Thomas Nozkowski, Untitled (7-107, LA III), 1998, oil on linen on panel, 22×28” (Photo: BOMB Magazine) [Note: Here is another post I have pulled up out of the Slow Muse archive from 2012. I am still a bit ham-handed from my surgery and typing is hard so I have been revisiting posts that speak to […]
Art Making
- Art Making
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Silky Attention
The sand along the shore in Small Point, Maine: The water’s silky attention brought to bear [Note: I had surgery on my right hand this week so my ability to type has been compromised while it heals. I am reposting from a few years ago since Jane Hirshfield continues to be a guiding force for […]
Standing with Stafford
Cook’s Beach, New Zealand Every artist has her own way of working. For me there are a few fundamentals that anchor my art making: Daily practice is one, and a willingness to surrender to the process is another. Following that thread will take you where it will, often down surprising and unexpected side roads. Interfering […]
- Art Making
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Legacying a Life
Conflagration, by Gordon Waters (Photo: Art collection of the University of Western Sydney) After years of experience and a commitment to abstraction I am able to “forget myself” with greater ease. The pictures have begun to determine me instead of the other way around. In the process, a more cohesive body of work has evolved. […]
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Grit-Rich
In my studio: Hand molds in a peat bowl by friend and artist Rachel Parry. Parry made both of these objects from substances she found on her land in Allihies, Beara, Ireland. Like most of my readers, I track creativity research like a part time job I’ll have for the rest of my life. With […]
- Aesthetics
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Hands in that Stuff
Work table in my studio (Photo: Martine Bisagni) John Yau has written a review of Ken Price*’s show at the Metropolitan on Hyperallergic, Ken Price’s Time. Yau made the point that he was not surprised that Price was on display at the Met rather than at any of the three major contemporary art institutions in […]
- Art Making
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Single Harness
Blade, 6 x 7″, egg tempera on calfskin parchment by Altoon Sultan, an artist who is an exemplar of Deliberate Practice. I am a horse for single harness, not cut out for tandem or teamwork…Full well do I know that in order to attain any definite goal, it is imperative that one person should do […]
- Aesthetics
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Seeing as Making
David Esterly* studied philosophy at Harvard and Cambridge before the trajectory of his life changed and he became a professional limewood carver. In his book, The Lost Carving: A Journey to the Heart of Making, Esterly describes a challenging year at Hampton Court where he had been hired—an American no less—to repair the fire-damaged wood […]
- Aesthetics
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Adventures in the Impossible
Songwriter Bob Russell ( “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”, among many others) wrote these lyrics for Billie Holiday back in the 1940s: The difficult I’ll do right now The impossible will take a little while. The second line was the inspiration for the title of one of my favorite books, The Impossible Will Take […]
Images, Ideas and Tension
The first part of the Return from Parnassus, by Cy Twombly The image cannot be dispossessed of a primordial freshness, which idea can never claim. An idea is derivative and tamed. The image is in the natural or wild state, and it has to be discovered there, not put there, obeying its own law and […]