The flute holds a long tone and turns it, and the sound flexes like a dancer. Two traditions are meeting here tonight from thousands of miles away.
Read articleOn a quest for the first signs of spring
Spring is here, they tell me — and I’m collecting signs of it avidly this year. Outside the porch window someone is calling, the quick jiminy-jiminy-jiminy I think may be a Carolina wren …
Read articleQuilting thrives with a contemporary energy
From college dorms to quilt shops, an old New England artform is alive in the Berkshires, in patterns and textures from leaves and landscapes to contemporary abstract color.
Read articlePrintmaking fills the Berkshire hills with color
I’m at WCMA, after a morning at the new Sol LeWitt retrospective of silkscreens, aquatints and lithographs, sharing a quiet minute with Katsushika Hokusai’s Amida Waterfall …
Read article‘Strict Beauty’ reveals Sol LeWitt through his prints
If Sol LeWitt were alive today, would he be working with a programmer in fractal algorithms? Listening to the way he worked, it can be easy to imagine him experimenting in the digital age …
Read articleA winter encounter at Field Farm
A porcupine was looking down at me. Six feet overhead, he or she (I couldn’t tell) was sitting on a limb spreading from a young tree …
Read articleClose your eyes and feel the music
Glad rhythms — how can I describe the sound for you? Eight marimbas are cascading tones like summer rain. Within a few beats, most of the audience is on their feet.
Read articleJames Van der Zee envisions the Harlem Renaissance
Near his photography studio in Harlem, James Van Der Zee could have heard Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey sing the blues …
Read articleWhen all the world’s a prism (February 9 newsletter)
Look southwest, toward the sun, and the whole hillside gleams with light. We’re not likely to see many days like this one — after an ice storm …
Read articleComfort food (for thought) in stormy weather
Mountain Meadow opens out in a long arc. It’s a warm day after these weeks of single digits, and the snow is soft underfoot, like wet sand on the tideline.
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