A Closer Look - Château de Bussy-Rabutin - de Sévigné - Essay

Château de Bussy-Rabutin, Burgundy France

"...a vain and flattery-obsessed woman who sucked up outrageously to the King..."

Gus Kopriva - Been Doing This Kind of Thing Since Before Christ - Interview

Gus Kopriva - Juror - Archway Gallery’s Seventh Annual
Juried Art Exhibition (through July 29). Image by Virginia Billeaud Anderson

"...how long it would take him to realize he wouldn’t be able to hold his bottle of Shiner beer and the microphone at the same time..."

“Emperors' Treasures: Chinese Art from the National Palace Museum, Taipei” Museum of Fine Arts, Houston - Essay

Gold Bowl Used Personally by the Qianlong Emperor,
Qing dynasty, reign of the Qianlong emperor, 1735–96,
gold, National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Image © National Palace Museum



"...one in his entourage must have thought I needed a history lesson. “Taiwan not China!”..."

Unexpected Romanesque - Cormac’s Chapel Ireland 1127 AD - Essay

Cormac's Chapel Door Arch Carvings at
the Rock of Cashel Ireland 

"...Saint Patrick, to whom we owe gratitude for banishing the Devil..."

Karin Broker - Be “More Nice” Bitch - Broker Speaks - Interview

"And then the coward hung himself instead of staying alive to be raped in prison every day for the rest of his life..." Karin Broker

Sharon Kopriva - Kopriva Speaks Straight - Interview

"...I floated through the walls. My out of body experience took place almost twenty years ago when..." - Sharon Kopriva

Fernando Casas - Interview - Fernando Casas Studio Visit

"...more than his three upcoming simultaneous gallery exhibitions, the thing that inspired my recent studio visit is his reputation as a thinker..."

Joe Havel - The Front Man: Questions for Joe Havel - Interview

“happy to do the interview,” Joe Havel told me, and immediately sent a “portrait” of his bird Hanna.

Dolin Rouge Vermouth de Chambéry - A Closer Look - Essay

Dolin Vermouth Rouge and Mint
by Virginia Billeaud Anderson

"My favorite drink is a Manhattan, which when properly made, includes a fine red vermouth.  I was recently inspired to learn more about my favorite red vermouth."

Aesthetic Truth: Notes on Empress Eugénie - Previewed Franz Winterhalter Portrait Exhibition - Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Franz X. Winterhalter, Empress Eugénie,
(Wedding Portrait,) (Copy) oil on canvas

"...Eugénie produced the required male heir, with the Pope as god-father, then nagged her cheating husband into expanding the Empire..." (Inspired by Franz Winterhalter's portrait of Empress Eugénie, Virginia Billeaud Anderson discusses Eugénie's aesthetically elevated taste in fashion, jewels and decor, as well as her ambition.)

My Visit to See the Hittite Lions - Essay

Archaeological site of Hattusa. Lion Gate at the ruins of the Bronze
Age Citadel of the Ancient Hittites. Image from antikcag.tarihi

"...I toured the ancient Hittite archaeological site of Hattusa, near the city of Bogazkale in central Turkey...." (Virginia Billeaud Anderson traveled to the ancient Hittite archaeological site of Hattusa, a Bronze Age citadel and temple complex near the city of Bogazkale in central Turkey, to see the Lion Gate. Read about Hittite imperial rule, chariot design and diplomatic treatises.)

Notes on the Urubamba River - Machu Picchu - Extraterrestrials

Maggie Marbry, Photo of Urubamba River,
Top of the Peruvian Andes, 2000

"My friend Maggie Marbry took this photograph of the Urubamba River from the top of the Peruvian Andes. On that trip I learned that the Urubamba’s name in the Quechua language is 'Willkamayu,'..."

Lynda Frese: The Madonna in South Louisiana - Essay

Lynda Frese, Le Grande Salle, 2013, Photographs,
egg tempura on panel, 16” x 20”

"...Minerva’s Corinthian capitals are so lovely they seem to challenge the misguided decision to turn the goddess’s house into a church..." (Virginia Billeaud Anderson's essay about Lynda Frese's photo collage art  at Gallery le Logge in Assisi, featuring life, death, rebirth, myth & goddess symbolism.)