Monthly Archives: October 2018

1987: Twain: Tells a Lot

Posted on October 10, 2018 by JMN

[Dear Mother,] Another anecdote that tells a lot about the man is when he was allowed, with great reluctance on Clara’s part [one of Twain’s daughters], to attend a recital that she did manage to give. He was placed on … Continue reading →

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Barbara Kingsolver

Posted on October 10, 2018 by JMN

“I’m in a really unusual position,” she says, “because I work as a literary writer. I work at the level of the sentence, at the level of the image, the metaphor, the theme, but I also have this commitment to … Continue reading →

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Julia Dixit

Posted on October 10, 2018 by JMN

Our project must be serious. This is not for fluffies! — Julia Child (Dorie Greenspan, “A Cake Fit for Julia Child,” NYTimes, 10-10-18) (c) 2018 JMN.

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“A Weaver Who Changed Art”

Posted on October 10, 2018 by JMN

“[Anni Albers] could’ve done painting later on, but she immersed herself in thread: Anni was a great person for working with limitations,” [Nicholas Fox] Weber said. “She used thread to make abstract art. Her best wall hangings from the Bauhaus … Continue reading →

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Michelangelo Merisi (Caravaggio)

Posted on October 10, 2018 by JMN

The exhibition’s principal curator, Francesca Cappelletti, said her aim was to demonstrate “what Caravaggio’s intellectual legacy was, not only as a painter but as an inventor.” He found new ways of depicting age-old subjects, be they mythological or biblical, and … Continue reading →

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Julian Schnabel: Rudimentary Concerns

Posted on October 10, 2018 by JMN

“What the surface of a painting can be is an obsession of mine,” Mr. Schnabel said. “If you see how the plate paintings function, it’s very three-dimensional, both physically and spatially. I like dealing with physical problems and rudimentary concerns … Continue reading →

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Dystopia Myopia

Posted on October 10, 2018 by JMN

Quotation of the Day One of the things about looking at the world through a feminist lens is that we are already in a dystopia. — Leni Zumas, author of “Red Clocks,” part of a growing canon of female-written dystopian … Continue reading →

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Stag Country: The Endicotts weren’t from here…

Posted on October 7, 2018 by JMN

The Endicotts weren’t from here. They came in the fifties from one of those towns the other side of Buckwaller. Rowena Endicott was a flouncy thing, half silly, always showed more leg in her skirts than was necessary. Her and me co-captained … Continue reading →

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1987: A Mark Twain Anecdote

Posted on October 7, 2018 by JMN

[In a letter to my mother I cite the following quotation from “God’s Fool,” the biography of Twain that I was reading. ] I do seem to have a whole lot of interest in a lot of arts and things. … Continue reading →

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Leonardo’s Weird Faces

Posted on October 7, 2018 by JMN

[All images are from Frank Zöllner, “Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings and Drawings,” Taschen] [Leonardo’s] drawings often of men and women with strangely deformed or exaggerated features — which he called “visi mostruosi,” or “monstrous faces,” and which scholars … Continue reading →

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