I wrote this as a piece of fiction for another project and then thought, “hmm, seems not so fictional”: “The world had come to a point of decision, the cusp of light and darkness. A vileness had, for centuries, infused itself into the power structure of virtually every major culture, and many, but not all,...
Two of my favorite Japanese painters are Soga Shohaku(1730-1781) and Ito Jakuchu(1716-1800). Contemporaries, their paintings are very different from each other but share an extraordinary dynamism and ecstatic eccentricity that lands them solidly in my Hall Of Fame. My taste often runs to a more quiet austerity, but I find these two artists’ work so...
Why is it that winter appeals to some so deeply and others loathe it? It does seem we line up in camps around temperature. It is possible to be quite comfortable with proper clothing, in temperatures around 10-20 F which most people would, I suppose, consider quite unbearable. Having found the last stretch of cold...
This is a restoration of an earlier post. The first paragraph and first photo are new. Damien was up for Thanksgiving and we had our usual fine time with lots of conversation ranging from shop-talk to the Simpson’s and much comparing of Australian culture to American(good for more than a few laughs). He brought along...
This is a restoration of a post from 2011: Among the highlights of all my trips to Japan was the opportunity June 2011 to see an exhibition of metalwork of many, many of the great metal artists from the Meiji period at the Okayama Prefectural Museum in Okayama, including works of Shoami Katsuyoshi, Unno Shomin...
