(i) “To be in favor of solitude is not to be against community or friendship or love. It’s not that being alone is better, just that without the experience of it we block ourselves from discovering something enormously beneficial, perhaps even vital, to selfhood. Who are you when you are not a friend, a partner,…
Category: Aesthetics
John Bokor
I know next to nothing about contemporary still life, about who’s working within the genre, what kind of paintings they make, and why – . But I have noticed there being a lot going on in Australia at the moment. So that’s where we’ll start. Today I will show you the work of John Bokor:…
Two tiny paintings
… Mixed media on paper.
Beauty is the ultimate form of protest
“The purpose of art is the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.” — Glenn Gould
A letter for Moran
«There is nothing more to tell. The house was empty. The company had cut off the light. They have offered to let me have it back. But I told them they could keep it.» —Samuel Beckett: Molloy
From representational drawing to invented worlds
My recent shift from drawing to painting has not only led to a shift in form, but also, as it turns out, a shift in content. When painting, my focus is no longer on the observed outer world, as it is when I am doing urban sketching, croquis or floral studies. When painting my focus…
new facts –
or; facts only Lucy Ellmann can confirm: the fact that I don’t take any pride in housework, as far as I know, which isn’t very Amish of me, house-proud Hausfrau, housewife, homemaker, the fact that I come from a long line of people who took no pride in housekeeping, … the fact that when I…
Dept. of Speculation
What Rilke said: I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone. Somehow, I was sure Jenny Offill’s Dept. of Speculation would read very much like Leslie Jamison’s The Empathy Exams, a much-praised book, which I unfortunately have to admit, I really didn’t like at all. And so the Department ……
The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words
So much of philosophy is fiction. The William H Gass Reader (2019) William H. Gass was born in Fargo, North Dakota. He is the author of seven works of fiction, nine books of essays, and a book of conversations. Gass was a professor of philosophy at Washington University. For most of his life he lived…
“Wasting time is something that people do or feel all over the world, not just in Italy.”
After yesterdays loaded post, it’s time for a slice of plain art … I first discovered Arvo Pärt’s My Heart’s in the Highlands, which was composed for the 50th birthday of the countertenor David James, through Paolo Sorrentino’s fabulous film La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty), 2013. La Grande Bellezza is a pure sensual overload of…
sub rosa 