A page from a letter written by Van Gogh The question, “What really matters?” is one I ask a lot more frequently these days. One reason is that getting older makes the need to vet more important. Life gets to be like a hard drive that is nearly filled, and decisions have to be made […]
Art
Unquenchable Playfulness
Painting detail, Ed Moses Pacific Standard Time—the massive, Getty-funded undertaking in 2011 that featured over 60 exhibits throughout Southern California highlighting Los Angeles art between 1945-1980—was a sea change for me. The span and the range of work was staggering, and it revealed a complete art ecosystem that emerged quite apart from the pulsing international […]
Whispering to the Universe
From the Slow Muse archive: This post first appeared in April 2014 and was titled “Pitchers and Catchers.” “Veriddyi 2”, a painting that speaks to my ongoing longing to envision that first day of creation One of my favorite quotes comes by way of W. S. Piero from his book of essays, Out of Eden: […]
Clew, Redux
“Clew,” installation view by Cheryl Senter Clew, a collaborative installation at the Phillips Exeter Academy, came to an end in the middle of April. The energy unleashed in that collaboration with Todd Hearon, Lauren O’Neal, Jon Sakata and Jung Mi Lee continues to pull me in unexpected directions. Thank you again to all my fellow […]
Eye Balling and Free Falling
“Portrait of the Artist Listening to Music,” by Howard Hodgkin (Photo: Miriam Perez) Note: Hodgkin passed away on March 9, 2017. I am just back from a week of art viewing in London—special museum exhibitions including Michelangelo, Robert Rauschenberg, Wolfgang Tillmans, David Hockney, Howard Hodgkins, Eduardo Paolozzi and Elton John‘s estimable collection of photographs, plus […]
Clew: In Process
Clew: A Rich and Rewarding Disorientation, opens at the Lamont Gallery in Exeter, New Hampshire, on Friday, January 20. This is the completion of an 18 month long exploration of ideas with collaborators Todd Hearon, Jung Mi Lee, Lauren O’Neal and Jon Sakata. I don’t think any of us imagined that this would culminate in […]
- Art Making
- ...
Makers Unite
My granddaughter Siena drawing in the Rothko room at the newly opened East Building of the National Gallery, Washington DC (Photo: Mona Wilcox) We have to help each other. That may sound trite, but it has come to mean a lot more to me over the last dark weeks. When my spirits flagged, I have […]
- Art Making
- ...
The Private and the Political
From Doris Salcedo’s Disremembered series. These sculptures are made with raw silk threads interspersed with more than 12,000 tiny, blackened needles. “Handwoven thread by thread and needle by needle, each delicately beautiful but menacing garment embodies a painstaking gesture of mourning.” (Detail) I’m not the only one stymied. Many of us are struggling with we […]
- Art Making
- ...
Benedictions
Sally Mann (Photo: Liz Liguori) Finding fully immersive distractions to defend against the relentlessly ugly political news has become a daily ritual. Like so many others, I go out each day in search of sustenance in a landscape that has been ravaged by the locusts of lies, hatred and distrust. Protecting the inner landscape and […]
Pfaffability
Judy Pfaff at Wheaton College Judy Pfaff is an artist’s artist. Perhaps I should be more specific and say she is my kind of artist’s artist. And “my kind of artist” is a much bigger category than me and my friends. Legions of us have followed her for years, and we keep being compelled, enthralled, […]