James Rosenquist (1933) Artist
Not so much into his most recent work – just a bit too busy and cosmic for my taste, but I really appreciate his earlier work. Of course, right? Collage paintings.
Eunice Kathleen Waymon A.K.A. Nina Simone (1933-2003) Singer, Songwriter
I’ve loved her music for so long. I found an excellent bio on Nina Simone, so check it out here: www.ninasimone.com/about/bio/
Fred Astaire (1899-1987) Singer, Dancer, Actor, Songwriter, Performer
I think I would be terrible at tap, but I dance with Fred Astaire in my heart. I have a seriously stupid soft spot for old musicals of this variety. It’s ridiculous. Tap dancing is so bizarre. There’s something about it, though. It’s a body in perfect time with another body punctuated by percussion instruments attached to the soles of their feet. Ridiculous, but wonderful.
There is nothing I enjoy more than making art with my children. It has become a special treat to get the ArtForum in the mail. I have to make sure I go through it and censor certain inappropriate things and take out the stuff I’ll use, but then we totally tear it up. My daughters call it “fixing” art. In most cases, that is absolutely fitting.
Eden (age 8) “Fixes” Art
Delia (age 6) “Fixes” Art
Solomon (age 13 months) “Fixes” Art
“Them in Me, Me in Them”
George Shaw (1966 – ), Artist
I love Shaw’s paintings. However, I wouldn’t hang any of his work in my home. I love the way he paints. I love what he chooses to paint. I love his colors. I just wouldn’t want to look at that loneliness every day.
Peter Friedman, Lawyer
Never thought I’d say a lawyer inspires me, but Peter Friedman certainly does. I follow his blog more so than any other. He is an attorney that fights for complete freedom of expression, particularly in the arts. As a collage artist I have to follow art appropriation lawsuits. Friedman has a lot of great things to say about all of them.
Ruling Imagination: Law and Creativity
Andy Goldsworthy, (1956 – ) Artist
I’ve been working a lot in my garden and thinking of Andy Goldsworthy, an environmental artist that I’ve always really appreciated. He has majorly influenced the way I look and work in my outdoor space.
“My art is an attempt to reach beyond the surface appearance. I want to see growth in wood, time in stone, nature in a city, and I do not mean its parks but a deeper understanding that a city is nature too-the ground upon which it is built, the stone with which it is made.”
Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997), Artist
I do really appreciate his contributions to the conversation on ownership and copyright, but really I just wanted to make my own little Lichtenstein comic strip. Unfortunately his material isn’t very wide-ranging. It’s either a story about a jet pilot, household items, or love drama. Since he so often portrayed weepy eyed, lovesick, stupid women, I thought I’d change the story a bit.
The Octopus Project, Musicians/Artists
I’ve been listening to The Octopus Project for many years now. I particularly love their live show. They all move from one instrument to the next between songs, so each song has a totally different feel depending on who is playing what instrument. I’ve never known a band to do this. They are also really quirky artists, so the show is visually wonderful as well.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), Poet
The Best Thing in the World
What’s the best thing in the world?
June-rose, by May-dew impearled;
Sweet south-wind, that means no rain;
Truth, not cruel to a friend;
Pleasure, not in haste to end;
Beauty, not self-decked and curled
Till its pride is over-plain;
Light, that never makes you wink;
Memory, that gives no pain;
Love, when, so, you’re loved again.
What’s the best thing in the world?
—Something out of it, I think.
Exaggeration
WE overstate the ills of life, and take
Imagination (given us to bring down
The choirs of singing angels overshone
By God’s clear glory) down our earth to rake
The dismal snows instead, flake following flake,
To cover all the corn; we walk upon
The shadow of hills across a level thrown,
And pant like climbers: near the alder brake
We sigh so loud, the nightingale within
Refuses to sing loud, as else she would.
O brothers, let us leave the shame and sin
Of taking vainly, in a plaintive mood,
The holy name of GRIEF !–holy herein
That by the grief of ONE came all our good.
Sonnet 37
Pardon, oh, pardon, that my soul should make,
Of all that strong divineness which I know
For thine and thee, an image only so
Formed of the sand, and fit to shift and break.
It is that distant years which did not take
Thy sovranty, recoiling with a blow,
Have forced my swimming brain to undergo
Their doubt and dread, and blindly to forsake
Thy purity of likeness and distort
Thy worthiest love to a worthless counterfeit:
As if a shipwrecked Pagan, safe in port,
His guardian sea-god to commemorate,
Should set a sculptured porpoise, gills a-snort
And vibrant tail, within the temple-gate.
