It’s what we’ve always done. Left a mark on a cave, or on a page. Showing who we are, sharing our view of the world, the life we’re made to bear.

‘Life’s what you make it,

She could feel Margaret’s gaze haunting her. The blunt edge of her jealousy.

She’d meant it as a compliment, but her words danced both ways, hot and cold, kind and cruel,

Had grounded them and introduced them to a way of life they would aspire to and return to.

But what it’s always about, for me, is response. It’s a painting that demands of us a response. All the best ones do.

Darnley said that Sigmund Freud had visited in 1899 and had somehow forgotten Signorelli’s name. This he’d called the mechanism of repression and it became fundamental in Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams.

All the symbolism and the paradox, ours to interpret. That’s how it becomes part of us. And as counterpoint to our suffering, we have beauty. We like beauty, don’t we? Something good on the eye cheers us. Does something to us on a cellular level, makes us feel alive and enriched. Beautiful art opens our eyes to the beauty of the world, Ulysses. It

No! Dante. The belief that a combination of intellect and beauty can make the world a better place.