Category Archives: Quotations

Things people said.

‘Drawings Are the Great Teachers’

Posted on May 20, 2022 by JMN

… The mark-making basic to drawing is the starting point of so much else: the development of written language, numbers, musical scores. Drawings are the great teachers; they educate the eye and make us more conscious of seeing. They present … Continue reading →

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They Put the ‘Art’ in Partnering

Posted on May 15, 2022 by JMN

Sally Michel (1902-2003) was 17 years his junior when she married Milton Avery (1885-1965) in 1926. A painter herself, she provided income as a freelance illustrator for 30 years while he painted full time. He never had a studio, and … Continue reading →

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In Praise of Walls

Posted on May 8, 2022 by JMN

I’ve admired artist Outside Authority’s (www.outsideauthor.wordpress.com) lyrical renderings of UK churches and churchyards for some time. It’s stimulating to see a similar devotion to these spaces reflected in this Guardian article. “Eight hundred years ago, pagan sites – springs, wells … Continue reading →

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‘He Didn’t Get Out Much’

Posted on May 5, 2022 by JMN

For Matisse, the studio was the place where the real world receded, where magic could be made and art ruled. Once he absorbed what Fauvism had to teach him about natural light and pure color, Matisse didn’t get out much. … Continue reading →

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‘I Would Be a Really Good Artist If I Just Stopped Painting’

Posted on April 27, 2022 by JMN

“The Ordinary Song,” 2017. Credit…via Chiem & Read. Artist Donald Baechler (1956-2022) is remembered in the New York Times by Roberta Smith. Among [Baechler’s] holdings of New York artists was a neon-light wall piece by Joseph Kosuth, a leading Conceptual … Continue reading →

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How Poetry Feels About Itself

Posted on April 12, 2022 by JMN

Rae Armantrout’s poem “Smidgins” fulfills an imperative of lyric, which is “Don’t be gassy.” Also another imperative, which is “Talk in riddles.” My crumpled, wrinkled / blurt / of flesh. // “Let’s face it,” / it says. * … Ravaged … Continue reading →

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On ‘Love Letter to a Dead Body’

Posted on April 2, 2022 by JMN

I’m intrigued by the tension in Jake Skeet’s [sic] poem: Its title juxtaposes love with death, and its rhythms press against the nettle-like images. The first stanza’s images are scarred and rough with “burr and sage,” “bottles” and the “cirrhosis … Continue reading →

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Coming Unstuck With Glück

Posted on March 27, 2022 by JMN

I’ve acquiesced to much of what I can’t quite fathom in Louise Glück’s poetry. Enough reaches me to defeat surliness. I feel surprisingly addressed at times: … You are like me whether or not you admit it. / Unsatisfied. Meticulous. … Continue reading →

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Not Everything Is a Sonnet, Damn It

Posted on March 20, 2022 by JMN

“I get pretty impatient with people who consider any fourteen-line poem to be a sonnet. The turns of thought are crucial, as is the number of turns.” (Carl Phillips, interviewed by David Baker, http://www.kenyonreview.org) The interview inspiring these illustrations is … Continue reading →

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Dogs or Cats?

Posted on February 10, 2022 by JMN

If you could meet any writer, dead or alive, who would it be? And what would you want to know?It seems to me that the author plays a kind of secondary role in this whole business of literature. Authors are … Continue reading →

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