The sun has all but set in the muggy torpor of early evening when the…
Good Plants Gone Bad
Such a beautiful Saturday in May, a brisk wind, temps in the sixties, irresistible gardening weather. What to do, what to do. Weeding. Pruning, General cleanup. We are coming up on the 8th anniversary of our moving in. In August of 2005 things looked pretty drab. The...
Serendipity: Chicago 2
The only available time slot for the trip fell after exams, papers and final grades and before my Young English Friend’s presumed departure on Monday. The Cubbies were in town hosting the Mets and there were games on Friday and Saturday afternoon. The best flights on...
A Mighty Woman: Chicago 1
We paused at the gallery entrance, transfixed by Jan van Hemessen’s Judith with the Head of Holofernes (c.1540). Her Olympian torso filled the frame, her muscular arm raised overhead, only the hasp and bit of blade of her brandished sword visible at the upper left, an...
Art and Artist-Assisted Suicide
There was an interesting piece in The New York Times this morning. Under the headline “An Artwork Turns to Mush, All According to Plan,” William Grimes described sculptor James Grashow’s desire to be the “architect” of his own work’s demise. In December 2006,...