Author Archives: JMN

Unknown's avatar

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.

Transcendental Hokum

Posted on May 23, 2024 by JMN

it’s raining in Athens too, a brood of stars jump on the hood as I race onto Route 441 & sob over a cold voice on the radio explaining God. (Abhijit Sarmah, “In Her Last Phone Call”) I harbor the … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged | Leave a comment

Real Meat or Die!

Posted on May 18, 2024 by JMN

… Determined to assert their alterity, they make sure that they’re always facing backward. (Cole Swensen, “Birds on Statues”) From Tallahassee to the seathe state of Florida shall belab-grown meat and climate free. SourcesDionne Searcey, “‘We Will Save Our Beef’: … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Red Alert: Portrait Riot!

Posted on May 16, 2024 by JMN

I warm to Jonathan Yeo’s smoldering rendition of Charles the Third for the fastuous havoc it wreaks on canvas, not to mention expenditure of fiery pigment. It will inflame disdain in all the right quarters, though reportedly not in his … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | Tagged | 4 Comments

‘Six Persimmons’: Asymmetry and Ambiguity

Posted on May 15, 2024 by JMN

In a show called The Heart of Zen, “Six Persimmons” was displayed for three short weeks in late 2023 at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. It was “painted with ink on paper in the 13th century, probably by … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , | 13 Comments

Incantation With Discreet Avowal

Posted on May 12, 2024 by JMN

To all who need them: Thoughts and prayers from the legislatures.Thoughts and prayers from the donors.Thoughts and prayers from the councils.Thoughts and prayers from the courts.Thoughts and prayers from the boards.Thoughts and prayers from the embassies.Thoughts and prayers from the … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

What You Read Is What YOU Read

Posted on May 9, 2024 by JMN

Frank Stella has died. He’s the one who said, “What you see is what you see,” with reference to painting (his painting, at least), a slogan someone described as “pithy and enduring.” I liked it so much I had it … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Who Needs to Know?

Posted on May 6, 2024 by JMN

The most terrifying exercise I know is to calculate how many seconds I can expect to live. I refuse. Never send to know for whom the clock ticks. It ticks for thee (not me). I heard my dad in his … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Clogging and Flogging

Posted on May 2, 2024 by JMN

Commentary blogs, or clogs, are thriving. There’s also a raft of ‘fluencer blogs, or flogs, out there. The difference between clogging and flogging can be subtle. In general the flogger is covertly, if not overtly, selling something; the clogger is … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged | 2 Comments

Can’t-Be-Arsed Poetica

Posted on April 30, 2024 by JMN

Call it the agony of the long-distance reader. There’s a lot of verse out there. It’s hard to give any one text a non-cursory read. On occasion there’s a specimen I’d like to flounder around in, nudge and knock about, … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Training Color to Speak for Itself

Posted on April 27, 2024 by JMN

Inspired by the theorist Michel Eugène Chevreul — whose 1839 treatise on color harmony is on display in this show — Sonia [Delaunay] and her fellow pioneers in abstraction had to train the individual elements of color, such as contrast … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , | 2 Comments