Katherine Keenum

Nov 28, 2016 5:04 PM EST

His work is exquisite. I especially liked "A Steady Drizzle" on the Wikipedia site.

Althea is a great artist. Her style sometimes looks blurred like her father's idea of impressionism. Other paintings remind me of folk art.

Thanks for posting this beautiful blog.

- Patricia Franzino

Nov 29, 2016 4:04 AM EST

And thank you for calling attention to Althea!

- Katherine

Nov 23, 2016 10:43 AM EST

Times haven't changed. Ethnic groups and different religions are still feared and seen in sterotypical ways and not necessarily assimilated into the American culture. Since Trump became President-elect, it's now become easier to voice hatred of race and antisemitic remarks.

The Italians were treated negatively, too. They must have come into the US in the late 19th-century, later than this drawing by Nash, but when they did, it wasn't easy.

My people came here in 1898 (paternal grandparents) and 1900 (maternal grandparents). Both sets immediately lived on the Upper East Side straight from landing at Ellis Island. They had friends who helped them get apartments away from the slums. I happen to live a couple of blocks from the apartment building where my father was born.

I've had conversations with people who, upon hearing my ancestry, ask me if my grandparents automatically lived in Little Italy. There is complete silence when I say the Upper East Side. They assume immigrant equals squalor.

Very rarely, but even now, I sometimes get some idiot who expresses a stupid Italian accent in front of me after hearing my last name. Some people still associate an Italian name with the Mafia.

I hope your Thanksgiving is lovely and that you're feeling great and fully recovered.

Pat

- Patricia Franzino

Nov 14, 2016 4:19 PM EST

I understand what you mean. Changes can be seen across the art world that coincide with composers of the same era creating a similar expression in sound.

In the dance world ballet changed drastically from court dances in the late 1600s to elaborately choreographed presentations in the next two hundred years. The musical development supported it.

Harrison's painting is more classical and clean in its lines, while Klimt is abstract and sort of flat. It's seems more transparent.

I feel like I'm seeing through the bark into the tree and beyond it. If I wanted to walk into the painting, I would have to be equally transparent to be a part of Klimt's idea of nature.

Harrison represents a similar scene in a more solid, substantial feeling. I could walk into that picture as I am without changing my physicality.

- Patricia Franzino

Nov 15, 2016 3:43 AM EST

Wonderful analogy from dance history! Thanks. And even better is the way you bring your dancer's bodily sensibility to the two paintings. Movement informs what you can perceive in the pictures and then allows you to give us all an insight into what they communicate to the mind. I can now imagine a fantasy story in which the main character has to use magic to get into paintings and discovers that different styles make different demands—and I'll bring your observation to bear every time I think about what it would be like to "be in the picture."

- Katherine Keenum

Nov 12, 2016 6:56 AM EST

I hope your recovery is quick.

What a remarkable painting this is. He managed to paint trees that look individual, and yet, they are very close together to create amazing depth.

Protests over the election in NYC are big in Times Square and Union Square. I hope they let it go. The election is done. I would rather see election reform by replacing the use of the electoral college. Clinton won the popular vote but lost, just like Gore.

It seems people are so afraid of change that they rather have old jobs back, which are becoming obsolete, than try to learn something knew just because their ancestors worked in the mines from one generation to the next. I don't see how Trump can give them back these jobs.

He allows oil, gas and coal lobbyists to be involved, and if he takes the US out of the Paris climate change accord, the backlash against this will be severe.

While I'm grateful for the continued improvement of myself as a dancer, which takes me away from so much negativity in the news, finding my true dance partner has been difficult to say the least.

My teacher only offers pro/am, which means I must pay him to dance with me along with my travel and entry fee costs. It's very expensive. Even becoming more consistently excellent, he will never offer me a pro partnership because he sees me as a student with less experience.

As elusive as it is to create a work of fiction, I hope working on your current book brings with it a focus more intense and fulfilling to take you into an elevated and uplifting place in consciousness away from outside world issues.

- Patricia Franzino