Reading “Crow Mountain” by Can Xue
"Crow Mountain." Translated by Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping. Asymptote, July 2015. When you read Can Xue's story "Crow Mountain," you're reading about a young girl who wishes to investigate a place. It's called Crow Mountain, but it's really a derelict
Two Childhood Drawings
The little shed where the skaters sit to lace up their skates seems precariously balanced on the edge of the pond, as if I couldn’t quite figure out how to orient it accurately. That is probably because, while the skating
“Seated Man” at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts
"Seated Man"--This man is a cube. He emerges from a block of stone in his display case at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He is pure shape. He has a pure face with wide-open eyes. He radiates the calm of
“Horseman and Dog” at Boston’s MFA
Almost every time I visit Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, I have a look at this small sculpture. It's a favorite, and I often take guests to see the piece in the Greek galleries. The terracotta figurine is a funerary
Animal Imagery and Color—The Work of Franz Marc
"Your paintings remind me of the work of Franz Marc." I received this comment (and, I think, compliment) some months ago from a young visitor to my website. It immediately reminded me of a 1912 painting of Marc's entitled Deer
On Reading Black Elk Speaks and Seeing Plains Indians: Artists of Earth and Sky
For those who don’t know, Black Elk Speaks was written in 1932 by the poet John Neihardt, based on his translated conversations with Black Elk, an Oglala Lakota medicine man. Black Elk, who died in 1950, was a witness not
Winter Inspiration
I dream often of my maternal grandmother's house. This has been going on for years. Often I'm trying to return there. Sometimes I'm fixing it up or planning to buy back the place. The house itself is long gone, probably
Larry Rivers and the Fluid Nature of Seeing
Larry Rivers, “Self Figure” (1953) Fractured energy plays across the surface of this work in oil on canvas. Ostensibly, it’s a painting of a single figure moving through space. To my mind, what’s represented here is not a person but an