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Posts Tagged ‘West End Gallery’

Witnesses

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on October 6, 2025| 1 Comment »

RedTree: Continuum— Coming to West End Gallery

“We’re only here for a short while. And I think it’s such a lucky accident, having been born, that we’re almost obliged to pay attention. In some ways, this is getting far afield. I mean, we are — as far as we know — the only part of the universe that’s self-conscious. We could even be the universe’s form of consciousness. We might have come along so that the universe could look at itself. I don’t know that, but we’re made of the same stuff that stars are made of, or that floats around in space. But we’re combined in such a way that we can describe what it’s like to be alive, to be witnesses. Most of our experience is that of being a witness. We see and hear and smell other things. I think being alive is responding.”

—Mark Strand, interview with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Flow)

Mark Strand (1934-1914) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and essayist who served as the US Poet Laureate in the early 1990s.

I often wonder what, if any, purpose we have here on this planet. This thought from Mark Strand that we are put here in our present form as an assemblage of the molecules and matter of the universe so that the universe could see and analyze itself intrigues me.

Are we some sort of diagnostic tool? Is this planet a testing ground to reveal what works and what falls short? 

As I said, it’s intriguing. I have dozens of more questions pertaining to it. 

But perhaps Strand is closer to the reality of the matter, whatever the hell that is these days, when he opines that our ultimate purpose might be as witnesses. I guess that might still fall into diagnostic tool category as we would be serving as sensory indicators for the universe, cataloging everything–all the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, textures, emotions, etc.– that we encounter in our time here. 

I like this idea of us as witnesses or observers. I have thought for some time that many artists of all sorts began their lives as observers, as the quiet kid off to the side taking in everything in great detail.

Maybe in those formative years, we are simply new and fresh out-of-the-box sensors that work at full speed and capacity? That makes sense to me since I now often feel that many of my particular sensor’s storage unit is just about full and my operating speed is greatly lagging. 

But beyond that, it is this idea of us being witnesses that speaks to me. We all want to believe that the thoughts, feelings and experiences that make up our existence have served a purpose, that they matter beyond our own small bit of self.

That our voice will be heard somehow as testimony to our existence, as well as to the lives and existence of those around us.

I know that this desire to have my voice heard, to articulate somehow my purpose and experience of living in this world, was the primary reason behind my beginnings as an artist. 

To add my data to the catalog of the universe as fulfill my purpose as part of its continuum.

I will finish by adding the following from Tennessee Williams, in an interview with James Grissom:

All of us require a witness. A witness who will let us–and the world–know that we have lived, that we have contributed. As artists we need to know that our contributions mattered, touched the heart, evoked a thought, led someone else off to their own pale judgment to scribble something out. When we create characters, we are witnesses to ourselves and to those to whom we have reacted, to those we have loved, to those who inspire us.

The greatest artists are, I think, witnesses. They have been, to steal a line, present at the creation….of whatever they have seen.

 

The painting at the top is RedTree: Continuum, 18″ by 36″ on canvas, that is included in my solo exhibit Guiding Light, that opens next Friday, October 17 at the West End Gallery in Corning, NY. The show’s Opening Reception, which is free and open to all, runs from 5-7 PM.

A Gallery Talk is also scheduled at the West End Gallery for Saturday, November 1, beginning at 11 AM.

Here’s Doctor My Eyes from Jackson Browne. Seemed right this morning.

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Color and Glide

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on October 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Color and Glide— Coming Soon to West End Gallery

So scanty is our present allowance of happiness that in many situations life could scarcely be supported if hope were not allowed to relieve the present hour by pleasures borrowed from the future.

–Samuel Johnson, The Adventurer No. 69, Idle Hours (1753)

The other day I mentioned not wanting to write about my work when so many wrongs were being spread among us. I didn’t want my focus on art or that of anybody else appear to be a distraction or seem ignorant of what is taking place.

Thinking about it in the days that followed, I realized that I was mistaking the function of art in such times. It is not a distraction at all. It is instead a release, a form of relief that is badly needed if one is aware and stays informed on what is taking place. Anyone who is disturbed by injustice and possessing even an iota of empathy and compassion for their fellow humans can be eaten alive with stress and anxiety in such times.

They need relief of some sort at some point. But not as a distraction nor to make them ignore their fears and cares. No, they need something that calms and gives hope in some way. Something that allows them to step out of the parade and stand hidden in a cool dark shadow for a few moments in order to catch their breath and take in the small details and wonders of this world that may have been overlooked in the hubbub of this moment. To find hope in a small glimpse of beauty, something that reminds them of why they need to continue to care and to stay involved.

No, art is not distraction at such times. It is a needed breath of clean air that keeps us going.

Relief. Release.

It is hope.

Hope and relief are what I find in this new painting. I had a hard time titling it because it does so many things for me that focusing on one thing seemed to leave out others that seemed as vital for me. But it was the ease of the boat going into the many colors and pattern of the sky that captured me. I feel as though I can get lost in the colors of the sky here, each block of color like a new burst of flavor and feeling.

But more than that, it makes me feel hopeful. it reminds me of the freedom of the mind and feeling, that part of us that can’t be captured, dictated to or governed by others.

It is boat gliding under a sky of wonder.

I call this painting, 16″ by 20″ on canvas, Color and Glide. It is included in Guiding Light, my solo show at the West End Gallery that opens October 17.

For this week’s Sunday Morning Music, I am going with a song whose title, along with its lyrics, might also fit this painting. This is Drift Away by Dobie Gray from 1973. The song was originally recorded by others as a country song, but Dobie Gray’s version far outstrips them in depth of feeling in my opinion.

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Guiding Light

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on October 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Guiding Light– Coming to West End Gallery

Beauty, Inspiration, Magic, Spellbound, Enchantment, as well as the concepts of Serenity, Silence, Intimacy and Amazement. […] They have never ceased to be my guiding lights.

–Luis Barragán, acceptance speech for the Pritzker Architecture Prize, 1980

Luis Barragán (1902-1988) was an influential Mexican architect whose buildings were a blend of Modernism and traditional Mexican culture. They are marked by his use of bold colors, simple natural forms and materials, the play between light and shadow, and spaces that invited introspection and contemplation. Looking at his work, I was struck by his use of color, particularly his vibrant yellows and pinks that were bold but surprisingly calming. It was easy to see why his work is considered emotional architecture.

I was also struck by the qualities he listed above in his acceptance speech for the Pritzker Prize. We all follow guiding lights of some sort in our lives, attributes that form the paths we follow, the dreams we dream, the beliefs we hold sacred, and the standards– the ethics and morals– to which we personally adhere.

I would like to think that my list is not too far removed from the list of Barragán, especially those final four concepts he mentions: serenity, silence, intimacy, and amazement. I might throw in harmony. They certainly were close to the surface of consciousness while at work for my new exhibit, Guiding Light, that opens two weeks from today, Friday, October 17, at the West End Gallery.

The painting at the top, Guiding Light, 24″ by 30″ on canvas, provided the title for this show. I also believe it perfectly transmits those four concepts, particularly the serenity and silence. And though it depicts a landscape with distance and depth, there is also a sense of intimacy, as though the moon here is communicating directly to the viewer. That might also be the source for amazement, something that often comes with revelation.

This piece also makes me think about what other guiding lights each of us follow. Were they always influencing us from day one or did they one day rise up and become visible to us, like the moon rising in the evening? I think some of my guiding lights were present from childhood, but some have risen in my own sky, becoming more apparent and important to me as I age.

And how closely does each of us follow what we believe to be our guiding lights? I certainly follow mine more than when I was much younger. Well, at least I think I do.

Maybe self-deception is also a guiding light? I sure hope not though I think many folks do see it as one.

I have often employed the simple shape of the sun/moon in my work as a symbol of guidance and of something greater than ourselves.  This show, my 24th solo exhibit at the West End Gallery, is filled with moons and suns. I have come to see the sun/moon as being equal in importance to my work as the Red Tree or any other of the icons that often inhabit it. As an element, it creates a palpable presence in each piece.

The third eye of the painting? I have to think on that.

As stated above, Guiding Light opens at the West End Gallery two weeks from today, on Friday, October 17, with an opening reception that runs from 5-7 PM. Also, on Saturday, November 1, I will be giving a Gallery Talk at the gallery beginning at 11 AM. Keep an eye for more details in the coming weeks.

Here’s a song that has been in my head for a couple of days. I was big fan of the album Pontiac from Lyle Lovett years ago when it first came out, but in the confusion of time and space, it somehow, for no reason, fell off of my playlist. While building frames the other day, I found the CD and played it for the first time in quite a while. It reminded me of why I liked it so much and made me wonder what other music that really hit the mark had fallen to the wayside. This song, Simple Song, has been stuck in my head ever since and seems to fit this painting this morning.

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The Heart is Free

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on September 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The Heart is Free— Coming to West End Gallery

Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.

― Richard Lovelace, To Althea, from Prison, 1641

Some folks that freely walk around are as imprisoned by their behaviors and beliefs as anyone behind the stone walls of any prison. As the 17th century poet Richard Lovelace pointed out nearly four hundred years ago, freedom is a state of mind.

For the most part, we often make our own prisons and do our own time. And conversely, we have the ability to define and make our freedom in any situation.

I was struggling to title this new painting that is headed to the West End Gallery for my annual solo exhibit in October. I saw it as representing the type of solitude that I enjoy, one that is not hindered by imposed restrictions or apartness.

The freedom of the heart and the mind.

But I also realized that my perception is not shared by a majority of folks. Most people don’t relish extended periods of time alone.  They need the sound and engagement of others and look outward, avoiding reflection and introspection.

I am not criticizing here, just noting the difference. As with everything, to each their own.

As I said, I wasn’t sure about expressing the type of solitude I saw in it in its title. Then I came across the lines from Lovelace in a prior blog entry from a few years back. It seemed to speak directly of what I was seeing in this painting.

The freedom of the heart and the mind cannot be caged or restricted. It is an island and world unto itself.

Hence, the title The Heart is Free came to be. 

I can only speak for myself, but for me it fits.

The Heart is Free is 14″ by 14″ on canvas and is included in Guiding Light, my 24th annual solo show at the West End Gallery that opens Friday, October 17.

 

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A Bellow to the Void

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on September 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

A Bellow to the Void– Coming to West End Gallery

He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.

–Charles Péguy, The Honest People in Basic Verities: Prose and Poetry (1943)

I didn’t know much about him when I came across the words above, but the author of them, Charles Péguy, was an interesting character from what little research I have done this early morning. Born into poverty in Orleans in 1873 and fatherless since the age of one, Péguy transcended his rough start in life with education, becoming a well-known essayist and poet in France. deeply nationalistic, Péguy enlisted at the outbreak of WWI and was among the first soldiers sent into battle. He died in combat at Marne in 1914.

The Poetry Foundation article on him states:

French poet, philosopher, and journalist Charles Péguy grew up poor in Orléans, France. He combined fervent Catholicism with socialist politics to create a body of work unlike any other. As a Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism writer suggested, “Most critics find that Péguy’s literary works exist outside the mainstream of modern French literature.” George E. Gingras, writing in the Encyclopedia of World Literature, noted, “Ultimately unclassifiable, Péguy was a solitary, best remembered for resisting all forces seeking to make political capital out of moral issues.” Péguy composed lengthy poems and plays, but philosophical journalism is his trademark.

In my brief research, I am finding he it is hard to attach a label on him. Unclassifiable is probably the right word for him. There seems to be a contrarian streak to him, one that made him willing to speak the truth as he saw it even when it went against the prevailing tides of sentiment. The next lines that follow the passage at the top are:

One must always tell what one sees. Above all, which is more difficult, one must always see what one sees.

A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket.

All three of these short lines speak a truth, at least in the way I perceive them. If you see what you see, you must say what it is and to remain silent, refusing to bellow out what it is that you do see, you then become complicit with those who seek to deceive and abuse. That certainly seems applicable to the current situation. Actually, it’s a truth that speaks to any time because there have always been those seeking to deceive and abuse along with the many who have remained mute as it happens.

That final line about a word not being the same with one writer as with another translates to artists as well. The work of some artists from the gut, is part and parcel of their being, while other artists maintain a distance in their work from their gut, their true self. This distance can sometimes be cloaked in beauty, but it is often perceptible, bringing a coolness and aloofness to the work.

Like the soul is not fully engaged.

Obviously, I hope that my work falls in that from-the-gut and with a bit of soul category. At least, I try to create it in such a way. Maybe I am not always successful, but I try to say what I see.

And I do try to bellow the truth in what I see. We have so little time here and the voice of each of us needs to ring out in some way that to not bellow what is right and true is a deception of ourselves and our souls.

That is what I see in the new painting at the top, A Bellow to the Void. It is 14″ by 14″ on canvas and is included in my October solo show, Guiding Light, at the West End Gallery. There is a primal quality in the image of someone yelling their truth into the night sky. Like Whitman’s barbaric yawp echoing over the rooftops of the world.

As I said, we have so little time here. We are witnesses to our lives and times. To say what we see, to bellow it out to the void, is a duty to ourselves, our descendants, and our souls.

That’s enough said for now. I have to get upon the roof now. A bellow will soon commence.

Here’s Mumford and Sons with their Awake My Soul. Good stuff to kickstart your soul on a Monday morning.

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Questions For the Moon

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on September 22, 2025| 1 Comment »

Questions For the Moon-At West End Gallery in October

Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Do not now seek the answers…

Such a counterintuitive and wise bit of advice that Rilke passed on to his young poet friend. History and mythology are filled with characters who stand before the void, frustrated and grieved with life, pleading for answers to come out of the nothingness before them.

Answers seldom come.

But the questions remain. These questions and concerns become ingrained to the point of almost being unnoticed in the seeker’s life and being.

And one day, if they are fortunate, they realize that that the question itself was the answer and that it was always within them, ready to reveal itself when they have lived and dealt with that question in their life and finally came to this realization.

This realization is earthshaking for some and mundane for others. For others, it is both.

The point is that there are seldom easily obtained answers to the existential questions that plague us.\

Only time and life can turn these questions into answers. And some questions are such that the answers may well be beyond our living or recognition. Those answers remain a mystery.

Maybe the ultimate question here is how well we cope with lives filled with such mystery.

That is my first take on this new small painting, 8″ by 8″ on panel, that is included in my October solo show at the West End Gallery. I call it Questions For the Moon.

I’ve been on a lot of roofs in my life, having been a chimneysweep for several years, and, more importantly, have been on the roof depicted in this painting, sending out questions whose answers I was not yet ready to recognize within myself. I know the frustration and pain in that moment of questioning as you teeter on the roof’s peak.

In that moment, the only answer is to get off the roof in one piece and move on, accepting that this might not be such a bad answer. One day further down the road, if you’re lucky and have let those questions fade onto the deep recesses of your mind, almost forgotten, the question might once more show itself as an answer that has meaning for your life as it has been lived.

And you understand in that moment that this was the only way it could have been, that it took the pain and toil of life to get to where the question could be answered.

That’s a lot to ponder for a little painting.

Here’s song in that vein from the always charming Iris Dement. This is Let the Mystery Be.

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In the Weave of Time

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on September 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »

In the Weave of Time– Coming to West End Gallery

Each minute bursts in the burning room,
The great globe reels in the solar fire,
Spinning the trivial and unique away.
(How all things flash! How all things flare!)
What am I now that I was then?
May memory restore again and again
The smallest color of the smallest day:
Time is the school in which we learn,
Time is the fire in which we burn.

–Delmore Schwartz, Calmly We Walk Through This April’s Day (1938)

Sometimes I begin to write about a new painting fully intending to describe what it means to me. But there are times when those intentions go out the window. Then I find myself just staring blankly at the piece.

I should say staring blankly into rather than at the painting because it’s not one of those cases where you stare straight ahead without focusing on or even knowing what is in front of your eyes. The mind is so preoccupied with something else that it commandeers your eyes.

No, this is the opposite, more like having what is front of my eyes push away all thought and empty my mind.

The eye commandeers the mind. I suppose that would be a form of involuntary meditation. Maybe that’s the best kind, one that comes without trying.

That’s kind of what happened first thing this morning. I was intending to write a bit about the new painting at the top. It’s an 18″ by 18″ canvas titled In the Weave of Time and is included in my October solo exhibit, Guiding Light, at the West End Gallery.

I pulled up the image and before I knew it, I was staring into it with an empty mind. I say empty but it was not a pure void. It had a harmony, a tone of great calmness. It had a space as well, one that placeless and timeless.

It’s hard to explain. Placeless and timeless things often are.

But frustrating as it was to find my mind empty at a time when I was desiring words and thought, I was pleased by the effect. It gave me some much-needed stillness at a moment when time and deadlines plague my thoughts.

It felt like a gift in the dark of morning.

This not what I intended to write about this painting but maybe it should have been. It certainly says more about it than the meager words I probably would have spewed.

Unfortunately, I have to return to a world filled with time and place and deadlines right now. But first, I am going to spend a few more minutes in this painting. I need it.

Here’s a favorite song, The Stable Song, from Gregory Alan Isakov. It came on while I was writing what I hadn’t intended writing and it felt right in the moment. I often have music playing while I work and much of it plays without me noticing the song or artist due my focus on the work in front of me. But whenever this song comes on, I stop and listen for a few minutes.

There’s a familiarity in it that rhymes with some memory of in the weave of time. And that’s all I could ask for this morning.

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Dusk of Time

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on September 10, 2025| 2 Comments »

Dusk of Time– Coming to West End Gallery

When philosophy paints its grey on grey, then has a shape of life grown old. By philosophy’s grey on grey it cannot be rejuvenated but only understood. The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.

–Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Philosophy of Right (1821)

This is the first new painting from my October solo show at the West End Gallery that I am sharing here. I didn’t think it would be the first painting from the show to be shown, mainly since it is relatively small at 6 inches wide and 18 inches tall. There are much bigger pieces from the show, including the title painting, Guiding Light, that I could have shared here first. But it stood out to me this morning and it still does somewhat represent the title of the show with its prominent dropping sun.

You might see it as a rising sun and that’s fine. Art is subjective to our own personal interpretation. While I might see it one way and I am its creator, that doesn’t mean it must have only that meaning. Once I put it out in the open air it is on its own and it becomes what the viewer thinks it is.

But I am sharing my thoughts today, so we’ll call it a dropping sun at dusk. I felt that the passage at the top from the German philosopher Hegel truly fit what I was seeing in this painting. I saw it as being about the passage of time, the ending of a period of time, and the retrospection that comes after that time is gone. 

He is basically saying that we can only truly know and understand anything until it has fully run its course and is well beyond our efforts to bring it back to life. The Owl of Minerva that he employs here is an ancient symbol of wisdom. The owl flies when we gain the wisdom from any time or event only after it has completed the course of its existence. 

That makes sense to me. So often we lose understanding and insight when we are in the midst of the happenings of our time. We see and hear only bits and pieces of the truth along with a multitude of falsehoods, biased opinions, and myriad distractions. We are unable to see the full scope and perspective of events (or lives) while they are happening.

We can’t see them in their fullness until the arc of their being has been completed. Only then does there come clarity as time washes away the debris that obscured the truth while it existed.

Of course, sometimes this clarity is only gained after years, decades, and centuries. Sometimes eons and ages. 

In this painting, Dusk of Time, I see that clarity on a smaller scale in the reflection that sometimes comes at the end of the day, especially when that day has been an eventful one. Ideally, you can see the arc of the day and understand how it took shape and where it led you. Perhaps how you will go forward.

That’s a thumbnail explanation. There’s a lot of feeling in this smaller painting, much more that I can put down right now.

It just feels like it knows a story that it needs to share. I have a sense of the story and the truth it is telling me. But what that story is and what truth it reveals is up to whoever engages with it. 

 

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“If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?”

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on August 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »

In the Rhythm of the World– At West End Gallery

I recently came across a book of graduation speeches given by Kurt Vonnegut over the years. The speeches are witty, insightful, and bitingly to the point, much like his writing. I thought I would share one of these commencement speeches, one that includes the story behind the title of his book of speeches, If This Isn’t Nice, What Is? 

This speech from 1999 was given at Agnes Scott College, a private women’s liberal arts college in Decatur, Georgia. 26 years later, Vonnegut’s words ring true as we see ourselves vying to survive in a world that proclaims that we should adhere to Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount while simultaneously prodding us to follow the Code of Hammurabi.  

Below is that speech. It’s worth a few minutes of your time. It covers a lot of ground in a short time.

Kurt Vonnegut Commencement Speech, Agnes Scott College, 1999–

I am so smart I know what is wrong with the world. Everybody asks during and after our wars, and the continuing terrorist attacks all over the globe, “What’s gone wrong?” What has gone wrong is that too many people, including high school kids and heads of state, are obeying the Code of Hammurabi, a King of Babylonia who lived nearly four thousand years ago. And you can find his code echoed in the Old Testament, too. Are you ready for this?

“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”

A categorical imperative for all who live in obedience to the Code of Hammurabi, which includes heroes of every cowboy show and gangster show you ever saw, is this: Every injury, real or imagined, shall be avenged. Somebody’s going to be really sorry.

When Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross, he said, “Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do.” What kind of a man was that? Any real man, obeying the Code of Hammurabi, would have said, “Kill them, Dad, and all their friends and relatives, and make their deaths slow and painful.”

His greatest legacy to us, in my humble opinion, consists of only twelve words. They are the antidote to the poison of the Code of Hammurabi, a formula almost as compact as Albert Einstein’s “E = mc2.

I am a Humanist, or Freethinker, as were my parents and grandparents and great grandparents — and so not a Christian. By being a Humanist, I am honoring my mother and father, which the Bible tells us is a good thing to do.

But I say with all my American ancestors, “If what Jesus said was good, and so much of it was absolutely beautiful, what does it matter if he was God or not?”

If Christ hadn’t delivered the Sermon on the Mount, with its message of mercy and pity, I wouldn’t want to be a human being.

I would just as soon be a rattlesnake.

Revenge provokes revenge which provokes revenge which provokes revenge — forming an unbroken chain of death and destruction linking nations of today to barbarous tribes of thousands and thousands of years ago.

We may never dissuade leaders of our nation or any other nation from responding vengefully, violently, to every insult or injury. In this, the Age of Television, they will continue to find irresistible the temptation to become entertainers, to compete with movies by blowing up bridges and police stations and factories and so on…

But in our personal lives, our inner lives, at least, we can learn to live without the sick excitement, without the kick of having scores to settle with this particular person, or that bunch of people, or that particular institution or race or nation. And we can then reasonably ask forgiveness for our trespasses, since we forgive those who trespass against us. And we can teach our children and then our grandchildren to do the same — so that they, too, can never be a threat to anyone.

A woman’s reach should exceed her grasp, or what’s a heaven for?

You should know that when a husband and wife fight, it may seem to be about money or sex or power.

But what they’re really yelling at each other about is loneliness. What they’re really saying is, “You’re not enough people.”

If you determine that that really is what they’ve been yelling at each other about, tell them to become more people for each other by joining a synthetic extended family — like the Hell’s Angels, perhaps, or the American Humanist Association, with headquarters in Amherst, New York — or the nearest church.

Computers are no more your friends, and no more increasers of your brainpower, than slot machines…

Only well-informed, warm-hearted people can teach others things they’ll always remember and love. Computers and TV don’t do that.

A computer teaches a child what a computer can become.

An educated human being teaches a child what a child can become. Bad men just want your bodies. TVs and computers want your money, which is even more disgusting. It’s so much more dehumanizing!

By working so hard at becoming wise and reasonable and well-informed, you have made our little planet, our precious little moist, blue-green ball, a saner place than it was before you got here.

Most of you are preparing to enter fields unattractive to greedy persons, such as education and the healing arts. Teaching, may I say, is the noblest profession of all in a democracy.

One of the things [Uncle Alex] found objectionable about human beings was that they so rarely noticed it when they were happy. He himself did his best to acknowledge it when times were sweet. We could be drinking lemonade in the shade of an apple tree in the summertime, and Uncle Alex would interrupt the conversation to say, “If this isn’t nice, what is?”

So I hope that you will do the same for the rest of your lives. When things are going sweetly and peacefully, please pause a moment, and then say out loud, “If this isn’t nice, what is?”

That’s one favor I’ve asked of you. Now I ask for another one. I ask it not only of the graduates, but of everyone here, parents and teachers as well. I’ll want a show of hands after I ask this question.

How many of you have had a teacher at any level of your education who made you more excited to be alive, prouder to be alive, than you had previously believed possible?

Hold up your hands, please.

Now take down your hands and say the name of that teacher to someone else and tell them what that teacher did for you.

All done?

If this isn’t nice, what is?

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Guiding Light/ Upcoming

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on August 8, 2025| 4 Comments »

First Peace

Well, the night is still
And I have not yet lost my will
Oh and I will keep on moving ’till
‘Till I find my way home

When I need to get home
You’re my guiding light
You’re my guiding light

—Guiding Light, Foy Vance

I am still building up strength and energy after being sick. I feel like I am running at about 70% or so, still getting really fatigued after much exertion or just a busy day in the studio. But my work continues, and I feel like it’s building in a way that will be at full capacity for my autumn schedule, which this year features a solo show and two Gallery Talks.

Fortunately, we switched my annual solo show at West End Gallery from July to October this year. In the shape I was in at the time, there would have been no way in which I could have mounted a July show. But we did switch and I am looking forward to that show at a different time with the added time to prepare. I especially need that additional time as my strength rebuilds.

My solo show at the West End Gallery opens Friday, October 17 and runs to November 13. This year’s show is titled Guiding Light. I was recently mulling over what to call the show and a song came on the channel I often listen to early in the morning and the song struck a chord. And its title, Guiding Light, instantly felt right. That song, which is shared below, was from singer/songwriter Foy Vance, who hails from Northern Ireland-– or Norn Iron as my good friend from Portadown, Tom, would say.

I will write more about the title and theme of the show in the coming month or so.

There will also be a Gallery Talk in the weeks following the opening. A date has not been nailed down, but it will most likely be on one of the Saturdays after the opening, either October 25, November 1 or the 8th. I am leaning toward October 25 myself, but we want to make sure it’s a clear date before announcing it. I will let you know when we make that final decision.

Before that, on Saturday, September 27, I will be returning to Alexandria to give my annual Gallery Talk at the Principle Gallery. The talk begins at 1 PM. It is usually a pretty good time and I have no doubt that this year’s edition will not be as well.

And to spice things up, I will be doing the whole talk while standing on my hands.

Well, we’ll see about that. But if anyone in attendance feels like doing handstand while we have our Gallery Talk, I will not discourage it.

That is this fall’s schedule thus far. Hope to see you somewhere down the road.

Here’s that Foy Vance song, Guiding Light. This is from a live performance in 2023 from Belfast accompanied by the Ulster Orchestra. It makes for a great way to end his show, if you watch through the end.

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