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. I like to read and memorize poetry.

Be Paint

Posted on April 11, 2021 by JMN

… [Clement] Greenberg’s organizing idea was surprisingly simple: modern painting, having ceased to be illustrative, ought to be decorative. Once all the old jobs of painting—portraying the bank president, showing off the manor house, imagining the big battle—had been turned … Continue reading →

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But Also Thank the Devil

Posted on April 6, 2021 by JMN

The worst way to defeat a social or cultural ill is to declare war on it. The U.S. declares war on problems it can’t or won’t solve. The worst way to foster a social or cultural good is to declare … Continue reading →

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And the Winner Is… Loss Vegas

Posted on April 5, 2021 by JMN

“The vast majority of MLMs [multi-level marketing companies like Amway and Ambit] are recruiting MLMs, in which participants must recruit aggressively to profit. Based on available data from the companies themselves, the loss rate for recruiting MLMs is approximately 99.9%; … Continue reading →

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Alice Neel: ‘Collector of Souls’

Posted on April 4, 2021 by JMN

“I would say she was looking at two ghetto children from uptown and bringing out the beauty in us.” [Jeff Neal, on left in the portrait with brother Toby.] (John Leland, “Two Brothers Posed for a Portrait. One Lived to … Continue reading →

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A Translation

Posted on April 3, 2021 by JMN

If I Should Come Upon Your House Lonely in the West Texas DesertBy Natalie Diaz. Selected by Reginald Dwayne Betts, NYTimes, 4-1-21. [Translator’s note: The title’s ‘West Texas Desert’ is resonant and necessary. For my Spanish interpretation, however, the fact … Continue reading →

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Un pinar y un mar.

Posted on April 1, 2021 by JMN

Contrastes. Un pinar y un mar. Alba — camino, verde, azul, los pájaros que viven en el bosque… son palabras que ahora [now] tú reconoces [recognize].

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The ‘Open-(Ahem)’

Posted on March 31, 2021 by JMN

The polite, socially acceptable name by which it’s currently known is the medlar. But for the best part of 900 years, the fruit was called the “open-arse” – thought to be a reference to the appearance of its own large … Continue reading →

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Travesía (7)

Posted on March 30, 2021 by JMN

Versión castellana del poema “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” (1856) de Walt WhitmanEnglish text at http://www.poetryfoundation.orgSpanish Interpretation by JMN Parts 4 and 5 in their entirety follow. Cleave to awareness there are 9 parts. (4)These and all else were to me the … Continue reading →

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Wide Load

Posted on March 28, 2021 by JMN

Jason Farrago lavishes a container shipload of exegetical rumination on Julie Mehretu’s paintings. Lines accreted in an essentially radial configuration, with large arcs orbiting an absent central axis, and orthogonal spokes sprouting from the core. (The Mehretu black line is … Continue reading →

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Clarice Beckett – The Present Moment — leonieandrews — Silicon Valley Types

Posted on March 25, 2021 by JMN

“roll up your catalogue and view each picture through it. … You will be rewarded with a wonderful suggestion of light and air and sufficient detail, and finish.” So said critic Percy Leason and  fellow student of Clarice Beckett (1887- … Continue reading →

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