Painting and drawing, lifesavers

Some 120 years ago, that’s how Vincent Van Gogh, a then obscure Dutch painter, living in Arles, France, was looking… He had an ear lobe cut (either by himself, or by his friend and fellow artist, Paul Guguin) the 23 rd of December 1889… In a symbolical gesture, the same way a torrero give the ear of his killed torro to a woman of his choice, he gave the lobe of his cut ear to Rachel, a prostitute friends of his… She fainted… Apart from all these juicy anecdotes, some of which became legends (the mad genius myth, l’ artiste maudit …) Vincent left ... Read Full Story

Someday in the future, the swarm of particles whom are now «me» will change into something else… To put it otherwise, … I will die. No big deal… But then, what to do with the 10-15-20 years (or whatever I still have before me, statistically…) ? Some, not stupid, Frenchman said in one of his novels : «Témoigner de son vecu» ( Testify of one’s live? Bloody difficult, this French! ) Since what I do most of the time is painting, drawing, writing… well, I’ll testify of what I live through the images I create and the texts I’ll write.. Just the way Vincent ... Read Full Story

Among some of my latest paintings, here there are some ground rules for my challenge Van Gogh… 1. I’ll do it on my blogs and on the net at large ( You Tube and other sites are considered…) 2. I’ll write mainly in English (ok, “my” English…Purists beware!) but, whenever I got the time, I’ll translate also in French and / or Romanian, for my friends out there… 3. Neither Vincent nor I are saints…so money talk and money problems will be allowed (but kept at a minimum…) 3b. Since I have no brother Theo to send me money, donations are all right (from ... Read Full Story

French girls have that je ne sais quoi; they always look sophisticated and mysterious. How do I get that look? —Leigh, Knoxville, Tennessee The only one universal trait I can share with certainty is that the mystery of French women contributes much to their beauty and vice versa. We admire French sensibilities so very much because we largely have no idea what they are. However, in general: 1. No sneakers, unless you're going for a long walk and have nothing else to wear. (Even then—where are your Tory Burch flats ?) French women love shoes, but they love real shoes. One Francophile friend tells ... Read Full Story

Every week without fail, someone writes to ask my advice about visiting Palm Springs. Where to stay, what to see, where to eat or what to do. Being the Palm Springs Savant has become a bit of a side career for me; second to my "day job" where for the past 12 years I established myself in the pet industry. Sometimes these two worlds collide, which is interesting to say the least. For example, I recently addressed a pet industry conference and spoke about pet food retailing. During my presentation, a few attendees must have Googled me and ran across this blog. After my ... Read Full Story