Like the difference between weather and climate, big patterns are not easy to see. Trying to tap into the larger forms can feel counterintuitive, furtive, confusing. As the old saying goes, no matter how good their eyes, the short person can never get the overview. My personal bookmark for that problem of perception is a […]
Author: Deborah Barlow
- Art Making
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Deep Visceral Echoes
I received this message recently from Karen Fitzgerald, a remarkable artist and dear friend: I’m no longer making work for the art world. I’m making it for the world. The art world can go hunker down in its lumpy lodge, as can the fame makers, the fame industry. My back is turned. That may be […]
Moby-Dick: A Musical Reckoning
More than any other American writer, Herman Melville creates a distortion in the fabric of the author spacetime continuum. A complex and moody man whose early books gave no indication he was capable of writing the greatest American novel, Melville engenders a devotion today that is famously passionate, intractably opinionated and deeply personal. (Melvilleans have […]
The Voice That Comes in Through the Window
You can’t start writing until you know what you’re doing, and you don’t know what you’re doing until you start writing. I still have to resist the false intuition that I need to know as much as possible in advance. The essential thing is to know as little as possible. Ideally, when things fall out […]
Behind the Music
Falling in love. Finding a passion. Feeling drawn to a particular place. These are common human experiences that play a significant role in the ultimate trajectory of a life. They happen well outside the domain of logic and intentionality. Even in a culture like ours that places such high value on linear thinking, we all […]
Not Fade Away
Our language—or maybe our culture in general—have limited terms to describe those times when a life gets turned upside down. For creative types, much has been written about writer’s block. Whether you view creativity as a product of sheer self expression or the gift of an inspirational visiting daemon, every artist I know has had […]
Making The Old Feel New
Anna of Cleves (Brittney Mack, at center) performs “Get Down” in SIX, written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Photo: Liz Lauren We make the oldest stories new when we succeed, and we are trapped by the old stories when we fail. –Greil Marcus It’s a long standing theme on Slow Muse: Storytelling is powerful, […]
The Irrational Elsewhere
These days it feels like a gesture of emotional safety—like securing a seat belt around your soul—to step out of the confusion of our daily existence and look at life as a full blown allegory. What happens when you allow it to all be an enchanted journey, with symbols and meaning that come together and […]
Enough for Dreaming: Gay Patterson
This is a Preamble: The Then and The Now Prior to the 20th century, letters to friends and family frequently included words as well as sketches. On the road without a camera, travelers used the best technology at the time—pen and paper. A hand written letter was personal, intimate, singular and often quite beautiful. Our […]
The Thread
The Way It Is There’s a thread you follow. It goes among things that change. But it doesn’t change. People wonder about what you are pursuing. You have to explain about the thread. But it is hard for others to see. While you hold it you can’t get lost. Tragedies happen; people get hurt or […]