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No. 16: Scottish Fantasy

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Artist: Max BruchTitle: Scottish FantasyDate: 1880Culture: GermanProvenance: Album gifted to EAH by her mother in 2003 I had no idea that my last trip to my family home in Vermont would be my last. Had I known, my sentimentality would surely have ruined it. I would have had that terrible painful lump in my throat … Continue reading No. 16: Scottish Fantasy

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Dorothea Lange, End of an Era: Funeral Cortege in a Small Valley Town, California, 1938

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Uncle Bob was the last of the elder generation to go. It started when my great-aunt Louisa passed two years ago. A steady stream of the older generation falling away: Uncle Larry and Aunt Kay died within days of each other in their home, too weak to tolerate the flu, the doc said. My mother … Continue reading Dorothea Lange, End of an Era: Funeral Cortege in a Small Valley Town, California, 1938

No. 15: Heirloom Autograph Book

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Artist: Unknown/Olive May McQuown Title: Autograph Book Date: 1884 Culture: American, Remington, Indiana Provenance: Olive McQuown's sister (or cousin?) Anna (my great-grandmother), passed this on to her daughter Elma (my grandmother) who passed it on to my mother. It ended up with me after my mother's death. As far back as I can remember, my … Continue reading No. 15: Heirloom Autograph Book

Anne Brigman, The Breeze, 1910

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Up here—shrouded in mist and the scent of pine, a halo of fuzzy golden light surrounding my fragile silhouette—I am like a goddess. And so I strip myself of those most dull human identifiers. My hip-length jacket with the brass buttons that march up my torso, and my wide-brimmed hat with the plumage of feathers … Continue reading Anne Brigman, The Breeze, 1910

Giuseppe Pellizza, Il Sole, 1904

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Forty days, they told me—quaranta giorni—but I think it was more. Sixty? Seventy-five? No matter. It's over now. During my solitude, my bedroom quickly became a dark, fusty, unwelcoming place, so I slept on my balcony most nights, in spite of the cold, my down comforter and flannel pajamas wrapped tightly around me, the slender … Continue reading Giuseppe Pellizza, Il Sole, 1904

No. 12: Flower Bouquets

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Artist: Nature/Various Title: Bouquets I have received Date: 2020 and before Culture: Nature Provenance: Gifts over the years Is there anything more sumptuous and life-affirming than a bouquet of fresh flowers? They can transform a room. They are luxuriant and fragrant and ever changing with their tight blossoms that open into lush blooms that eventually … Continue reading No. 12: Flower Bouquets

Gravestone from the Taifa Kingdom, Almería, Spain, 1044

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  The girl visited the grave on the hill nearly every day. It was late in the summer and the grasses and shrubs—the whole earth it seemed—were tawny under the bright, golden sun. The dry wind tugged at her veil, allowing tendrils of dark hair to escape and lash at her face. She always came … Continue reading Gravestone from the Taifa Kingdom, Almería, Spain, 1044