It’s already September?
In two more days, I’ll celebrate my 16th anniversary of moving to St. Louis. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
It’s fun to fantasize about where I might be today had I not moved here, but that’s what fantasies are for, right? When the reality sits in, it’s kind of depressing. But I’m not there. I am here thanks to a series of events and questionable decisions.
I know that might sound like I regret moving to St. Louis, and a part of me does. Any decisions that we don’t consider “good” ones, or that are not beneficial in the way we perceived are easy to label as “bad” or “questionable.”
But still it’s fun to fantasize. Isn’t it?
A few days ago I started reading a new book. It’s called The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone and it was written by Olivia Laing. Have you read it?
It’s a memoir about Olivia living in New York and exploring loneliness through the work of several artists. One of those artists is American realist Edward Hopper. Even if you don’t recognize the name, you know who Hopper is thanks to one of his most popular paintings called Nighthawks.
I’ve enjoyed exploring his other work at that link. Here’s one of my favorites called New York Movie:
I’m really enjoying Laing’s point of view and opinions on Hopper’s work and it’s given me inspiration to want to write some short stories based on Hopper’s paintings. So, look for one of those here on my blog hopefully soon.
My first story that I’m writing now is inspired by Hopper’s wife, Jo. She was also a painter but her husband did not encourage her to paint, and actually didn’t want her to paint. Her diaries reveal that they had a troubled marriage that even suffered from physical abuse. But Jo encouraged her husband, modeled for him, named his paintings, and was his muse. I wonder if she was lonely?
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