Sloycha, from a recent series ______ As you unfold as an artist, just keep on, quietly and earnestly, growing through all that happens to you. You cannot disrupt this process more violently than by looking outside yourself for answers that may only be found by attending to your innermost feeling. –Rilke in Letters to a […]
- Aesthetics
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Deep Attention
The publishing of David Foster Wallace’s last novel, The Pale King, unfinished at the time of his death, has brought on yet another torrent of writing about DFW. I can’t think of another writer whose legacy is shaped quite like his. His writing is brilliant and penetrating, and the cadence of his style is infectious […]
But There Are, Still, The Roses
Boston-based actor Paula Plum read this poem at a memorial service recently for Talbot Waterman—Yale professor, biologist extraordinaire, music lover, traveler and friend. This was her tribute to Talbot’s 60+ year relationship with his partner Joe Gifford. “I usually read this poem at weddings,” Paula prefaced her reading, “but it can be a way of […]
- Books
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Sontagism
Susan Sontag Claims and concerns that we are creating an increasingly voyeuristic culture are heard frequently these days. The deeply disturbing (but essential viewing IMHO) film, Catfish, is just one of a number of movies, books and articles delving more deeply into how we are constructing relationships with others and how we construct our sense […]
Pleasure, Feeling Good and Pipilotti Rist
Pipilotti Rist (Photo: Getty Images) Peter Schjeldahl’s New Yorker review of Pipilotti Rist’s show in New York last fall has been in the pocket of my handbag for months. I originally read it while traveling and had torn out the pages after marking them up with squiggly lines. Happy squiggly lines. The paper was worn […]
- Books
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Simplicity, Complexity and Elegance
Close up of Jackson Pollock’s August Rhythm at the Met Museum ____ When U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said generations ago that “I wouldn’t give a fig for simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my life fro simplicity on the other side of complexity,” he meant that to […]
Being Butch About The Waywards
We all know about the works that don’t go well and never find their way to completion. I have a strong memory of many paintings that ate up enormous amounts of my energy, time and expensive materials but just refused to turn the corner and come back into the fold of the finished. They are […]
Yanking the Chain
Portrait of Eleanor Heartney. Pencil on paper by Phong Bui. Eleanor Heartney, art critic and author of Art & Today as well as monographs on Liza Lou, Kenneth Snelson and Roxy Paine among others, has written a short but hard hitting piece on artnet that asks many of the tough questions not being addressed in […]
Moorings in the Infinite Void
An excellent article about the Anselm Kiefer show (which I referenced in an earlier post) by poet and art critic Sue Hubbard is up on 3 Quarks Daily. It is sized for reading in one sitting, something I highly recommend to anyone interested in Kiefer, painting and/or contemporary art issues. Here’s a passage about the […]
Neko Does Dillard
Amanda Katz’s interview in the Boston Globe with personal favorite Neko Case produced this fabulous passage: Annie Dillard is my favorite because she doesn’t write like a woman or a man. You know how hunters spray that stuff on them so deer can’t smell them? It’s almost like she can become invisible, as far as […]