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.

Berthe Morisot (1841 – 1895)

Posted on October 27, 2018 by JMN

She had the loosest, least finished-looking of Impressionist techniques—a trait that helps explain her neglect, versus the more decisively branded manners of the men, but one that also fascinates. Her paintings, indefinite at first glance, are hard to stop contemplating … Continue reading →

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A little twirly birdie?

Posted on October 27, 2018 by JMN

I stream my music from Spotify and Pandora, resorting to radio only when I’m in the car. My local station is Jack Radio. Its jaunty slogan, We play what we want, belies the wretched predictability of its fare, a trait … Continue reading →

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Persuasion

Posted on October 27, 2018 by JMN

“The only way you persuade someone is to listen harder.” [While setting aside the guns?] (John Hickenlooper, quoted by Roger Cohen, “Can Colorado Save America?”, NYTimes, 10-26-18) (c) 2018 JMN.

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Art Embraced

Posted on October 25, 2018 by JMN

[stifled guffaw] “Generally people don’t like to live with complicated subject matter,” Mr. Simons said. “But I have to feel the artwork stands for something that is important to me. I don’t like the idea that it has to fit … Continue reading →

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“Lobotomized by Rage”

Posted on October 25, 2018 by JMN

Maybe it’s always been naïve to think about culture in a moral vacuum. Art comes from someplace and brings with it at least a little of wherever it has come from or whoever has made it. Why not keep those … Continue reading →

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“Free Solo”

Posted on October 25, 2018 by JMN

[Reminds me of my mother — a historian, teacher, librarian, scribbler. (Ahem. I wonder who follows in her wake!) At her funeral I said of her grammarian and authorial chops: “For her, there was a good way and a better … Continue reading →

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Whitman on Abraham Lincoln

Posted on October 25, 2018 by JMN

“None of the artists or pictures have caught the deep, though subtle and indirect expression of this man’s [Lincoln’s] face,” he wrote. “They have only caught the surface. There is something else there. One of the great portrait painters of … Continue reading →

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How I Roll

Posted on October 25, 2018 by JMN

For a time I lunched once or twice a week with two other coltish scapegraces. One was a professional poet fellowshipping in the public schools under an arts grant. The other was the executive director of the local arts council … Continue reading →

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To the Hubbard Group

Posted on October 24, 2018 by JMN

I apologize for leaning on this group. I follow in Martha’s footprints insofar as craving an outlet for my thoughts. It’s odd to me that I feel more affinity with Hubbard than with where I live now. Hence this misuse. … Continue reading →

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1987: Response to “A Fable”

Posted on October 24, 2018 by JMN

[From CB to HH & JMN:] I sat relishing the feel of the florescent light on the cheap fabric of my imitation Henry Grenthel shirt and listened as Teena’s phone conversation wafted up the ventilation system like the plaintive cry … Continue reading →

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