Life In the Abstract

My husband and I were invited to some friends’ house on Sunday to view paintings by the prominent Texas artist, Dorothy Hood. My husband has long been an admirer of her work and informed his art collector friends when he learned a significant number of important large paintings were coming up for sale.

Along with the gallery owner, there was a woman present, Susie Kalil, who has made it her mission to “give Dorothy her due” as an important American artist. Susie knew Dorothy and now has access to all of her personal affects which she is using to research a book not only on Dorothy’s art but also her colorful life in preparation for a major exhibition at the South Texas Institute for the Arts. And this is the part that struck me—those personal effects include journals chronicling her entire adult life in detail, letters to and from some of the most prominent artists and writers of the 20^th century (she kept carbon copies of the letters she wrote), poems, photographs and sketches that tell the story of the woman behind the art.

As Susie talked about Dorothy’s time in Mexico City in the 1940s which was an intellectual and cultural center not unlike Paris in 1920, I wanted to read the journals and letters for myself to see through Dorothy’s eyes her circle of friends which included Spanish novelist Luis Buñuel, Mexican painters Miguel Covarrubias and Rufino Tamayo, American playwright Sophie Tredwell, German-born artist Mathias Goeritz, Spanish surrealist Remedios Varo and English-born surrealist Leonora Carrington a good friend. On occasion, she stayed at the house of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and painter Frida Kahlo—who wouldn’t read her accounts of those flamboyant figures?

Later she married to Bolivian composer, Velasco Maidana, and together they moved to Houston where she became a prominent figure in the art scene with work in museum collections all over the world. And through it all she recorded her travels and the people she met and maintained her friendships through long, personal letters.

I have to feel a little sad that journals, hand written letters, printed photos and other tangible items are being replaced these days with blog posts, email, telephone calls and digital photos that may be lost as software changes and technology advances. We’re told nothing is ever lost on the internet, but can it be found, examined, assembled to recreate a picture of a vibrant, creative life? Are we losing personal connections now that email and texts have replaced phone calls? Has television replaced conversation and interactive activities?

Don’t get me wrong—I love technology as a convenience in my business and personal life but I also mourn the fast pace that allows us to shortcut the thoughtful communication and introspection for personal journals and handwritten correspondence. I wonder what record will be left behind of our lives in fifty or a hundred years. Maybe this is the question every generation asks.

Do you still write letters or keep a journal? To you call or email? 

FAREWELL, CY TWOMBLY

This morning I read the sad news that Cy Twombly died in Rome yesterday. The Telegraph said this about him:

Cy Twombly, who died on July 5 aged 83, was a reclusive American painter whose work was so individual it barely needed a signature.

I have to agree.  Sometimes an artist’s work just speaks to you and from the first time I visited the Cy Twombly Gallery of the Menil Collection in Houston, I was enthralled, delighted and thoroughly hooked. I didn’t know anything about his background or what inspired his work, only that the huge canvases in the Zen space affected me on a primal level. Sometimes a quick visit through the gallery lightens my day. At other times, I draw peace and inspiration from just sitting on a bench in front of the monumental Untitled (Say Goodbye Catullus, to the Shores of Asia Minor). Not everyone who passes through likes the paintings or the space, but for me the place holds a magic that never fades.

So, farewell, Cy Twombly, and thank you.

Is there an artist or writer who speaks to you in a special way? Who and why?

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: LONGWOOD GARDENS, KENNETT SQUARE, PENNSYLVANIA

This weekend I’m going to be visiting my family and one stop I hope to make is Longwood Gardens. During the summer after I graduated from high school this was a favorite evening destination for my friends and me. The gardens and the light and fountain show appealed to our hippie sensibilities. It also didn’t hurt that back then admission was free. (Now it costs $18 for adult admission and $8 for students up to 18.)

Like most young people, we were more interested in each other than the vast gardens, woods and park grounds, but we also spent a surprising amount of time learning about the plants, trees and landscape layout. What I learned then, has given me a lifelong appreciation of formal and not so formal gardens that has drawn me to places like Versailles, Hautfort, Sardy, Castle Howard in my travels.  

Many years later I can still find those special places at Longwood that filled me with youthful awe. And to my delight, they only seem to get better!

If you’re ever in the area west of Philadelphia and just north of Wilmington, make it a point to see these world famous gardens. While you’re there, stop by the Brandywine River Museum in nearby Chadds Ford which has a wonderful collection of paintings by three generations of Wyeths—NC, Andrew and Jamie.

So what were your favorite places to visit growing up? Have you been back lately?