Artist’s Notebook

Artist's Notebook

Beautiful games: Football, art, beauty, spectacle 

Contributed by Astrid Dick / On December 18th, 2022, Argentina, my country of origin, won the FIFA World Cup in Qatar against France, my country of residence. It was perhaps the most epic and thrilling final in this international tournament’s history. Two months later, Argentina’s victory is still slowly settling in my mind. As time passes, I realize more than ever how football – or fútbol, soccer, calcio, etc – at its highest level is a collective practice that parallels the practice of art, where the individual and the team refine and adapt their senses and skill, where gestures leave their imprint in memory, and where a decisive move can determine the outcome.

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Artist's Notebook

A Journal of the Burren

Contributed by Frank Webster / In the month of October, I participated in the residency program at the Burren College of Art. During my stay, I hiked extensively documenting the region both photographically and in paintings. The Burren is an UNESCO Global Geopark located in County Clare in the west of Ireland. It is a geologically and environmentally unique area with a rich archeological, cultural, and historical legacy. Here are selections from my journal along with a few images from my travels.

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Artist's Notebook

Five Things: Katherine Bradford at Portland Museum of Art

Contributed by Ellen Letcher and Julie Torres / We are huge Katherine Bradford fans, and when we told Two Coats of Paint editor Sharon Butler we were driving up to Maine to see her retrospective at the Portland Museum of Art, she invited us to share five things about the show, illustrated with photos. We aren’t writers, and at first this seemed like an easy way for us to organize our thoughts. Still, it proved too difficult because, flying between us, we had millions of complicated emotions. For an exhibition that feels so important, so timely, and so thoroughly moving, reducing the experience to just Five Things was daunting.

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Artist's Notebook

Arctic journal: Retreating glaciers and uncanny songs

Contributed by Frank Webster / The High Arctic has always fascinated me. Since falling in love with Barry Lopez’s classic Arctic Dreams some two decades ago, I have dreamed of visiting the far north. So I was very excited to receive word that I had been accepted for the Arctic Circle expedition. A couple of pandemic postponements later, I finally was able to go on the voyage in June of 2022.

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Artist's Notebook

The postman’s palace in hauterives

Contributed by Ken Buhler / Imagine the most elaborate, fanciful and bizarre fairy-tale like sand castle possible. Ferdinand Cheval’s masterpiece, Le Palais Idal, is teeming with, octopi, dragons, ostriches, flamingos, lions, elephants, deer, plants, gods, fairies, giants, and historical figures all interwoven with architectural forms whose references include Hindu, Buddhist, and Egyptian temples, Islamic mosques, and Swiss chalets.

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