Category Archives: Quotations

Things people said.

“The Birth of the World”

The artist André Masson once likened this large (8-by-6½ feet) canvas [“The Birth of the World” by Joan Miró] in its radicalness to Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” of 1907. It is still startling that the two are only 18 years … Continue reading →

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From Llandudno to Cromer

I have a weakness for challenging place names. Mr. Rayner delivers handsomely in his article. I have reviewed [restaurants] from Marazion and Porthleven at the tip of Cornwall to Stornoway and Drumbeg in Scotland’s furthest reaches; from Llandudno in the … Continue reading →

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Gurning Expressions and Good Craic

I’ve recently locked into “Derry Girls” on Netflix, of which I’ve just encountered this enthusiastic review in The Guardian. For me, a dialect wonk, the series is a bracing dip into Irish brogue, besides good entertainment. The world is ready … Continue reading →

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“Keeping Busy”

I remember … what my teacher said [about a tree study]. “Your tree is beautiful, Sarah, but I don’t know what an art director is going to do with that tree.” No matter, no mind. I was on my own … Continue reading →

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High Cotton in Language Land

[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

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”

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 Skill of Deep Watching”

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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“Casually Disrespected Boundaries”

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

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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