Arkhip Kuindzhi - Birch Grove (n.d.)

Arkhip Kuindzhi - Birch Grove (n.d.)

“Garden”

Ludwik Stasiak (Polish;1858-1924)

oil on canvas

private collection

Polish Gothic

You live in a block of flats. All your friends live in blocks of flats. You might as well have been living in the very same block of flats and never noticed it. 

Your local grocery store is called Leviathan. The cashier bares her golden teeth at you. It takes you a while to realize it’s a smile. Or is it?

Old men are drinking on a bench in the park. They’ve been there for a while. They’ve been there your whole life. They stare at you with hungry eyes as you hurry past them.

They’re building a new fancy skyscraper in the city centre… Or so they say. You only see a black pit in the ground, but you’re too afraid to ask somebody if they see the same thing.

You somehow know Russian. You don’t know how or when you’ve learned it. It might not even be Russian. How are you supposed to find out?

Where were your grandparents during the war? How did they survive? You have no idea. You suspect you come from a family of ghosts. “Don’t we all?” says the Mickiewicz statue as you walk by.

You’ve only ever been on schooltrips to churches and graveyards, and you kind of like it. You never understood what’s the big fuss about the living. 

My Father's Greenhouse -   Hans Vandekerckhove, 2020

Belgian, b. 1957 -

Oil on canvas , 59 1/10 × 59 1/10 in. 150 × 150 cm.

🍁I know it's Autumn when:

1. I drink chai latte in the morning instead of coffee or matcha

2. I eat spicy stew for dinner instead of salad or pizza

4. I drink at least 3 cups of tea a day because I'm sleepy af

5. I'm constantly cold whatever I have on unless I'm fully wrapped into a blanket

6. I have a ridiculous craving for pumpkin fritters

7. I want to listen to François Hardy all the time

8. The smells in the supermarket remind me of time spent in school both as a student and as a teacher

7. The only emotion I have is "melancholy mood" and "autumn leaves" performed by BD

8. Where's my long black coat?

9. My throat is sore. And it will continue to remain that way until next April

10. I sleep in warm socks

11. I feel the switch in my mind that instead of white wine and prosecco I now desire some Bordeaux and Chianti

12. The landscape suddenly looks like the setting of Wuthering Heights

13. Sudden shift from cottagecore to dark studycore and gothic/victorian elements should prevail

Spot a weirdo