For no reason at all–except that I was researching him for some work recently–I want to brighten your day with a little Alphonse Mucha. If you know him, you probably love him. (I haven’t met anyone who has told me they hate Mucha, but that doesn’t mean you’re not out there.) If you don’t know him: Meet Alphonse Mucha. The sumptuous, wonderful Czech Art Nouveau artist celebrated for his posters of beautiful, writhing women on gloriously patterned backgrounds.
You can get your fill of information on Mucha from the Mucha Foundation, which also has rather awesome downloadable & printable Mucha coloring sheets, if you have that kind of spare time in your life.
During weeks like this, when your to-do list is filled with far too many unpleasant tasks and the sun stays firmly hidden behind the clouds and your handyman doesn’t show up for the fourth day in a row, Mucha is a no-brainer day-brightener. I like to picture that I live in a world filled with as much grace and style as exists in his prints. Or perhaps that I live in a world in which this is what commercial art looks like! And maybe, just maybe, I can picture myself as one of Mucha’s arresting women who seem to stand outside the ordinary world you and I inhabit. Yes, they are beautiful objects to be taken in (i.e. objectified), but their coolness–their otherworldliness–makes them so much more. They seem to have the answers to whatever questions you might be asking.
Ellen A. Hurst 