Category Archives: Art

Nothing Happens (for a reason)

Posted on December 18, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

This captivating 11-minute film by Michelle and Uri Kranot is a mysterious, melancholy animation in which a diverse group of people slowly gather in a snow-laden field in Denmark. Nothing really happens in Nothing Happens and that’s kind of refreshing.

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The 17th Century Kindle

Posted on December 16, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

In 1617. William Hakewill commissioned a traveling library to give as a gift to a friend. The Jacobean miniature mobile library consisted of fifty gold-tooled vellum-bound miniature books contained in a wooden case that resembled a large folio. Inside there were … Continue reading →

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“Thanx 4 Nothing”

Posted on December 15, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

I just discovered that the artist and Beat poet John Giorno died in October. You can be forgiven if you are not familiar with him, but in the 60s and 70s he was a prominent figure in the New York … Continue reading →

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Charles Dickens and the Marketing of Christmas

Posted on December 13, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

Charles Dickens and his iconic story A Christmas Carol have become synonymous with Christmas celebrations, however a special holiday exhibition at  the Charles Dickens Museum in London demonstrates that his connection to the holiday season is not all candy canes … Continue reading →

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Home For Christmas

Posted on December 12, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

Last weekend, the UK-based artist(s) known as Banksy stenciled a moving holiday themed artwork on a wall in Birmingham, UK. The piece, and accompanying video, were designed to highlight the homelessness crisis in the city. Of course, the mural was … Continue reading →

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Paris: 66 Million BC

Posted on December 11, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

I know the big name dinosaurs—Tyrannosaurus, Allosaurus, Velociraptor, etc.—but that’s about the extent of my grasp of Dinosauria. However, my nephew Cameron is a budding paleontologist at the age of two (yes, 2) and he constantly schools me on the … Continue reading →

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Blue Monday NYC

Posted on December 9, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

It’s a blue Monday in “Rainy Day, New York,” a 1940 painting by Leon Dolice—a Vienna-born artist who visited NYC in the 1920s, and it’s a rainy blue Monday today.  

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We Were Warned

Posted on December 6, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

Last May, the street artist(s) known as Banksy unveiled a dramatic mural near Campo Santa Margherita  in Venice. It featured a child refugee clad in a lifevest and holding a neon pink flare. Over the course of Autumn flooding, during … Continue reading →

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My Reading Year

Posted on December 3, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

h/t Tom Gauld  

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Still Life (with books)

Posted on November 27, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

Still Life with Books, a Globe and Musical Instruments, Jan Vermeulen, 1660, Mauritshuis Museum  

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