Studio E

09/02/2026

Beautiful!

She thought she was attending a local art show to be a good neighbor. It turned out, she was the masterpiece on display.

Farah Bakaari, a Cornell PhD student, was invited to an upcoming exhibit by her elderly neighbor, artist Catharine O'Neill.

O’Neill added a quirky request: "If you want, you can wear your yellow dress."

Farah agreed, rushing to wash the dress just in time. When she stepped into the gallery, an eerie shift hit the room. Heads turned. Everyone was staring, smiling, and whispering.

Confused, Farah let her neighbor guide her toward a featured painting.

There, in a portrait titled "Yellow Dress," was a woman wearing the exact sundress Farah had on.

O'Neill had secretly painted Farah from her garden, capturing a moment of quiet, radiant beauty without her ever knowing.

Deeply moved, Farah later shared her gratitude: "needless to say, I'm so incredibly moved and so grateful for the wonderful community of kind friends I've made in this town."

09/02/2026

08/30/2026

This room in Claude Monet's house in Giverny lived two lives.

For years it was his studio, the room at the end of the ground floor where a wall of windows looks straight out onto the garden. Then in 1899, he handed it over to something quieter. It became the family sitting room, the space where he read aloud in the evenings and where Alice and the children gathered after dinner.

Walk through it today and both lives are still visible. The walls are packed floor to ceiling with reproductions of his own paintings, arranged the way he kept them when this was still a working studio. The wicker chairs, the chaise, the low tables belong to the second life, the one built for sitting still instead of standing at an easel.

Few rooms in the house make the shift from work to rest this obvious.

08/21/2026

🤣😩 𝓐𝓷𝔂𝓸𝓷𝓮 𝓻𝓮𝓵𝓪𝓽𝓮??

08/21/2026

Progress on my version of a funky sun! It’s so happy 🎨!!!!!

08/20/2026

🎨🤍🌸✨🎀