Sometimes just the idea of empty is deeply soothing. (Mojave Desert) Helpful thoughts when you’ve tipped into overload: Now, everything gets dropped into our laps, and there are really only two responses…culling and surrender. Culling is the choosing you do for yourself. It’s the sorting of what’s worth your time and what’s not worth your […]
Pocketed Fear
Mark Rylance plays Thomas Cromwell in “Wolf Hall,” brilliantly brought to life in the writing of Hilary Mantel (Photo: PBS) I’m a passionate fan of Hilary Mantel‘s books, especially Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. In a profile of the author by Larissa Macfarquhar that appeared in the New Yorker in 2012, Mantel’s way […]
Sri Lanka and Environs
Hindu temple in Matale, Sri Lanka These last few weeks were spent in Oman, UAE and Sri Lanka. The ancient traditions—Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist—are deep and leave me feeling humbly outside a true understanding of these profound songlines. The eyes take it in, but they are just the first step in truly seeing. Here are just […]
Making Space
Early morning light, South Boston The ease of viewing contemporary work today is staggering. The steady flow of images on Facebook, Instagram and online art sites brings thousands of images from all over the globe into easy view every day. When I first started as an artist, new work came to me through two or three […]
Full Brow
Jim Lichtscheidl, Louis Jenkins, Mark Rylance, and Kayli Carter in Nice Fish. (Photo: Evgenia Eliseeva) The term highbrow was first used in the late 19th century, a reference to the arcane practice of phrenology. In this head measuring methodology, people of intelligence were believed to have a higher brow line. While phrenology was eventually discarded […]
Earth & Mars
Dunes and Slopes in Crater Southwest of Xainza Crater, Mars (Photo: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona) Ridged Surface Near Nilokeras Scopulus (Photo: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona) English sculptor Phyllida Barlow (no relation to me although I would love to claim her as a kinswoman—after all, so talented AND she is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin) has captured an […]
Worthy Women
Ocean, by Vija Celmins, 2003 (Photo: C4 Gallery) Dave Hickey has written about art by cantankerously taking down the academic art establishment, languaging his outrage in a spectrum that ranges from snarky to lyrical, oscillating in tone between a Walt Whitman-like effulgence to just one more Western cowboy dopey dude. He’s not my favorite critic […]
Dark Effulgence
Emily Nelligan (Photo: Alexandre Gallery) Being a “retinalist”—one who has given the eye primary sovereignty—I live knowing that at any time or any place, something I see can airlift me instantly into some new unexplored territory. An occasion for airlifting happened last weekend. Emily Nelligan‘s work was hanging on the wall right as you walked […]
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Sleep On It
Installation by Jan Baker, RISD Kyna Leski is a teacher, architect and artist. Her book, The Storm of Creativity, is a thoughtful journey through the process of bringing something into form that does not yet exist. Leski does not take an authoritative approach, gratefully, and she leaves lots of room for her “map” to speak […]