All through grade school & well into college, I habitually obsessed over tests & homework assignments. Hoping to allay my anxieties, my parents would always tell me, “Just do the best you can.” Naturally I understood, equally well at age 9 as at...
Last night was the artist reception for a group of students from the gallery where I teach on Saturdays. It was held at the Hanover Park (Illinois) Village Hall where, for the last 6 years, our students have been invited to exhibit their work during the summer...
Initially, my intention was to name this blog On Beginning in order to create a sense of symmetry with an earlier blog I wrote called On Finishing. In that blog, I made the point that finishing a painting is much more daunting for me than starting one: Whereas I can...
For the couple of years before his death, Edouard Manet, contemporary of the French Impressionists & painter of the controversial Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (Luncheon on the Grass), was forced by the exigencies of a worsening illness to leave his beloved...
Around this time of year, Tom & I love to put on our jackets – or our parkas & mittens, as the case may be – & go into the backyard to look for signs of new life. We poke our fingers in the mulch to see if the tulip bulbs are showing any green tips...
