Archive for November 2020
On The Inside Looking Out
There is a story that Italian artist and Picasso contemporary Gino Severini willingly gave his broken (and therefore useless) camera to Picasso, who was curious about the odd images it produced. Picasso played with his new toy and ultimately realized that it showed him a new way to paint. Thus cubism was born. In the…
Read MoreGetting Through a Pandemic: Lessons from the Past
People have been responding to pandemics for centuries with fear, panic, avoidance, blame, uncertainty, and confusion. How did our ancestors get through? How do we carry on through the COVID-19 pandemic? Lately, I’ve been compelled to read stories about how others have survived something. The circumstances are less important to me than how they got…
Read MoreThe Fury of Nature, the Power of Resilience
I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific…2,700 miles away from the mainland of the United States…on the Big Island of Hawaii. There are five volcanoes on this island. Two or more are considered active. One spewed lava from 1983 until the end of 2018…the Kilauea volcano. In 2018, Kilauea erupted with…
Read MorePL Recommends #6
Coronavirus: A global pandemic told through art (5 minutes) BBC Newsnight Art Historian James Fox In this excellent video, James Fox explores three paintings relevant to the current pandemic. Dame Barbara Hepworth’s pastel, ethereal drawing of doctors, surgeons, and nurses, was inspired by the care that her very ill daughter received in the 1940s. Andrew…
Read MoreHope and Healing
For me, this image of a Peace Lily captures the spirit of the moment now that the election has been called. The flower is associated with reconciliation, hope, and healing. The hard work now begins, but I am more hopeful than ever that our leadership is up to the task of navigating through the challenges…
Read MoreAbeyance
As we await the results of the 2020 election, I keep looking at a composite image, Interlude, that I created last year. At first glance, it’s a mundane, albeit surreal, piece about waiting for the next train. But look carefully, and you’ll see that it is not a mundane scene at all—something is very much…
Read MoreUnited We Stand
(This post refers to works by my late husband, Bill Oakes, a visionary, educator, and prolific painter.) It’s a good thing Bill didn’t live in these surreal times. He was so sensitive and always looked for the best in people. He would have been shocked and saddened by what is happening, as are many…
Read MoreHere and Now
Change is the only constant we can all depend on. Democracy can be slow and filled with anxiety while we all wait for the results of the 2020 election to confirm who will be the president of the United States for the next four years. In the short term, we as a nation have to…
Read MoreTenterhooks: Liminal Space
This composite image, which I created a year ago, was meant to depict the concept of being suspended in liminal space. The crosswalk is the ultimate symbol of liminality. When you’re in a crosswalk, you’re nowhere, really, trying to get from one block to another. In “Liminal Space,” there is no discernible destination, no “here.”…
Read MoreStranger Danger
As part of our inherent drive for preservation and survival, the pandemic has forced many of us to re-evaluate how we interact with others—the person we pass by on the street or in a park or even a close family member invited to share a meal at a table outside or inside our homes. …
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