Sunday, August 21, 2022

Thought for the Day

I can't think of a single thing in my life
that doesn't bear the touch of others
~ Russ Ramsey
________________________________

Quoted from Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt Is In the Wind: Leaning to Love Art Through the Eyes of Faith (Zondervan Reflective, 2022); Chapter 2, "Pursuing Perfection", page 35

Russ Ramsey, Author; Speaker; Pastor, Christ Presbyterian Church, Nashville, Tennessee

Thursday, August 18, 2022

New Artist Watch Feature at Escape Into Life

 


Hannah Stahl, Salma, 2019
Oil on Canvas 
(Commissioned Work)
20" x 16"
 
© Hannah Stahl
 
PLEASE DO NOT COPY IMAGE

 

With the "Dog Days" upon us, it's time for our annual "Dog Days of August" Artist Watch feature at the international online arts magazine Escape Into Life. So slow down, fix yourself a cool drink, and celebrate summer life with portraitist Hannah Stahl, whose oil paintings, commissioned by clients in the United States and around the world, are the subject of today's column.

Hannah, whose masterly and award-winning dog portraits have been honored widely in such publications as New England Monthly, The Providence Journal, and The Westminster Kennel Club "Dog Show Poster Competition" (2016), works out of her Brooklyn, New York, and Providence, Rhode Island, studios. She also creates cat portraits and, more recently, began painting portraits of humans. They all are stunning works executed with an Old Master technique.

For today's Artist Watch, Hannah provided a generous seven images of her dog portraits, an Artist Statement, and brief biographical information.

A Personal Note

Today's feature at Escape Into Life marks nine years of showcasing artists — emerging, mid-career, and established — from around the world. It also marks my last Artist Watch column for the magazine. Nearing age 70, though still without a bucket list, I know it's time to pass the virtual pen to a new editor.
 
As Artist Watch editor, I have given significant virtual room to artists who are women and artists who work in highly varied media. I owe a debt of gratitude to the many painters, sculptors, photographers, paper-cut artists, portraitists, installation artists, mixed media artists, collagists, illustrators, printmakers, and digital art wizards who accepted my invitations and generously shared their marvelous work. They made creation of my monthly Artist Watch columns a joyous endeavor and filled with beauty my days (and nights) of looking at art. Joy and beauty, especially as found in art, remain the two essential things I look for each day.

To my readers here and at Escape Into Life, which one day in 2013 gave me an unexpected opportunity to immerse myself in my long-held passion for art, I offer my thanks. To three of many special people at EIL — poetry editor, blog colleague, and friend Kathleen Kirk; Mandy Steinmetz, and EIL columnist Basel Al-Aswad, who has kept his son's vision alive — still more thank-yous and much appreciation. 

And to the new editor to be announced, may you enjoy as much as I have communicating with and meeting artists and writing the column. You will find it difficult to avoid purchasing their art for your personal collection.
 
While I do not post so often anymore at Writing Without Paper, I do plan to continue the blog's regular "Thought for the Day" feature and to share my writing when I'm moved to do so. I might yet have poems to write, and I am still creating art exhibitions for my parish in Arlington, Virginia, St. Michael's Episcopal Church. Look for news of those here and on social media.

Sunday, August 14, 2022

Thought for the Day

[. . .] Each day, we must learn /
again how to love, between morning's quick coffee /
and evening's slow return. [. . .]
~ Barbara Crooker
____________________________

Quoted from Barbara Crooker, "In the Middle", A Network for Grateful Living Poetry Collection Online

Barbara Crooker, Award-Winning American Poet

Sunday, August 7, 2022

Thought for the Day

A stranger always has
his homeland in his arms [. . . .]
~ Nelly Sachs
___________________________

Quoted from Nelly Sachs's "[If someone comes]", translated from the German by Joshua Weiner with Linda B. Parshall, Daily Poetry, July 9, 2022 (The poem appears in Nelly Sachs, Flight and Metamorphosis, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, March 2022; Weiner is the book's translator.)

Nelly Sachs (1891-1970), Poet and Dramatist; Winner, The Nobel Prize in Literature, 1966

Joshua Weiner, Poet, Writer, Translator; Professor of English, University of Maryland at College Park

Linda B. Parshall, Scholarly Writer, Translator, Editor

Sunday, July 31, 2022

Thought for the Day

Homesick we are, and always, for another
And different world.
~ Vita Sackville-West
________________________________
 
Quoted from Vita Sackville-West, "The Garden" (Poem) Note: On The Garden Museum site you will find the image of a hand-written copy of "The Garden", published in Poems of West and East (1917). Commentary is provided.

Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962), English Poet, Novelist, Journalist, Diarist; Gardener; Member, Bloomsbury Group; Muse of Virginia Woolf

Sunday, July 24, 2022

Thought for the Day

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so? [. . .]
~ Raymond Carver

___________________________

Quoted from Raymond Carver, "Late Fragment" in A New Path to the Waterfall (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1988; Reprint, 1994) Note: This was Carver's last book.

Raymond Carver (1938-1988), Poet and Short Story Writer


Thursday, July 21, 2022

New Artist Watch Feature at Escape Into Life

 

Fred Lisaius, Looking Forward 
Acrylic on Wood Panel
24" x 48"

 © Fred Lisaius

PLEASE DO NOT COPY IMAGE


Today I am showcasing the work of painter Fred Lisaius, my selection for July's Artist Watch column at the international online arts magazine Escape Into Life.

A resident of Seattle, Washington, who holds a bachelor's degree in fine art from Rhode Island School of Design, Fred exhibits widely in group and solo shows throughout Washington State and in a variety of arts venues elsewhere, including medical centers and retail concerns. Among other honors, he has been a featured artist on HGTV Design Stars' "All Stars" program and annually contributes to Seattle's LINK art program for teens. 

For today's Artist Watch, Fred has generously shared 10 images of current work, his Artist Statement, and a brief profile.

Sunday, July 17, 2022

Thought for the Day

That's the nature of life, isn't it? To desire to make
meaning and then surrender to the mystery and
the repeat and repeat and repeat. [. . .]
~ Ada Limon
__________________________________

Quoted from Caits Meissner, "The Pen Ten: An Interview with Ada Limon", PENAmerica Online, June 2, 2022

Ada Limon, Award-Winning Poet and Writer; Host, "The Slowdown", American Public Media Poetry Podcast

Sunday, July 10, 2022

Thought for the Day

. . . . To open your heart to pain is to open your heart
to joy. [. . .] In your pain you find your values, and in
your values, you find your pain.
~ Dr. Steven Hayes

____________________________________

Quoted from Dr. Steven Hayes, "From Loss to Love", Psychology Today, June 18, 2018 (Quoted in Susan Cain, Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole (Crown, 2022), page 94)

Steven C. Hayes, Ph.D., Psychologist; Founder of ACT [Acceptance and Commitment] Therapy and Developer of Relational Frame Theory; Nevada Foundation Professor in Behavior Analysis, Department of Psychology, University of Nevada; Author

Susan Cain, Writer and Lecturer

Sunday, July 3, 2022

Thought for the Day

And if it's true we are alone, / we are alone together, /
the way blades of grass / are alone, but exist as a field. [. . .]
~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

________________________

Quoted from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, "Belonging" at A Hundred Falling Veils Blog, June 11, 2021
 
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Poet, Teacher, Retreat Leader, Performer in the Group "Heartbeat"