Lucian Freud

You have probably already heard of Lucian Freud- the artist, whose painting "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping" was sold for more than 34 million dollars (22 million euros) in New York Tuesday, becoming the most expensive work ever by a living artist.

.

.I haven't seen his works before, but the one sold yesterday made me very interested in his paitings. So I searched art portals and there are few really cool examples of Lucian Freud's artistic talents I found.

Reflection (self portrait), 1985

Reflection with two children (self portrait), 1965

Girl with a white dog, 1951-1952

Interior in Paddington, 1951

1947, Girl with a Kitten

A girl or a boy?

Friends call me a feminist. And I surely take myself for one. Limiting women's right in any part of life makes me furious. We are equal to men. We are as strong and as smart as men are. Centuries of male domination are over. Thanks to many bold women who started the change, we finally gain the respect we deserve. Therefore I can't agree with stereotypes that I sometimes hear from women.

.

Example: Few days ago I met a friend whom I haven't seen since I got pregnant. As she is a mother of one year old boy we talked a lot about the pregnancy and birth, as any advice and help I can get now is very valuable to me, especially from friends who have recently experienced what I go through now. Inevitably we also talked about the gender of the child, which is still unknown to me. So of course she asked what were my preferences. What could I say? I've always dreamed of a girl, but the moment I got pregnant the most important thing is that the child I'm bearing is healthy. Nothing more, nothing less. And there she comes with something like this : "I tell You, the boy is 100% better. At least he won't bring home a child". Come on! How can an educated woman say such rubbish? And even if that was supposed to be a joke, it wasn't funny to me at all. Saying such things degrade women and is appalling. Why do we have to demean ourselves this way, not appreciating the effort of years of ingenuine struggle of women to come to the place we are now?

Go with the Flow

Contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments in our lives, are not passive, receptive, relaxing times - although such experiences can be enjoyable, if we have worked hard to attain them. The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.

.

Mihály Csíkszentmihályi from his book "Flow"

.

I came across that quotation on Mind Hacks- the page I daily visit, dedicated to psychology issues. Taken from the book "Flow" which presents the theory of the state called by the author "the state of flow", the idea interested me very much. Flow (in short) is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.

.

I understand it as the moment of pure creativity, when the person is totally engrossed in the action, forgetting about the whole world, concentrating on this one and only thing. How many times it did happen to me- I can't even count. It's like getting into the depth of oneself and pouring one's inner consciousness into the activity, blending oneself with what one is doing, becoming the thing one is creating. It can be anything- drawing, singing, knitting, baking a cake, scrapbooking, learning new skills- whatever that makes me fully involved and happy. Though I try to live consciously and always mindfullness is my goal, those moments of full, subconscious engagement in activities are really precious to me.

Hello again!

Hello everybody! I haven't written and even checked on my blog for almost 5 months, but I see today that many of You are still dropping by. And that's the hell of an inspiration for me.

.

First of all, few words to explain myself why I haven't written for so long. Well, I've started writing blog in my national language and I didn't want to repeat myself. But now I think it doesn't have to be this way, or at least I'll try :). Many important things happened to me during those months of silence, but the most serious and the happiest, but also most surprising is definately pregnancy. That's the reason for the joy but also anxiety and great responsibility that fell upon me and my husband. Our now 23 weeks old Baby is growing in my womb, kicking from time to time, letting me know It really exists. That's the little miracle that's happening to me every minute of my life now, changing what I thought was uncheangable, creating what I thought could never exist, making me feel emotions I could never predict would be a part of me. The life is a continous adventure- now more exciting than ever. I hope I'll have opportunity to share it with You.