The Golden Record consists of 115 analog-encoded photographs, greetings in 55 languages, a 12-minute montage of sounds on Earth and 90 minutes of music. J Marshall – Tribaleye Images / Alamy I am admittedly enamored with the idea that things possess dimensions that can’t be seen. Artists are particularly drawn to this idea, but I was […]
Strangers Meet
At a time when things feel particularly frayed and fragile, finding a place of clarity and comfort is hard. Frequent reference has been made to the haunting the lines of W. B. Yeats’s 1919 poem, Second Coming: “The ceremony of innocence is drowned;/The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity.” Every […]
How I Learned to Drive
Paula Vogel wrote the play, How I Learned to Drive, by staying up all night for two weeks. She had secured a theater residency in Juneau, but unforeseen circumstances caused her to arrive empty handed. As a result, she was highly aware of an obligation to produce something quickly. The long days of sunlight, the […]
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Waltham Open Studios, 2023
For friends in the Boston area, Waltham Open Studios happens this weekend. Stop by! This is the third year I have participated in this long running tradition. I was surprised by how much I have enjoyed meeting new people who are interested in looking at and talking about art. Deborah Barlow 144 Moody Street Building […]
Stealing Bones
Kurt Vonnegut was famous for his conviction that all stories conform to very defined narrative shapes. He liked to chart out each storyline’s trajectory—he had about eight of them–and gave them names like “Man in Hole” and “Boy Meets Girl.” And now AI has demonstrated that these fundamental story forms are indeed legit–identifiable, indelible, ubiquitous. […]
More Than Just Out or In
“A cartographic conception is very distinct from the archaeological conception… The latter establishes a profound link between the unconscious and memory: it is a memorial, commemorative, or monumental conception…Maps, on the contrary, are superimposed in such a way that each map finds itself modified in the following map, rather than finding its origin in the […]
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Todd Hearon: A Salmon’s Journey
There’s a story told by the poet Ruth Stone. While working in the fields in Virginia, she could feel and hear when a poem was traversing the landscape, coming right at her. It was like a “thunderous train of air,” shaking the earth under her feet. The only thing to do was “run like hell” […]
An Exhale of Collective Pleasure
Shakespeare on the Boston Common (Photo: Courtesy of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company) This summer has the look of life back in 2019. Lots of concerts, outdoor gatherings, busy beaches, people on vacations, overbooked flights. Even so, dogged remnants of where we have been remain, like masked faces that can still be spotted in the crowds. (I […]
The Lehman Trilogy and the Ecosystem of Ancillary Concerns
The Lehman Trilogy, at the Huntington Theater (Photo courtesy of the Huntington Theater) . It is a gesture of dramatic bravado to stage the 150-year rise and fall of a multi-generational immigrant family in America, and do it all with just three actors and a minimal set. But some stories have an appeal so trenchant […]
Pell Lucy: THINLY AND THICKLY
Andra Samelson, Sky Churning, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30″ . Every six months Pell Lucy artists come together for an online exhibit on Artsy.net. Thinly and Thickly is our summer show, the 10th online exhibit we have had since Pell Lucy came into existence in early 2020. Four new members have joined Pell Lucy: Heather […]