Take Your Time #10
ah well, really we can only make our paintings speak
Resources to support the people of Gaza
Phone or email your representatives in Congress: Demand a de-escalation and call for a ceasefire, and demand that humanitarian assistance be allowed into the Gaza Strip.
Tell Congress: End military aid to Israel: Every year, Israel is guaranteed at least $3.3 billion in U.S. military financing, under a memorandum of understanding between the two countries. This funding is often supplemented with additional military aid. Israel uses this funding to buy weapons and military resources to enforce its occupation of the Palestinian territory, keep Gaza under blockade, and violate Palestinians’ rights.
Donate to help Palestinian elders in Gaza meet their essential needs, live comfortably, and with basic dignity. American Friends Service Committee supplies elders in Gaza with wheelchairs, walkers, supportive mattresses, adult diapers, and hygiene items. AFSC has a long history of providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza as they advocate to end the blockade.
USCPR is a political home for all who believe that freedom for the Palestinian people is integral to achieving our collective liberation.
ActionAid is an international network dedicated to "building a just, equitable, and sustainable world in solidarity with communities on the frontlines of poverty and injustice," with a presence in Palestinian territories since 2007.
Anera addresses the development and relief needs of refugees and others hurt by conflicts in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Jordan. It's working to provide humanitarian relief to Palestinians and residents of East Jerusalem.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) describes itself as an "independent and impartial humanitarian organization" that delivers emergency medical care in places that need it.
Gaza Mutual Aid Collective is a grassroots collective committed to monetarily helping the people of Gaza.
The International Committee of the Red Cross is a "neutral, independent humanitarian organization" that responds to help people harmed by armed conflict and disasters in conflict zones.
Medical Aid for Palestinians is on the ground in Gaza, where they are working to stock hospitals with essential drugs, disposables, and other healthcare supplies.
Middle East Children's Alliance is a nonprofit dedicated to children's rights in the Middle East and supports dozens of community projects for Palestinian children.
Palestine Children’s Relief Fund is the primary humanitarian organization in Palestine, delivering crucial and lifesaving medical relief and humanitarian aid where it is needed most.
Save the Children says it's disbursed $1 million from its emergency fund to help its teams respond to lifesaving needs in both Israel and Gaza "when it is safe to do so."
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF): Spokesperson James Elder said 1.1 million children already needed humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank before the current escalation of violence.
The World Food Program has been distributing fresh bread, canned food, and ready-to-eat food to those who sought refuge in United Nations Relief and Works Agency shelters in Gaza.
Listen To Take Your Time
The audio version is back! Here’s the audio version of Take Your Time #10. Enjoy!
Illustration
Inspiration
About a week or so ago, I was in Paris. On Sunday morning, after a quick and indulgent breakfast of warm pains aux chocolat and hot cafés aux lait, Michael and I walked down the Rue de Université to the wonderful Musée d’Orsay to see Van Gogh A Auvers-Sur-Oise His Final Months. The exhibition was a beautiful and moving collection of Van Gogh’s works created at Auvers-Sur-Oise (WAZ), a village north of Paris, in the last two months or so of his life. He was being treated by Dr. Paul Gachet, who specialized in studying depression, at the time referred to as mélancholie. This was following a year he spent at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy. We know now that Van Gogh experienced “frequent episodes of depression, paralyzing anxiety and, according to some accounts, the symptoms of bipolar disorder.”
In just two months in Auvers-Sure-Oise, Van Gogh produced 74 paintings and hundreds of sketches and drawings, including landscapes, portraits, and still lifes. I was struck by the brightness of the paintings, especially the landscapes, and the sense of calm and peace; you can almost feel the breeze and sunshine. And at the same time, behind them, you knew that he was suffering greatly. The beautiful natural surroundings that provided Van Gogh with so much comfort and inspiration was also where he took his life at the tender age of 37.
By the end of the exhibition, I was moved to tears. As an artist and a human being prone to feelings, reading Van Gogh’s letters describing his pain and the works he was creating despite the pain was a little too relatable.
He wrote to his brother Theo, “It is true that I am often in the greatest misery, but still there is within me a calm, pure harmony and music. In the poorest huts, in the dirtiest corner, I see drawings and pictures.”
I want to be careful not to link Van Gogh’s struggle with his mental health with his creativity and style. The idea of the mad genius is a myth and a dangerous one. “Framing Van Gogh as a mad genius reduces him to his mental health and illness. He wasn’t a great painter because of poor mental health. Nor did he allow it to stop him painting.” According to the CDC, more than 1 in 5 US adults live with a mental illness, over 1 in 5 youth (ages 13-18) either currently or at some point during their life, have had a seriously debilitating mental illness, and about 1 in 25 U.S. adults lives with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression. No matter what you are going through, you are not alone. It helps to talk. You can find someone to talk to at findahelpline.com.
Related Readings
Ideas
Crocodiles yield to flower power, study finds Does appreciation for beauty transcend species? It’s the season of marigolds, and I found this article that a friend shared to be so charming about the Indian marsh crocodile being attracted to marigolds. Two zoologists studied the crocodiles from 2014 to 2023 and found that they often basked, floated, or laid in close contact with garlands of the yellow and orange flowers discarded from offerings. It could be more than just attraction; the study noted that “marigolds are known to have antimicrobial compounds,” which might benefit the crocodiles in warding off certain pathogens.
Oh, to Be A Painter! I picked up this pocketbook at the Tate Modern. The book collects nine of Virginia Woolf’s published art reviews (including that of her sister Vanessa Bell’s work), essays, and texts between 1920 and 1936. It’s a quick read and one I finished over coffee on Sunday morning. She referred to painting as a silent medium, I don’t have much to add except that I enjoyed her ideas and explorations at a time when the world was changing quickly. And as Virginia Woolf writes, “Painters lose their power directly [as soon as] they attempt to speak.”
Ending Quote
I had the pleasure of seeing As You Like It at the Globe Theater in London recently, and I loved this part from Act 2, Scene 7 about the passage of time.
“Good morrow, fool,” quoth I. “No, sir,” quoth he,
“Call me not ‘fool’ till heaven hath sent me fortune.”
And then he drew a dial from his poke
And, looking on it with lackluster eye,
Says very wisely, “It is ten o'clock.
Thus we may see,” quoth he, “how the world wags.'
Tis but an hour ago since it was nine,
And after one hour more ’twill be eleven.
And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe,
And then from hour to hour we rot and rot,
And thereby hangs a tale.”
The title of this issue comes from a letter that Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his letter Theo dated Wednesday, 23 July 1890, from Auvers-sur-Oise.