The great unknown
On beginning a new year, being transported through printmaking
I don’t believe in resolutions
I don’t make resolutions, but I do believe that what you turn your attention to has a great impact on your life.
Even if time and years are just a construct, I do like the symbolism of putting a year to rest, reflecting on it, and finding some semblance of a fresh start. Starting a new planner that I write in by hand, making some lists, cleaning and organizing the studio, making room to welcome in the new.
NJ <> PDX
After a rough few years where travel was not possible due to Covid, then weather, than more Covid and blizzards, I am so grateful that I was able to fly back east to spend time with family, especially the sweet young people in my life. I’ll always have parts of myself scattered all over the map, but I’m becoming ok with that.
To quote James Baldwin:
Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.
During a day in Manhattan to ice skate with family, we spontaneously popped into the New York Public Library. I wanted to show the kids the beautiful building, and the lions of course, but I was delighted to spend time with the exhibition Treasures. I was also surprised that the kids were enthralled by the prints, artworks, and objects on view. They actually wanted to know about how things were made! Be still my heart.
This past fall in NY, again in NY in December, in Portland, I’ve been privileged to see so many fine examples of printmaking and drawing. I’m reminded of the joy of making, the power physical objects have in space, the meaning of craft, the complexity of mapmaking and who gets to tell the story.
I’m so grateful to spend time being present with my two greatest priorities, the family I hold dear and art. Art not only brings us into connection, reminds us of beauty and potential, but also gives shape and makes meaning from our experiences. When the world seems to be on fire, it is no small thing, even when it feels like it.
Here’s to more of the good stuff in 2024.
Looking at, listening to, and reading
I’m headed to the Helen Frankenthaler exhibition WORKS FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF JORDAN D. SCHNITZER AND HIS FAMILY FOUNDATION later this week at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education. I cannot wait. Frankenthaler collaborated with master printmakers to make some of the most boundary-pushing prints of the time. Her woodcuts are mind-boggling, painterly, translucent, a true visual feast. I enjoyed Laurel Reed Pavic’s review in Oregon ArtsWatch.
The RISD Museum had Frankenthaler’s Essence Mulberry when I worked there as a student. It’s nuts, use the zoom on the RISD collection site if you’re a nerd like me. Those edges! The paper! What the what.
Honestly, I’ve been listening to Christmas music willingly and against my will for a while now. This Kevin Morby has been a nice palate cleanser (thanks, Lucas):
The Pisces by Melissa Broder, and now onto everything else she’s ever written. I’ll just hang on that library holds list forever to get Death Valley.
Hey wait, my NYC School Construction Authority Public Art for Public Schools permanent project The Blue-Sky Line is live in Brooklyn. More on that soon.
Sending my hopes for peace and all good things for the new year -
Val
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⋰ Email : val@valbritton.com (or respond to this email)