"A soul's journey through this uniquely itchy epoch requires a far more nourishing approach" - Sarah Wilson, This One Wild and Precious Life

Sometimes you cannot see the forest for the trees, but that is the writers life. It is a process. And maybe it will all work out in the end. And if it doesn’t work out, well I guess, it is not the end.

Today I share some of my trials and tribulation of the creative life and committing to the crazy idea to write a book (another book). Somehow talking about it I come out the other side with a fresh perspective. I also had a nice epiphany straight after so really, thanks for being here!

And please feel free to share with me if this episode resonated with you. I am here for the connection

Michelle x

Enjoy,

Shownotes

A Writer in Italy Instagram

Substack - At My Table

Michelle’s Books

Musical Scores by Richard Johnston

A Writer in Italy is about travel and life. A place to share the beautiful travel journeys and the discoveries along the way.

Italy has many attractions - art, design, architecture, history and the wonderful food culture. Michelle shares her love of books on Italy and the places and regions that have inspired her along the way.

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“The large paintings envelop the viewer and invite him or her in, it is an invitation to a self contained world where one can lose oneself and perhaps in the process find oneself. And for all their grandest of scale it is an intimate experience, a world unique to that particular encounter” - Christopher Rothko, Mark Rothko and the Inner World

Welcome to Episode #140:

In Italy, Mark Rothko (1903-1970) found what he was looking for.

On a long voyage in Europe in 1950 with his wife, Rothko found himself in Florence, in the cradle of the Italian Renaissance - Today I share the story about this encounter and the shift in perspective that occurred for his painting, and the places in Italy that opened a new dialogue, a liberation of colour.

Mark Rothko is currently on exhibit at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. There are three site specific places to see this exhibition including the Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana) and the Museum of San Marco (Museo di San Marco) in Florence.

Mark Rothko is most known for his colour field paintings, the great abstract artworks that have become iconic in modern art. Today I share about his life, the influence of Italy, and the experience of seeing a Rothko artwork in person (think rapture meets a direct experience of a unified colour field) and why you should go if you can.

"Rothko’s art is an invitation. It is a doorway and really demands that you pay attention" - Michelle Johnston

Visit: Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi

"Rothko’s first encounter with Florence dates to 1950, during a trip to Italy with his wife Mell. He was deeply moved by Fra Angelico’s frescoes at the Convent of San Marco and by Michelangelo’s architectural vision in the Vestibule of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, which would inspire the Seagram Murals painted in the late 1950s—a dialogue that Rothko further developed during his second visit to Florence in 1966. In some of his more delicate works, one can also perceive the influence of fifteenth-century Italian art and, in particular, of Angelico’s fresco technique. Rothko and Angelico shared a desire to evoke a sense of transcendence, a dimension at once distant and profoundly familiar. While Angelico achieved this through the emotional resonance of divine figures in dialogue with earthly reality, Rothko created color fields capable of accompanying viewers into different emotional depths, challenging accepted notions of abstraction and color theory" - Palazzo Strozzi, Florence

Enjoy,

Michelle x

Shownotes

A Writer in Italy Instagram

Substack - At My Table

Michelle’s Books

Musical Scores by Richard Johnston

A Writer in Italy is about travel and life. A place to share the beautiful travel journeys and the discoveries along the way.

Support the show

"Fortunately for us art and travel lovers, science has caught up with what we have felt inside, what we have experienced" - Michelle Johnston

In more recent years the science of ‘neuro-aesthetics’ has given us much to ponder in terms of understanding the importance of art and beauty in our lives. I share my personal experience and sound research on the positive side effects that seeking art, travel and beauty in our lives has on our mental health, neuro-plasticity and longevity.

This is a broad topic yet I cite recent book publications and examples on the importance of art, creativity and travel and how there are many positive flow on effects in our lives.

Enjoy, Michelle x

Shownotes

A Writer in Italy Instagram

Substack - At My Table

Michelle’s Books

Musical Scores by Richard Johnston

A Writer in Italy is about travel and life. A place to share the beautiful travel journeys and the discoveries along the way.

Support the show