Status Report

“Jed is lit by art, music, and story.”

Art:

The above is my response to the prompt for Day 4 in Wendy MacNaughton’s DrawTogether Grownups Table, 30-Day Drawing Habit. Starting January 1, participants were urged to devote 10 minutes to a drawing each day. The first several days were devoted to styles of doodles, with reference to various artists. I’m days behind, but I hope to catch up.

Tomorrow, I jump in again in with the drawing class over Zoom, and the following day, intuitive printmaking class starts up again. These two classes are filled with wonderful artists to whom I feel close.

In my post of December 22, I offered to give a print to anyone who asked — I got requests from three people, and was able to field them all without any competition for individual pieces. It gives me a lot of pleasure to give my artwork away — I look forward to giving away more pieces in the coming weeks.

Several weeks ago, I took a train to Boston to visit the Museum of Fine Arts to check out the “Fashioned by Sargent” show, which I notice is closing tomorrow. And its final day is sold out. As I walked through the show, which features many of the artist’s full-length portraits of the fashionable elite of the turn of the 20th century alongside some of the outfits depicted in the pictures, I felt a bit overwhelmed by the crowd. I wished that I could be seeing instead the show of Sargent watercolors from several years ago. I was most interested in a very out-of-the-way exhibition case devoted to a close look at Sargent’s painting technique,

and to the recently restored Sargent murals adorning the ceiling of what used to be the museum’s main hall. Anyhow, it was a crowd-pleaser — the people who run the museum sure have given a lot of thought to how to get people in.

Music:

Guitar Group at the library and Uke Jam at the church were on hiatus for a while, and then I was on a short rhinovirus-induced hiatus, but I look forward to spending more time with an instrument in my hands this year. In early December, I bought an inexpensive electric guitar. It’s been so fun to play and to compare how it sounds and feels to the steel-string and classical acoustic guitars that I am also blessed to have. I still put myself in the category of “campfire strummer,” but thanks to Kathy, Bob, and YouTubers including Justin, and a gent from the UK whose channel is called “Anyone Can Play Guitar,” I am making some progress with learning new chords, strumming, fingerpicking, and minor-pentatonic-scale patterns. In one video, Justin suggested —for people who are no longer children — that doing five minutes of balancing exercise (yoga?) before trying to learn something new would help to enhance neuroplasticity.

Story:

The OpenBk book discussion series at the Willett Free Library continues. With G.’s help, I’ve been picking the books and scheduling the series with the wonderful librarian. The emphasis in the series is “literary fiction,” and part of me would like to narrow that further to “debut efforts in literary fiction,” but I guess that boxes us in too much. Many of my friends in the neighborhood I’m sure would prefer if some nonfiction were thrown into the mix every now and then. But reading fiction is frequently touted as a way to strengthen empathy. I agree with this! A couple of books that I read recently were funny and not too long:

Pineapple Street, by Jenny Jackson. A contemporary novel of manners focusing on a family in Brooklyn Heights with three grown daughters.

Big Swiss, by Jen Beagin. A young woman moves to Hudson New York to become the transcriptionist for a therapist, and the veil of the therapist’s clients’ anonymity in the small town is gradually destroyed. Too raunchy for book discussion, but I found this hilarious.

Books that ARE scheduled to be discussed at the Willett Free Library:

Foster, by Claire Keegan — discussion at 5pm, Monday, January 22

Mobility, by Lydia Keisling — discussion at 5pm, Monday, February 26

Fellowship Point, by Alice Elliott Dark — discussion at 5pm, Monday, April 22

The librarian at the WFL makes an effort to get in copies of these books for loans in advance of the sessions.

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In the category of “All things must pass,” several writers have recently publicized their intention to leave the Substack platform because it continues to get commissions on subscriptions to white supremacist and pro-Nazi content. See also here and here (fourth bullet under section 5, “Extra, Extra”). I imagine I too will leave Substack rather sooner than later.

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