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Mona Lisa - The best thing I never had
Your weekly art takeaway
Mona L
September 29, 2024
Sep 29 | Issue 10
ML - Welcome to Mona Lisa. A weekly newsletter for artists with timeless quotes, ideas and light bites for curious & wandering minds.
You cannot define a person on just one thing. You can’t just forget all these wonderful and good things that a person has done because one thing didn’t come off the way you thought it should come off.
Lite bites
🦛 The rich history of hippo’s in art
🔨 Ai Wei Wei sculpture smashed
🍆 Food in European art…
⚫️ Black gesso for depth in paintings
💍 Cartier’s new 21,000 sq ft of exhibition space
🔗 p.s. Images & quotes in the newsletter are always linked…click & explore / listen / watch 🤓
— “Rayograph (the kiss)”, Man Ray (1930)
Mona’s notes
It dawned upon me last week that it is entirely possible that I could someday lose my Spotify playlists (crafted and curated by activity, feels or season of course), and that it is not possible for me to have them backed-up because nobody owns music these days 😭.
We were talking about break-up playlists, and the lyrics got me thinking about loss and falling out of love — with ideas, people, projects, places, playlists, even parts of myself 💔. That glowing heat that keeps the engine firing begins to falter, and what was once moving me forward becomes static or too weighty to progress. But maybe falling out of love is actually just a decision - to make space - for something new, unexpected and important.
“When a thing is done, it’s done. Don’t look back. Look forward to your next objective.”
We don’t stick to the project because it feels forced. We lose interest in a material, colour or technique because it no longer feels suitable. We switch up the playlist because it’s been on loop for a year. We drift away from people, careers or spaces because they don’t fit anymore - or because they can’t make room for us anymore 🐌 . It’s easy to feel insufficient, unfocussed or guilty. But is it not just a choice to re-define the lines and re-set the goal posts?
At the start of each year I build a fresh playlist, taking care not to bring over any tracks from the previous year, encouraging me to be open to all the wonderful music out there that I haven’t yet tried…and my world becomes a little more enriching. In fact, I did so mid-way through this year too, titling it “2024 Restart.”🌱
I guess it’s time to skip forward to the next track, indulging only the right flavour of throwback, and appreciate that what I let go of will be the best thing I never had. Here’s to new music & memories 🎶
You get to redefine what love looks like for you, and that’s exciting. But it also means you have to let go of what it looked like before.
With love (for now 😉) —
Mona x
“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain” — Bob Marley
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