Is Great Art Still Possible?

Bernini - Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

Art balances artistic technique with emotional expressiveness. The more difficult the act of balancing, the greater the art. If artistic technique dominates, we get craft. If emotional experience dominates, we Continue ReadingIs Great Art Still Possible?

Vermeer is Not Just About the Light: Art is Not Just Technique

Lady Writing a Letter With Her Maid - Vermeer

While admiring the artistic technique of a painting at the National Gallery’s wonderful exhibit about Vermeer and his contemporaries, I overheard an individual exclaim: “Vermeer is all about the light”. Continue ReadingVermeer is Not Just About the Light: Art is Not Just Technique

Baudelaire and Dickinson: Religion for Moderns

Where do we find spirituality in a world without absolutes? Charles Baudelaire and Emily Dickinson offer two alternative paths. Let us compare two poems written about the same subject – Continue ReadingBaudelaire and Dickinson: Religion for Moderns

Art and the Future of Pokémon Go

Raphael "The Wedding of the Virgin"

Pokémon Go players have fallen off a cliff, crashed their cars, and jumped into traffic. They have been robbed. Someone saw his house invaded by players who were told it Continue ReadingArt and the Future of Pokémon Go

My Memory of a Time and Place Where I Never Was

"L’intérieur de chez Bruant: Le Mirliton" by Louis Anquetin

La Goule simultaneously fascinated and excited the patrons in Aristide Bruant‘s decadent, famous Paris cabaret, Le Mirliton, as portrayed in the newly rediscovered L’intérieur de chez Bruant: Le Mirliton I Continue ReadingMy Memory of a Time and Place Where I Never Was

“Heart and Soul” is a Chaconne – So What?

I was absolutely stunned when, in my late teens, I encountered the last movement of Bach’s Partita #2 for Violin, the “Great Chaconne”. I never cared why it was called Continue Reading“Heart and Soul” is a Chaconne – So What?