It turns out I have an "ancestor" who was a painter of some renown. In fact, she is considered "one of the greatest painters of the Old West." I discovered this by chance. My father recently moved to Seattle from Maryland and has unearthed a lot of stuff that had been stuck away in the … Continue reading Mysterious Marjorie
My husband turned to me last night and said, "May you live in interesting times." I'd never heard this famous quotation/curse before. The implication of the saying is that what sounds nice at face value is really quite awful. Think of some "interesting times" from history. What comes to mind? Wars and famine, right? To … Continue reading May You Live in Interesting Times
This semester, in addition to my usual writing/editing gigs, I'm also teaching again. And I'm loving it. I have a wonderful group of students. I'm also loving that it's reminding me about art produced by cultures that I've not thought much about in recent years. Take, for example, Etruscan art. The class is a survey … Continue reading Love in Death
My mother died a few weeks ago and, as I now go about the tedium of daily life, everything feels a little bit vulgar. From what I’ve read about the grieving process this is all very normal. The idea that life can simply keep moving along when you’ve lost someone extremely important to you just … Continue reading Temporary Blindness
Well, given that I just wrote about discovery/discoveries, this seems worthy of a quick post: In 1857 Walt Whitman wrote a 47,000-word series all about maintaining good health with the rather amusing title "Manly Health and Training." Guess what? It had been lost for 150 years, but recently . . . found! You can read … Continue reading Found II
One of the things that most captivated my imagination in graduate school was pre-modern cartography. The maps produced before the modern era are not only visually fascinating, but they speak of so much more: mystery, knowledge/ignorance, longing, hope, adventure, human limitations. But mainly of hope, since, if you don’t know what is beyond your world, … Continue reading Found!
I've been silent the last month or so, because--though I've had lots of arts-related thoughts bubbling away in my head--I've had little time to convert those thoughts into words. Today's thoughts require very few written words, so I thought it would be worth the brief interruption in my work day. When I read about the … Continue reading Shipwrecked
I recently read somewhere that teens spend something like “almost all of their time” on the Internet. For all of the obvious reasons, this disturbs me. Which is not to say that I have figured out how to keep the Internet at a healthy distance myself. Far from it. I’m guilty of overexposing myself to … Continue reading White Noise
Why did my parents surround me with art as a kid? Why am I doing the same with my son? Some of my earliest memories involve art. I remember visits to Westminster Abbey, where I was amazed at the vaults soaring high overhead and was afraid of the effigies carved onto the tombs. I have … Continue reading What’s the Point, Really?
What is a work of art? Is it something physical that you can hold on to? Is it a story? Is it a piece of fine craftsmanship? Is it an idea? Many people have written about this, and I guess the answer is that it’s a combination of the above things. Honestly, though, I can’t … Continue reading A Modest, Beloved Work of Art
Ellen A. Hurst 