Category: Humanities

Judith Fox is a writer and photographer based in Southern California. Eleven years ago, having just been married to Dr. Edmund Ackell 3 short years, Judith’s multi-talented husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. This strong, intelligent man, who has been a surgeon, pilot, artist, athlete and president of Virginia Commonwealth University is now the subject…

In lieu of Halloween’s passing, I find it a nice excuse to visit the macabre. Last year we looked at artist Laurie Lipton’s pencil drawings, using skeletons as the subject. This year I’ve come across an incredibly fascinating artist by the name of Kris Kuksi, who also uses skeletons. Kris was born in Springfield, Missouri…

William Butler Yeats was both a poet and a dramatist. Born in Dublin in 1865, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923. Unlike many award winners, his greatest works were actually completed after winning the Nobel with collections of The Tower(1928) and The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933). The poem “Death”…

Franz Schubert was a gifted composer who died tragically young. Easily considered among the “greats” of composers, Schubert contracted syphilis in 1822 at the age of 25. He continued to compose, even as his health deteriorated. Many say that the works of his last 2 years became very dark, showing a deeper sense of spiritual…

We’ve taken time in past posts to explore composers who have used their music to explore themes of grief in their personal lives. This grief is usually directed at someone close who has died, or the composer’s own mortality as they are diagnosed with a life limiting illnesses. It is rare that composer’s have been…

Death has been represented for centuries as a skeleton. Its origins began to appear in the early fifteenth century incorporated on tombs in a genre known as “Dance Macabre” or dance of the dead. This ghoulish representation was not meant to be a comfort, but to warn and frighten people about death. Along the borders…

Coming across a piece entitled “Call of Death” (1934/5 ) by Kathe Kollwitz (at bottom of post), I was struck by the earnestness of the sketch. Surely, I thought, this is from an artist who’s experienced death and grief herself. My look into her life confirmed that she spent much of her life as an…

There is not a lot known about the background of Sufjan Steven’s song “Casimir Pulaski Day”. Whether completely fictional, or based on some form of personal experience, the song easily resonates with the listener. Like many contemporary songs that speak of a loved one dying, there is a large element of questioning and doubt etched…

Have you heard people talk about this? At the hospice place where I work, I sometimes hear a nurse, or even a family member say, “A bird hit the window this morning, I’m sure mom’s getting ready to go soon.” In fact, it’s not unusual to have a day when several rooms have a constant…

I have great respect for poets. They have the ability to say beautifully, in few words, what many of us spend a lifetime trying to convey. There are two poets I want to mention in this post… two poets whose lives were intertwined. Jane Kenyon was a student at the University of Michigan when she…

There is a certain theme surrounding much of the art and music discussed on these pages; that creation is often born of personal suffering. Perhaps no better example of this exists than the life and work of Frida Kahlo. Born in 1907 in Mexico, Frida was aspiring to be a doctor, when at the age…

Knowing the context of a composition can transform the listening experience, especially for classical music, that has no words. Such was the case for me when I heard a brief history of Gustav Mahler’s 9th symphony prior to listening to the Chicago symphony preform it. Perhaps you will say the same after this post. Let…