Pride of Place

We live in a time characterized by many rapidly evolving changes in the mechanics of our daily lives. I think if I was Pavlov's dog I might just put up my paws. I feel immersed in a hydrogarden of technology. This not only affects the way we make a phone call (term already obsolete) but I sense the concept of "neighbor" to also be in flux. Many people engage in business and games on the internet with players all over the world in our new "global economy". This can create havoc with such old- fashioned concepts like "neighborhood". All this is happening simultaneously with the "Buy Local" movement.
"Everybody has a hungry heart....."
....But this year, living here in a small town, I have experienced a surprising shift and I wonder if you have too. My town is sandwiched in a valley with several close neighboring towns and with the added dynamic of Five Colleges, bringing an additional transient flow of people. We have a main thoroughfare that links several of the towns. Our town is famous for rich farmland; in fact, The World Preservation Fund recently listed it along with Machu Picchu due to the continued use of historical farming practices. Many years ago, the town "elders" decided to sacrifice property along this corridor to business development, capturing the resulting tax revenue to help ease farming and agricultural costs. Over the last years we- like all developed communities in the nation-have endured the onslaught of big box developments.
The Shift: this past year we celebrated our town's 350th Anniversary, and I believe this event has been transformational. The sharing of town history through many orchestrated events has gone beyond educational; it has been a bonding experience for both newcomers and the town families with roots going back easily twenty generations. We have celebrated the lives and industry of the people who settled and built a thriving farming community along the Connecticut River through a rich panorama of events. It has been a pleasure to witness the oral and photographic histories of the people and the architecture, all organized and displayed alongside invitations into the homes, gardens, studios and businesses of citizens old and new that share a love of the land beneath them. One of the organized events that I participated in was a Garden Tour with Artist Studios and an Art Exhibit. In the midst of the global tidal wave of uniformity- The Mall Clone Invasion - and a changing demographic of citizens, we enjoyed the reformation of a sense of community that was invigorating and heartwarming. This transformative experience is of course all due to the tireless and devoted energies of individuals who came together to showcase and celebrate the rich aspects of life here in our town by the river. We often struggle over visions of direction, but that struggle has not weakened the love we have for the riches we continue to experience together. It has been a wonderful ritual commemorating all the life supported by this parcel of land we call home and the river that continues to water the growth of talent and creativity inspired by daily life along it's banks.
the painting is my "Evening Star Over Hadley" an oil on panel

A New Portrait of David Hockney

Book Review

A great new book by Lawrence Weschler, True to Life: Twenty-Five Years of Conversations with David Hockney, terrific. A great overview on Hockney’s theory about the likely employment of the camera lucida by artists since the Renaissance. There are so many wonderful insights on painting and perception from this warm and adventurous painter. I love his embrace of cubism- not just about cubes. I might add “roundism” the point is volume- if I may quote Virginia Woolf here-“ Life is round “. Cubism was trying to unlock the concept of space to reinstall it back into painting. Enough of Flatland- people don’t live and breathe in two dimensions. I don’t love everything that Hockney has painted -but a lot of it I do. I love his courage and his relentless pursuit of an understanding of perception and painting- seeing.

I love his devotion to the history of painting not just Western-but from many different cultures throughout the world. There is a great deal on his painted stage sets for the Opera -a venue for which he enjoyed creating over the years even as his hearing declined; Hockney is now totally deaf. It is interesting to note that Hockney’s frustration over Weschler’s previous book on Robert Irwin-the Minimalist- was actually the catalyst for these conversations. Check it out.

Any recommendations for inspiring books on artists?

some shards of light in January...

The Art of Renewal
I would like to say a few words of appreciation for a recent gift to the nation by a carefully assembled collection of artists performing at the capital for the inauguration of President Obama.
There is a necessity for art in ritual.
A dear departed friend and colleague of mine, the painter Fran Gillespie, often said,
"Art heals what wars have torn apart".
To not just survive, but to thrive, a society needs its artists.
Our senses are awakened and massaged by the experience of art. This was made evident to me as I watched the ritual pageant of the inauguration, and the few days of celebration that preceded the ceremony, on January 20, 2009.
The whole event was framed by artistic expressions like that of the poet Elizabeth Alexander's carefully and elegantly crafted poem that beautifully augmented the president's speech. In the poem I heard a creative artist speaking to the creativity inherent in every person's daily occupation, recognizing that art is the province of every human being, that creators are renewing America every day by making a life and in turn making a country through their labors.
I think most people would agree that the country has been entrenched in a dark time with little hope in sight, so the musical quartet performing John Williams "Air to Simple Gifts" seemed to weave joy from sorrow as the somber beginning notes unfolded to become hopeful and celebratory like winter turning into spring. Transformative.
I can't forget Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul's deeply felt rendition of "My Country 'Tis of Thee". The singer clearly owns her space and from that space she awakened the heart and spirit of a bruised nation.

Art of Renewal

Welcome artists of 2009!
Orange bags are just "au point" with me. Growing up with plastics and synthetics presets an expectation-fires up an ancient memory in the rods and cones of my eyes.
Driving by a demolition or a construction site or a switchyard- the musical notes of cerulean blue plastic tubes, a cobalt blue tarp,orange cones or those safety yellow taped boundaries enliven the whole landscape like trumpets in a jazz ensemble.
Nature has more adventurous color schemes, but they are less obvious in New England-in our malled over suburbs. We are often restrained in our palettes-puritanical.
The folk traditions from Bulgaria to Guatamala festively celebrate life and our ability to perceive
a wide range of hues. The clever crafting of spectral notes in weavings, and throughout the cultures, create vibrations that ride the waves of light directly through our eyes and into our hearts-more healing than money can buy.
In January, in New England, I am like the gleaner in a Millet painting scavenging for shards of light.