Between Wanting and Finding

There is a point at the start of a painting when there is a precariousness between what the painting “is to be about” and the first touches of what is actually there. Something I’m only arriving at now is that the former, while of great interest and concern at the start, is of no account.

Notes on the Sources of Art

This piece has grown during the writing, pushed ahead by the ambition of its title, only slightly modified by the insertion of the word “Notes…” I’m resisting the urge to break it up into my customary 1,500 words. I need to break that habit as much as we all need not to get too comfortable

Sowing Doubt…

I’m not sure what this post will be about. Trying to avoid predictions, and all that. There’s something about intention that’s been lost in my focus on finding a way to look at action without intention, putting will into the background. We have wills. The will-to-live, for instance, is universally lauded. It’s only problematic when

Between Spectacle and Sight

“So as to Present a Short Digression on the Difference Between Spectacle and Sight; How an Inability to See Leads Us to Seek After Solace in Spectacle.” I keep running into what I consider a conflation of the visual with naive or unthinking, with what we might call Spectacle versus something with substance. I suspect

Berger’s “Moment of Cubism,” part III

Berger’s essay explodes with the import of rediscovery of what had been lost in a stratification of layers sedimented over as the years passed. When I look at where I now stand, I see this essay and its insights as essential elements of my foundations. Berger shows us that there is a curious parallel here to our moment in the close synchrony between their moment of realization and the latent consequences of mounting conditions that made it too late to avoid their tragedy.

Drawing Distinctions,

The following is an address to be given at the first session of a class at a school that as far as I know does not yet exist. Nor do I know who the students might be, or their circumstances. What I do know is that I’d like to be there, at the front of