I spoke to you in cautious tones
You answered me with no pretense
And still I feel I said too much
My silence is my self defense — Billy Joel, And So It Goes
One of six limited editions in my new And So It Goes Collection, FROZEN IN TIME captures a small corner of the Sea Bridge Landing Antiques shop on Anastasia Island across from historic St. Augustine — the oldest city in the nation.
This exquisite artwork reveals in masterful detail how and why antique stores, like libraries and cemeteries, compel soft whispers in deference to past lives and dreams — all seemingly flash frozen in the objects on display. FROZEN IN TIME speaks to the grace and quieter sensibilities of bygone eras, attributes that magically evaporate like mist the moment you exit the shop and return to the current world.
There can be no anxiety for the future in a place where there are no resentments of the past and only peace of mind in the present, a place where everyday objects are displayed not as as objects d’art but as object lessons in life well lived. And thus…
My silence is my self defense…
Reminder: My And So It Goes Collection of six limited edition fine art photographs (only five prints per edition) launches next Thursday, September 4th, but will remain available for only two weeks. Any unsold prints in the collection will be retired for at least one year as of Friday, September 19th. So far, six prints have been reserved. Click here to reserve yours!
More announcements to follow. Many thanks, as always!
Curtin’s good piece, yesterday, on silence:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/08/edward-curtin/the-silent-singing-bird-of-flamboyant-plumage/
Billy Joel did say too much - or, “you may be right, I may be crazy” - of what other noisy ones told him to say ~ doubtful as it is he’d see/say it that way ~ & now it seems another kind of silence is the result co-imposed upon him. The karmic seems Cormac in it’s McCarthy’ismness.
“There were incidents and vaccidents
There were hints and allegations
If you'll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal” ~ You Can Call Me Al - Paul Simon
“Et tu, Brute?” ~ Caesar’s Insalata Course Has Left The Building
Tho it is possible, I suppose, that normal pressure hydrocephalus could result in a felt/experienced state that could borrow your description of something else:
“There can be no anxiety for the future in a place where there are no resentments of the past and only peace of mind in the present …”
What drives/motivates/fuels you to artistic expression, Jeff?
Too much self-satisfaction, as neath Banyan-Bodhi tree canopy stories, as the above quote seems to sparkle with, also seems antithetical to creation. That whole tension-to-tortured continuum lookin’ for love in, often enough, all the wrong places (which only implies - watch out! - right places exist).
As for Billy … entertainment as manipulation. “Influencers.” “I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.”
“I don't want to remember nothing. Nothing. You understand? [pause] And I want to be rich. You know, someone important, like an actor.” ~ Cypher, making his deal with Agent Smith, before betraying & murdering
***
Lam/basting life, in a hot oven, pinched the flow where we left off. (When life gives you heat, caramelize ~ no AGE-products last forever ~ tho a quick look seems to indicate pyrolosis doesn’t cross-link like Maillard does - so depends on ingredients.) Most of response is there. Maybe all of it. Maybe this long w/e I can light the fuse, cut the tether, let it ascend the ether.