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Blog

Thoughts about art, culture, and the creative process.

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On Being Nineteen

Most of the young people I know (including my own son) are already a decade beyond this youngster that from my vantage point now, seems like a mere child, even though in my heart I felt nothing like a child then. Or was trying hard not to. I was newly navigating adulthood, courting and experiencing all the things one needs to form a life on that shaky road: love, friendships, adventure, education, heartbreak and even danger.

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Listen, I have Something To Tell You

If artists and writers are honest however, we will tell you that often we have no idea what we are doing. Most of us rely on a combination of skills, experience and sheer determination to realize a painting or piece of writing. We experiment. We tinker. We “see what happens”. Photographer Sally Mann calls hers a “magpie aesthetic,” scavenging whatever happens to be around to capture with her camera.

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Woodpeckers and Wonder

I am currently entertaining a family of woodpeckers that regularly visit my terrace. I've always been a regular bird watcher and avid fan, and I’m lucky that my living space affords me a prime viewing spot where I try to accommodate the locals with appropriate plants, plus sugar and seed nosh.

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On Color

What's in a color? Quite a lot. It is one of the only categories I can think of that has interest on so many levels: each color has its own history of invention or discovery, there is a psychology of color, there is a science of color, there is a language around color, there is a racial and political aspect of color, color is universal as well as personal,

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Cherries

Before I grew into a wanna-be-hippie teen who clashed with his conservative values, I remember my father and me as “pals”. We have similar tastes and temperament and everyone said I looked the most like him of his four children. He doted on me and over the years we shared a secret or two: teenage transgressions with boys and drinking on my side, the same, with middle-aged women on his.

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