As we’ve all learned from Tyra Banks, posing is one of life’s biggest challenges. Should you smile with your mouth opened or closed? Where are your hands supposed to go? And what to do with that human head? Yes, sometimes in this life you find yourself having your portrait taken with nature’s most challenging accessory, another human head. Good news! You have options. Now I’m no art historian, but I do know how to read…
On the first day of our IVF cycle, Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize. I was up early for a routine blood test and ultrasound appointment and found out as soon as the news broke. On my way out the door I saw one of her books on the bookshelf, a best-of collection I’d bought at an airport while waiting out a delay. At the time, I’d found the thickness of the collection comforting, reassuring.
As a current PhD student in Columbia University's Department of Art History and Archaeology, I had some thoughts upon hearing the remarks President Obama made during last Thursday’s speech in Wisconsin, as reported by Politico:
The president highlighted the benefits of vocational training, joking that it might serve young adults better than a degree in art history.
“A lot of young people no longer see the trades and skilled manufacturing as a viable…
An impressive group of female artists were drawn to Carmel, Pacific Grove, and Monterey around the turn of the last century. M. Evelyn McCormick (1862-1948) was a major talent and a leader among them. These painters came primarily because of the striking beauty of the area, but the local welcoming attitude toward women had a lot to do with it as well. The Spanish culture, still strong in California, allowed women to own property, helping…
I'm not usually in the business of telling you not to do things. Follow your dreams, put babies on spikes, whatever. We're only here on this planet for so long, there is no God, all is permitted. We make all this stuff up, you know? Human freedom, duty, etc. None of it is real. We're just trying to paper over the cavernous void that waits for us all. Do not take cell phone pictures of…
