In the context of an art review in the New Yorker, Peter Scheldahl says

 

"Art often serves us by exposing conflicts among our values, not to propose solutions but to tap energies of truth, however partial, and beauty, however fugitive;  and the service is greatest when our worlds feel most in crisis."


I've just posted to the web site six images from my new series based on cut-paper maquettes, mentioned in this blog post previously.  I decided to call them "Harmonics" after reading this quote from John Elderfield in his book, "the Cut-Outs of Henri Matisse":

 

"the reassertion of harmony and the healing of alienation is a basic theme of Matisse's art."

 

I am of course not Matisse but I could hope these images head in that direction anyway.


I liked this quote from "Lisette's List" by Susan Vreeland, a novel set in the south of France, dealing with paintings by Pissarro, Cezanne and others who painted in that area.

 

"He knew that beauty gave comfort, that there was solace in the play of colours against one another, and upliftment of spirit in the grace of an arabesque curve."


In February I had my left shoulder replaced so while I'm in recovery I have been reading a lot (Netflix too).  In "A House of My Own:  Stories from My Life" by the Mexican American writer Sandra Cisneros there is a chapter about painting her house in San Antonio, Texas purple, and the community reactions to this choice.  

 

In this piece she says "Color is a language....a story....an inheritance.  !Que Vivan los Colores!"  I agree for sure.