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.

‘Just About Everyone Needed Therapy’

Posted on August 11, 2024 by JMN

“Gathering, touching, connecting — these are Tosquelles’s methods.” This article highlights an exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum in Manhattan that will end on August 18, 2024:  Francesc Tosquelles: Avant-Garde Psychiatry and the Birth of Art Brut. The Catalan … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Break Out the Tiny Fiddle, But Have Some Heart, Too

Posted on August 9, 2024 by JMN

She had the effrontery to burden the critics with her good looks. I speak of Yvonne Furneaux.  In a review of a 1955 production of Jean Giraudoux’s “Ondine,” the august British theater critic Kenneth Tynan wrote Ms. Furneaux off as … Continue reading →

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‘More Than 90 Percent of Them Were Loaded’

Posted on August 6, 2024 by JMN

“Last year the [U.S.] Transportation Security Administration intercepted a record number [of firearms] at airport security checkpoints: 6,737. More than 90 percent of them were loaded when they were discovered.” (Andrew Keh, “An Olympian’s Awkward Packing List: Toothbrush? Check. Rifle? … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged | 3 Comments

Survival of the Fiercest

Posted on August 4, 2024 by JMN

Various scriptural matter I read has the theme of the “test” through adversity. Failing the test consigns a person to The Fire — agony until the end of time. Flood, drought, pestilence, persecution, war, Vance, all manner of affliction are … Continue reading →

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Foggy escalator.

Posted on August 4, 2024 by JMN

This is my photo of the day (POTD), and my favorite title ever of a photograph! Foggy escalator.

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , | 5 Comments

The Few, the LOUD

Posted on August 1, 2024 by JMN

The elbow room in ivied halls of bard raptureHas the vastness of atomic space.Let ring lute! — Recorder, mandolin and dulcimer.Let move your lips with mine while reading silently.Let BE our noise! Be louder than it sounds! A sub-segment of … Continue reading →

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‘Plastic Is This Zombie Medium’

Posted on July 30, 2024 by JMN

Verse can have visual ramifications as well as verbal ones. Text commandeers white space on the page in one-off patterns reflecting a close collaboration between author and typographer. The ensemble is larger than the words which are its literal medium. … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

‘You Have to Work Through Bad Work to Get to Good Work’

Posted on July 27, 2024 by JMN

Artist Sarah Sze was interviewed in the New York Times’s feature titled “Artist’s Questionnaire.” This was my favorite question and answer. Which work of your own do you regret or would [you] do differently now? I guess I would say … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged | 2 Comments

Ammo and a Candy Bar

Posted on July 23, 2024 by JMN

Ask yourself how often you’ve found yourself in this familiar pickle: It’s late Saturday night and you’ve run out of ammunition. The stores are closed until Monday. It’s beg, borrow or steal some rounds, or else fiddle away the rest … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | 6 Comments

‘Tested in the Wrack Wrack of the Parlance’

Posted on July 20, 2024 by JMN

… I want to say / this is how it started: / there was a mystery / it begged / to be stroked(Alexis De Veaux, “For my love at the time of our ceremony,” Poetry, July-August 2024) “YxzY” by Ronaldo … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , | 4 Comments