Thought for the Day

It is better to speak / remembering/

we were never meant to survive.

~ Audre Lorde

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Quoted from Audre Lorde, "A Litany for Survival" in The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde (W.W. Norton, 1997)

 

Audre Lorde, American Poet and Writer

The Audre Lorde Project

Thought for the Day

As long as we deal with the real meaning of evil and sin by some 

means other than forgiveness and healing, we will keep projecting,

fearing, and attacking it over there ("scapegoating"), instead of

"gazing" on it within ourselves and "weeping" over it.

~ Fr. Richard Rohr

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Quoted from Fr. Richard Rohr, "The Scapegoat Mechanism", March 28, 2021

 

Fr. Richard Rohr, Franciscan Priest; Founder, Center for Action and Contemplation

Thought for the Day

What would you lose to bring back a time and land //

in which everything could be believed?

~ Nicholas Samaras

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Quoted from Nicholas Samaras, "Beloved Ghosts of Geography" in Image, Issue 108, Spring 2021, page 91

 

Nicholas Samaras, Poet and Author, Hands of the Saddlemaker and American Psalm, World Psalm

Thought for the Day

As avatars, we've grown / more intimate. 

~ Eliza Griswold

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Quoted from Eliza Griswold, "Six Months from Patient Zero" in Together in a Sudden Strangeness: America's Poets Respond to the Pandemic (Knopf, 2020), ed. Alice Quinn; page 51

Eliza Griswold, American Journalist and Poet; Winner, Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, 2019 (for Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America)

New Artist Watch Feature at Escape Into Life

Hansa (Hans Versteeg), The Girl with a Fake Pearl, 2018

Oil on Canvas

46.5 cm x 40 cm

 

© Hansa Versteeg 

PLEASE DO NOT COPY IMAGE

 

I am especially delighted to showcase work by the painter Hansa (Hans Versteeg) of Amsterdam in this month's Artist Watch column at the international online arts magazine Escape Into Life. 

Hansa first came to my attention in 2019 when I saw a photograph of his Madonna del Mare Nostrum ("Our Lady of the Mediterranean" Or, "Cloak of Love") featured in a visual meditation at the site ArtWay, which referenced a series of contemporary "Art Stations of the Cross" of which the Madonna was Station 1. Hansa's participation in 2017 in  the religious biennial exhibition "Art in the Holy Triangle" in Oosterhout, which was followed by the artwork's inclusion in the Amsterdam "Stations" exhibition, marked a turning point for him, prompting him to change his vision of art and to concentrate almost solely on "socially committed" work.  

Today's new Artist Watch column presents a selection of images of Hansa's exceptional paintings, as well as his Artist Statement and a brief biography. Hansa's newly published book, 'Compassionism': Poetic Contemplations, co-authored with art historian and curator Aniko Toth, bears the image of the iconic Madonna. The book, which articulates Hansa's perspective on art as a means to "think through emotion" and raise awareness of complex social problems, is available through Galerie 44, where Hansa's next exhibition will take place, beginning April 16.

Thought for the Day

A day was a corridor with many doors.

~ Liz Harmer 

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Quoted from Liz Harmer, "Proof" in Image, No. 108, Spring 2021; page 41

Liz Harmer, Award-Winning Canadian Poet, Novelist, Essayist, Writer, Editor, Teacher; Author, The Amateurs and Strange Loops

'Ambient Light': An Arts & Faith Exhibition

 

 

Continuing my arts-related work for my parish St. Michael's Episcopal Church, in Arlington, Va., I'm delighted to announce the mounting of a new exhibition: "Ambient Light: Real and Imagined". 

Thematically conceived, the virtual-only exhibition presents 47 paintings by the five artists who comprise the Studio 10 collaborative: Elisabeth (Beth) Hudgins, Kat Jamieson, Linda Maldonado, Elise Ritter, and Deborah Taylor. In addition to the images of each of the artist's contributions, the exhibit includes a Curatorial Statement, a note on the Exhibit Organization, biographical profiles of each artist, the painters' Artist Statements, and a Purchase List. 

Below is a painting by each of the artists.

Elisabeth (Beth) Hudgins (Theme: Energy in Light)

 Lake Dream Luster, Acrylics, 17" x 21"

 

Kat Jamieson (Theme: Light Over Water)

 Bioluminescence, Watercolor, 14" x 18" x 1.75"

 

Linda Maldonado (Theme: Emergence)

Red Dazzle, Watermedia Collage, 14" x 14"

Elise Ritter (Theme: Out of Darkness Comes the Light)

Dreams of the Afterlife, Acrylics, 18" x 13" X 1.5"

 

Deborah Taylor (Theme: Crown Shyness)

When I am Among the Trees, Oil, 8" x 10"

Thought for the Day

absence makes the heart. / like water, i learn

what shape to take // based on the space i must fill today.

~ Fargo Tbakhi

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Quoted from Fargo Tbakhi, "american-Palestinian incantation", Poetry Daily, March 6, 2021

Fargo Tbakhi Website

Thought for the Day

In the midst of so much coming apart,

I wonder, where is home? Where is our unshakable core,

that place beyond which no harm can reach?

~ Fred Bahnson

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Quoted from Fred Bahnson, "Keeping the World in Being: Meditations on Longing", Emergence Magazine,  Online Essay

Fred Bahnson, Author and Essayist; Director, Food, Faith, and Religious Leadership Initiative, Wake Forest University School of Divinity; Co-Founder and Former Director, Anathoth Community Garden

Fred Bahnson on Twitter

Thought for the Day

A writer or poet shouldn't accept labels and roles;

his work is to question them.

~ Najwan Darwish

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Quoted from Kareem James Abu-Zeid, "A Wave in the Sea: Najwan Darwish on Exhausted on the Cross'" (Interview), Words Without Borders Daily, February 24, 2021

Najwan Darwish, Contemporary Arab Poet and Translator [He is no relation to Mahmoud Darwish.]

Poetry Translation Centre