Welcome back, friends! Five weeks in, and I’ve been noticing how strangely we talk about artists. We have this enormous vocabulary for describing art—composition, texture, palette, form, technique—but when we try to describe the artist themselves, we fall back on tired clichés: “tortured genius,” “creative soul,” “visionary.” It’s as if […]

Welcome back, friends! January’s almost over, and I’ve been thinking about how English handles success. We have this whole vocabulary of vertical movement: “climbing the ladder,” “reaching the top,” “rising to the occasion,” “making it big.” Success, in English, is always upward—as if achievement were a matter of altitude, not […]