Experiment like Rauschenberg
“While my classmates were reading their textbooks, I drew in the margin.” Rauschenberg took education into his own hands. You should do the same.
Working the woodpile
The pile goes down;A bristling caterpillar;A hostile cocoon;A wooden wall of bric-a-brac: Fence panels and trees that fellLike bodies — wracked by storms, Cut by teeth, stacked by folk, My band, my people. Touching scars, our gloves became sopsFor sap and the memory of blossom…Swings… cooking apples… birds…Seasons of migration… All fuel for fire. I …
Allegorical painting
Where do I situate myselfIn this shining tableau of loveThat has Psyche sighting Eros,Her bedfellow?In that hinge of wing, the fleeing alulaFlinching from oil, Scouring specks that leaptFrom a lantern with a yawning well. What more may fall? Who may tell? I wonderIf the other half is yours. The revealing light. The stripping bare. The …
No guarantee
There’ll come a yearwhen I do not seeants up on the mortar,or leaves gracing the trees.Not ripples. Not sprays of water. Goggles get torn off,leaving greasy smearsof folk, suspendedin wheezing chemical baths(my eyes). I’ll sit pool-side. Let old sun bake my back.As bricks give up their heat,I’ll give up mine(and other fine insect pleasures). And …
Read like van Gogh
Books gave van Gogh clarity in the midst of his chaotic life. Now scientists understand why.
Manage like Miles Davis
What does it take to manage a virtuoso like John Coltrane… or Bill Evans… or Herbie Hancock? Ask Miles Davis. He led them all.
Unnumb yourself like Guston
Artists aren’t renowned for their mental wellness. And Philip Guston bore greater traumas than most. But he persevered, eventually accepting himself for who he was.
Adapt like Kasparov
“I always say I was the first knowledge worker whose job was threatened by a machine.” And how did you come back, Garry?
Speak up like Zephaniah
Zephaniah lived many lives: poet, activist, actor, vegan, martial artist, Rastafarian. But he lived them all as himself.
Give like Picasso
Where did Picasso’s genius come from? Other people? Two portraits, painted 26 years apart, drag us into the centre of the artist’s tumultuous relationships.