Nancy Erika - Artist & Photographer

01/08/2026

"I who now am called Flora was formerly Chloris: a Greek letter of my name is corrupted in the Latin speech. Chloris I was, a nymph of the happy fields where, as you have heard, dwelt fortunate men of old. Modesty shrinks from describing my figure; but it procured the hand of a god for my mother's daughter. 'Twas spring, and I was roaming; Zephyr caught sight of me; I retired; he pursued and I fled; but he was the stronger, and Boreas had given his brother full right of r**e by daring to carry off the prize from the house of Erechtheus. However, he made amends for his violence by giving me the name of bride, and in my marriage-bed I have naught to complain of. I enjoy perpetual spring; most buxom is the year ever; ever the tree is clothed with leaves, the ground with pasture. In the fields that are my dower, I have a fruitful garden, fanned by the breeze and watered by a spring of running water. This garden my husband filled with noble flowers and said, 'Goddess, be queen of flowers.' Oft did I wish to count the colours in the beds, but could not; the number was past counting. Soon as the dewy rime is shaken from the leaves, and the varied foliage is warmed by the sunbeams, the Hours assemble, clad in dappled weeds, and cull my gifts in light baskets. Straightway the Graces draw near, and twine garlands and wreaths to bind their heavenly hair. I was the first to scatter new seeds among the countless peoples; till then the earth had been of but one colour. I was the first to make a flower out of Therapnaean blood, and on its petals the lament remains inscribed. Thou, too. Narcissus, hast a name in the trim gardens, unhappy thou in that thou hadst not a double of thyself. What need to tell of Crocus, and Attis, and the son of Cinyras, from whose wounds by my art doth beauty spring?"

- Ovid (43 BCE - 17/18 CE),
Fausti
(Translated by J. G. Frazer (1929))

[Image: Zephyrus wooing Flora (circa 1888) oil painting on canvas by British artist Henrietta Rae (1859-1928).]

The Smart Witch by Elizabeth

Classic The Smart Witch
Post from 25 July 2024

01/08/2026

Julio Cortázar, Los reyes

02/07/2026

02/07/2026

"My painting is visible images which conceal nothing; they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question 'What does that mean'? It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable." -- René Magritte

If Salvador Dali is the most graphic (and flamboyant) of the surrealist painters, then the lesser-known Magritte is the most intellectual of its number. He once wrote: "For me, thought is composed of visible things only, painting can render it visible ... Writing is an invisible description of thought and painting its visible description." Clouds, pipes, bowler hats, and green apples: these remain some of the most immediately recognizable icons of his work, one that rendered such commonplace things strange, slotting them into unfamiliar or uncanny scenes, or deliberately mislabeling them in order to “make the most everyday objects shriek aloud.” With his pictorial and linguistic puzzles, Magritte made the familiar disturbing and strange, posing questions about the nature of representation and reality.

The 255 images in this gallery -- of works with intriguing, if nonsensical, titles executed with the precision of photography -- should provide a good introduction to his remarkable body of work. They are arranged in approximate order of ex*****on. As is MWW custom, many of the images are accompanied by commentaries, which can be accessed by clicking "See More" in the box to the right of the full-screen image. Biographical info about the artist can be found in the comment section to the photographs of him.

See also these related current and future MWW galleries:
* The Surrealists I: Max Ernst & Co. -- Brave New Worlds
* The Surrealists II: Joan Miró & the Charm of Abstraction
* The Surrealists III: Salvador Dalí - The Artist as Showman
* The Surrealists V: Paul Delvaux & the Mysteries of the Night

02/07/2026

26/05/2026

Es en ti la ilusión de cada día.
Pablo Neruda - Poema XII

26/05/2026

In old legends, the gifts of fairies and forest creatures were always unpredictable. Accepting them could be a blessing, but it could just as easily lead to ruin.

A forest nymph extends her hands, offering her gift to a mortal who looks at her with awe in the darkness.

🎨 "Old German Folk Tale" (1896) • Hermann Hendrich

04/04/2026

"Rabbits", 1720s
Alexandre-François Desportes (1661–1743)