Today is Vincent Van Gogh‘s birthday…and there are so many thoughts going through my head. Perhaps the most spot on thing I’ve ever learned from him is the concept of “active melancholy” – yes, that is what he called it and it’s just perfect to describe the sort of creative frenzy one can go into while one is in a very dark place. My most creative moments have been in these times and I’m sure I’ll have many more. It’s a mixed blessing, of course. Given that Vincent wrote so m

First off, I’m sticking with this title, even though there’s some buzz on the Internet about a very different sort of “Mona Lisa Effect”. Most of us are quite familiar with the illusive and exquisite Leonardo Da Vinci painting “La Gioconda“, but we forget to realize that – at least in the artist’s eyes- she was never finished. That’s right, no big surprise here but Da Vinci was a perfectionist. He rarely completed works to his satisfaction and – much to the chagrin of his cli