Can Change Your Life, and came out greatly enamored of the book’s subject Marcel Proust. (For a details on how very strangely he did live, try the book.)


I found an audio recording of the introduction to this well-written, and thankfully terse, work:

Alain de Botton has a lovely website featuring some other introspective and interesting-looking books in case you are interested.

Mark Alsweiler: Folk art gone contemporary

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Carrion Crows

I’m trying to remember just how I came across these fantastic paintings by New Zealand artist Mark Alsweiler, but as I can’t, let me just say I feel lucky I did. They remind me of much of art I saw in Mexico, and like most folk art often suggest a narrative, but the palette strikes me as particularly contemporary.

Different Times

I’m also impressed by the sophisticated way he uses folk elements without “talking down to them,” so to speak. Symmetry and balance play a role in that I suspect–as does a judicious use of blank space.

The Bigsky Web

The use of white in the paintings above and below feels so refreshing.

Sitting Down by the Fire

Horseman
This piece, with its skeleton on horseback riding next to the living man, reminds me of Mexican art most clearly.More than anything, I end up feeling fascinated and lingering over details in these pieces, wondering what the story behind them is.