Edvard Munch, the Norwegian expressionist painter, is 1 of my favorite artists. I have been in LOVE with his work for almost 30 years! This painting, "The Dance of Life", is my favorite of his paintings. I learned about Munch's work when I was a college student and dating my husband. My husband was taking a literature class and 1 of Munch's paintings was on the cover of the book he was using for that class. Mike was reading a collection of August Strindberg's plays,

and in my curiosity, I decided to find out more about Munch. Like me, Mike is also a BIG fan of Munch's work. When we were newlyweds, I bought Mike a book that was a collection of Munch's artwork. "The Dance of Life" was on the cover of the book. Being college students and newlyweds was an instant recipe for being poor and trying to make ends meet. I saved and saved to get him that book and a couple of other gifts (sounds like "The Gift of the Magi"!). And we had that book in our book collection until we had the fire back in 2004. Yesterday, I had my hair trimmed and my stylist, Bertha, and I got into a discussion about Frida Kahlo. Bertha was telling me that recently, she and her mother went to the Frida exhibit in San Francisco. Those of you who know how I feel about Frida know that we 2 women had a lot to say about her, as well as the show! I told Bertha that 2 of my other favorite artists are Edvard Munch and Francisco Goya. When I woke up this morning, I could hardly wait to post some of Munch's work on my blog! So, here are a few of his pieces.

"Madonna" had a HUGE fan in Andy Warhol! He painted his version of Munch's piece.

This is probably Munch's most famous painting. It is called "The Scream". I have felt the intensity of this little guy's helplessness quite a bit in the last few weeks. I LOVE the colors and patterns in the background - the swirls, straight lines, curves, etc. This painting has always reminded me of Van Gogh's work.

This painting is called "Separation". When I was teaching full-time, my students who were in my American Literature classes were given a mini-lesson on Edvard Munch when it was time to study Edgar Allan Poe' s short stories and poetry. As artists, the 2 men had a lot in common and their works focused heavily on life and death and the 2 worlds colliding.