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 […]
Art Making
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Dark Effulgence
Emily Nelligan (Photo: Alexandre Gallery) Being a “retinalist”—one who has given the eye primary sovereignty—I live knowing that at any time or any place, something I see can airlift me instantly into some new unexplored territory. An occasion for airlifting happened last weekend. Emily Nelligan‘s work was hanging on the wall right as you walked […]
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Sleep On It
Installation by Jan Baker, RISD Kyna Leski is a teacher, architect and artist. Her book, The Storm of Creativity, is a thoughtful journey through the process of bringing something into form that does not yet exist. Leski does not take an authoritative approach, gratefully, and she leaves lots of room for her “map” to speak […]
The “Don’t Know Mind”
So many points of light. (From a Kiki Smith installation at the DeYoung Museum, San Francisco) Some people are more certain of everything than I am of anything. –Robert Rubin In the spirit of “everything is autobiographical,” this blog is a map of the ideas that matter most to me. A quick search here for […]
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The Right Way
“Guardians of the Secret”, collage by Barry Swyers, an artist and friend who passed away earlier this year. Artist Ben La Rocco in conversation with Craig Olson, on Hyperallergic: There is some kind of confusion in my nature with regard to received methods of doing things. I’ve always had it. I’m left handed, mildly dyslexic […]
Whales, Horses and the Hand
In praise of the hand (found on a trip to India several years ago) Laurie Fendrich (painter/writer partnered with painter/writer Peter Plagens,) has written thoughtfully about the concept of a “mature” or “signature” style. “All serious painters, no matter the quality of their work, inevitably end up with a mature style,” she wrote in the […]
Let the Mystery Be
“Tezoom”, from a new series that seems to have a mind of its own In an interview with the artist Claerwen James, she was asked about what useful advice she received while she was a student: One was from Bernard Cohen who was director of the Slade at the time. During a lecture he said, […]