Tag Archives: art

‘Into the Labyrinth of Paris’

Posted on April 25, 2023 by JMN

The first person he befriended was Max, a man who was also an exile (from Quimper, in Brittany) and who was also weighed down by multiple identities: not only was he a Frenchman but he was also a Breton, a … Continue reading →

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‘I Discovered That the Act of Writing Is Also an Act of Drawing’

Posted on March 21, 2023 by JMN

Lebanese-American painter-poet-novelist Etel Adnan (1925-2021) was interviewed by Gabriel Coxhead for the June 2018 issue of Apollo. I’m drawn to her work for how it mingles Arabic language, painting and poetry. Quoting from the interview: Perhaps most interesting, in terms … Continue reading →

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‘They Can Feel Almost Like Exquisite Texts to Be Read’

Posted on March 18, 2023 by JMN

… Each [painting] presents so much information that you have to move in close for further contemplation and deciphering, trying to figure out how the paintings were made and which of their weird little details are accidental, which deliberate. They … Continue reading →

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Drawing in the Dark

Posted on March 10, 2023 by JMN

… As a young artist living in Georgia, he spent nights alone in a dark room, teaching himself to draw without the meddling of his eyes. Unlearning is still a kind of learning. (Jackson Arn) (Jackson Arn, “Cy Twombly, the … Continue reading →

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‘Caucasian, Bloody and Syphilitic’

Posted on March 9, 2023 by JMN

… If you keep your eyes open, some unexpected moment of beauty will stop you in your tracks. (Will Heinrich) The 31st annual Outsider Art Fair… is New York’s largest clearinghouse of work by self-taught and marginalized artists…This is what … Continue reading →

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The Agony of Hamline and Macalester

Posted on February 18, 2023 by JMN

“Art need not defer to religion. If that’s no longer obvious we’ve gone astray.” (Michelle Goldberg) (Michelle Goldberg, “A Left-Leaning College Didn’t Want to Offend, So It Closed Down Her Art Show,” New York Times, 2-13-23) The story of what … Continue reading →

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Diametric ‘Scape States

Posted on February 16, 2023 by JMN

“He’s showing us in the natural world our own inner landscape,” said [collector Bernard] Lumpkin, who owns four Gavin canvases. “When you’re inhabiting a painting by Cy, you’re inhabiting a world which is simultaneously strange and familiar; real and surreal; … Continue reading →

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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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