The Rebellious Curator
Paintings by Franz Kline
Contrast, simplicity, movement and drama - how do these paintings make you feel?
The Oaks and I
"I came down here(we had sulky drizzles all the morning, but an hour ago, a lull), for the before-mentioned daily and simple exercise I am fond of..I stand on the turf and take these health-pulls moderately and at intervals for nearly an hour, inhaling great draughts of fresh air." - From Specimen Days, Walt Whitman
Circle of Fire by Frank Schoonover(1877-1972)
From White Fang, 1906
Portrait of Walter Gropius with Joan Miro mural, Graduate Center, Harvard University, 1952
Gelatin Silver Print
"Very few people do this anymore. It's too risky. First of all, it's a hell of a responsibility to be yourself. It's much easier to be somebody else, or nobody at all." - Sylvia Plath
From Winter Hours by Mary Oliver(Sept.1935-Jan.2019)
"And I thought: I shall remember this all my life. The peril, the running, the howling of the dogs, the smothering.
Then the happiness - of action, of leaping.
Then the green sweetness of distance
And the trees - their thickness and their compassion all around."
I first discovered Mary Oliver back in the early 90's when she was required reading for a poetry class I took in college. This was before her work became trendy and over-quoted on Instagram. It was after reading Winter Hours that I decided to go back to writing poetry for myself. But my poetry was not insightful or soul-wrenching like hers. Instead, it was, and still is, as weird and quirky as my assemblages. In fact, strikingly very similar to my assemblages... I have to continue to remind myself if creative work comes from the head and the heart, it still speaks, and sometimes it speaks just for me.
Painting by Helen Frankenthaler
"Sometimes I wish I had more people to relate to and refer to to and talk to, but there are very few artists whose work I want to see. It all makes for a kind of loneliness." - Helen Frankenthaler
"Feelings feelings and feelings. Let me try thinking instead." From A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
Note the David's pupil. When I painted this many years ago, I glued a photo of myself in the pupil and titled the painting In his Eyes.