"Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog," says the writer E.B. White. "Few people are interested and the frog dies of it." It's been years since I've read White's classic books Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little. I had forgotten how funny the author could be until yesterday, when [...]
Edward Hopper, Automat, 1927. Oil on canvas, 28 in × 36, Des Moines Art Center. This week a reader sent me a copy of "How to Feel Miserable As An Artist." This marvelous list was created by illustrator Keri Smith and is part of The Artist's Survival Kit, which [...]
An Artist Gets Audited A visual artist I know once told me about an audit she endured with the IRS. My friend is a professional artist in New York City with her own studio. Her work is shown at galleries and museums. She has received grants, been accepted [...]
Today is the birthday of writer Grace Paley. Although Paley's writing output was modest during her 84 years -- some four dozen stories in three volumes: The Little Disturbances of Man (Doubleday, 1959); Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1974); and Later the Same Day [...]
Writer Nova Ren Suma has just published a new essay of mine over at "Distraction No. 99." Although the assigned topic was "inspiration," my piece covers a range of subjects, from library book censorship to the financial stresses of being an artist. But the central theme concerns the value [...]
Sol LeWitt, "Horizontal Brushstrokes (More or Less)," 2002. Gouache on paper, 22-3⁄8 x 22-3⁄8 inches (Photo courtesy Craig F. Starr Gallery. Art © 2011 The LeWitt Estate /Artists Rights Society, New York) "Metronomic Irregularity I" by Eva Hesse, 1966. (Image courtesy the Brooklyn Museum. Art © 2011 [...]
Robin MacArthur and Tyler Gibbons are Red Heart the Ticker (Photo by Doron Gild) Two weeks after Hurricane Irene I'm wandering the back-roads of Marlboro, Vermont, making my way to Robin MacArthur and Tyler Gibbons, also known as the music duo Red Heart the Ticker. Route 9--the main thoroughfare [...]
Here in New Hampshire the air has turned chilly, and frost warnings are popping up across the state. Autumn in New England means birds are on the move. The climax of the migration season is the departure of the broad-winged hawks in mid-September when thousands of broad-wings leave New Hampshire en [...]
Today is the birthday of jazz legend Sonny Rollins. At the age of 81, Rollins is still touring, making new music, and recording records. The long, remarkable career of Sonny Rollins is a good example of how sustaining it can be for an artist to have time alone to think, practice, [...]
You may not know graphic designer Milton Glaser by name, but you undoubtedly know his work. He is best known for the “I ♥ NY” logo, his "Bob Dylan" poster, the "DC bullet" logo used by DC Comics from 1977 to 2005, and the "Brooklyn Brewery" logo. He also founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker in 1968 and was [...]
Anna Schuleit creating Room for Five, a collaborative project for the Eastman School of Music (Photo courtesy the artist) Welcome to the first installment of "Creative Spaces," a regular Gwarlingo series that will focus on the creative habits and work spaces of visual artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and other [...]
Ira Glass from This American Life IRA GLASS ON STORYTELLING In the following clip, Ira Glass, the host of NPR's This American Life, gives some useful advice to writers, journalists, and broadcasters about the art of telling a good story. Remember the method you learned in [...]
If you’ve never seen Yuriy Norshteyn’s Hedgehog in the Fog, then you are in for a special treat. And if you have seen it, you owe it to yourself to revisit this classic, animated film. Hedgehog in the Fog is one of the most beautiful, evocative short films ever made. It [...]
The Guardian’s two-part series “Ten Rules for Writing Fiction” has been a popular topic of discussion in the writing community in recent weeks. The idea was inspired by Elmore Leonard’s “10 Rules of Writing,” which originally appeared in The New York Times. The Guardian asked writers like Zadie Smith, [...]