My Week in Art
This week I wondered, what are you supposed to do with this feeling art can give you? What if it follows you, to the office, to the classroom? What if it exceeds the space of a page, or a room?
I read a novel this week, A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore, that exceeded its rectangular papery space each time I picked it up.
“Regret – operatic, oceanic, fathomless – seemed to stretch before her in every direction. No matter which path she took regret would stain her feet and scratch her arms and rain down on her, lightlessly and lifelong…”
This book made me want to write, made me thirst for the river of words that could, if there was time for it, come out of my pen.
I went to an art gallery this week, for the first time in months, saw a show of Micheal Snow’s recent work. One piece, “Condensation – A Love Story” was a projection of a kind of time-lapse of weather in a Nova Scotian cove. Sun flew across field and ocean and then receded into a curtain of fog and rain; light remerged, and revealed the cliffs to have different colours before rain shrouded them again. I felt moved by a natural world so enduring and fine.
I saw a Play, Cloud 9, by Caryl Churchill, that failed to move me despite enormous resources and a cast of highly experienced and talented actors. I saw a one-woman show, Everything I’ve Got by my friend Jess Dobkin, and got to enter into a magical world of unicorns, vaginas, clown cars, and lavish artistic imagining.
Seen any good or bad art lately? How did it make you feel?
I, too, saw Jess Dobkin’s performance as well as Kristina Lahde’s show at MKG127. The thing that I feed on and love is talking to other artists and writers. It’s similar to being queer in a queer space, there’s so much you don’t have to explain, and there can be a great electrical spark. I’m not saying it happens with everyone, but I’m in a phase where I’m excited by so much around me and I often find that artists and writers approach the world in the same way.