yes hello people..

"To kill the emotions and so live on to old age, or to accept the martyrdom of our passions and die young, is our fate." - Balzac, in La Peau de Chagrin

innit lovely...?
and to top it off... it was written in identification with the artists of the 19th Century...
romantics... just my kind of people...

anyway...

the story goes that a sucidal Valentine obtains a mystical donkey pelt... one that allows him his heart's desires... but with the provision that his lifespan shall diminish in proportion to the intensity and volume of his wishes... his acceptance of the ill-fated deal marks his entry into an excruciating examination of the nature of happiness...

what an interesting analogy of the artistic process...

the deeper you look inside youself for artistic beauty... knowing that it is in the deep recesses of the soul that yields the greatest inspiration...
the closer you come to self-annihilation...

wow...