German Expats, particularly those hailing from Dresden, played decisive and undervalued roles in the development of Neoclassicism in the eighteenth century…
Author: michellefacos
I am a multi-lingual art historian, consultant (art, travel, writing), editor, entrepreneur, lecturer, and writer who has lived along the shores of the Baltic, the Mediterranean, and Lake Erie, in New York and in Paris, and in the forests of Quebec and Sweden. While I’ve lived a semi-nomadic existence for the past few decades, I’m inching toward a life anchored in Europe.
Service Provider
Piggyback rides constitute the kind of service I enjoy providing – one that brings joy to all parties. In recent decades, the concept of a service provider being primarily and genuinely concerned with the quality of service provided and customer satisfaction seems to have mutated…
It’s Back!
Before I left Sweden a few weeks ago, the Swedish Health Minister, Jacob Forssmed, warned that a new and virulent mutation of the COVID-19 virus had emerged and advised citizens to take necessary precautions…
Forest Bathing
Today, I did something that for me was once unremarkable but nowadays isn’t: walking in the forest of southern Sweden. For most, it was a stay indoors kind of day—chilly, thickly overcast, windy, and intermittently drizzly…
See with Your Heart
The first time I saw Gustaf Fjaestad’s magnificent pastel, The Boy Who Sees with His Heart (1898), it was love at first sight…
Holy Family
In college, I dated a really nice fellow named Chuck…
Detective Work
Last week, a major museum asked for my help in locating a work of art I adore and about which I’ve written…
Dance!
A scientist at Institut Curie in Paris recently explained how human embryo cells dance. Yes, dance. From the moment of their formation…
Midsummer
Swedish artist Anders Zorn (1860-1920) painted Midsummer Dance (1897) at a moment when, throughout Europe, many felt it important to assert and reify one’s geographical identify—local, regional, national…
Gardening
I am happily surprised by the joy I derive from gardening. My father would have observed dryly, ‘I told you so’…