Category: Art

MENTAL MEANDERING AT THE MET

DECEMBER 1, 2024 – Today we hiked across Central Park to the Met, where we wandered slowly through the special exhibition, Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350, featuring works of the very early Renaissance, Sienese artists Duccio (ca. 1250/60 – ca. 1318/19) (in the main), and Simone Martini, and brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti. After …

DUCHAMP’S SHOVEL

JULY 1, 2024 – Recently, several members of my family got embroiled in an argument over “concept art” and whether it’s truly art. The heated discussion began over one of the participant’s recent trip to the Yale University Art Gallery. The specific item that engendered debate was a shovel; an ordinary snow shovel purchased in …

DAY 19: BEAUTY OF PLACE

SEPTEMBER 11, 2022 – (Cont.) After nurse Laura read my numbers from this morning’s lab report, she extended her hand and said, “Congratulations!” (“Don’t worry,” she added. “I’ve already washed my hands 5,000 times today, but there are plenty of hand sanitizers on your way out.”) She was one of the veterans of the BMT …

“HALF A DOZEN”

AUGUST 29, 2022 – (Cont.) Day Six. Yesterday’s appointment was another visit to the “MERCY CLINIC,” rather abandoned on the weekend, except for skeletal staff to administer to transplant patients like me—a two-day patient, a three-day, a six-day patient, I was informed. The wait was long enough for me to log a 10-minute walk up …

“AS SHE IN HER SUBTLETY HAPPENED TO BE”

JULY 14, 2021 – I like to photograph nature. Or rather, I like to frame scenes and objects within nature’s infinite collection of light, lines, color, and compositions. I remember seeing my mother, a painter, often forming a frame in the air with her thumbs and index fingers to “capture” a potential painting.  I find …

APPRECIATING TALENT

JUNE 14, 2021 – Until recently, I’ve slogged through life with a load of envy. Whenever I encountered some highly talented musician or artist, I’d say to self, “Gee, I wish I could play like that!” or “Wow! I sure wish I could paint!” Possessing neither the talent nor discipline to emulate an artist—musical or …

GNOME HOME

SEPTEMBER 7, 2020 – The time of Covid has brought some silver linings.  One is more old-fashioned, unstructured play by kids in the neighborhood.  Instead of being carted off to dance class, soccer practice, and Taekwondo, kids are playing hopscotch on the sidewalks and riding their bikes up and down the street. Their shouts and …

FLORENCE AND OLD LYME ART

JULY 31, 2020 – While chaos filled yesterday’s headlines, my wife, our daughter-in-law, and I found refuge inside paradise within Eden—Old Lyme, Connecticut.  (Our son was back at the cove, working remotely as if on-site in Midtown Manhattan, pre-Covid.) Our excursion was arranged by Mylène, our son’s lovely wife, a dual citizen of France and …

THE PIETÀ (PART III OF III)

JULY 20, 2020 – (Cont.) Two weeks later, Dad and my two older sisters picked us up at the train depot in Minneapolis. “How was your trip?” he asked. “Good,” I said. “Wonderful,” Mother said. “We went to the fair,” my younger sister said. I couldn’t wait to present Dad with his requested souvenir. Less …

THE PIETÀ (PART II OF III)

JULY 19, 2020 – (Cont.) A couple of weeks—half the summer, it seemed—had passed since I’d first been made aware of The Pietà. As my uncle, mother, sister and I walked the fairgrounds, I saw many other attractions that eclipsed Michelangelo’s famous work—things such as the old-fashioned car track next to the Ford Pavilion; the …

THE PIETÀ (PART I OF III)

JULY 18, 2020 – Fifty-six years ago my mother, younger sister and I took a train trip to the Far East—Rutherford, New Jersey—to visit my uncle and grandparents.  Our stay would last a month, and a centerpiece attraction was to be a trip to the New York World’s Fair. I remember a family conversation around …