What do we say when we see someone suffering? What is there to say? Certainly not, "I know just how you feel," or, "don't worry, time will heal," or, "It was God's will." Often we say, "Our thoughts and prayers are with you." And what does that mean, and what good does it do? I've been thinking about prayer since I saw and wrote about Barbara Lubliner's beautiful prayer flags last week. I think a lot about prayer, especially at the times when I’m supposed to be praying and can’t figure out how to do it. I was talking with my brother, Alan, about a person we both knew. “He’s so pretentious,” I said, “He prays with his head thrown back and his arms up in the air, just like a televangelist.” “How did you know what he's doing if you're praying?” Alan asked me. Theologian Frederick Beuchner has said that if all we ever did was give thanks that would be enough for a lifetime of prayer. That may be true, and I've...
“One’s work is nothing but the long journey through life to recover, through the detours of art, the one or two great and simple images that first gained access to one’s heart.” Robert Beverly Hale quoting Albert Camus The first time I heard this quote, at an Art Student's League dinner, I thought, "Well, that doesn't apply to me." I was deep into my bird period; drawing their feather patterns was great practice for my pen technique but I wasn't a bird watcher or anything. Then I went home for a visit and my mother said, "Let's have a slideshow. She pulled out all the old family ...
One of my favorite pieces is now hanging where you can go see it in the Abingdon Square branch of Chase Bank at 302 West 12th Street at 8th Avenue in Manhattan. New York City's Outdoor Sculpture The building is the New York Chamber of Commerce at 65 Liberty Street. Paul Goldberger, in The City Observed , calls it "too precious to be significant" and that makes it perfect in my eyes. do you recognize the sculptures? I'll pull out a few. This is the Sherman Monument, for the Civil War General William T. Sherman, situated at Grand Army Plaza, 59th Street at Fifth Avenue. I love the sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and I love this piece. I love drawing it. And I've taken a few liberties. Here's the Sherman Monument Visiting the New York Public Library. Here's Saint-Gauden's Admiral Farragut, a work said to have changed the course of American monumental sculpture. And Saint-Gaudens is called a "master of human psychology, able to conceptualiz...
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