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Her signature style is hyperrealism, an attempt to capture everything a photograph might and then much more:
An artist is a mathematician who knows the
formulas of the soul. ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty.’”
She knows that true compassion is noble and demanding, but that tenderness is a vain form of pity indulged in by those who want to feel good
about themselves without being put to the inconvenience of doing something.
This is an age when freedoms are fragile. Those in power speak loudly, ceaselessly about compassion but rarely exhibit any.
“Do you really believe the past is past? I think the past might be our future, that we’re busy laying the groundwork for new Dachaus, new Auschwitzes, all in the name of compassion, progress, justice, prosperity. Of the hard lessons that humanity learns, how many are retained? How very few? The passion of angry ideologues, the ignorance of the arrogant, the ferocity of utopians—how can such people lead the world to anything but its end?”
Life has taught her that it’s mentally exhausting and spiritually depressing to waste energy and time fanning the flames of anger when the reason for her outrage is someone who can’t be affected by anything she does or some malignant force in society that, when challenged, will engulf her and dissolve her in a metastatic frenzy. Patience, steadiness, and hope are healthier than anger; therefore, in spite of evidence to the contrary, she still trusts that the world has been shapen to a purpose and that the purpose is not the triumph of evil.
Fear is useful when it’s on a leash, Avi once said, but it’s always a bad dog when you let it run free in your mind.
When a majority of people in any society share the same array of illusions and cling passionately to them, they will encourage one another until illusion becomes delusion, until delusion becomes mass insanity. Whole societies do go mad. History is filled with chilling examples. Joe Smith knew it when he built this house.
“If you’re concerned about the environmental effects of the flatulence of cattle, don’t be. It’s a myth. What’ll kill us all is the flatulence of politicians.”
You can refuse to give up, but nonetheless be broken in the process of not surrendering.
What good is genius without humility? What value does it have if it isn’t married undivorceable to kindness and empathy?
