#backwordsart

BACKWORDS blog explores the intersection between presence and history. The blog is a platform that honors the moment of encounter that any one person experiences—with art, literature, music, performance, or place. Often, reflections fit multiple categories—the opposite of a news program or style blog, BACKWORDS is not preoccupied with immediacy. An event does not need to be current to be relevant, nor does a memory need to be close to its origins to hold its potency.

Featured Posts

2020 and The One Where We All Try to Stay Sane

Tunnel Vision: Preparing to Hike the Pacific Crest Trail

Giverny, This Way

Happy Holidays!

My First Foray Into The Wonderful Wallowas

Spice and Rain

Traveling with Less

Antibiotics and Balinese Dance, A Winning Combination

Let's Confuse Each Other In German: How I Turned 30 in Paris

Recent Posts

A Brown Betty and a Family Pothole: Thieves and Potters

I’ve been thinking a lot about family art lately and the many forms it can take. The objects and art our families pass on. Paintings,...

What Kind of a Question is "What is Art?"

Lately, when I go to write about art, I’ve been feeling a little stuck. No inspiration springs effortlessly to mind. This got me thinking...

Seth at the MoCA Shanghai (and me at another modern art museum)

I am unwaveringly fond of modern art museums. It’s one of the first things I look up when I search for things to do in a new city, and it...

Andrew Wyeth: an American Artist Everybody Knows(?)

There I was, in the MoMA for the first time ever and sick to my stomach, trying to use the art as a visual antacid. It was November two...

The Pride of Proudy

My daughter and I were in Prague, Czech Republic, making our way to the Kafka Museum when we came upon a fascinating sculpture. Proudy,...

Another Rainy Wordstock Weekend: Laika Studios and Making Time for Art at the Portland Art Museum

It was another rainy Wordstock weekend in Portland. (Okay, I know this is the third post I’ve started that way, but I promise I’m going...

Dreams of Gold

It arrived in the mail, one of my first assignments for my Master’s in Fine Arts Program: The Lady in Gold, a book by Anne-Marie...

That Time I Saw Michael Jackson Perform in Piazza De Popolo

Okay, so maybe this particular Michael Jackson was an Italian imposter. But in makeup, a bright red jacket, white socks, and black...

El Anatsui and My Love of Modern Art Museums

In the Vatican Museum in Rome – on your way down to the Sistine Chapel, after weaving your way through rooms and rooms of paintings and...

The Art of the Victoria Art Gallery

In March I was back in Bath – just shy of 10 years after my first visit. We (my mother, her best friend, and her best friend’s sister)...

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