Shall I take a sojourn with Woolf?

The National Portrait Gallery (UK) is exhibiting a rather extensive look at Virginia Woolf's life.

Some audio is available here.

Virginia Woolf: Art, Life and Vision runs through October 26.

Would I have time to prepare an overseas journey? 

Would I stretch it out and visit friends in Scotland & Ireland.

Or will I stay at Little Wagner and write in a room of my own?

It's happening...again...at the Morgan: Little Prince

The Morgan Library, a building I often just passed by, is becoming "the in place" for my kind of art exhibit.

On January 24th, they are opening a new exhibit about the Little Prince.

The book was published in 1943, at the height of World War II, and has since been translated from its original French into more than 250 languages.   It is estimated that 70 years later, the poetic book sells more than one million copies each year.

What Jane Saw, Jane Austin that is!

A new exhibit of what Jane Austin may have seen that inspired her writing is now on line at What Jane saw.

Boy with cabbage nets © Manning

I'm not certain whether I am a fame of Austin's but I've certainly read most, if not all, of her work and gladly went to see what the exhibit was like and if it popped for me.

It may for you!

Exhibition: A Room of One's Own

A review of Shakespeare's Sisters: Voices of English and European Women Writers, 1500-1700 exhibition at the Folger Shakespeare Library caught my eye this morning, especially as I haven't always had a "room of my own."

Zoe Hecht © 2002

The above collage is one I did for a project entitled, "Under-represented Women in the Arts" and which was featured in an article I wrote for "Artitude" a zine, no longer published, in their #8 issue, Spring 2003.   The project was a collaboration with several other familiar and unfamiliar names, like Lani Kyea and Sarah Fishburn, Sharon Watson and Jennifer Swansen. All of us belonged to an online artist group, also now defunct.  Although now that I recall, Lani wasn't a member, but a friend, and I invited her to join us when I was visiting Taos (NM) that summer.

For about 2 years we exchanged altered books about women in all fields of the creative arts.  While many of those women had name recognition, few had garnered the reputation of their male counterparts.  It is not a room we lack, but equality in ball game jargon "of a level playing field."

We may have jobs, careers, full lives and rooms of our own, but we still don't have equality.

A Most Remarkable Exhibit: Shay's Door

If you are a New Yorker, former or present, or in love with the Apple and its exuberant history, you very well may enjoy this new exhibit of Shay's Door.  Shay's Door is the very door, signed by more than 200 Greenwich Village luminaries, that once in 1920-25, sat near to a corner on Christopher Street in the Greenwich Village Bookstore.

For me, a person who lived and loved all things Village, the discovery of the door, hidden away for years in Texas (yes, Texas) and now revealed with most of the signatures and their personage uncovered, is like finding a hundred dollar bill or several on the corner of Carmine and Bleecker Streets--enough to buy pounds of Pete's Blend coffee at Portorico or an espresso and pastry at any one of the by-gone days cafes--most notably for me at the corner of MacDougal and Bleecker Street,  Figaro.

Sicilian Door, 2005  ©

Doors, of all kinds, shapes, sizes and colours have fascinated me and this exhibit had me very excited.

The entire exhibit is on line and can be read, savoured and take us back to one of several Village heydays.

Mayor July at 73

At the age of 73, Mayor July, aka Mayer Kirshenblatt began painting his memories of Apt, a small village in Poland, where he lived with his family until 1934.

Running through October, perhaps I'll be able to see this exhibit on a visit to New York this summer.