"Foreign Friends," Pears, Caterpillar

Ann Ropp's "Foreign Friends" series intrigues me totally. I love the uniquely malformed characters. Then there are her pear-a-day paintings, was she eventually satisfied? The multi page mounted presentation keeps pear-to-pear suspense at a minimum. The pear isn't just a fruit among fruits, and I can think of an example of the pear's underrepresentation. I would've liked to see the pear play a more distinguished role in "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." Ann Ropp's Pear-a-days play a role in the SHOCKING unabridged version.

Lovable people

First St. Seraphim of Sarov

Don't dwell on other people's flaws.
Take account of your own flaws.
But don't dwell on your sins or hate yourself.
Don't watch yourself worship.
Serve others.

Second Pavel Filonov, Faces on an Icon. 1940.
Filonov died the following year during the siege at Leningrad.

The more consciously and forcefully the artist works on his intellect, the stronger the effect the finished work has on the spectator.

Each brushstroke, each contact with the picture, is a precise recording through the material and in the material of the inner psychical process taking place in the artist, and the whole work is the entire recording of the intellect of the person who made it.

Form is made by persistent line. Every line must be made.

Every atom must be made; the whole work must be made and adapted.

Think persistently and accurately over every atom of the work you are doing. Make every atom persistently and accurately.

Introduce persistently and accurately into every atom the color you have studied -- so that it enters the atom just as heat enters the body or so that it is linked organically with the form, just as in nature a flower's cellulose is linked with its color.