One of the unexpected privileges of being an older artist is the tacit permission to be unapologetically clear about what you love and what you don’t. Strong opinions come from decades of looking at art—carefully, closely, and with deep engagement. Like many of my friends who have also put in the time, we know what […]
Art
Tina Feingold
Tina Feingold’s exhibit, Wishful Thinking, is now on view at the Danforth Museum in Framingham MA. The show runs through June 8, so there is plenty of time to bring your real physical body and your real seeing eyes into a room filled with luminous works. I’ve been a passionate fan of Tina’s paintings for […]
Waltham Open Studios, 2024
Waltham Open Studios, held on the first weekend in November, is happening this weekend. This is the 48th (I know, hard to believe) year it has been held. My studio is in Building 18, on the third floor. I hope you can stop by.
Do What You Do, and Do it Well
Heather Cox Richardson’s rise to prominence is an “if you build it, they will come” story. The Boston College history professor (with a specialty in 19th century America) started posting informed political coverage on social media five years ago. Carefully written and loaded with relevant historical context, these dispatches were so well received that she […]
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Group Crit, Southern Vermont Arts Center
On November 9 I will be leading a group critique at Southern Vermont Arts Center. Information about participating in that event can be found here. While many approach art and art making through a particular lens—political, generational, media, subject matter—it is also possible to have a more personal, open and inclusive approach to the enchantments […]
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I’ll Make it My Way, Thanks
I think it’s particularly worrying at the moment because you can only create in an atmosphere of freedom, where you’re not checking everything you say critically before you move on. What you have to be able to do is to build without knowing where you’re going because you’ve never been there before. That’s what creativity […]
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 […]
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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 […]
The Infinity of Aesthetics
“Public opinion doesn’t usually move in staccato bursts,” writes Bill McKibben. “Culture usually shifts gradually—painfully gradually for those of us who want change. But, occasionally, attitudes swing quite suddenly, as if pressure had been silently building up behind a dam until it burst.” Consider for a moment how many build ups are bursting on this […]
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The World and the Margins
Years ago, when I was 19, I spent a month in southern Spain. My best friend and I bought guitars in Barcelona and then buskered and hitchhiked our way from one end of the continent to the other. Back then Francisco Franco, “El Caudillo,” was in power, holding the whole country hostage. While Spain in […]