ART HISTORY. The Luxembourg museum, close to the artists quarters of Saint Germain, in Paris, is situated in a lush park. Its opening exhibition shows women painters, a rarity in those days.

It was a big day, this 31 May 1783, when the prestigious Royal Academy of Painters welcomed a new member: the talented Adélaïde Labille-Gaillard. Soon afterwards, another woman, close to the royal family, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, also insisted on becoming a member. Her magnificent portrait of Marie-Antoinette, her protégée, is displayed in this intimate exhibition. 

A quota to accept only four women had been established long ago among an abundance of men. However, a few years later, this one-hundred-year-old Academy was transformed into an Institute, and women painters were accepted in greater numbers. They excelled in the art of portraits. Women could not paint nudes because, at the time, the models were exclusively males…

The relative democratization between the genders opened up doors to otherwise closed ateliers for these women painters. They were thus accepted as pupils for male teachers. It further led to free of charges, highly classified, drawing classes for the impoverished ’demoiselles’ who possessed an artistic talent. 

This short epoch was called la parenthèse enchantée – or the ’enchanted parentheses’. During this period, the art world experienced a women painters’ boom. During the 1783 painting exhibition, a commentator wrote that: ’women have truly become rivals of their male counterparts, and these shall have to deal with some real competition!’

I was surprised at the dexterity and vigour in those paintings, mostly depicting other women. Many of which were auto-portraits, often sitting painting, with their brushes and easel at hand or holding a child. They favoured intimate, domestic scenes sometimes with fun touches, like the woman who’s attaching her shoelaces. They also showed great dexterity in the ’sentimental genre’ that enhanced feelings by painting music being played for example.

However, apart from the two above-cited women painters, most of the others have been ’buried’ and forgotten in the collective memory… This exquisite, rather small, exhibition finally gives them justice.   

Anne Edelstam

Peintre Femmes, 1780 – 1830

Musée du Luxemburg, Paris 

19 May to 4 July 2021

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LIFE. Why do people start truly valuing what they love when things deteriorate or worse yet when they lose them entirely? People are more motivated to move away from something they dislike and not towards something better. Consequently, it makes them have a scarcity mindset and focus on the negative. This can be explained by years of evolution because we needed to look out for danger and adverse outcomes to survive for centuries.

However, things have changed; our limbic brain doesn’t have to rule any longer, and yet we let it control us in many ways. What people don’t fully realize is that it’s much simpler, more enjoyable, and productive to have an abundant mindset and create, not force, and take. With creativity and flow, more energy frees up for enhancement.

If we act out of fear, control, and desire to overpower, the energy it unleashes will eventually turn into a destructive force, which will inevitably lead to resistance and deterioration. Unfortunately, that’s what’s happening to our planet now. If we, as human beings, learned to perceive and act out of constructive, creative, and preservative energy, our existence would be fruitful, not destructive.

In other words, if we thought about the consequences of our actions and moved toward abundance, it would be beneficial for all. Unfortunately, we prefer comfort to common sense, selfishness to sharing, and to appreciate things once they are about to be lost.

When we value life, we start to appreciate all living things because they all begin to matter. Then we notice how our actions influence the world, and if we carefully thought about and attempted to feel through what the world is experiencing, we would not complete mindless activities.

And that’s how we develop in general. We grow and improve out of pain and trauma and not out love and contentment. We look for help when things are bad, not when they are good. Why are we driven by suffering so much? Drama attracts and entices people more than reality. Do you often hear people saying, “my life is so great that I’m thinking of ways to make it even better?”

I believe that things will start to change and shift when all of us look at how we live our own lives. Can we be content with what we have and learn to cherish it? The secret is to live out each moment consciously, to learn to find pleasure in small, everyday routine, and be content with yourself while completing tasks. It’s being not doing that makes us happy, being there for yourself and others, experiencing what it is to be human, and learning to appreciate life.

When we value life, we start to appreciate all living things because they all begin to matter. Then we notice how our actions influence the world, and if we carefully thought about and attempted to feel through what the world is experiencing, we would not complete mindless activities.

People need to start viewing mistakes as lessons so that humankind has a chance to take history seriously enough not to repeat it. And what history taught us is that jealousy, hate, anger, and forceful aggression only bring more resistance and destruction in the end.

We all need to ask ourselves, “Is what I am doing right now benefiting me and my environment?” Whether we want it or not, everything is interdependent and connected, and you can’t view yourself separately from the environment. Start with your way of life, what purpose do you serve in this world, and then decide whether your actions align with who you want to be.

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LIFE. We all know the irony behind movies such as Bedazzled and similar stories. The funny part is that most of these stories have the same moral or message, “be careful what you wish for”. So what is meant by wishing carefully?

Some may say why do we need to wish in any specific way, it’s supposed to be spontaneous. Let me tell you a story.

One man dreamt of a better life – he disliked the house he lived in, the clothes he wore, and mostly everything around him. He would always think that if he had a better house, a beautiful wife and more money, he would be happy.

One day, he miraculously met a wizard. The wizard said to the man, “since you have been asking for so long, I will make it happen for you.” At first, the man couldn’t believe his luck. Nevertheless, he got his thoughts together and wished for a nice, big house, a beautiful wife who would be good at cooking delicious meals and lots and lots of money.

When he woke up the next morning, everything came true. He lived in a beautiful, luxurious home, where he was presented with a delicious breakfast cooked by his lovely wife. On top of everything, he had a never-ending source of money. At first, it seemed like a life of his dreams but as time passed the man realized that nothing in his new life ever changed and he wasn’t even close to feeling happy.

Finally, he decided to call the wizard back and ask for happiness. The wizard came back and said that he already made all of the man’s wishes true, so he should just enjoy his happiness. The man replied that everything he has doesn’t bring him joy or happiness. Then the wizard explained, “you asked for a house but didn’t ask for warmth and cosiness of a home, you asked for a beautiful wife but not for love and understanding, you asked for money but not for joy, power, and freedom that can come with wealth”.

The man got excited and said, thank you, I understand everything, can I please have it now? The wizard said, since you know everything, now go and create it yourself and disappeared.

The moral of the story, always know your actual reasons for wishing something. The same happens with our wishes. When we wish something, we subconsciously give our brains a task, completion of which will be planned on the background. If the task isn’t specific enough, detailed enough or doesn’t contain enough visionary and energetic support, the completion will not lead to the result we are seeking.

In fact, it may turn into a completely different picture as happened with our character. The key here is to not only have an idea of what we want the end result to be but to visualize it in detail and create a feeling that matches what we desire.

In so many words, to build the result of our wish, visualize it and feel it through as if we already had it. Creative images feed our goals, plans and help create steps towards accomplishing our inner wishes. Our mind is like a monkey, it needs a pretty picture to be motivated enough to do the work.

Some people are better at visualizing their dream life than others. Most importantly, there is no magic behind it, just a great ability to think figuratively and make it a reality. The good news is that all of this can be learned. Who needs help developing their manifestation skills?

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