Monthly Archives: May 2016
Rear view mirror
The scene in my mind was fifty years old, but the setting was unchanged. My ghost boats could have glided in, peopled by their ghost crews, and moored in their old slips. I don’t need to visit the cemetery to memorialize my dead; they are all around me each time I go home. That is a great reason to visit, and an even better one to leave.
The one that got away
I vividly remember the first time my work was reviewed in the press, and my copious tears at being savaged. That painting remains in my private collection and I stand by its painterly qualities. I once took an important piece to a highly-respected teacher for critique. She called it “an immature Chagall.” I went home […]
Indirect light
If I had to pick one place in Rochester that was a favorite place to teach, it would be Irondequoit Bay Marine Park. Yesterday I went there to pay homage to summer with a ground steak burger and onion rings at Don’s Original, a 70-year-old eatery along the bay. Irondequoit Bay was the original mouth […]
If you’re reading this, I made it
Instantaneous change
There is a lot of good advice on the internet about the studio visit. Most of it is just a variation on hosting meetings in general. Make sure your space is inviting. Make sure the relevant pieces are there to be seen. Be prepared to say something about your work. Know your subject. Don’t whine. […]
Fashionably framed
In my home state of New York, people wear black clothes. They believe that black flatters, is timeless, doesn’t show dirt (and there’s a lot of it) and goes with anything. I hate black clothes, personally. I think black makes me look like an old Italian lady who should be sporting a gold tooth and […]
Oops! I Did It Again
I promised that I’d do no more off-roading in my aged Prius after our almost-disastrous mud extravaganza in April. I really meant it this time, since I just replaced the springs last fall. The casual tourist tootles up Route 1 and completely dismisses Northport as having “nothing there.” Its gems are hidden off the main drag. You […]
Picking oakum
Tuesday I ran through some composition rules for my students, including “don’t run rays out the very corners of your painting,” and “don’t cut off corners with diagonals.” On Wednesday, I broke both those rules. Not only did it work, but I knew it would from the first lines. I assume it’s because the closed corner acts as […]