some months are easier to blog than others

I've actually managed to squeeze more art into the last month than usual, or so it seems, but blogging about it is a different story. Today is catch up. On art and life.
Ashes and Snow is a must see. Beautiful, contemplative and inspirational. I don't know what the current trend for art-hate is all about. Apparently the NYTimes panned the exhibition as have a few blogs I've read. Since Christo and The Gates, everyone seems to be in this negative art mind. Could it be that beauty just makes those who feel ugly inside angrier? I want to run around and shake these critics awake and alive. It's inconcievable to me that they aren't touched on a deep human level by the very work that they judge so harshly. Or could it simply be that they've forgotten where art comes from? They need a quick read of some Helen Dissanayake (What is Art For?).
The Drawing Center's current exhibition is another spiritual foray into art. After walking through the exhibition feeling nearer to the divine than is usual at lunchtime, I sat to read about Emma Kunz, whose work was most meaningful to me. I noticed at once that the drawings were mandala like, although not circular, and in fact she used them for intutitive healing sessions. She predicted the Kennedy assasinations among other events, and was interrupted from an art making session with huge dread, having been overcome by awareness of a powerful terrible force which turned out to be the Atom bomb.
At the Museum of Arts and Design, I discovered Ruth Duckworth. Normally, those looped videos running in a side room are not so compelling, but listening and watching this diminutive woman whose work ranges from small exquisite stoneware and porcelain sculpture to huge complex murals, was life giving.
The experience that will live on with me however, was that of the docent desperately lassoing in whatever gallery viewers she could. Clearly, she was very knowledgeable about the work, but she presented it as if she were a stern grammar school teacher. She seemed the antithesis of the work itself, which is highly organic, multi-cultural. I was afraid she might whip a ruler out of a hidden pocket in her dress and rap us all on the knuckles for simply being.
On a personal note of where spirit, art and abundance meet: I had the amazing fortune this week of finally getting something I both want and deserve. A three day work week. Which means more time for art making and art seeing. I share my good news with you as inspiration, prayer and blessing. May the days ahead bring you what you have been searching, dreaming and working for.