Here’s how this week’s arts and culture column begins: A little of “performance art” can often go a very long way. So when a friend sent me an Art21 video by a Korean-born female artist named Kimsooja, I steeled myself. The adoption of a single name—Michelangelo! Madonna! Prince!—I did not take as a good sign. […]
DIGNITY AND JUSTICE: UNPACKING IMMIGRATION LAW
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture piece begins: Linda Dakin-Grimm grew up Catholic, first in Riverside, then in Portland, Oregon. In college, she moved away from the faith, then became an attorney and for decades worked as a trial lawyer in high-stakes business litigation. She was partner in a prestigious firm, with offices in […]
HORACE PIPPIN
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture column begins: I first came upon the painter Horace Pippin on a trip several years ago to Philadelphia’s Barnes Foundation, an art collection and educational institution boasting one of the world’s greatest collections of impressionist, post-impressionist, and early modernist paintings. Albert C. Barnes (1872-1951), a wealthy businessman with cash to […]
WHAT WE’RE OBLIGATED TO SEE
I’ve been working on getting my next book, HARROWED: LIFE LESSONS FROM THE GARDEN, in publishable shape. And getting the dox together to apply for Irish citizenship. And writing my weekly column. And having many conversations per week with the many people of prayer, thought and heart who keep me afloat.
BIRDS AT THE BASIN
“Follow the trail leading from the ‘stonehenge’ restroom/amphitheatre area south,” the directions run. “You can walk all the way down to the LA River, but if you do (the trail leads through a tunnel under Burbank Blvd.) be sure to go with another person.”
Naturally, I skipped over that last part.
TIME TO THINK
Over the freakishly hot weekend, I enjoyed a couple of days indoors of reading, resting, pondering, and writing in my journal–and in the process learned some unsavory but nonetheless quite welcome things about myself!
ART WORTH DYING FOR: JAMES DICKSON INNES
Born in Llanelli, Innes studied at Carmarthen Art School and the Slade. A colleague there noted that he ‘was of middle height, black haired and thin featured, handsome to many people… there may have been something satanic in his look.”… He was already dying of tuberculosis, having been diagnosed at 21.
THE EXISTENTIAL DILEMMA OF MASKING
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture column begins: “If you invest in the marriage of the inner and outer worlds by putting honest energy into dreaming a dream on, all the people in your life, maybe the whole of humankind, is enriched, though it may not produce the result your ego was seeking. This […]
IT IS TIME TO SIGN UP FOR THAT WRITING WORKSHOP!
Fall is upon us: time to turn over a new leaf, form community, take a leap into creativity. I have two spots left–grab ’em while you can! You can read testimonials from our last session HERE. To register, email me at hdking719@gmail.com. THANK YOU!!
DREAMS OF IRELAND
My newest project is that I’m applying for Irish citizenship, my paternal grandparents having come over from “the old country” (Limavady, Northern Ireland, #potatofamine). Last night I thought to check the mean temp in, say, Galway: 60 F IN THE SUMMERTIME. Apparently it also rains literally ALL THE TIME. Then I’m sorry to say I […]
OLD-TIMEY QUILTS AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
“If you think about a quilt like a sandwich, then the two pieces of fabric are the bread and what’s in the middle-wool or cotton filling-is the stuffing. All three layers are stitched together so the filling doesn’t move around. These layers trap air and act like insulation, keeping the person underneath the quilt warm. Although the quilt could be made of plain pieces of fabric, it’s usually not. What do you think you do to start making a quilt?”
I turned the fan up a notch and thought: “Hire someone?”
24 YEARS A CATHOLIC
In solitary confinement, in the labor camps, Fr. Ciszek learned at last what St. Thérèse of Lisieux did in her Carmelite cell: “Each of us has no need to wonder about what God’s will must be for us; his will for us is clearly revealed in every situation of every day.”
“THE LITTLE LOCKSMITH,” A MEMOIR
“Something had blazed in me, and from the blaze I discovered a new element in myself, a combustible something that would always blaze again in defense of the mystery and sacredness in things, and against the queer, blind, blaspheming streak in human nature which instead of adoring, must vulgarize and exploit and insult life.”
MOTHER LOVE
“The believers in miracles accept them (rightly or wrongly) because they have evidence for them,” observed Chesterton. “The disbelievers in miracles deny them (rightly or wrongly) because they have a doctrine against them.”
Who better to restore that doctrine than women, who carry the evidence for miracles in our wombs?