Not at Work

Gwen John, Corner of the Artist's Room, circa 1907

I have not been writing much here because I was finishing up one of the most challenging semesters of my educational history and exhaustingly, enlighteningly so. My room is hardly this neat and tidy, nor do I believe that the rest of the room in the image is as kept as this picture shows, but the tranquility is how I feel as I laze about reading irrelevent fiction and recover from the flu that is long overdue.

Gwen John was a Welsh artist who paints quiet pictures, largely known for her still lifes and anonymous women. I could mention her time as August Rodin's lover and his eventual distancing, or her time learning from Whistler, but the reason I pick this picture is because rather than learn, know, express, and recount more, I am going to go sit in a chair by a window and stare at the space between me and the sky.