Oof. Long day of teaching + grading papers, and my brain is fried. Time for a pretty picture.
The picture is called Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, by the nineteenth-century painter Albert Bierstadt. I’ve liked his work ever since I first saw a poster of it when I was in high school. It captures that “wide open spaces” feeling that everyone associates with the American West. The part of the west that I live in is anything but wide and open — crowded and laced with highways is more like it — but even so, this picture makes me pretty proud to be a California girl.
And don’t you just want to walk right into those clouds? I love ’em.
It is wonderful how a glorious picture (or music) can fill an empty space in your being and fill it up. I have always loved this picture, too.