I’ve had these images in a folder since 2011. May they imbue my work with blueness. May I live to see them all in person.

The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise, Giovanni di Paolo, 1445, tempera and gold on wood, 18 1/4 x 20 1/2 in. (46.4 x 52.1 cm)

This little panel is part of a larger altarpiece presumably commissioned by Holy Mother Church as my dad and uncle would say. My friend Tom cracked, “I told you kids not to use that plate,” when he saw it. A poem by Dante inspired the image. It lives at the Met, and there is a lot of cool information about it on the website, linked below.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/458971

The Ceiling, Cy Twombly, fresco, 3,767 square feet (350 square meters)

It’s a big deal that the Louvre commissioned a living artist to create this fresco for the ceiling of the Salle des Bronzes. You will appreciate the article linked below if you are curious about what it all means. Greek sculpture and modernist painting, a sky of spheres and ancient Greek. Very romantic.

http://www.diptyqueparis-memento.com/en/the-antic-sky-of-cy-twombly/

Mark Rothko, No. 61 (Rust and Blue) [Brown Blue, Brown on Blue], 1953, oil on canvas, 115 1/4 x 92 x 1 3/4 in. (292.74 x 233.68 x 4.45 cm)

Painted the year I was born. A holy sight, cathedral bars of light. At MOCA Los Angeles.

https://www.moca.org/collection/work/no-61-rust-and-blue-brown-blue-brown-on-blue

Edvard Munch, Starry Night, oil on canvas, 135.9 × 140.3 cm (53 1/2 × 55 1/4 in.)

So erotic I can hardly bear it. Ecstasy! At the Getty Center in Los Angeles most of the time.

https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/750/edvard-munch-starry-night-norwegian-1893/

When the Morning Stars Sang Together, William Blake, 1820, watercolor, 11 x 7 1/16 inches (280 x 179 mm)

And William Blake, bringing it all back home with the Old Testament at the Morgan Library in New York City. An illustration for the Book of Job.

https://www.themorgan.org/collection/drawings/84883