The home of designer <n>Loulou de la Falaise</n>. Photo by <n>Gilles de Chabaneix</n>.

“There is no separation from the sacred and mundane.”

<n>Time as Occasion (Kairos)</n>, c. 1544, by <n>Francesco de Rossi (Salviati)</n>.

<n>Robert Mitchum</n> as <n>Jeb Rand</n> in the 1947 film <n>Pursued</n>.

From the series <n>WINTER HORSE</n> by photographer <n>OBATA Yuji</n>.

<n>Inner & Outer Alchemy</n>, an illustration by <n>Ola</n>.

A sculpture by artist <n>Glen Martin Taylor</n>.

Traditional wedding costume of an <n>Avar</n> woman from Dagestan, Russia.

<n>Trespasser</n> from <n>Zhong Lin</n>'s <n>Project 365</n> series.

Photograph by <n>Alex Stoddard</n>, 2011.

Actress <n>Sofia Boutella</n> in the Wadi Rum Desert, Jordan, 2013. Photo by <n>Freddie Bonfanti</n>.

I have had time to read and research, but there's been something hollow about it. Perhaps because books have deferred a deeper need. Even the stuff I'm most entranced by has left me blank on many days. Self-study puts a strange ceiling on learning. It turns windows into mirrors.

A film still of <n>Vivian Wu</n> and <n>Ken Ogata</n> in <n>The Pillow Book</n> (1996), directed by <n>Peter Greenaway</n>.

<n>Liv Tyler</n> in <n>Bernardo Bertolucci</n>'s 1996 film, <n>Stealing Beauty</n>.

Detail from <n>Apollo pursuing Daphne</n> (1677) by artist <n>René-Antoine Houasse</n>.

A photograph from the <n>Still-Life Polaroids</n> series by <n>Andy Warhol</n>, 1977.

<n>Max von Sydow</n> in <n>The Seventh Seal</n> (1957), directed by <n>Ingmar Bergman</n>.

A still from <n>Paul Schrader</n>'s 1985 film, <n>Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters</n>.

A Palestinian woman weaves a basket, circa 1900. Photo from the <n>Library of Congress</n>.

A woman reads in bed with a dog and a deer in Beverly Hills, 1927.

<n>Glass Capsule</n> by <n>Neil Krug</n>, featuring model <n>Kaiman Kazazian</n>.