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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

It's really hard to believe one person can contain this much ignorance, arrogance, grievance, petulance, and malevolence.

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

In short, it's stolen valor... by a traitor to democracy. "Such monuments attempt to rewrite political reality through symbolic assertion. They declare victory where history might record defeat." quillette.com/2026/03/26/t...

quillette.com

The Edifice Complex

Monuments don’t create legacy; they merely memorialise it.

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Happy birthday to Vincent van Gogh, born March 30, 1853. He painted the moth from a drawing he made of what he believed was a death's-head moth, depicting a small skull on the insect's thorax. But the moth's four large eyespots are distinctive of the giant peacock moth, Europe's largest moth.

Perched on green leaves and chartreuse jack-in-the-pulpits, a large moth with outstretched wings displays four prominent eyespots, a defensive adaptation. Stems of small red berries rise in the background. Van Gogh unifies the scene with a vivid blue-green palette and bold brushstrokes.

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

Happy Easter to those who celebrate. 🌸 Pansies from the Missouri Botanical Garden a few years ago... #flowers #bloomscrolling #pansies #photography #spring

Image is a closeup of purple and yellow pansies sprinkled with raindrops.

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

I came across my pictures of William from a few years ago, but they don't do him justice, so here is an official photo. #Art #Adorable Standing Hippopotamus ("William"), ca. 1961-1878 BCE (Middle Kingdom) Egypt. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC. www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

From The Met: This statuette of a hippopotamus (popularly called "William") was molded in faience, a ceramic material made of ground quartz. Beneath the blue glaze, the body was painted with lotuses. These river plants depict the marshes in which the animal lived, but at the same time their flowers also symbolize regeneration and rebirth as they close every night and open again in the morning.

The seemingly benign appearance that this figurine presents is deceptive. To the ancient Egyptians, the hippopotamus was one of the most dangerous animals in their world. The huge creatures were a hazard for small fishing boats and other rivercraft. The beast might also be encountered on the waterways in the journey to the afterlife. As such, the hippopotamus was a force of nature that needed to be propitiated and controlled, both in this life and the next. This example was one of a pair found in a shaft associated with the tomb chapel of the steward Senbi II at Meir, an Upper Egyptian site about thirty miles south of modern Asyut. Three of its legs have been restored because they were probably purposely broken to prevent the creature from harming the deceased. The hippo was part of Senbi's burial equipment, which included a canopic box (also in the Metropolitan Museum), a coffin, and numerous models of boats and food production.

The hippo's modern nickname first appeared in 1931 in a story that was published in the British humor magazine Punch. It reports about a family that consults a color print of the Met’s hippo—which it calls "William"—as an oracle. The Met republished the story the same year in the Museum’s Bulletin, and the name William caught on!

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Reposted by j9collier

Duncan Jones @manmademoon.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Don't worry, everyone. I've come up with a solution...

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

More miniature art, this time a graceful ivory horse netsuke. #art #adorable Grazing Horse Netsuke, 18th c. (Edo period) Japan. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O14579/...

This carved and stained ivory netsuke is in the form of a grazing horse with the tethering rope lying over its arched back in a haphazard manner. Height is 5.6 cm.

Credit: V&A Museum

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

I remember standing in front of this painting for the first time, feeling wholly transported to another place and time. Franz Marc, The Bewitched Mill, 1913. The Art Institute of Chicago. www.artic.edu/artworks/902... #Art #Chicago

Among the German Expressionists, artists who used strong color and exaggerated form to express emotional content, Franz Marc was especially committed to his empathic interest in the life of animals. “Is there a more mysterious idea,” he asked, “than to imagine how nature is reflected in the eyes of animals?” Beginning in 1905, he devoted himself to representing the world with a fresh and purifying vision. Marc painted The Bewitched Mill following a sojourn to the Italian town of Merano in the southern Tirol. The work’s title refers to the “magical” harmony he sensed there between human life, represented by the houses and mill on the left, and nature, embodied by the lyrical region of trees and animals on the right.

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

I've been lax in posting art, so I'll share something by a highly imaginative artist I enjoy: Charles Burchfield. I love this portrayal of the seasons as a literal passage through time. I just wish I could see a hint of sunlit spring in the snow swirling outside my window. #art #spring

From the Krannert Art Museum: The foreground of this wooded scene is a shadowy winter landscape. A rich autumnal passage between the two foremost trees marks not only seasonal transformation but also a transition from the exterior to a bright, cathedral-like interior space and a spring landscape of yellows and greens.

In the middle ground, a screen of trees forming pointed Gothic arches opens onto a summer landscape in the distance. The arches also point toward a life-giving sun that imbues the interior space with warmth and energy. As rays of light fall on the foreground trees, their branches fairly burst into orange flame.

Burchfield's pictorial language of semi-abstract, calligraphic brushstrokes lends a sense of animate presence to this pictorial meditation on seasonal and spiritual metamorphosis.

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 25/12/2024

Happy holidays to all! This is a beautiful cover of one of my favorite Christmas songs. Just lovely. Daniela Andrade - Christmas Time Is Here youtu.be/_iAaEH_dR_Y?...

youtu.be

Christmas Time Is Here - Daniela Andrade

YouTube video by Daniela Andrade

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

This expresses my feelings about Winter rather well, I'd say. And there are woolly black-faced sheep, even if they were totally invented by the artist. Joseph Farquharson, The Joyless Winter Day, 1883. Tate Britain, London. www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks... #Art #Winter

A small herd of black-faced sheep graze an empty Scottish landscape despite its dense blanket of snow, their white coats brown against the blizzard swirling around them. Flanked by his two sheep dogs, a shepherd watches over them, huddled next to a low, snow-covered stone wall. The sky fades from a heavy blue-gray to a complete whiteout as the storm rages.

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

I recently read a little about trans Danish artist Lili Elbe, the subject of the 2015 film The Danish Girl, and I discovered this lovely painting she created a century ago on the island of Capri. #Art #EndHate

Lili and Gerda pose before a low stone terrace wall, dressed in sleeveless, knee-length sundresses, Lili in pink, Gerda in lilac. Gerda wears a large-brimmed yellow sunhat, while Lili has a red scarf over her hair. Sitting alertly at their feet is a white dog, similar in appearance to the Jack Russell Terrier that played their dog Teddy in the 2015 film.

Behind them are the sunlit buildings of Capri, notably the gilded dome of the Chiesa di Santo Stefano. The view is framed by towering palm trees and dotted with flowering trees and shrubs in pastel pink and bright yellow. In the distance gray-green mountains rise high into a cloudy aqua sky.

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

Seeing lots of little guys in my feed recently. I think this one reflects the current mood pretty well. Found in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Chess-piece from the Lewis Chessmen, ca. 1150-1200. British Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o... #Art #Adorable

This scarred ivory chess-piece was made from walrus tusk in the form of a medieval queen. She wears a floriated crown over a veil and mantle and sits in a chair ornamented with leaf scrolls and animal heads. In her left hand she holds a horn, and her right she holds to her cheek in an expression of dismay. Front view.

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Seeing lots of great bird images today... Here's one of my favorite birds in art history. Vincent Van Gogh, Kingfisher by the Waterside (detail), 1887. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collectio... #Art #Birds #VanGogh

A kingfisher perches alertly on a tall grass stem, its head tilted in search of prey. Behind it is a large body of water, painted in rich teal that fades in the distance to a pale aqua reflecting the white clouds above.

Van Gogh, likely inspired by a mounted kingfisher he owned, depicted the bird with impasto strokes of green, blue, and ochre: vivid, yet less so than the species' usual plumage of brilliant teal and russet orange.

The grasses in the foreground are loose strokes of muddy green, ochre, and beige, with highlights of crimson. In the full image, there is a hint of sunlit sailboats in the far distance, suggested in minimal strokes of pale yellow.

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Because protest is in the air... Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People (detail), 1830. Louvre, Paris. collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/5335... #Art #Protest #Authoritarianism

In 1830 Charles X of France suspended freedom of the press and the constitution, restricted voting, and purged his opposition, triggering the July Revolution. Forced to abdicate, he left France in exile.

A powerful, half-nude female figure representing Liberty leads a group of revolutionaries through a chaotic battlefield, charging forward over the bodies of fallen combatants while holding aloft the French tricolor flag, signifying the spirit of the 1830 July Revolution. The painting captures the energy and violence of the uprising, with diverse figures from various social classes joining the charge, all united in their fight for freedom, showcased through dynamic brushstrokes and vibrant colors against a backdrop of smoke and debris.

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

For some inexplicable reason, I have been thinking lately of Ambrogio Lorenzetti's allegorical murals of government, specifically his representation of bad leadership. #Art #Government #Kakistocracy #DumbestTimeline

Despite the fresco's poor condition, the allegorical figures and their labels are mostly intact. In the top tier, three winged figures hover in a dark blue sky above the pale crenellated city walls and the throned Tyrant figure on a dais. Seated alongside the tyrant are five human figures (one winged) holding representations of their vices. The monstrous Tyrant holds a gold cup in his left hand and possibly a scepter in his right. A live goat serves as his footrest, and a dagger-wielding, tusked chimera (Frenzy) stands to his left. Alongside the figure of Justice in the bottom tier are citizens suffering from the ruin of bad government.

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Happy Turkey Day! A delightfully unique subject for Monet... and TIL a flock of domesticated turkeys is technically called a rafter. #Art #Thanksgiving Claude Monet, The Turkeys (Les Dindons), 1877. Musée d'Orsay. www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/oeuvres/l...

A small flock of white turkeys graze the grounds of the Château de Rottembourg in Montgeron, France, just visible in the background. The turkeys' red heads and sun-drenched white feathers contrast boldly with the bright green grass.

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

These draconian laws hurt all women.

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Urban isolation at its finest. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Street at Schöneberg City Park, 1912-13. Milwaukee Art Museum. collection.mam.org/details.php?... #Art

Monochromatic figures walk across an urban intersection in a Berlin suburb. Despite the blue sky and hints of street trees, the pale gray arcaded buildings loom starkly over the gray streets with the distorted perspective Kirchner often used to express a feeling of claustrophobia and isolation.

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Gustav Klimt. Church in Cassone–Landscape with Cypresses (Kirche in Cassone–Landschaft mit Zypressen), 1913. Private collection. #Art Klimt used a telescope to capture this view of Chiesa di Cassone on Lake Garda. Recovered Nazi-looted painting: www.theguardian.com/artanddesign....

Klimt's work features a flattened, Cubist-inspired view of a white church at the top of an Italian hillside, flanked by columns of dark green cypress trees. Below the church, nestled in rounded trees of vibrant yellow and green, a small village of white houses shimmers in the sunlight, dappled in shadows of blue and green, their terra cotta roofs iridescent with splashes of aqua. Just visible below the village is a blue lake gilded with yellow.

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j9collier @j9collier.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Franz Marc. Cats on a Red Cloth (Katzen auf rotem Tuch), 1909-10. Private collection. #Caturday

Franz Marc's expressionist painting features two sleeping cats, one orange and white, the other blue and white, curled on the ground around a striped red blanket, with bright green grass in the background.

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