Mona Lisa - Kind or Nice?

Your weekly art takeaway

Author

Mona L
September 22, 2024

Sep 22 | Issue 09

ML - Welcome to Mona Lisa. A weekly newsletter for artists with timeless quotes, ideas and light bites for curious & wandering minds.

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“The day I made my first lily-of-the-valley accord [scent], I thought I was a god […] because you have the power of creation. It is not possible to distill the lily-of-the-valley into a natural essence, because the flower is too delicate. But take four raw materials—one smelling of fresh-cut grass, one smelling almondy, one smelling like cheap lavender, and one like rotten teeth—and you can.”

— Francis Kurkdjian, Perfumer

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— excerpt from René Magritte’s ‘La Reproduction interdite’ (Not to Be Reproduced), 1937

Mona’s notes

I often conflate ‘nice’ with ‘kind’, but I’m realising that although they seem interchangeable, they should really be differentiated when we talk about feedback. Reflecting upon my time on this artist’s residency (which is coming to an end this October 🥲) arguably the most valuable benefit that I derived from the other artists and mentors was feedback that was kind, but not necessarily nice.

Kind people will flag things that a nice person might shy away from. A kind person will tell you if there are crumbs in your beard or if something’s stuck in your teeth 🌱— whilst a nice person may remain silent to avoid discomfort.

Kindness involves telling us what's holding us back, even when it's awkward, uncomfortable and prickly 🌵Playing nice, on the other hand, swerves constructive criticism out of concern for our feelings. So, a Sunday shout-out to my fellow artists and craftspeople who continue to show me kindness…💛 

With love -

Mona x

— excerpt from Caravaggio’s ‘Narcissus’ (1599)

“My wife has a terrible memory…she remembers everything” — Tony Cragg

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