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.

High Cotton in Language Land

Posted on March 14, 2019 by JMN

[Confession: I hesitate to register enjoyment of language that happens to come from a debate whose seriousness I readily acknowledge. Brexit is beyond my purview, but I hope whatever solution is reached benefits the UK and its citizens. With that … Continue reading →

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Sports

Posted on March 14, 2019 by JMN

I’ve studied at every level of American education — elementary through graduate school and law school — and have taught without distinction at most levels as well — middle school, high school, community college, and university. None of this qualifies … Continue reading →

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“Resolving Uncertainty”

Posted on March 14, 2019 by JMN

I’m trying to make the musical intervals stick in my head through associated songs, a technique I’ve only just discovered. I’m painting each interval on canvas, first the minor second,  exemplified by the theme of the movie “Jaws.” The article excerpted below  recommends drawing … Continue reading →

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The Agony of Deaccessioning

Posted on March 12, 2019 by JMN

This article has useful and graphic information about how and why so many art museums display so little of their collections. At first blush there is ample fodder for irony for persons possessed of the notion that art’s first purpose … Continue reading →

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“The Skill of Deep Watching”

Posted on March 10, 2019 by JMN

This essay by Salvatore Scibona, a novelist, speaks to me for its call to transcend the outrage bait, the incitements to be condemnatory, to which we are exposed in so much discourse. His reviving of a more “capacious” meaning of … Continue reading →

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“Eva”

Posted on March 8, 2019 by JMN
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“Casually Disrespected Boundaries”

Posted on March 7, 2019 by JMN

While living in Rome in the 1970s, Wally Reinhardt became infatuated with Ovid’s “Metamorphoses.” I like the idea that a person with no formal background or training can disrespect boundaries while creating work that seems unstable and undependable. “Back in … Continue reading →

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Bernard Gilardi

Posted on March 7, 2019 by JMN

As an obscure, untrained, uninspired painter closeted in a shed, I get a vicarious boost reading about painters who manage to wander into visibility from the sidelines — posthumously, most often, which is not the boosting part. “For more than … Continue reading →

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Defamation Nation

Posted on March 7, 2019 by JMN

  How Australia Became the Defamation Capital of the World A court ruling in favor of a billionaire businessman against The Sydney Morning Herald illustrates the sorry state of the country’s defamation laws. By Louisa Lim Ms. Lim is a … Continue reading →

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Crossed Out

Posted on March 7, 2019 by JMN

[The Brant Foundation Art Study Center in the East Village, New York City, opens with an exhibition of nearly 70 works by Jean-Michel Basquiat created from 1980 to 1987.] Other paintings pay homage to jazz greats like Miles Davis and … Continue reading →

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