A Temporary Vacation?

I follow one or two blogs regularly and feel personally insulted when those writers let days pass without bothering to update entries. Yet, here I sit with nearly half 2012 gone and my blog entries are so few that even I am bored! I am considering folding this tent and calling it a day.  But first, I owe it to anybody out there who’s interested  - an update, an apology and my heartiest thanks for caring what I had to say at all!

Earlier this year, I wrote that the nomadic spirit was gaining on me and sure enough, we are nearly “on the road again.”  This house is for sale; I am packing everything in sight, movers arrive May 1 and in the ultimate downsize, I am sending a house full of goods to various destinations beginning with Goodwill, Habitat, Salvation Army followed by stops at various friends’, each of my two daughters and finally back to Rochester, New York.

Somewhere in all this mushing about, I sense something greater than mere need for change going on although that’s enough of an incentive for me. (It’s a personality disorder; what can I say?). Again and again during the past few months, HOARDING, OWNERSHIP, OBJECTS…these subjects keep showing up in my conversation, reading, and thoughts and I don’t know what any of that means or how they connect with my life. For several years now, I’ve wrestled with the whole idea of art as commodity; how does anybody decide “value?” (Versus “values”.) It’s a good thing I no longer sell art! Philosophy is not a good retail partner!

Just about now, I should insert some remarkably insightful “truths” but guess what? I don’t have any to share.   I do – and will always!- pass critical judgments on art and I am self-assured (arrogant?) enough to believe that my analysis is clearer and better defined than that of mainstream citizenry.  I believe that I have a talent for writing about art in ways that respect artists and under-informed readers without being condescending or opaque and I hope I can always find ways to use that experience and talent.  

Meanwhile, I have a raft of unanswered questions and my challenge is to find a few like-minded searchers who want to explore this territory… or simply chat and laugh over a good chardonnay. 

 (I happen to love this version of a wall.)