wordless and blue 10.7.2021

art quote – Knausgaard 9.2.2021

"It is we who give meaning to things, and on that basis create the world. We believe that we live in a fixed reality, a world in which culture is fluid and nature is rigid or in which the present is fluid and history rigid, but that is an illusion."Karl Ove Knausgaard, from a NYT …

new painting 8.19.2021

Delusion Protects Illusion. Mixed media diptych on paper, each part 14x17.

first tattoo 7.29.2021

I got my first ever tattoo earlier this month! I never had much of an urge to get a tattoo. Then, after my son Peter died in 2019, I thought a tattoo would be a good memorial to him. Another way to keep his memory alive. I felt like I had a reason to decorate …

new painting 6.3.2021

In my most recent series of paintings, I'm still using oil pastel and wax markers and graphite and charcoal. And I've added another element - paper. I've had an old dictionary for years and almost gave it away to charity last year. Instead, I kept it, and decided that I should finally just DO something …

art quote – Barlow 4.8.2021

Art is full of ambiguity. Our response is often undefined, unexpected and perplexing. Being willing to embrace the mystery—and to do so outside the domain of language—frees a viewer to experience the work without any explanation or validation. That personal response can frequently link directly to the thrill of being intimately enthralled.Deborah Barlow, http://www.slowmuse.com/2021/03/04/intimately-enthralled

art quote – Doctor 1.14.2021

The creative life is not a straight line. There is no map for making, only an orientation. It’s a poetic, unpredictable spiral. It’s the discipline of returning to the same practices again and again, regardless of circumstance. No matter how flourishing your life as a maker is, or how successful you are, you don’t ever …

word orbs 12.3.2020

One of my favorite songs is Kate Bush's 50 Words for Snow - basically a list in song. And posted on my wall I have a list, cut out from a newspaper long ago, of 100 words for precipitation. I like lists. Perhaps I learned list love (or list lust) from my mom, Eleanor, who …

art quote – Le Guin 11.5.2020

Art isn't explanation. Art is what an artist does, not what an artist explains. (Or so it seems to me, which is why I have a problem with the kind of modern museum art that involves reading what the artist says about a work in order to find out why one should look at it …

community mural 10.22.2020

In August of this year, I learned about a collective, community mural to be displayed on the University of Wisconsin campus here in Madison. Any community member could participate in this socially distanced art event, called "Threads of Hope." One could use any media they wanted, as long as it fit on an 8x8 inch …