On Summit

I’ve always taken a very unsympathetic view of Salinger's relentless stranglehold on his published works. The control he exercised strikes me as both selfish and counter to how humans learn, grow, and express themselves. Yes, I know they’re his. Yes I know copyright law protects them. Yes, I know he's been under no obligation to permit audio versions, commemorative editions, stage adaptations, 50th Anniversary reprints, screenplays, illustrated editions, alternate cover art, or any of the other things that are a regular part of the popular fiction life cycle. It’s all perfectly legal and all well within his rights. That said, Salinger’s pathological control over his presumably precious and apparently unalterable writings will make their appearance in the public domain all the sweeter. Frankly, I can’t wait. You see, I work in a library. I value information. I like it to be easily accessible. I like to see it change hands and be transferred without a lot of fuss and without a l...

I've always been fascinated by the paintings of both Albert Pinkham Ryder and Marsden Hartley. That I've found enjoyment in both shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to anyone familiar with either. They are linked in their way. A young Hartley held Ryder in high regard, going so far as to embark on a series of tonally dark works after viewing Ryder's "Moonlight Marine" in 1909. Moonlight Marine by Albert Pinkham Ryder Ryder (as is often noted), serves as a kind of bridge between the romanticism of the late 19th Century and the modernism of the 20th Century. Hartley, coming later, worked through a series of different styles and approaches over the course of his career. While he didn't always stick close to Ryder's style, drama and emotional content were always part of the formula. Storm Clouds, Maine by Marsden Hartley Recently, I did a few small painting based on what Ryder and Hartley were working towards in the paintings above. It's a little ...

I've got an exhibition of my tornado paintings going up at the Dayton Visual Arts Center this winter. I'll be sharing the front gallery space with sculptor/installation artist Michael Bashaw , who's putting together a large scale tornado shaped piece for the show. All of this is being done in partnership with the Victoria Theatre Association , who are rightly excited about the opening of the musical "Wicked" on February 17th (are you sensing a theme here?) . Well, yesterday was art moving day, and in keeping with the "behind the scenes" theme I started in my previous post, I thought I'd share some snapshots of how things went. Below is what 38 paintings look like when they're boxed up and ready to load into a car. Framed, my largest paintings are probably only 12" x 18" inches. That makes transport fairly easy. I can't imagine what a hassle it must be to have to move and store large works. The gallery itself is a lovely storefront ...

I started this blog ostensibly to keep people up-to-date about my art stuff. It's obviously kind of drifted a bit from that, so I thought I might make a post that gets us back on track. Plenty of people have seen art in galleries and museums, but they're not always privy to what goes on behind the scenes. To address that, I took a few snapshots of my workspace in the hope of giving readers a glimpse of how a painting comes together. I do some work on the easel thing, but most of the painting happens at this table. As you can see, these aren't laboratory conditions I'm working in, but it gets the job done. The painting you see on the table is one that's just about finished. Obviously my space is as much about storage as it is about painting. That's because I make more work than I sell. If you have any ideas about how I might rectify this situation, I'm all ears. This is a longer shot of the work table. There's not a lot of natural light in this room, so I...

Unbeknownst to even her closest friends, my wife has put together an admirable collection of vintage Santas (mostly small, and of the post-war "Made in Japan" variety). Having always been personally amused and intrigued by these sometimes scary looking knick-knacks, I've decided to share them with the larger world. So, while we're still technically in the Holiday Season, I present our Army of Santas! ( I hope too that Hal Mooney's arrangement of the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" will be ample compensation for my mostly pedestrian camerawork).

There's nothing quite like the familiar look and feel of the Ohio Art League's annual Thumb Box exhibition to make their new south campus gallery space feel a little bit more like home. For those of you haven't heard the news, the OAL recently moved out of their venerable Short North storefront to take up residence in what's being billed as the Arts Alley at South Campus Gateway. Thankfully, the big move didn't disrupt their schedule, and this December, as in year's past, the gallery is brimming with small works designed especially for the Holiday shopping season. A slight tweak in this year's guidelines has allowed artists to submit up to three works for exhibition (prior years limited submissions to one per artist). This procedural change has added to both the number of works on display, and in some small way, the consistency of the show. It's certainly a benefit to the viewer, whose eye can now rest occasionally on a repeating color, shape, or theme....

I'll say up front that I liked Freakonomics . It provided an eye-opening lesson in pop-economics delivered with nerdy earnestness and a sense of wonder. In that context it didn't seem unrealistic to expect something similar from Superfreakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner's much anticipated follow-up. Within a few pages though, it was clear that something had gone very wrong. Apparently nerdy earnestness was dumped in favor of cynical contrarianism for this go-round. The opening section " An Explanatory Note" sets the tone; Oh those crazy middle-aged white guys, how they confounded their publisher with their wacky book and title! So outrageous! So off the hook! ...and the money they walked away from by not pumping out a quick follow-up in the "Dummies" or "Chicken Soup" style? Such credibility! Yes, we see! The picture we're supposed to get is of a pair of gonzo-style economists beholden to nothing more than the objective search f...