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…
Category: Aesthetics
“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…
A degree of darkness
I spent my weekend in a graphic workshop learning the art of cyanotype. Or, to be more precise, studying the method of cyanotype – the art will hopefully enter into my work as I go along. Cyanotype is a nineteenth century photographic process using chemicals that produce beautiful blue prints when exposed to sunlight. The…
Passing Through
A short story of excellence, dedication and perseverance & of the joy and importance of meaning-making: Ted Kooser (1939) was the 13th Poet Laureate of the United States and received the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2005.
Venturing into art
ven·tur·ing: Venture noun: an undertaking involving uncertainty as to the outcome, especially a risky or dangerous one. Venture verb: to take the risk of. Venture verb (used without object): to make or embark upon a venture. Venturing into art, I have been thinking about this: What is the relationship between things I find beautiful, intriguing,…
On pain and solace
There can be no beauty without the ghost of pain held within it. Although the wind … BY IZUMI SHIKIBU – TRANSLATED BY JANE HIRSHFIELD from The Ink Dark Moon (Vintage Books, 1990)
Sunday poem
Rereading Frost by Linda Pastan Sometimes I think all the best poems have been written already, and no one has time to read them, so why try to write more? At other times though, I remember how one flower in a meadow already full of flowers somehow adds to the general fireworks effect as you…
What art can do …
Good art activates both heart & mind. Its a dualisme not always well reflected in contemporary conceptual art. We often see art drowning in its own philosophical – or; as is more & more the case today – political slogans. I do definitively understand the need for political revolt; but for the artist the uttering…
The Odyssey of a Painter
Not necessarily because he is a favourite painter of mine, but because his meditations on making art is just wonderful And obviously; he also is a great painter The Bench Painting series (1989–2009), was originally conceived as an homage to the Italian Renaissance philosopher Giordano Bruno. Burnt at the stake for heresy in Rome in 1600, Bruno…
“I never really separated painting and literature.”
Claire Daigle writes: In 1959 Twombly executed some of the most spare works of his career, among them the 24 drawings that comprise Poems to the Sea, done on the coast of Italy. What order of poems, punctuated with numerals and question marks, are these? The sea is reduced to horizon line and word, scribblings and…
