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Category Archives: Writing

Time Favors Craft Over Concept

Friday, October 16, 2009

This essay by Kiwi Art Prof Denis Dutton appeared today on the Op-Ed page of the New York Times.  It’s well worth a read:
Has Conceptual Art Jumped the Shark Tank?

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Body Electric: Walt Whitman

Friday, September 25, 2009

Walt Whitman was born into the working class, and had to toil and struggle throughout his life.  During the dark and bloody years of the American Civil War he served as a nurse to wounded soldiers.  His poetry and his political activities got him fired from jobs on several occasions.  In spite of it all, [...]

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Why Art Doesn’t Pay

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Well of course, art pays if you’re Damien Hirst, and music plays if you’re Madonna, and acting pays if you’re Brad Pitt.  But all of the creative professions have the same system, in which a small number of stars become fabulously wealthy and famous, while the vast majority working in the field barely get by [...]

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A Bolt of Clarity

Friday, August 21, 2009

I’ve recently discovered John Michael Greer’s blog, The Archdruid Report, and while I don’t generally do this kind of post, I simply have to share with my readers my appreciation of his well-written and clearly reasoned economic thought.  He sees the economy as an ecosystem, and shows that ecology and economics cannot be separated.  I [...]

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Meanings of the Nude

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Why is the naked human body such an enduring focus of art?  Of course the image of the human form excites our mirror neurons, and can express all aspects of the human experience, but it could usually do that just as well in clothes.  Art students study nude models in order to see the structure [...]

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