The light in San Francisco in January can be incomprehensibly warm and golden. My winter-lashed New England self was basking in its late afternoon glow as I sat with a friend in a lush Marina garden. Bliss. Then, in an instant, my eyesight went skiwampus. That was 2018. After a lot of medical head scratching, […]
Author: deborahbarlow
- Architecture
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Architecture is a Verb
Some proclivities are sui generis, perennially present as a life unfolds. That is the sense I get when George Saunders expresses the discomfort he still feels about his childhood failure to befriend a lonely girl in his neighborhood. For Saunders, gifted author and teacher, kindness and humility are built in. I have a primordial proclivity […]
Intimately Enthralled
Sarah Slavick, Inception 3 (This work is included in the Pell Lucy exhibit, Intimately Enthralled) The latest online exhibition of Pell Lucy artists is now available on Artsy.net: Intimately Enthralled. This collection includes works by several new members of Pell Lucy–Tracey Adams, Silvia De Marchi, Scout Dunbar, Tracey Maroni, Laura Perry and Priya Vadhyar. The […]
- Art Buying
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Art is an Ecosystem
Star Guide, by Denise Manseau. This woodblock print was purchased by Alexis Carey Lawrence at the last Fair Share Art Auction in October 2020. As we will be relying upon our scientists, in this darkest dream, so too will we be relying on our artists: now, as well as afterward. There is a great need […]
A Generosity of Spirit
Wayfinder–In and Through (30), by Matthew Burrows. Ink on homemade paper This year of isolation and social distanced living—with more still to come—has brought so much discussion about the meaning of community and belonging. This difficult year has felt so personal, like watching the upholstery of your favorite chair ripped open to expose the armature […]
Signs of Work: A New Pell Lucy Exhibit
Work table in my studio (Photo: Martine Bisangi) A new online exhibition, Signs of Work, is now available on Artsy.net. Featuring work by Pell Lucy artists,* the exhibit is on view through March 4, 2021. The title of the show was inspired by words from with the late (and great) artist Tom Nozkowski in speaking […]
Constellating a Future
Above: Microscape Series (River Poem #2) by Taney Roniger. . At the beginning of the year I quoted from Rebecca Solnit’s recent book, Whose Story Is This? We are building something immense together that, though invisible and immaterial, is a structure, one we reside within—or, rather, many overlapping structures…Though there are individual voices and people […]
Keeping Ithaka Always in Mind
John Berger described drawing as something done “not only to make something observed visible to others, but also to accompany something invisible to its incalculable destination.” For so many of us who write, compose, paint or draw, Berger’s sentence brings to mind familiar experiences: Starting with something we see that we want to make comprehensible […]
Fair Share Art Auction
Art’s political power derives…from having no pragmatic application. It can’t fix the world…It stands for itself, it confronts our imagination and our intellect, and so it shapes our capacities as free citizens…If I seek out art in a time of national catastrophe…it’s because I need to be reminded what to live for. Jason Farago, art […]
- Art Making
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Antifragility and Art Making
Note: A few weeks ago I gave a guest lecture for the MFA students at Long Island University Post. At the time I referred to my remarks as a “shop talk:” gathering with fellow tradespeople to share some work wisdom. Art making can resemble a kind of guild after all, one that adheres to the […]