From the 1949 Italian film “Bitter Rice.” Photograph from Masheter Movie Archive / AlamyPainting “Excavation” by Willem De Kooning in 1950.
Images and quote taken from the article titled Body and Soul by Hilton Als, found in the September 14, 2026, print issue of the New Yorker magazine about a current exhibition of Willem De Kooning’s drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago. Als wrote that “The artist [De Kooning] said that “Excavation” was inspired by the neorealist Italian film “Bitter Rice” (1949), a depiction of workers in northern Italy which is dominated by the bodies of women.” Also published in the New Yorker newsletter of September 11, 2026, with the title Willem De Kooning’s Excavations of Intimacy. [Click on either image to enlarge.]
Gloria Steinem [Click to enlarge]Excerpt from the New Yorker magazine’s Special Edition of their newsletter, September 3, 2026. Steinem, age 92, passed away on September 2, 2026. This essay encapsulates the wisdom gained from her 50 years as a champion of equal rights for women.
“. . . For me, saying that I am a feminist has always meant that I believe in the social, economic, and political equality of all males and females of all races and groups. I know this sounds too simple to need a word, but equality is still the exception, not the rule.
Maybe we should call it egalitarianism, or even humanism. The problem with humanism is that it is often interpreted as being anti-religion, so I don’t think it’s inclusive enough. Regardless of what we call it, it just means treating each of us as uniquely human. The experiences of race and gender and class are very real and important, but they are also constructed and changeable. Our humanity is consistent and sacred. . . . “
Iceland. [Click to enlarge image.]From Trilogy About the Boy, by Jón Kalman Stefánsson
“What does it mean to betray yourself?
* * *
To dare not. To dare not speak. To dare not be afraid. To attempt not to overcome . . . the dark storm inside you. If you do nothing, you betray everyone who matters. … Nor should you betray those who are dead; we should live for them, as well, they mustn’t be left in the dark and cold, and they mustn’t be forgotten at the bottom of the sea.”
NEW YORKER Magazine Newsletter April 19, 2025, article by Ocean Vuong about the photography of Cig Harvey in Emerald Drifter [Click on either image to enlarge]
“. . . Emerald Drifter is a rallying cry to exist in our bodies, where all the senses encounter the world. Viewing these images brings to mind an anecdote I once heard and think of often in relation to art: French colonizers, upon arriving in Vietnam in the nineteenth century, were aghast to see gold-clad Buddhas and stupas, porcelain and jade vases and statues, left in the open air, for anyone, even beggars, to touch. How can a people’s finest enaction of craft be left so unguarded, they wondered. Quickly, the conquerors dislodged these treasures and locked them in vaults to be sent back to the empire’s capital and displayed in museums as “relics.” What does it mean to be so frightened by beauty’s power that it must then be plundered and removed, caged? I’ve seen psychological research suggesting that, for some communities in Asia, the touching of religious artifacts has medicinal results that rival the effects of psychotropic drugs. In other words, it reaffirms what artists have known for centuries, and what Harvey so deftly reveals to us here: that beauty, despite being degraded by commerce, or shunned as merely decorous, feminine fussing, heals.”
Elkhorn Crest Trail, Baker County, OR. [Photo Copyright Max Vollmer, Click to Enlarge]“The Master doesn’t seek fulfillment. Not seeking, not expecting, She is present, and can welcome all things.”
[Photos Max Vollmer, Click on any image to enlarge]
Maxfield Parrish Sky at sunset.City Center at dusk, Spencer Butte to the south.
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable; and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly… this is my way. (Anonymous)
