In writing about my favorite paintings I’m struggling to not make it sound like a blog post. “When I was blah blah…” no one cares. It’s not even polite dinner conversation. Is there anything more eye-roll-inducing than when someone flailing about to make small talk asks you what your favorite movie or food is? You can miss me with the team-building icebreakers about ice cream flavors. But here’s where that shockingly bad small talk exchange can get interesting. I watch when someone wrestles with the “favorite (insert noun)” question. We all want to seem cool. When the questionee is rolling the question around in their head, I can see the moment they arrive at the ‘appropriate’ answer. What’s the right thing to claim as favorite? I’m convinced 90% of the celebrity Letterboxd interviews are complete lies. I don’t think Harry Styles’s favorite movie is Tarkovsky’s classic 1979 semi-autobiographical saga, The Mirror. No, I think he watches The Hangover after a long day crooning. (I made all this up, has he done a Letterboxd bit?) My point is we just get to like what we like, and I’d appreciate it if we all answered the question honestly in the eye-rolling small talk exchange. My favorite movie is Master and Commander with Russell Crowe. I have probably seen it 30 times. My favorite painting is a harder question to answer. Not because I think I should pick something that impresses you but because, at the moment, I don’t have a favorite. Wait, then what am I here to even write about? Shit.