(photos of this glorious time of year)

You know, I don’t like all stories. I was just at the “transfer station” (dump) where there is cute little swap shop. I dropped off two books there: stories about people. They were true. But not of interest to me.

To my surprise, though, I’m really enjoying a book about Monet. Monet? I mean, wasn’t he blissfully happy and boring? Somewhere that myth is floating around.

Not only was he super temperamental: ripping up canvases, and at times taking days and years off from painting, but his discoveries were radical. Yes, the Impressionists all were radical in their time. But what made Monet unusual was that, after they had had their moment, when the attention was turning to a new wave of art, he was making his most revolutionary work.

And one aspect of great interest in his late work was that he eliminated perspective. He took out the horizon line. By painting the water lilies and the water around them, he put the sky in the bottom of the art: the sky was in the water.

In this day and age, with all our media and perspectives that can shift all over the place in an instant, it’s hard to imagine the viewer’s amazement at Monet’s art.

Yet it caught my attention, even now. The gift of perspective shift. And one that surprises.

I love that story.