Author Archives: JMN

About JMN

I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day, and watch Netflix and Prime Video for entertainment. I like to read and memorize poetry.

The Forest and the Trees

Posted on September 29, 2020

I had a photograph of a forest. A Sherwood of a forest — florescent, bosky, a thing you can’t make up. And I made up a Mickey fantasia of a forest — florid, tumescent, burnt down with color and intricate … Continue reading →

| Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Rimbaud and Verlaine

Posted on September 28, 2020

The seventy-five persons interred in the French Pantheon include Voltaire, Rousseau, Dumas, Hugo and Malraux. None is there for poetry. (Victor Hugo was honored for his political attainments.) There is now a movement afoot to transfer the remains of Arthur … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Reframing Philip Guston

Posted on September 27, 2020

This week, the directors of [the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Tate Modern in London, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston] released a joint statement saying that they were “postponing the exhibition until a … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Late ‘Adamantine Crudeness’

Posted on September 26, 2020

Roberta Smith faults Hauser & Wirth for “an exhibition of mostly bland self-portrait drawings showing the artist [Luchita Hurtado] as a simple outline or silhouette… redeemed by too few of her more intense acrylic paintings from the last two years…” … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Virginia Jaramillo

Posted on September 26, 2020

Her art began as an experiment in color blocking, the pairing of contrasting tones, and it got even leaner as she went along. “I just kept simplifying, simplifying,” she said. “I dropped the form and kept the line.” “I’m working … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Two Corinthians (Poem)

Posted on September 18, 2020

Two Corinthians Up to your no good — still? — are you, brass neck,hopped up gust, blur, bad vibe, heap of slag piledon top of hope? Make less way for the yachtcaste. Put the god-blessed arms down, can tough talk,stuff … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

A Texas Artist

Posted on September 17, 2020

From The Shed Art Studio Collection. (c) 2020 JMN

| Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

‘I Hate Men’ Two

Posted on September 10, 2020

There’s more to Pauline Harmange, French author of I Hate Men, than met the eye of Ralph Zurmély, the gender equality ministry adviser who sought to prosecute her for incitement of gender-based violence. His ministry said “it appeared [he] had … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pen Pricks

Posted on September 9, 2020

In certain Victorian novels, female authors paint a bleak picture of limited options available to women lacking means or family status; of a lonely and loveless existence, yet one lacking privacy and subject to uninvited comment; of a life peopled … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Manlift’!

Posted on September 8, 2020

The locale in which these paintings hang reminds me of the shed I inhabit on a smaller scale. The old grain tower retains “a wood, steel and rubber contraption ascending through a chute in the ceiling” with a sign reading: … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , | Leave a comment