seeing

Alex Katz Flings Us Into The Immediate Present

We recently returned to the Guggenheim Museum with a singular purpose: to revisit the handful of remarkable late paintings artist Alex Katz made of trees, lake, night. Those are really not the subject. He paints the sensation of seeing.

Sunset TV and Other Ways to Watch Amazing Goings-On

An image titled “sunset TV” reminded us of the many alt-TVs we’ve known people to watch. And the pleasure and illumination they afford.

Opened at Random: All the Light We Cannot See (How Light Comes From Darkness)

This morning we opened at random All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr to this:

Starting Here, What Do You Want to Remember? (William Stafford)

This came over our transom this morning via Ellen Silverman: a poem by William Stafford that immediately enlivened the day. It tunes the self to seeing, and being more fully here.

Opened at Random: Hold Still by Sally Mann

This morning, we opened Hold Still by Sally Mann at random and found this…

Warhol’s Essential Reminder, $1.49

In my local market in Harlem, a can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup JUMPED into my field of vision. Warhol, I thought, right here.

Wonders and Possibilities Hiding in Plain Sight

In Fly By Night, artist Duke Riley trained 2,000 pigeons to fly above the Brooklyn Navy Yard at dusk with tiny lights attached to their legs. The performance invites us to really SEE something we are so accustomed to that we’ve become blind to it:

Unexpected Bird’s Eye View

In cities across America, pigeons are widely viewed as “garbage birds”. They feed on whatever is around, drink from sidewalk puddles, and seem to fly only a few feet at a time. We’ve heard them called “the rats of the bird world”. Since we moved across the way from an expansive park, our view of…

Ribeiro’s Real Life Instagrams Remind Us to Really SEE

Bruno Ribeiro set up framed filters around Washtington D.C. to make Real Life Instagram, a commentary on our desire to slap a filter on reality and share it on social networks It’s also a reminder for us to SEE FOR OURSELVES. Which is what we think the best instagrams do, like this handful from Maria Robledo.

Dan Winters’ photographs: ‘Masterpieces Happen Each Moment”

In “The Gray Ghost”, photographer Dan Winters’ Portfolio in the recent New Yorker, he shares his realization that “Countless potential masterpieces happen each moment the world over and go unphotographed.” His work reminds us to open our eys and LOOK.

found kinetic ice and water sculpture

(Video link here.) While walking in a nearby park one frigid day, I noticed that a sheer wall of ice had formed on the bedrock that rises up to make Mount Morris in New York City’s Harlem. It appeared to be alive. When I looked closely I saw its shimmering movement was due to water…

looking beyond the obvious

We found this image at The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things. The commentary said it all: ….they are not merely ignoring the art on the walls, but literally looking beyond those walls….This is intense, curious looking… The square grid-like vent seems congruous with the canvasses of the modern art gallery, and the children are inspired…