Heather King narrowly avoids mental breakdown while now SUCCESSFULLY MIGRATING from ancient blogger platform to labyrinthine impossible-to-navigate WORDPRESS!
THE CREATIVE LIFE
“ALL THINGS ARE PHOTOGRAPHABLE”
“I look at the pictures I have done up to now and they make me feel that who we are and how we feel and what is to become of us just doesn’t matter. Our aspirations and successes have been cheap and petty. I read the newspapers, the columnists, some books, I look at some […]
HUMMINGBIRD IN UNDERWORLD, A MEMOIR
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture piece begins: Deborah Tobola is known as a visionary pioneer in the field of arts in U.S. corrections. She is a graduate of the University of Montana, and has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona. Her prose and poetry have won […]
IN THIS PLACE CHRIST WANTS TO BE BORN
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture piece begins: “Now he comes to be born in the narrowness of our lives, to be incarnate in us, to give his love to the world through us, through our flesh and blood. That is one meaning of the Incarnation. The reason why we are where we are this Christmas, […]
DUST MOTES AND CIGARETTE SMOKE: A PAINTER WEIGHS IN FROM BROOKLYN
I’ve been going over my posts from the last ten years. This was first published on December 24, 2013. I liked it so much I’m giving it another go. Wishing you all the joys of this wondrous season. From a reader: Heather, Painted some snow-filled pots two days ago in my icy backyard. Beforehand I […]
FRENCH FRIES AS MUSE
From an interview in Insight, the magazine of The Sisters of Life, with Dr. Michael J. Brescia, Executive Medical Director and co-founder of Calvary Hospital, to talk about his experiences at the Catholic palliative care facility and hospice in the Bronx. I heard that you were responsible for a famous invention. I joined the VA hospital in […]
PERSHIING SQUARE ICE RINK EXTRAVAGANZA
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture column begins: The Bai Holiday Ice Rink Pershing Square has returned for its 22nd anniversary season. I know because I attended the grand opening, which took place from 11 to noon on Thursday, Nov. 14. From top to bottom, the event, atmosphere, and zeitgeist were quintessential LA. The […]
THE TOOLS FOR GOOD WORKS
A RADIO INTERVIEW AND AN ADVENT REFLECTION FROM ESTHER DE WAAL’S “SEEKING GOD: THE WAY OF ST. BENEDICT.”
MAKING WAVES: THE ART OF CINEMATIC SOUND
Here’s this week’s arts and culture column: Midge Costin’s documentary “Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound” is a fascinating and instructive peek into a world hitherto unknown to most of us. The film traces the history of sound in film, examines the ways directors and sound designers work together, and features the latest discoveries […]
TRANSITIONING FROM THE HERMITAGE
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 […]
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 […]