Tag Archives: art

Five Quotes About …

Posted on February 5, 2023 by JMN

“What I teach you is nothing. What you learn by doing over and over is where the learning begins.” (Simon Michael) “Writing poetry is much easier … Five Quotes About …

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Joe Brainard: The Glory of Cheapo Things

Posted on January 28, 2023 by JMN

The creamy sensuality of the toothbrush rack melts your heart. Talk about ennobling humble objects with tender attention. It’s an act of painterly love lavished on a trivial appurtenance. Both lyrical and somehow sad. “There is something I lack as … Continue reading →

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Paint What You Fear

Posted on December 30, 2022 by JMN

When my dad died in 2013, his shed (now mine) was full of guns. I inherited his art supplies, so I took up painting again after a long hiatus. My subjects came to be things I was afraid of. The … Continue reading →

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‘We Have to Make Forms That Celebrate the Possibilities’: Torkwase Dyson

Posted on December 29, 2022 by JMN

“The paintings introduced a range of blue colors — oceanic, but resisting a direct reading.” This review bristles with strange energy, coercive structures, geographies of enclosure, and the verb catalyze. But of all the advanced art talk on display, my … Continue reading →

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Super-Diatribalistic Mega-Magadocious

Posted on December 18, 2022 by JMN

(c) 2022 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved

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Poetry PowerPoint, Crossdressing Wolf

Posted on December 11, 2022 by JMN

Cartoons can slay. Here are two that plaster a grin on my face for the connections they make. The first is from The New Yorker. The second is from Larson’s The Far Side Daily Dose website. (1) I once had … Continue reading →

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The Fellow’s Garrulous, But a Decent Painter

Posted on December 5, 2022 by JMN

He talks about a narrow, closed view of the world in which a contempt for America – the home of “degenerate” jazz for the Nazis, the capitalist enemy for the GDR – was a constant. “Until I was about 20 … Continue reading →

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Once Was Lost, But Now Is Found

Posted on December 1, 2022 by JMN

“We were flabbergasted. It has taken 100 years to rediscover Atlantic City.” [Petulant style note: Equally flabbergasting is British journalism’s insufferable convention of not setting off titles with quotes or italics. What two researchers rediscovered was not the coastal city … Continue reading →

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‘It’s More Than It Initially Appears’

Posted on November 11, 2022 by JMN

The comment attributed to a museum director about Jennifer Guidi’s painting reminded me of Mark Twain’s remark that Wagner’s music is “better than it sounds.” “I’m thinking of color as a way to connect — a way to engage — … Continue reading →

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The Case for Rhythm and Emptiness

Posted on November 1, 2022 by JMN

Brazilian artist Maxwell Alexandre speaks of how exposure to Kerry James Marshall’s painting made him aware of “an absence of representation. You would ask a Black kid to draw a person and he would draw a white person… Just by … Continue reading →

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