Tag: Art & Inspiration

New York’s Liberty Pole

In the decade leading up to the American Revolutionary War, Boston wasn’t the only scene of intense friction between British soldiers and American colonials. Imperial troops had likewise been stationed in New York. It’s a truism in history that occupying armies, whatever their original intentions, eventually breed resentment from the locals. While Boston had its…


Looking for Signs of Life: ‘The Disappearance of Rituals’

We may be communicating with one another daily, but are we relating? This significant question has been asked in our society in recent years, and it needs to be addressed. Byung-Chul Han’s new book, “The Disappearance of Rituals,” makes useful and necessary philosophical distinctions that allow the reader to further contemplate man’s place in a…


‘Oblivion or Glory: 1921 and the Making of Winston Churchill’

As 1920 ended, Winston Churchill seemed headed for obscurity. The British failure at Gallipoli brought his political career to collapse in 1916. While partially restored before the Great War ended, he was stalemated in a dead-end cabinet position as 1921 opened. His judgment was widely questioned. He was experiencing financial difficulties. When 1921 ended, everything…


How a Perilous Sahara Journey Ended in Faith, Strength, and Courage

British model Kristina Hurrell dunked her head in the pool of water just steps ahead of her, frantically trying to shake out the countless insects that had dropped into her hair when she took a garden shortcut. Only upon lifting her head, did she see the nearby Brigitte Bardot, nakedly emerging from a swim. It…


To Judge a Book by Its Cover

Perhaps it’s no surprise that the hospitable Irish took in a “foreigner,” a Welshman named Patrick, and made him their own patron saint! And Saint Patrick’s Day, that exuberant day of merriment, comes around again this month, on the 17th of March. The Irish also gave the world Halloween, another day of revelry, but in…


The Virtual Musuem

It is impossible to talk about museum visitor experience, virtual or otherwise, without first addressing the devastating effects the pandemic has wrought on art institutions across the country and globe. Now after the first anniversary of the crisis, what was naively thought at first to be a brief, temporary shutdown of museums, lingered painfully for…


Vermont Painters Pilgrimage

In March of last year I travelled  to Vermont, along with 40 other painters, in search of snow. It is an annual pilgrimage made by many painters, led by Stapleton Kearns, T.M. Nicholas, and Eric Tobin. It’s arguably the worst time of year to be in Vermont, with freezing temperatures and icy winds, but who…


Jeremy Lipking: Depictions of Beauty and Life

Jeremy Lipking is a highly acclaimed American realist painter. In March he completed his anticipated, one-man show, at The Legacy Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona. Entitled Silence & Sagebrush, the exhibition showcased 19 of Lipking’s oil paintings representing figures standing before the serene expanse of warmly lit landscapes. Jeremy Lipking depicts the natural world with an acute…