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Posted August 28, 2022 Art and Spirit

A Surprise Communion across Continents, Classes, Centuries, and Cultures

. . .In dejection from all the awful and discouraging news about reactionary political victories, rampant viral sub-variants, catastrophic droughts, and increasing violence (as well as, for me, unhappy views about my own self), I found myself doing something that I’ve done on occasion over the years, especially under stress: I was hand-writing, long past midnight, a list of my favorite artists and mystical writers. That exercise can calm and comfort me. not just as an obsessive-compulsive ritual, but as a reminder of real treasures that I’ve been given, for inspiration and illumination.

Posted June 27, 2022 Uncategorized

Good News about Photos That Mirror Bad Times

I’m not sure about the answer to the question posed by that photo title, but the news that I just received about the image may help me from having to … Continue Reading Good News about Photos That Mirror Bad Times

Posted February 18, 2021 Art and Spirit

“We interrupt our regularly-scheduled programming to bring you this important message. . . .”

As I said I would, I’ll write to you soon about the Fire in “The Friend Who May Not Seem a Friend.” But I have to share with you first an exceptional, timely gift that came to me this week.

Posted September 27, 20202 Comments Art in Society

“I wish somehow. . . .”

Dear Readers, I’m sorry to be so late with this “next” post. But you all know that sometimes we seem to be having even more difficulties than we usually do. And sometimes the world seems to give us even more causes for grief than it commonly does.

“. . . there is only one thing valuable in art and that is the bit that cannot be explained. To explain away the mystery of a great painting – if such a feat were possible – would be irreparable harm . . . if there is no mystery then there is no ‘poetry,’ the quality I value above all else in art.”

-- Georges Braque

“When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice.” Robert Frank

Posted April 9, 2018 Art and Spirit

Lonely Truth versus the Chill of Ages

There’s a loneliness in being an artist, a feeling that almost no one else understands or values what you’ve intended or made. There’s loneliness in having had any kind of … Continue Reading Lonely Truth versus the Chill of Ages

Posted December 24, 2017 Art and Spirit

Windows and Doors and Waves and the Well

“[The] notion that man has a body distinct from his soul is to be expunged; this I shall do, by printing in the infernal method, by corrosives, which in Hell … Continue Reading Windows and Doors and Waves and the Well

Posted November 26, 2015 Art and Spirit

Wishing You a Wonderful Thanksgiving

I wish you all for thanksgiving what, in a sense, but only in a sense, we already have — a world of wonders. Or, rather, I wish that we would all enter … Continue Reading Wishing You a Wonderful Thanksgiving

Posted November 24, 2014 Art and Spirit

Alligator Intellect

[The ink painting above, by Sengai, pictures a scene from the famous Zen koan in which the Zen teacher, Nan-ch’uan, tells his students that he will chop the kitten in … Continue Reading Alligator Intellect