Anaïs Nin

"You have a right to experiment with your life. You will make mistakes. And they are right too. No, I think there was too rigid a pattern. You came out of an education and are supposed to know your vocation. Your vocation is fixed, and maybe ten years later you find you are not a teacher anymore or you’re not a painter anymore. It may happen. It has happened. I mean Gauguin decided at a certain point he wasn’t a banker anymore; he was a painter. And so he walked away from banking. I think we have a right to change course. But society is the one that keeps demanding that we fit in and not disturb things. They would like you to fit in right away so that things work now." -Anaïs Nin

Above is a small selection of my Anaïs Nin books. When I fall in love with an artist's work, I tend to want to accumulate every book published about their work that I can afford to get my hands on (Frida Kahlo, Corita Kent, Kenneth Patchen, Edward Gorey, Dan Eldon to name a very small few. The long list starts here.) I love my books. I can't help it. To me, art, LIFE is all about connection.

When I find an artist whose work sets my heart all a flutter, I want to have it nearby and within reach. I am a paper lover. I want to be able to pick up a book and flip through the pages. I want bookmarks, the smell of paper and to be able to hold something close. It's just the way I am.

I've decided that this will be the summer of Anaïs Nin. I'm pulling out all of my books and will work my way through her diaries in order.

Connection. Connection. Connection. 

"We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls." -Anaïs Nin

Work your way through some scrumptious Brainpickings articles on Nin here.  

"The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery." -Anaïs Nin