Art for Advent - First Sunday

As I have in years past, I am offering art historian James Romaine's "Art for Advent", which this year includes the work of African American artist Harriet Powers, a slave who lived near Athens, Georgia, her entire life. Today's YouTube video discusses Powers's Bible Quilt.

 

Harriet Powers's Bible Quilt 

 

Kristin Urban, "Harriet Powers: A Black Female Folk Artist Who Regained Her Glory", DailyArt Magazine, July 10, 2020

Seeing Art History

Thought for the Day

Divine help is closer than the door. 

~ Celtic Proverb

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Quoted from Andrew Hinton, Owen O Suilleabhain, and David Whyte, "Blessings" (A Reflection on the Music for a Visual Interpretation of David Whyte's Poems), Emergence, October 25, 2020

Thought for the Day

What do you do if you're still here

after the story of failure has already been written?

~ Michael V. Wilcox

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Quoted in Ben Ehrenreich, "How Do You Know When Society Is About to Fall Apart?" in The New York Times Magazine, November 4, 2020

 

Michael V. Wilcox, Native American Scholar; Affiliated Faculty, Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology, Stanford University

Michael V. Wilcox Website

 

Ben Ehrenreich, Novelist, Freelance Journalist

 

Ben Ehrenreich Website

 

New Artist Watch Feature at Escape Into Life

 

Anthony Apesos, Two, Oil on Canvas, 28" x 22", 2019-2020

 

Anthony Apesos, Wood and Stone, 28" x 22", 2019-2020

 

I am delighted today to present the work of painter Anthony Apesos in November's Artist Watch column at the international online arts magazine Escape Into Life.

Tony, who is a professor in Lesley University's Fine Arts and Art History departments, currently lives and works in Boston, Massachusetts. Founding director of the M.F.A. program in visual arts at the university, Tony also is the author of Anatomy for Artists: A New Approach to Discovering, Learning, and Remembering the Body (North Light Books, 2007); the book has been published in Europe in French, German, and Spanish editions. Currently, Tony is working on a book on historical painting methods, as well as a series of articles on self-portraiture in narrative paintings.

For Artist Watch, Tony has generously provided 13 images from his Tarot series, including the two above. The column also includes an Artist Statement and a biographical profile.

Thought for the Day

 I have reached this city of Washington under circumstances

 considerably differing from those under which

 any other man has ever reached it.

~ Abraham Lincoln

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Quoted from Abraham Lincoln, Response to a Serenade, February 28,  1861 (Epigraph, Ted Widmer, Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington (Simon & Schuster, 2020)

Abraham Lincoln Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress (www.loc.gov/exhibits/lincoln/interactive/journey-of-the-president-elect/feb11/artifact_524_html)

Abraham Lincoln, The White House Presidents

Thought for the Day

There is a strength, a power even, in understanding brokenness,

because embracing our brokenness creates a need and desire for

mercy, and perhaps a corresponding need to show mercy. When

you experience mercy, you learn things that are hard to learn

otherwise . . . You begin to recognize the humanity

that resides in each of us.

~ Bryan Stevenson

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Quoted from Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (One World, 2015)

Bryan Stevenson, American Lawyer, Social Justice Activist, Founder/Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative; Professor of Law, New York University School of Law; Writer

Just Mercy (Film)

Thought for the Day

[. . .] one of the best things we humans can do for each

other, [...] perhaps the greatest gift we can give,

is to see each other.

~ Jan Richardson

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Quoted from Jan Richardson, "If You Abide" in Sparrow (Wanton Gospeller Press, 2020), page 20

Jan Richardson, Artist, Writer, Ordained Minister (United Methodist Church), Director of The Wellspring Studio; Retreat Leader, Conference Speaker