Who needs a peacock’s tail when you can build this for your lady love? The bower created by a male bowerbird. David Rothenberg is a jazz musician and a professor of philosophy. He has written a number of books, several of them focused on the interface between natural sounds (like the songs of birds and […]
- Aesthetics
- ...
Entrance
Wasp’s nest: Entrances abound, but are hidden Not Writing A wasp rises to its papery nest under the eaves where it daubs at the gray shape, but seems unable to enter its own house. –Jane Kenyon This poem is so succinct and so artfully constructed. Haven’t we all had that daubing frustration of madly circling […]
Hughes in the Afterlife
Robert Hughes (Image Courtesy of Robert Pierce) Since Robert Hughes‘ death on Monday, the flinging has been steady. Quotes from his writing are all over Facebook and Twitter, and fortunately many of his pithy put downs are well within the 140 character limit. Yes he was controversial. Yes he pissed a lot of people off. […]
Leaving the Path at Any Moment
John Cage and collaborator/partner Merce Cunningham Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists by Kay Larson has been my mainstay for the last several weeks. Every page has now been marked and annotated, leafed through many times. This is an unforgettable, inspiring, deeply moving book about a towering […]
Exceptionalism, Exposed
Photo credit: Joe Bonomo from No Such Thing as Was For years I have been a fan of The Edge, John Brockman‘s website/movement/salon writ large/community. Feel like you need a lift, something to perk up your day? You can stop in and wander that site and invariably leave with ideas that are new, provocative and […]
- Aesthetics
- ...
Truth, Beauty and Complexity
Contemplating the Spencer Finch installation at the RISD museum There is a long history in the modernist tradition of assuming the beautiful must be a lie and that ugliness must be evidence of truth. One can understand the origin of this idea in a reaction against ossified academic standards, and simultaneously a revulsion against the […]
A Distant Mirror: Coriolanus on the Common
Coriolanus, on the Boston Common (Photo: Tamir Kalifa for the Boston Globe) How invigorating to revisit something you thought you knew (and might have dismissed as “been there, done that”) and find it utterly compelling. That was my response after seeing the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s production of Coriolanus last night. Not one of my favorite […]
- Art Making
- ...
The Basic Rule: There are No Rules
Colson Whitehead‘s contribution to the New York Times Book Review’s “How To” issue on Sunday is titled How to Write. You know, a topic that fits neatly into 11 easy-to-follow rules. Well, sort of. It’s a funny piece. Famously smart and clever, Whitehead’s novels include The Intuitionist (which I loved) and most recently, Zone One. […]
Diebenkorn’s Fields of Silence
Ocean Park #54, by Richard Diebenkorn Most artists can remember those crucial moments that were turning points in their creative journey. These are events that are a more authentic tracking of a life than the customary biographical timeline; that marked up map of a well traveled terrain that is more personal, meaningful and accurate than […]
Art as Spiritual Remedy
Sandi Slone, Rasputin, 1984, oil and acrylic on canvas, 84 x 120 inches (Photo: Left Bank Art Blog) Carl Belz, Director Emeritus of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, has been posting his views on a variety of art topics for some time on Left Bank Art Blog. His most recent article, The Color […]