The Narrative Within

Is it Love or just Intuitive Thinking?

Posted on October 20, 2022 by Art for Housewives

It was the spring of 1943. He was 61 and she was only 21 when Pablo Picasso put a bowl of cherries on the table where Françoise Gilot was dining. Seeing her as his new muse, Picasso immediately dumped his girlfriend, Dora Maar, for Françoise. For ten years Picasso and Françoise were involved in a relationship until Françoise realized that Picasso was a tyrannical energy vampire and would consume her as he had all the other women in his life. So she did something no woman had ever done—she left him.

In 1947, Jonas Edward Salk, virologist and researcher, accepted a professorship in the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine. Here he devoted himself to developing a vaccine against polio. But despite working sixteen hours a day, seven days a week for years, he just couldn’t arrive at a conclusion. So Salk decided to take a break and left for Italy where he stayed in the monastery of San Francesco d’Assisi’s Basilica.

The atmosphere here was a dramatic change from his lab in Pittsburgh. Built into the side of a hill, the Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi, with its cloisters, expansive exterior and semi-circular arches, is a synthesis of the Romanesque and Gothic style. The interior, decorated with frescoes by Italian artists such as Cimabue and Giotto, is particularly impressive because of the light coming in from the rose window. The spirituality of the architecture, Salk would later say, was so inspiring that it allowed him to do intuitive thinking far beyond any he’d ever done in the past. His mind liberated, once back in Pittsburg, he developed the world’s first successful polio vaccine.

Years later, in 1969, Françoise Gilot and Jonas Salk met thanks to a mutual friend. Salk was immediately smitten by the French artist but Françoise was a bit more cautious. Six months later, Salk asked Françoise to marry him. But, before accepting, Françoise insisted on certain conditions one of which being that they lived six months apart so that he could pursue his scientific endeavors in La Jolla and she her artistic ones in NYC and Paris. Salk agreed saying that, especially at their age, more than romance, what they needed was an emotional fortress. So agreeing to give one another shelter, the two married in 1970 and were together for 25 years until Salk’s death in 1995.

After his marriage to Françoise, Salk focused much of his writing on the subject of human evolution and the potential of mankind. His concept of intuitive thinking is particularly intriguing. In 1983, Salk published Anatomy of Reality: Merging of Intuition and Reason. Here are my notes:

For the human mind and consciousness to evolve, intuition and reason must also evolve. Intuition and reason is a dual relationship. They must be studied separately as well as together. Some of us have a better developed intuition just as some of us have a better developed reasoning.

Our intuition, which responds subjectively, is quicker and more sensitive than our reason which responds objectively.

Although an innate quality, intuition can be developed and cultivated.

The intuitive way of thought is the evolutionary way of thought. Like instinct, it is the extension of a natural process. Reason, says Salk, can be seen as that which man adds to explain his intuitive sense.

We must learn to let our intuition play. Because it is this intuition which helps us create the basis of our reasoning. Because it is intuition that will tell the thinking mind where to look next.

When reasoning becomes conscious of intuition and reflects on what it observes, it will automatically correct, modify, and impress its process.

Although we often speak of evolution of man’s mind, we speak of it as if we are detached from this evolution. We do not see ourselves and our minds as part of the process of evolution. But we are.

We must no longer confront the universe as objective observers as we are also part of the universe.

And what can make you part of the universe more than love?

Françoise Gilot was born on November 26, 1921. This year she will be 101 years old.

Related: The Last Love of Jonas Salk + How the World Around You Shapes Your Thoughts and Actions + Intuitive Reasoning, Effective Analytics & Success: Lessons from Dr. Jonas Salk + ANATOMY OF REALITY Anatomy of Reality: Merging of Intuition and Reason (1983) pdf + Francoise Gilot website + Picamaar + Todo es Nada + Françoise Gilot, cento anni nonostante Picasso di Natalia Aspesi +

Posted in Books, Introspection, Lifestyle | Tagged Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi, consciousness, evolution, Françoise Gilot, intuition, Jonas Salk, painting, Picasso, reason | 2 Comments

We Are the Stories We Tell

Posted on October 18, 2022 by Art for Housewives

Domodedevo is a small town south of Moscow. Located on a large plain, it is flat and monotonous. During the winter Domodedevo is cold and snowy whereas during the summer it’s hot and humid. Although known for its large warehouse complexes and airport, it does have a museum of history and art.

It is here that Anna Sorokin, nondescript and yearning for an identity, was born and lived until the age of 16 when her family moved to Germany. There her father worked at a transport company until the company went bankrupt a few years later.

In Germany Anna struggled to learn the language. This made socializing difficult. The only joy life seemed to offer her was that found on internet. She was especially interested in fashion blogs and Vogue.

When she was 21, Anna began working for a PR agency in Berlin but then relocated to Paris where she worked for a fashion magazine. And it was in Paris when she actively began giving her life a new narrative. She started by changing her last name to Delvey. But Paris was not impressed so she moved to New York City where everything is possible. Here Anna presented herself as a wealthy German heiress who was trying to set up an exclusive art club for the elite of the elite.

Having acquired access to the upper echelons, she was now in a position to become a full-time con artist. Anna found a way to get invited to the best parties and soon she was everywhere. Most people assumed that she was another trust fund kid, bored with a bunch of money to spend. And she was able to keep up this image thanks to Instagram.

Anna started hanging out with a “futurist on the TED-Talks circuit who’d been profiled in The New Yorker” now revealed as tech entrepreneur Hunter Lee Soik. Like Anna, Soik also needed rich patrons. He’d invented an app meant to help remember dreams and create a dream database. For two years Anna and Soik were a couple working as a team until Soik realized that Anna was scamming his wealthy contacts. So the couple split and Anna had to start paying her own bills.

Cash flow problems developed and it was becoming more and more difficult to be sponsored by her rich friends. For a while she survived off bounced checks and fake wire transfers. She even used false documents to get bank loans. But Anna had made the mistake of swindling one of her friends for about $60,000. The friend, not pleased, went to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office that then organized a sting operation winding up with Anna’s arrest by the LAPD.

The story was covered by the press but not given that much attention until Jessica Pressler’s article in New York Magazine in 2018. And then BOOM! It was like a Nigerian email scam meant for the elite. Once Anna learned that people could be easily distracted by indications of wealth, they could see only money and nothing else.

Anna spent 19 months in Riker’s Island prison. She was released for good behavior by later was arrested by immigration authorities and is now a deportee in waiting.

Since her exposure as a con artist, Anna has posted photos of herself on Instagram (she has one million followers), hired a videographer to document her new life, and sold rights to her story to Netflix (earning $320,000), and is currently selling her drawings online. Anna has simply exchanged one good story with another.

Often we feel the need to give ourselves our own narration instead of leaving it up to others to give us one of their own.

Had Anna told her story as it actually was who could have been interested in her? Who would have been interested in a nondescript person from a nondescript town in Russian with a nondescript family and equally nondescript educational background.

We are the stories we tell.

Sources and Related: Inventing Anna: Who is Anna Delvey’s rumoured real boyfriend behind character Chase Sikorski? + “Maybe She Had So Much Money She Just Lost Track of It” by Jessica Pressler + A dream database | Hunter Lee Soik on youtube + theannadelvey Instagram + How Purple Magazine Intern-Turned-Scam Artist Anna Delvey Turned Contemporary Art Into the Perfect Tool for Fraud + Want To Change Your Life? Change Your Narrative. Here’s How +

Posted in Introspection, Lifestyle | Tagged Anna Delvey, Anna Sorokin, Domodedevo, drawings, Hunter Lee Soik, Instagram, Jessica Pressler, narratives, Netflix, storytelling, women’s art | 2 Comments

Rewriting the Self

Posted on October 16, 2022 by Art for Housewives

In 1512, Dutch philosopher Erasmus of Rotterdam published a text on how to rewrite pre-existing texts. The purpose was to show that there were many ways to say the same thing. His book, De Copia, begins like this: “The speech of man is a magnificent thing when it surges along like a golden river, with thoughts and words pouring out in rich abundance.” Although he has an abundance of choices in how to express himself, complained Erasmus, man often resorts to mere glibness and word-mongering. Four hundred and thirty five years later, French novelist Raymond Queneau wrote Exercises in Style which was the same story retold in 99 different ways.

Often we don’t realize how many choices we have and how important it is to explore them.

Posted in exploring the self | Tagged choices, De Copia, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Exercises in Style, Raymond Queneau, self-narration | Leave a comment

The Storyteller Within

Posted on October 10, 2022 by Art for Housewives

It is a chilly October morning and I’m sitting at the airport on Paros waiting for departure. I spend much time watching people and wondering what their story is. Because everyone has a story to tell and everyone is a story to be told.

Socrates was the first to acknowledge the importance of a personal narrative when he suggested that man learn to know himself. So how does one go about knowing themselves? And is it even possible?

From the minute we are born, our story is being written for us without our participation. Our condition of possibility is already determined by who our parents are, what their socio-economic status is, our place of birth, our health conditions, etc. It is only when we begin to understand what has made us who we are that we can begin to know ourselves. And that’s when the story telling begins.

So we tell stories to ourselves about ourselves and in doing so give ourselves an identity. And it is this identity that we’ve created that will influence our behaviour and explain why we act the way we do. It will also greatly influence our future.

Humans are by nature storytellers. Because stories help make sense of the world around us. They also help to form the beliefs we have about ourselves and others. But not everyone is a good storyteller.

Some storytellers stick to the facts and some do not. Some storytellers are kinder to themselves than others. Some storytellers simply do not know how to express themselves. And some storytellers let others tell their stories for them.

The only thing constant in life is change. And as we change, so does our story. And for some months now, I have felt the change within me. Therefore, my personal narrative needs to be updated, edited, and retold.

The Little Old Lady who Broke all the Rules

The Little Old Lady who Broke all the Rules by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg is “an incredibly quirky, humorous and warm-hearted story” about a group of pensioners living at the Diamond House retirement home in Stockholm. In order to cut costs and earn more profit, the owner of the home subjects the pensioners to a depressed lifestyle. They are given miserable food, kept from getting proper exercise, and heavily sedated to make managing them easier. One evening while watching TV, the pensioners come to the conclusion that they would be better taken care of in jail than at Diamond House. Martha Andersson, age 79, says “if we want our lives to change, we must do something ourselves” and suggests that they commit a crime worthy of incarceration. And with that, a group of five elderly people bond together to create the League of Pensioners. The first thing they do is to stop taking their pills. This makes them physically and mentally more animated. They are now ready for a life of crime and begin robbing banks, museums, hotel safes, etc. And they begin to change not just because of the money but, as once again they’ve become protagonists in their lives. Organizing and actualizing their heists, they have something to look forward to as that is the real secret to a happy life. As one pensioner said “It is more beautiful to hear a string that snaps, than never to draw a bow.”

Related: Rita and Jerry Alter, retired art thieves + Why Would Two Ordinary People Steal a $160 Million Willem de Kooning Painting? A new documentary tells the tale of a suburban New Mexico couple who allegedly stole the artwork just to hang it behind their bedroom door + The Science Behind Storytelling

Posted in Books, Introspection, Lifestyle | Tagged Books, Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg, Condition of possibility, elderly, Know Thy Self, personal narrative, Socrates, storytelling, The Little Old Lady who Broke all the Rules | 2 Comments

A New Mythology

Posted on October 2, 2022 by Art for Housewives

Before my mom’s death, we used to talk together every Sunday. Talking with her was like talking to Pythia, the oracle of Delphi. My mom had experience that she was willing to share and all I had to do was listen and learn.

When I lost my mom, I lost my oracle and felt forced to search for a new mythology. While searching, I read Stephen Larsen’s The Mythic Imagination. The title intrigued me but the prose did not. I didn’t need to hear any more about Freud or Jung or Joseph Campbell or other people’s dreams. That’s when I asked myself: why not become a myth of my own?

What is a myth if not a narrative meant to explain thus help us better understand the world around us? What is a myth if not the story of a protagonist with a conflict to resolve? What is a myth if not learning to make the irrational rational?

All myths are personal in that we interpret them in our own way according to our own experiences, our own comprehension, our own perception.

The other morning I was sitting on the terrace with our cat. My eyes, as usual, travelled around the plants. The hibiscus up against a cloudless sky had me mesmerized. The pink flower on a cobalt blue background was so magnificent that it made me sigh. And sigh and sigh and sigh until there was this huge echo. A strange feeling came over me and, as if pulled by a magnet, I looked up and saw my mom’s face in the form of a cloud. There she was, center staged looking down on me smiling. I could feel her voice inside of me saying that there was no need for me to create a new mythology for the oracle lives within us all. And although I mourned her passing, I must remember that grief is a point of passage, not a place of arrival. That said, the cloud, my mom cloud, slowly drifted away.

For the new few days I reflected on this unique experience. I finally decided that my mom, my personal Pythia, was visiting me in the form of pareidolia and that maybe this was her new way of communicating with me. So I began carefully observing the clouds looking for messages. But, like a foreign language, you must first study the language before you can understand it.

In researching the language of clouds, I learned about Cloud Scrying aka nephelomancy. That is, the idea that clouds are oracles.

Although all clouds are made of the same thing (ice crystals or water droplets that float in the sky), no two clouds are the same. They are different in many ways such as shape, color, position, and direction. Some are thick, some are thin, some are wispy and some are bloated with rain. Some clouds have contours that are frayed and blurry while others have contours that are well-defined. And often clouds take on the shape of things that exist down on the ground and not in the sky.

Obviously if you want an answer from the clouds you must first have a question. But before asking it, it’s best to lay down while looking directly up at the sky, close your eyes, clear your thoughts, then open your eyes and start scanning the sky for an answer.

Here are a few of the answers I’ve been given: