From Janet to Mary & from Leslie to Nela

Two nice examples found in my folder of art that people have kindly sent for me to share. 

Here is a book that may be of interest - not to buy - to check out from the library. All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley. I'll run this excerpt from the NPR review of the book because it does a better job of describing the book than I could. He spent 10 years as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. He weaves his views of art/guests/co-workers/grief/etc into a very nice read.

But Bringley's guard's-eye view is unique, and he presents his personal story with a refreshing sincerity and absence of edginess or posturing. In the wake of his 27-year-old brother Tom's death from cancer in 2008, Bringley, two years his junior, gave up a prestigious "high-flying desk job" at The New Yorker, where "they told me I was 'going places,'" for a job in which "I was happy to be going nowhere." He explains, "I had lost someone. I did not wish to move on from that. In a sense I didn't wish to move at all."

Drawn to "the most straightforward job I could think of in the most beautiful place I knew" — a job that promised room to grieve and reflect in the wake of his loss — Bringley arrived at the Met in the fall of 2008. He explains his state of mind when he pivoted toward this union position for which he donned a cheap, blue, polyester uniform and received an allowance of $80 a year for socks: "My heart is full, my heart is breaking, and I badly want to stand still a while," he writes.