Dominos on Green Felt

Relaxed Cow on Vintage Pink Chair

Frank Lloyd Wright viewed cows as picturesque elements of the Wisconsin landscape, famously joking in his 1932 essay Why I Love Wisconsin that the state should pass a law compelling farmers to pasture their cows near the highway where they make a fine picture. While Wright embraced “gentle Holsteins” as a picturesque part of the Wisconsin dairy landscape in his literary reflections, he famously preferred Guernsey cows for specific aesthetic visual contrasts on his own grounds, noting that the cream and coffee tones of Guernseys contrasted more pleasingly against green fields than the stark black-and-white pattern of Holsteins. So, it was somewhat confusing that hanging at Taliesin was this somewhat satirical painting.

Somber Helmet 

Somber Helmet with Horses, Donald Robertson, 1952

Early this morning, in a fit of indigestion induced insomnia, I was up reading the NYT. The opinion lead at that time was, Susan Faludi’s marvelous essay, The Barbie Backlash. I was doubly impressed, both with her writing and what she had to say. In her piece she drew upon this summer’s hubbub over Chris Nolan’s Odessey. Using it to introduce the hero’s journey, Ms. Faludi launched a thousand ship conveyance that brought her argument to the present. From Odysseus to Pete Hegseth, history has seen misbegotten men stumble through life, making a mess out of everything. The problem is that as they stumble forward, they ruin other’s lives.