Clare Wigfall

Tonight I thought, f**k it. If they have to live through this, I want them to remember at least some of it as fun. So I set up a “restaurant” and let them eat their dinner in the bath tub.

She’s absorbed in her letter. They’re absorbed in her reaction. We’re absorbed in her fab satin dress. Dog also appreciating his A+ purple velvet cushion. By Gerard ter Borch, whose day was today.

Intriguing idea for Ali Smith's new novel GLIFF, which will form a diptych with her novel that follows it, GLYPH, which "will tell a story that is hidden in the first." Out in July.

Cuban painter Tomás Sánchez’s serene idyll of a verdant tree-island surrounded by still waters is almost meditative (Aislarse, 2001). If you contemplate this long enough, you may notice the tiny figure of a man standing at the near-edge of the forest

Over 2,000 years old ~ Egyptian limestone plaque, one side showing two swallows (one incomplete) and the other, two quail chicks, plus ink sketch. Possibly used as guidelines for artists metmuseum.org/art/collection…

@visual_verse @hazelmason10 Oh, I’m sorry to hear Visual Verse has come to its end. But it was beautiful while it lasted. Well done for all your hard work.

We are officially done. 100 pieces are now published in our final issue at visualverse.org. A Murmuration of Words on page 100 felt like a fitting way to go out. Thank you @hazelmason10 and thank you – beautiful writers of the world – for being on this journey with us.

@AJWoodhouse @JohnHolland52 @RuralUnease We want to produce an anthology which will also go up online and will be creating social media content, but the workshops themselves will be in real life. But if they’re a success I could run them again.

The “friend” here is me. 😁 Any tips for technology-themed flash fiction gladly welcomed. Planning a new workshop series in collaboration with Al-Quds Bard in Palestine. Big thanks to @RuralUnease and all those who have already responded.

The Atlantic’s books editor, @galbeckerman, prescribes these ten books as antidotes to the quick and dirty ways people are communicating about the Israel-Hamas war on social media. theatlantic.com/newsletters/ar…

When #transportforlondon put this poem in the tube, every day I’d receive messages about the poem calming anxiety. That’s the reason that I write, to be in service. Get the Black History Month handout that begins with this poem on the tube with lots of great Black British Poets

In 1964, construction workers in Rome found this 2nd century doll, with articulated, pose-able limbs & finely detailed face, in the grave of a young girl wrapped in silk & adorned with jewellery link.springer.com/chapter/10.100…

In certain Nordic countries like Denmark, Findland, Norway and Sweden, there's a long-standing tradition from the early 20th century involves allowing babies to nap outdoors during cold weather. This custom is based on the belief that exposing infants to fresh air, even in freezing temperatures, can strengthen their immune systems and promote overall health. In the 1950s, some parents and institutions in the Soviet Union also embraced this practice. An illustration of this custom can be observed in a 1958 photograph taken in Moscow, depicting a line of infants peacefully sleeping outside in prams, bundled up with blankets and fur hats.

hiræth 💚

'Portrait of A Girl' by Lavinia Fontana (1552 – 1614), Italian Mannerist painter known for her portraiture, regarded as the first female career artist in Western Europe as she relied on commissions for her income #WomensArt

I shot this image just as the air raid alarm started. Are rockets scary? Undoubtedly. Are they capable of instilling fear for 19 months in a row? Not sure. The bar of fear moves higher every day, everyone has their own threshold of horror. This piece available on @foundation “Where I was Born”, Kyiv 2023.

Loved this little flash fiction story from Berliner Daniel Addercouth @RuralUnease. My @Bard_Berlin students today were experimenting with second person present tense, but this uses second person simple future which is even more rare but works beautifully.

@irinibus @Yale Amazing, Irina! Just this week I was sharing your Yale Review essay with my @Bard_Berlin students as encouragement for where a simple class exercise might take them. I’ll proudly tell them you’ve now returned there…as a writer!

From the Car How often have you been in your car going somewhere when you see some seemingly insignificant event which instantly grabs your attention? You turn to whoever is in the car and say, “Quick, look at that!” And then it’s too late. You’ve passed it, and the brief glimpse becomes too vague to describe to whoever is in the car with you. You saw something, and it went in deeply to that vulnerable place we hold for epiphanies. But there was no way to go back to see what had already disappeared. I began to understand that the car itself was the camera, with me inside it, and all I had to do was to raise my Leica and blink to make a photograph. Many of these photographs appeared in my 1968 exhibition at MoMA, and have been seen in many other museum shows and several books. 📸 collected by @AlphaTrilogy

@NaoiseDolan Hi, I saw via the Guardian that you are living in Berlin now and have a question I wanted to ask. Might you be willing to drop me a line at c.wigfall[at]berlin.bard.edu? Thank you. Clare

For most of his adult life the playful composer Erik Satie lived alone in single rooms in Paris. His only love affair was a five-month liaison with artist Suzanne Valadon. He drank heavily & died of cirrhosis of the liver at 59. 'Satie in his room' by Santiago Rusiñol, 1891.

Joseph Haddon, was a stonemason and he created this memorial as a loving tribute to a father’s grief. He shows us his departed children, tucked up in bed together. William & George and their sister (whose name is now lost) died between 1711 & 1717.