Brian Eno (Photo by Matthew Anker) A category of music referred to as “ambient”—made popular by musicians including Brian Eno, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, The Orb, Aphex Twin, Tangerine Dream, Popul Vuh—is often coupled with the music of the “holy minimalists”—Arvo Pärt, John Tavener, Henryk Górecki, Alan Hovhaness and Sofia Gubaidulina. Whether electronic or contemporary […]
- Art Making
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Direct Encounters
“Ekka,” a newly completed painting (33 x 47″). An art collector had this to say when she stopped by my studio recently: “Lately I have wanted to just quietly commune with a work of art. I am not interested in deciphering references or spending time getting the inside jokes. I just want to find a […]
- Aesthetics
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Everything Depends
Mar Jee 3, from a recent series I have been spending some time contemplating where working and mystery coalesce. Here are a few thoughts about that by way of some wise practitioners… Shaking the Tree Vine and branch we’re connected in this world of sound and echo, figure and shadow, the leaves contingent, roots pushing […]
Small is Beautiful
A display at the Museum of Innocence, titled “Istanbul‘s Streets, Bridges, Hills and Squares,” (Photo: Jackie Nickerson) Turkish author Orhan Pamuk (whose books include My Name is Red and Snow, among others) is an advocate of small museums (a topic I wrote about here.) We live in an era of mega-museums that work hard to […]
- Aesthetics
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Useful Space for Thought
Detail from one of my recent painting series, “Angaris” I recently found two statements about painting by Australian artist Helen Johnson that were very resonant for me. While Johnson’s work has identifiable content, her approach and attitudes are aligned with my work as a non representationalist. First, her description of painting from a roundtable about […]
- Art Making
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In Both But Neither
Boli (Photo: Brooklyn Museum) Bolis are abstract figures that are from the Bamana culture. The basic form, a bit like a simplified cow, is made from mud, eggs, chewed kola nuts, sacrificial blood, urine, honey, beer, vegetable fiber, and cow dung. The role of the boli is to regulate energy, whatever is moving from the […]
The Discipline to Discard
Sign post encountered on a hike in New Zealand Jim Collins is a business writer whose target audience is usually not visual artists. But wisdom has leaky margins and the best crosses the categories. In a recent essay Collins writes: A great piece of art is composed not just of what is in the final […]
OK Plateau
A universe emerging in the surface of a pan: Still in search of mastery Once we have acquired a certain level of expertise at a task, it is easy to just go into autopilot. Some call that place the “OK Plateau”—where good enough is good enough, and there really isn’t much intrinsic motivation to improve […]
- Ideas
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The Boredom/Bliss Continuum
Slow accretion of ice on a window in winter Note: The following post is pulled from the Slow Muse archives. What caught me on the reread was the note left by David Foster Wallace with his final manuscript: “Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can find (Tax Returns, Televised Golf) and, in […]
- Aesthetics
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A Pirate’s Life for Me
Dave Hickey (Photo: Nasher Museum Of Art) Most of us have a list of our “personal perennials”—those writers, artists and musicians whose works continue to delight, engage, astound, connect. My loyalty to my list runs deep, and there is nothing you could say to sway me from my devotions. They are my inner circle, my […]