Author Archives: JMN

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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.

Furiouser Than Thou

Posted on May 20, 2019 by JMN

Margaret Renkl writes from Tennessee. Her anguish over what she calls the racist and misogynistic travesty that is endemic and persisting in southern society is palpable in the column cited here. Renkl cites recent instances of atrocities committed by southern … Continue reading →

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Guide by the Perplexed: NODS & Buck-Effing

Posted on May 20, 2019 by JMN

I’m not a rocker or blues man on a Gibson. I can make a long-fingered foray into the twelfth-fret region, but it’s not fruitful. When I mention “buck-effing” around the fretboard, therefore, only one B-C and E-F pair obtains per … Continue reading →

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“Fervent Repetition”

Posted on May 20, 2019 by JMN

… Josh Smith… degrades and celebrates his medium through the relentless yet fervent repetition of a selected motif. [He] tends to work fast and a trifle sloppily, until a certain image becomes second nature, a template. This automatism opens the … Continue reading →

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No Decapitated Nudes, Please

Posted on May 20, 2019 by JMN

Like so many good ideas, the Every Woman Biennial was born of a joke. Now it’s in its third edition, displaying the work of over 600 female and nonbinary artists, and expanding to Los Angeles. C. Finley, the exhibit organizer, … Continue reading →

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Lubed Market Takes Epic Sums

Posted on May 20, 2019 by JMN

KAWS is “former graffiti tagger” Brian Donnelly. “The market is wacky…,” said Douglas Walla, a private dealer based in New York, commenting on the current vogue for KAWS. “The whole thing is lubricated by social media. Artists have been able … Continue reading →

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“Lay, Lady, Lay.”

Posted on May 19, 2019 by JMN

“Lay across my big brass bed.” The Bob Dylan song encapsulates the entrenched American muddle around “lie” and “lay.” The victory of “lay” is all but complete. It’s obvious the song invites the lady to sexual congress, not to a … Continue reading →

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The Poor Rich

Posted on May 17, 2019 by JMN

… The affluent but not super-wealthy collectors — the bankers at Goldman Sachs but not the partners… are put off by the sky-high prices at top galleries and auction houses. When they see a Hockney painting sell for $90 million, … Continue reading →

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Quote This?

Posted on May 16, 2019 by JMN

A kind observer from somewhere remarked that I had a fair amount of original content on my blog, and asked if I coped with plagiarism or copyright violation, saying he or she was seeing his or her own content cropping … Continue reading →

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Guide by the Perplexed — Crossed Eyes, Dotted Tees

Posted on May 16, 2019 by JMN

Yea, though I walk through the shadow of the cloud of unknowing, I shall fear no malaise, for thy clef and thy stave, they comfort me. I pause from the demented abstraction of this serialized soliloquy, this goofy guide, to … Continue reading →

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Hard to Live With

Posted on May 15, 2019 by JMN

Claude Monet’s series paintings are among the few true trophies that can generate real excitement at auctions… “They’re so evocative, so romantic and so easy to live with,” Offer Waterman, a London-based dealer, said. “That was the best of the … Continue reading →

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