Art imitating Art: The original piano tree is by Jeff Millin, a Californian installation artist whilst Sanford Biggers tuneful tree-spiration is currently on exhibit in the Brooklyn Museum of Art. #thicktrunktuesday #trees

Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) Actress & Deity of the Decadent movement. Jean Lorrain wrote of her 'She roamed abroad like a young goddess. Irritating Paris with her loud laugh. Golden chains flashed from her eyes. Her bare feet trampled the bruised bodies of her lovers.' (!!) art Spindler/Clarin

Blog on the burgeoning online industry in which self-described 'publishing professionals' get would be authors to part with their money. It's one of the oldest ruses in the book but with new fangled terminology. www.ninaantoniaauthor.com

The birth of Punk?

Weird old flower names: Black Archangel. Love in a Tangle. Witches' Tree. Grave of the sea. Goat's Beard. John-go-to-bed-at-Noon. Fairy Flax. Devil's Darning Needle & Prick My Nose. Many of these were colloquial names that arose before literacy was widespread but imagination ran riot

Alone 'From childhood's hour I have not been As others were-I have not seen As others saw-I could not bring My passions from a common spring From the same source I have not taken My sorrow-I could not awaken My heart to joy at the same tone And all I lov'd - I lov'd alone...' Poe

#Caturday Famous cats of kiterature: Willa Cathair & Oscar Wildecat.

Fantastical portrait of Luisa, Marchesa Casati (1881-1957) socialite, patron of the arts & fabulous being in Medusa mode but the artist is unknown. Any ideas?

How do you take your Orpheus? beautiful in grief as depicted by Pascal Bouveret (1852-1929) or as an idealized Pre-Raphaelite vision courtesy of John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) The paintings are like silent films on canvas.

'The Thunder Speaks' an illustration of a story by the great Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951) Not sure of the artist although it resembles the work of Virgil Finlay.

The aftermath of doom-scrolling. Alexander Ver Huell (1822-1897)

'Nosferatu' Murnau, 1922. 'Nosferatu' Herzog, 1979.

Dreaming of phantoms: Charles Baudelaire by Georges Antoine Rochegrosse, 1917.

Julie Christie on the set of Doctor Zhivago, 1965.

'Frozen Warnings' Anna & Elena Balbusso (contemporary - as the image didn't have a title I used one of Nico's soul-chilling songs)

Country Fair magazine - December 1957 & November 1956 #Owlishmonday

Adrian costume for 'The Great Zeigfeld' 1926, which probably looked better on paper.........

Czech artist, Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) was best known for his decorative art nouveau illustrations of women. However, in the penultimate year of his life, he painted 'The Age of Wisdom' which owes something to Blake in its visionary quality, as the shadows of WW2 began to gather.

'Sleeping Beauty' by another of the Glasgow School's artistic luminaries, Frances Macdonald MacNair (1873-1921) in its original & very beautiful frame.

#Caturday 'Alley-Cats' a symphony of strays by Everett Shinn.

Lady Victory looking like a statue on a car bonnet in 'The Avengers' 1924.

'Woman & Boy' Annie French (1872-1965) was one of the luminaries of the Glasgow School of art. Influenced by Beardsley & Jessie M. King, her work is wonderfully decorative in the art nouveau style. Needless to say, she was largely forgotten for many years but has since been reclaimed.

Curious story about the re-internment of Arthur Conan Doyle, who was buried standing up in the grounds of his house in the New Forest. Oddly, new owners asked for his removal & he now rests in the cemetery of Minstead Church, his interest in spiritualism causing him to be placed in a far corner.

Before newspapers featured photographs, artists in both the U.K & the U.S illustrated crime scenes although they seem to have had a bias for 'women behaving badly.' The Daily Mail a bastion of morality deemed women who smoked 'degenerate hoydens' which would make quite a good band name.

Ferdinand Knab (1837-1902) seems to have enjoyed a life of perfect aestheticism painting romanticized ruins that included a stint in Italy as the court artist for Bavarian nobility. He rarely included people in his art, preferring decorative decay on a grand scale.

Mae West: Kiss of the Spider Woman?

Every year I take the innocent shell of a house & turn it into a ghastly, ghostly abode. This has nothing to do with Halloween, rather some of us are just more haunted than others.👻

Bacchanalian scene by Richard Dadd, 1862. Dadd was one of the greatest 'Bedlam' artists, confined to the Royal Bethlem Hospital for the criminally insane for murdering his father. 'The Fairy Feller's Masterstroke' is his best known work but there are other strange worlds to discover in his portfolio

#Owlishmonday A pair of co-starring knowledgeable owls in Carl Otto Czeschka's depiction of 'Science.' 1897

Being a life long Addam's fan, I was initially sceptical about the 'Wednesday' Netflix series however I was hooked after they came up with the greatest line in television history, namely 'Gorgon is a Moron'. Plus Jennifer Ortega is bleakly brilliant in the title role. 🦇🖤

Kiki Smith tapestry 'Moths & Spinners' 2014

Salut! Bad Broads & Booze - Helen Twelvetrees & Lilyan Tashman in 'Millie' 1931

Don't you just hate it when books start quarrelling? Whenever a tome falls off the shelf with no explanation then you know there's been a bookish ruckus. Always be mindful which authors you put next to one another.

#Caturday Cat's conspiracy. What secrets could the whiskered one's be sharing, a swoop on mouse-land or a staccato symphony? Signed by 'M' 1922

'Night in St. Cloud' - Edvard Munch. Before the advent of electricity, did artists have a better grasp of the nuances of shadows? From the subtlest shading of early evening to the gathering dusk & the ever deepening etching out of light before nightfall.

Alla Nazimova having a rough night in 'Camille' (1921) co-star Valentino in perfect profile.

Influential Austrian artist Koloman Moser (1868-1918) whose creative scope including ceramics, fashion & stained glass.

The ill-fated actress Thelma Todd - Like a rabbit caught in headlights? Was it a gangster related murder, a jealous boyfriend or misadventure that led to her early death in 1935, when she was just 29 years old. The speculation continues....

Final Curtain: Sadly, the Welsh countryside is home to all too many beautiful, eerie, abandoned manors, such as Hafondus Hall (pictured) For more information go to 'Grand Declines' who photographed & catalogued these wonderful woebegone wrecks that captivate still.

When there are sunshine & showers, according to folklore, it means that the devil is beating his wife. Rather more pleasantly, country people used to say that a fox was getting married. In India, it is a jackal who is getting hitched & in Canada, a monkey. (image of a friend's garden in Farnham)

Bela promoting 'Royal Crown Cola' I wonder if it was the real thing? 🦇

'The dance is deserted, the revellers gone, The gay scene is alter'd, its splendor is flown: Like gardens whose summer profusion of bloom, Too quickly is follow'd by winter and gloom.' ( Abandoned Villa, Pensile, Italy by Thomas Jorion/lyrics, Thomas Haynes Bailey)

The exquisitely languorous Stephen Tennant (1906-1987) as 'Prince Charming' by Cecil Beaton, 1927. Tennant in the spirit of decadence exhausted, retired to his bed for the last 20 years of his life. Most of us return to dust but some go as incense into the starry goodnight.

Two images of old style Venetian funeral gondolas, which have a somber beauty. Sadly, the dead are no longer ferried to their final resting place in such a decorous manner but are hurried along in an unattractive utilitarian blue barge.

Bette Noir & Bette Gothic

When Stephen King left his spooky Victorian mansion in Bangor, Maine for sunnier climes, there were plans to turn it into a museum & writers retreat. Why was I not asked?

'Teddy Boys & Cats' as I don't know the official title of this by multi-talented Scottish artist, author & playwright, John Byrne (1940-2023) #Caturday

Night........✨

Beautifully introspective painting by Czech impressionist Antonin Slavicek (1870-1910) It has a poignancy that differentiates it from his French contemporaries.

I am all a quiver To get a fancy Zither But here I dither As they cost a fortune And even more to deliver....