Dear Artist, American sculptor Robin Antar says, “Life is an empty square unless one fills it up with matter.” Life is also just waiting for our design. Last Saturday my family joined old and new friends, artists and collectors who had…
Dear Artist, Imagine, if you will, an artist’s encounter group. Imagine they are sharing, in one sentence each and with impunity, their current processes. It might sound like this: “I look in nature until I see something that appeals to…
Dear Artist, In 1976 Leonard Bernstein lectured on art at Harvard University. “A work of art does not answer questions,” he said, “it provokes them.” He called his talk “The Unanswered Question,” borrowing his title from the 1908 symphony composed…
Dear Artist, For many of us, our solo shows are the nights when we get to meet the people who make it all possible — our collectors and those angels who connect with them, our dealers. The doors open, wine…
Dear Artist, Not long ago a family friend sent me a photograph of my 30-year-old father in paint-splattered work pants standing at a limestone wall hung salon-style with paintings. My parents were honeymooning in Europe. They’d already spent a year…
Dear Artist, Back in the dark ages I used to take whole days to stretch canvases or build shipping crates. I rationalized that I needed the exercise and the change of pace. One day I realized that all I was getting…
Dear Artist, Several years ago, a friend and I thought something might be learned by watching every Woody Allen movie in chronological order. Allen has made at least one film per year non-stop for the past 50 years, beginning with…
Dear Artist, The Canadian painter Emily Carr (1871-1945) thought an artist’s growth was beyond explanation. She thought it was best to be silent on the subject. “One does not keep digging up a plant to see how it grows,” she…
Dear Artist, I recently met my downstairs neighbour — a New York jazz-punk original, an arranger of avant-garde film scores, flamenco producer and composer of chamber music for the electric violin. He also conducts an orchestra of Thai elephants. By…
Dear Artist, I’ve been asked whether making paintings that use the works of dead artists but do not look like the originals, e.g. the position of the person has been changed, dress has been altered, face changed, etc., would still…