Carole McCall Author and Coach

There is nothing like the hot California sun

Shining down, as its rays overwhelm

Trees, now fully covered in green leaves, have their own fun

Lost in oblivion and in their own natural realm

Flowers rise up and soak in the sun

Eagerly blossoming, their petals glistening

Refusing to dance and stun

Carefully showing us the art of refining

Nature basks in summer’s glory

Animals and children refuse to do anything but play and run

Creating their own summer story

To be retold under the bright summer sun

On the 8^th of June 1956, Cubist artist Marie Laurencin died in Paris at the age of 72. During her lifetime, Laurencin achieved a successful international reputation, especially in the 1920s and 1930s. Even earlier though at the Salon des Indépendants (1910-1911) and the Salon d’Automne (1911-1912) she exhibited alongside Pablo Picasso, and Cubists associated with the Section d’Or, such as Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Robert Delaunay, Henri le Fauconnier and Francis Picabia. She famously had a relationship with the poet Guillaume Apollinaire and is often referred to as his muse. Allegedly, Laurencin had both heterosexual and lesbian affairs, some of her significant connections including people such as the American expatriate and renowned lesbian writer Natalie Clifford Barney. Laurencin’s works were exhibited widely and purchased by astute modern collectors, such as Gertrude Stein, John Quinn, Claribel and Etta Cone, and Chester Dale. It seems that posthumously Laurencin and…