Seeking the Sublime in the Everyday

 Years ago I got into a taxi with my large portfolio.   "What have you got there?" said the cabby. "It's my work," I said, "I go to Art School." "That's a nice hobby for you," he said. "I plan to make it my life's work!" "Well, you know what they say; 'Happy the man who loves his work and one woman.' " Then he turned all the way around in his seat to get a look at me and said, "I guess that might work for a woman, too."  I agreed, but finding The One wasn't easy.       In High School my best friend Susan went out with Dan, the coolest boy in the school--a student  activist, a "serious person," and cute in that early Sixties way of short hair but not too short, khakis,  button-down shirts and tan bucks.  He used to take her into the city to visit the Museum of Modern Art.   They had a favorite painting.      He sent her a postcard that said, "Giacometti is dead, the world will re...

 I have two great shows coming up. One I'm participating in and one I'm the godmother for. The first is a New York Artists Circle show titled City Life:Captured, Seen and Unseen  curated by Lori Horowitz and Kathleen Migliore-Newton  Creating a collage of City Life, Lori Horowitz and Kathleen Migliore-Newton selected 25 artworks representing various viewpoints. In the choreography of the street one can maintain privacy or reach for connection. Avoidance v. interaction,Anonymity vs. Recognition: cultural signals, economic differences and social issues are woven into this vast sea of humanity. It will be online with a Zoom opening on Monday, February 6th.  I'll be telling you more as the time approaches and I hope you join us.  The second, beginning this Sunday, January 22nd, sponsored by Art at First in the Great Hall Gallery at First Presbyterian Church is Spiritual Travellers   Curated by Max Kornfield, this exhibit   features work created as a visual...

Well, the year is not quite brand new but it's still fresh and hopeful. Today is Friday the 13.  My grandmother, born on March 13,1899 always said it was a lucky day. Monday I'll say Happy Birthday to  my son, Sam, here in a birthday card he and his friend, Vanessa, made for me when Lucy was a puppy. Here he is,  a little more mature, again holding something precious. Monday we also celebrate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Here he is on this week's New Yorker cover by Pola Maneli titled "Family Man." In recent years The New Yorker has remembered Dr. King almost every January.                                                                                             ...

 This week I'm making plans and getting organized.  Last week I worked hard to completely fill my 2022 datebook before the year ended and made a bunch of collages. Here's the book--so full I can't close it.          And here are some of its pages.  A Japanese print of a crane with willows; I may do a drawing like this. A Rhino with a collection of globes. Whales and bed linens. I"m pretty sure this portrait is by Robert Henri, pronounced Hen-rye, a founding member of the Ashcan School, author of The Art Spirit , a book found on every artist's bookshelf. I love the way he uses red in his faces.  Don't you love her? Enhancement with markers. Abstraction of navy blue and pink--a favorite combination. Lime! This looks like an Alma Thomas--it was on a magazine cover. I love to play with scale. A house on Sutton Place. And a rhino in Venice. This is so much fun--so devil-may-care after the painstaking pen and ink work, as much as I love drawing. ...

 My story , The Lawrence Tree is published in Flora Fiction and now available on line.  To save you  trouble, here it is! Click on the first link for the whole magazine, and on the second for me, on page 92. Flora Fiction Magazine The Lawrence Tree, page/92