Now that I’ve completed it, here’s what my month-long artist’s residency looked like: Up at 5:30 for the stupendous sunrise, then prayer, then work, then usually 11:30 Mass, then lunch, then my chore of helping put away the dishes, then more work or a nap or a phone call, then the hour-long walk up the […]
THE CREATIVE LIFE
ART IN THE LA METRO STATIONS
Here’s a perk of our glorious city: LA’s snazzy public transportation system offers free, docent-led art tours led in various Metro stations throughout the city. You can check out the possibilities at Metro.net/art. Union Station tours are held on the second Sunday of the month and run from 10:30 to approximately 12:30. Over the summer, […]
THE WILLIAM S. HART RANCH AND MUSEUM
William S. “Two-Gun Bill” Hart (1864-1946) was a silent film star. Wildly popular in their time, his movies tended to follow the same arc — he started out bad and ended up good. Born in upstate New York, Hart began his career as a Shakespearean stage actor. His breakout film, “The Bargain,” opened in 1914, […]
THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE
How quickly my time has gone at the Monastery of St. Gertrude. I leave early next Saturday morning for four days in Boise, then down through Nevada to the Bristlecone Forest in the Eastern Sierras, a night in Independence, CA (home of Mary Austin, author of Land of Little Rain), then home. The schedule here, which […]
AVOIDANCE OF FANTASY
Here’s an interview I did with Aleteia last week re my new book, RAVISHED: Notes on Womanhood. And here’s a related quote: “Christ has asked me to “die” so that I can really begin to live now. This is what the fourth gospel calls abundant life. It is a new and fuller life; it means not so much […]
COTTONWOOD, IDAHO
Living in relative silence and solitude is interesting. I see that a lot of the “noise” for which I blame the world is really noise inside of me! “Christ has asked me to “die” so that I can really begin to live now. This is what the fourth Gospel calls abundant life. It is a […]
TOVE JANSSON’S THE SUMMER BOOK , AND A RADIO INTERVIEW
I always forget to say when I’m going to be on the radio. So tune in tonight to “Amplify,” KDKA Pittsburgh, 9-11 EST. Fr. Ron Lengwin and I will be discussing my new book, RAVISHED. Meanwhile, here’s this week’s arts and culture column: Tove Jansson (1914-2001), a Swedish-speaking Finnish writer and artist, is perhaps best […]
THE JOURNEY BACK HOME
Hey folks, here’s the link to my conversion story on EWTN’s “The Journey Home” with Marcus Grodi. Question: why does Marcus looks giant and why do I look like a midget? Speaking of journeying home, I’ve been in DC all week and HAVE LOVED IT! I’m staying at the Dominican Priory (not to be confused […]
THE AVERAGE CROWD
This then is how it is when God descends to men! The apparent folly and danger of it are so great that the just and orthodox prepare for legal condemnation. The event is not even clothed in the dignity of genuine poverty. That would also have been impressive, for side by side with the power […]
LA’S INTERNATIONAL PRINTING MUSEUM
The International Printing Museum, located at 315 W. Torrance Blvd., Carson, is open Saturdays only, 10-4. I visited on an open house day that culminated in the screening of the documentary “Endless Letterpress.” The spot is a throwback to another era. First, the smell: a homey combination of ink, paper, and wood, grandmother’s attic. Older […]
BLOODY BUT UNBOWED
The above was taken at a glacial kettle (basically, a bog) outside Columbus, Ohio. I met my Columbus chum, Mary Beth Paul, at Corpus Christi this morning for 8:30 Mass and then she took me for breakfast to the Fox in the Snow and then we went and visited some of the “habitats” outside the […]
THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN WOODCUTS BY JAMES REID
A few years ago a friend gave me a book called “The Life of Christ in Woodcuts” by James Reid—per the jacket one of “a host of maverick artists” from the early twentieth century” who “introduced the idea of the graphic novel, a story told exclusively with wood engravings.” Originally brought out in 1930, the […]
GAME, SET, MATCH: TENNIS AT INDIAN WELLS
“Welcome to Tennis Paradise” reads the flower-encrusted archway over the entrance to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. And for once in this culture of fake news, that’s not total hyperbole. A bit of backstory: One day at a time, for over 30 years I have surrendered my addiction to alcohol. But nature abhors a vacuum, […]
DO WE MAKE PEOPLE FEEL THINGS LOVEABLE?
“I tell you, Edward,” said my father with some severity, “we must judge men not so much by what they do, as by what they make us feel that they have it in them to do. If a man has done enough either in painting, music or the affairs of life, to make me feel […]