Category Archives: Art/Photography

“A vast amount of rubbish is published in the name of art. A man should let his work talk for him. ” — Charles Dana Gibson

It’s his birthday today. Old-timers will remember when my blog-design was Gibson-Girl inspired. My favorite haughty Gibson Girl was in the blog banner for years! The only vestige of the Gibson Girl origin-story of this site is in the email … Continue reading

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“If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.” — Edward Hopper

It’s his birthday today. I wrote about Edward Hopper quite a bit in my Present Tense column at Film Comment, detailing the Hopper-y vibe of Tom Noonan’s great film about urban loneliness, What Happened Was… In fact, I have a … Continue reading

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“I paint the things I see and believe.” — Henry Ossawa Tanner

It’s his birthday today. When I lived in Philadelphia – a million years ago, with my boyfriend who was in law school at U. Penn – I became intimately familiar with Henry Ossawa Tanner’s paintings since so many of them … Continue reading

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“It’s an absolute miracle that I’m still around.” — Dennis Hopper

It’s his birthday today. I’m so glad I used one of my columns at Film Comment -now on hiatus – to sing the praises of Dennis Hopper’s wild and nihilistic Out of the Blue, starring Linda Manz and Hopper. Of … Continue reading

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“I live life in the margins of society, and the rules of normal society don‘t apply to those who live on the fringe.” — Tamara de Lempicka

Spoken like a true exile of Jewish descent. For her birthday today: “Self Portrait in the green Bugatti” Fascinating woman, to say the least. Just a snippet from her teen years, okay? In 1912, her parents divorced and Maria went … Continue reading

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“I would rather take a photograph than be one.” — Lee Miller

Lee Miller, by David Scherman It’s the birthday of Lee Miller, fashion model, Surrealist artist, and … as if all that wasn’t enough … the only female combat photographer in Europe during the war, taking photos of concentration camps, firing … Continue reading

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“After all, when God created Adam and Eve, they were stark naked. And in the Garden of Eden, God was probably naked as a jaybird too!” — Bettie Page

“I was not trying to be shocking, or to be a pioneer. I wasn’t trying to change society, or to be ahead of my time. I didn’t think of myself as liberated, and I don’t believe that I did anything … Continue reading

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“I do love Alice in Wonderland though. That’s something I think I could do very well.” — Edie Sedgwick

It’s her birthday today. Her influence on me was massive and I came to her young. I discovered her in high school through the famous oral biography by Jean Stein and George Plimpton, which I inhaled, over and over again. … Continue reading

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“Reality is always extraordinary.” — Mary Ellen Mark

It’s her birthday today. My first job was as a page at a local library. I would go there after school, shelve books for a couple of hours, and then head home. I ended up working there all through high … Continue reading

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“Make the most of what you have and enjoy being female; enjoy being you.” — Bunny Yeager

“I want to show off how beautiful my subjects are, whether its a cheetah or a live girl or two of them together.” — Bunny Yeager It’s the birthday of model and pin-up photographer Bunny Yeager. She is most famous … Continue reading

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