Nigralle, by Deborah Barlow Mixed media on wood panel, 36 x 36″ Circulation, by Kay Canavino Digital Archival Print, 13 x 28″ Limantour, by Ramah Commanday Ceramic, 18 x 21″ I’m so happy to be showing my work with two artist friends whose work I admire greatly, Kay Canavino and Ramah Commanday. The idea of […]
Author: Deborah Barlow
Creativity and Meditation
The cosmos suggested in the etchings on an abalone shell In writing about inspiration and meditation, musician and performer Amanda Palmer described the conundrum posed by those two concepts: The songwriter in me struggles like mad when meditating. The rules of my conditioned art-mind say that nothing must stand in the way of a developing […]
Micro-Cultures of our Own Making
In one of the essays included in William Gibson‘s book, Distrust That Particular Flavor, he refers to the “personal micro-culture” that every artist creates around herself. “We [are] shaped as writers, I believe, not much by who our favorite writers are as by our general experience of fiction.” That notion of a micro-culture extends beyond […]
Time, Information Management and Art Making
Advertisement seen in China last year A few ideas have been perennially circulating in my thinking lately. One is that consensus reality is overrated. I am increasingly interested in connecting with what might be termed the invisible elements of life. The other is that the perpetual 24/7 news cycle that permeates our lives is more […]
Times of Too Much
Sometimes just the idea of empty is deeply soothing. (Mojave Desert) Helpful thoughts when you’ve tipped into overload: Now, everything gets dropped into our laps, and there are really only two responses…culling and surrender. Culling is the choosing you do for yourself. It’s the sorting of what’s worth your time and what’s not worth your […]
Pocketed Fear
Mark Rylance plays Thomas Cromwell in “Wolf Hall,” brilliantly brought to life in the writing of Hilary Mantel (Photo: PBS) I’m a passionate fan of Hilary Mantel‘s books, especially Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. In a profile of the author by Larissa Macfarquhar that appeared in the New Yorker in 2012, Mantel’s way […]
Sri Lanka and Environs
Hindu temple in Matale, Sri Lanka These last few weeks were spent in Oman, UAE and Sri Lanka. The ancient traditions—Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist—are deep and leave me feeling humbly outside a true understanding of these profound songlines. The eyes take it in, but they are just the first step in truly seeing. Here are just […]
Making Space
Early morning light, South Boston The ease of viewing contemporary work today is staggering. The steady flow of images on Facebook, Instagram and online art sites brings thousands of images from all over the globe into easy view every day. When I first started as an artist, new work came to me through two or three […]
Full Brow
Jim Lichtscheidl, Louis Jenkins, Mark Rylance, and Kayli Carter in Nice Fish. (Photo: Evgenia Eliseeva) The term highbrow was first used in the late 19th century, a reference to the arcane practice of phrenology. In this head measuring methodology, people of intelligence were believed to have a higher brow line. While phrenology was eventually discarded […]