Things Shouldn’t Be So Hard A life should leave deep tracks: ruts where she went out and back to get the mail or move the hose around the yard; where she used to stand before the sink, a worn-out place; beneath her hand the china knobs rubbed down to white pastilles; the switch she used […]
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Learning from Master Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert Thanks to top notch blogger Judith H. Dobrzynski (Real Clear Arts) for finding a fascinating article about Flaubert in Prospect Magazine. I needed this, especially today. To read about how arduously Flaubert reworked Madame Bovary (and one would assume, everything he produced) helped eliminate some of the stress and discomfort with a very […]
The Hope of Skin
Study for Skin I, by Jasper Johns Two Countries Skin remembers how long the years grow when skin is not touched, a gray tunnel of singleness, feather lost from the tail of a bird, swirling onto a step, swept away by someone who never saw it was a feather. Skin ate, walked, slept by itself, […]
Tales from the Fairies
Add fairytales to the list of things that may not be as old as you may have assumed. The argument made below claims that the origins of this material is more accurately traced to the print tradition than the oral one. Understandably this thesis has been controversial. Folklorists, ethnologists and mythologists have strong opinions about […]
Emin-ence
The Ladette, indeed Here’s another shout out for a great piece on Tracey Emin from the Times Online. Emin is having her first show in London in four years which, by design, should incite the usual contentiousness since it is an animation of a woman masturbating. Tracey is ready for the onslaught. “‘They’ll hate it!’ […]
You Tell ‘Em, Michelle
Michelle Obama spoke at the ribbon cutting for the opening of the new American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “First Guns” as some like to call our beautifully appendaged wife of the Prez, is as gracious in her remarks here as she is in so many other settings. Face it, during the last […]
Finding Your Audience
An essential tension exists in the making and the marketing of expression—be it books, plays, paintings, music, newspapers or blogs. Finding an audience is an essential step, but it is not as simple as the usual quantifying approach suggests. One of the big ideas in the Internet space over the last five years is Chris […]
That Was All That Happened
The Day of the Sun Arriving early at the limit of understanding, I managed to find a good seat, and settled in with the others, who were fanning away the heat with their programs full of blank pages. The orchestra was in place, and soon the show started. First, deep space rose high and flooded […]
Venus of Hohle Fels
The latest “venus figurine” find from the Hohle Fels cave in Germany is an extraordinary portrayal of the female form. Wow. This one is a knock out. So expressive, so wildly physical. What baffles me is the word used in much of the press coverage of this 35,000 year old sculpture: pornographic. Hello? Pornographic because […]
Art Czar Candidate: Whitmanesque Choice?
Finally, word from those on the inside track has it that Obama has picked someone to head up the National Endowment for the Arts: Rocco Landesman. Here’s the report from the Times in which Tony Kushner has a very memorable quote: “It’s potentially the best news the arts community in the United States has had […]