I struggled creatively throughout the pandemic. This isn’t a revelation. It’s a confession. Those who follow this blog or my social media may recall posts explaining how hard it was for me to pick up a paintbrush. It began with the lockdown, but the feeling persisted. I had to reinvent myself as an artistic individual […]
Read more "Authenticity is the Mother of Reinvention"You may not know her name, but I would wager that you might recognize her work and, at the very least, know some of the wild, incredible story that is her life. Margaret Keane, the painter of the waif-like children with large, expressive eyes, passed away on June 26th at the age of 94. If […]
Read more "Margaret Keane & “Big Eyes”"Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed is a Netflix documentary released in 2021. I will admit upfront that I have been hesitant to watch this film as I was worried that it would reveal some terrible or heinous crime committed by the beloved TV painter or, possibly worse, that he was a fraud who […]
Read more "“Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed”"Last week I gave the second presentation of my current lecture series – The Artist as Alchemist: Spirituality, Science & Magic in Art – via Zoom to yet another group of delightfully curious participants. In fact, they seemed to be really intrigued by this artist’s unexpected artwork. This did not surprise me one bit because […]
Read more "The Secret & The Sacred: The Art of Hilma af Klint"In my class From Muse to Master: Celebrating Women Artists vol. 2 we discuss the portraits of artist Tamara de Lempicka. Nicknamed “The Baroness with the Brush,” de Lempicka painted the young, liberated women of Europe in the flapper years of the 1920’s. Drawing on neoclassical female nudes for inspiration, de Lempicka crafted her own […]
Read more "Madonna & the Art of Tamara de Lempicka"The Daily Show with Trevor Noah had contemporary artist Kehinde Wiley on as a guest last week and it was not only entertaining, but wildly informative. Wiley is very comfortable discussing art in a setting that is not always conducive to it – a late night chat show – and with people whose knowledge of […]
Read more "Kehinde Wiley"THANK YOU to all those who joined me in the pumpkin patch at St. Luke’s UMC last week for a painting party. I love seeing what happens when you make art supplies available to children… and adults! Each pumpkin that left the patch that night was a true masterpiece. THANK YOU to everyone who attended […]
Read more "THANK YOU!"We all know how much Vincent loved color – that goes without saying. Lately, I have noticed that when I set out to study one of his works, I tend to lean into the color even more than Vincent does. With the sunflowers, I worked hard to get as close as possible to matching Vincent’s […]
Read more "Daubigny’s Garden"To be perfectly honest, I can’t remember ever carving a pumpkin for Halloween. My parents made us stop celebrating Halloween when I was in the 2nd or 3rd grade, so it wasn’t until I was an adult that I was able to return to the best holiday of the year. Knives and gourds make me […]
Read more "Painted Pumpkins"“I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.” -Vincent van Gogh. As an academic, I love studying Van Gogh because he gave us quite a gift – not just 800+ paintings, but hundred and hundreds of letters. Shout out to his sister-in-law, Jo, who had the foresight […]
Read more "Starry Night"
The Wandering Art Historian 
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