Dear Artist, At the beginning of 2020, I began work on some paintings for a show scheduled to open that Spring. Everything was humming along at an intense but pleasant pace when the world locked down and the show was…
Dear Artist, Last Sunday at 2 p.m. my friend Murray came to the studio. He brought with him a very nice 1999 “Carmen” Chablis (Chile) as well as some ripe Limburger and a good Brie. He even brought his own…
Dear Artist, Last summer, after being invited to submit to an open call, artist Lava Thomas’ proposal for a public monument was selected amongst hundreds of applicants and three finalists. The work, as part of the city’s effort to remedy…
Dear Artist, The “literary colour” of a decent cigar is some sort of brown. On close examination, this Cuban I’ve been looking at for two years, thinking about smoking, and resisting, has a “local colour” of raw umber with traces…
Dear Artist, The other day I was looking into the eyes of a painter as she painted. If eyes are the windows of the soul, they may also give clues to the creative process. I noticed several unique eye-movements: In…
Dear Artist, Social scientist and Professor of Ethics at Columbia Business School Adam Galinsky has discovered that people who are close to someone from another culture score higher on routine creativity tests. In his study, Going Out of the Box:…
Dear Artist, When the invention of photography transformed portraiture from luxury art item to affordable record-keeping, portrait painters found themselves slightly freed from the vanities of their sitters. Once used solely as an instrument of power, portrait painting was quickly…
Dear Artist, On Monday, I was a member of a jury. All of the entries, 777 of them, had been previously juried by slide by a single outsider juror. The selected show of 55 paintings was now hung and five…