Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City In Mary Ruefle‘s Madness, Rack and Honey, she references the concept of “unhitching.” The very word delights me: the idea of not being tethered or contained, of being let loose. It can mean so many different things of course, but Ruefle is referencing its particular use in Claude […]
Safekeeping the Not Knowing
As most of my readers know, I rely on poets to describe—as much as it can be described—what takes place in the isolation of my painting studio day after day, month after month, year after year. There are so many who can wield the word wand so much better than I can, many of whom […]
Star Birthing
(Painting detail with a cosmic flair) Star Birth of the Word ULASSA Just now, May 23, 2013, I have in my conceit created a brand new word, Ulassa, at 8:05 AM: as I write, Ulassa is an infant star that burns white hot hydrogen and Joins—who knows—988,000 English words or more, As a new birthed […]
Stafford on Stafford
William Stafford (Photo by Kim Stafford) Early Morning is a memoir of William Stafford written by his son Kim Stafford. This book is so singularly satisfying, so full of wisdom I can’t put it down. Is there another case of a larger-than-life writer whose story has been told by his or her child who just […]
Books, Forgetting and the Pure Joy of Reading
My favorite library belongs to my friends Andrew and Kathryn: Color coded throughout the house. This week I have been inundated with references to a piece by Ian Crouch, The Curse of Reading and Forgetting, on Facebook, Twitter and in my email. Bullseye. This is what perfect targeting looks like, exactly the kind of tailored […]
- Aesthetics
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It’s Only Afterwards
Penelope’s Heart, by Paula Overbay When you are in the middle of a story it isn’t a story at all, but only a confusion; a dark roaring, a blindness, a wreckage of shattered glass and splintered wood; like a house in a whirlwind, or else a boat crushed by the icebergs or swept over the […]
The Space Between
Rob McLean and Matt Kahler in the Hypocrites’ “Pirates of Penzance,” an update of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera (Photo: Matthew Gregory Hollis) We know that consciousness has no boundaries. It is for that reason that the connectedness of everything running through us is utterly overwhelming. In an effort to manage our day to […]
Kenjilo Nanao: Hand of a Master
“Boxes in Terra Rose I,” oil and silver leaf on canvas, 2009 (courtesy of the artist) Kenjilo Nanao, printmaker and painter, passed away on Monday. He was 83. Born in Aomori, Japan, he came to San Francisco in 1960. He studied printmaking with Nathan Oliveira, married fellow artist Gail Chadell, and together they spent most […]
Practical Guidelines for Artists (Just in Case You Were Looking for Some)
Let’s face it: artists walk a pathless path where nothing is clear The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the […]
- Aesthetics
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Being Seen
Close up of the surface of a painting from the Orbilinia series I am honored—and really humbled—by a terrific post written about me and my work by Sloan Nota. We have been friends for about 20 years. While our orientation to many aspects of art and art making are very different, we share a mutual […]