Mona Lisa - The Second Act

Your weekly art takeaway

Author

Mona L
July 28, 2024

July 28 | Issue 01

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

❝

The second act in a person's life is when things start to get juicy. It's when the plot thickens and the stakes are raised. It's where we start to learn what a person is really made of. It's also often the part where we watch a person grow, adapt, and come into something new. I personally love second acts. Even third and fourth acts, I've had a few myself, because they remind us that there's always another way of thinking, being, or doing…

Suzanne Rust - The Moth Radio Hour: Second Acts 

Little thoughts

🕰️ The best thing about growing older is that I love who I am becoming.

😏 Why smiles are rare in art.

🇫🇷  La Seine’s semi-submerged women.

🤸‍♀️I’d rather regret the risks that didn’t work out than the chances I didn’t take at all - Simone Biles 

Mona’s notes

The Olympics commenced in Paris this week. I watched the opening ceremony on mute - admiring the Olympic athletes bob serenely down the Seine.

Sportspeople commence their ‘second act’ unusually early - a former athlete-turned-artist mentioned to me in recent conversation - and often before many of us non-athletic beings have even started our first act, career or conquest in life.

Sports is the only profession I know that when you retire, you have to go to work.

I was no athlete (!) but I did leave the sunset yellow brick road for the art world rabbit hole to discover that I was in curious and inspiring company.

Over the years I have met: Linguist turned jeweller — Surgeon to ceramist — Housewife turned painter — Swimmer to painter — Athlete turned artist —Apparel designer to painter — Architect turned textile artist — Programmer to illustrator — Lawyer turned painter — Fashion designer to wood carver...etc. I wonder if any other profession or industry has such an enviable intersection and wealth of experience, or the same degree of Renaissance-iness.

So this first issue is a nod to the ‘second act’ as I try my hand at this: a newsletter buffet of collected ideas and thoughts for curious, boundless and wandering creatives. My plot continues to thicken. It’s syrupy.

His cross-disciplinary brilliance whirls across every page of his notebook, providing a delightful display of a mind dancing with nature.

With love -

Mona x

 

“Breathe - you’re a tree.“Jamal Jospeh from the Moth Radio Hour 🌴 

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