A poem from Mike Ladd reflecting on time, memory, love and ephemerality
A Box of Slides
I Like Trees: Neal Rantoul on Harry Callahan
With a few stories spanning a few decades, photographer Neal Rantoul shares his affection and admiration for fellow photographer, teacher, and friend Harry Callahan.
Breakers
“In subsequent weeks, I might take time to look at it and see what I’ve done. Or in this case, listen to the waves.”
El Greco: View of Toledo
From the station we walk past panel beaters, La Rosa tile factory, then up the hill by the river — and there it is, El Greco’s view of Toledo, on first glance hardly changed in over four hundred years.
A Tale of Two Presidents
“The room was small, dim and a desiccated yellow colour but the handshake and welcome were warm and clearly genuine. The man who once held the most powerful job in the world was dressed in casual shades of black and grey.”
Remembering Paul Matthews
A moving tribute from one painter to another.
Just When I Thought I Was Out, They Pull Me Back In
“I deciphered the occasional splash of graffiti: alongside youthful declarations of love and football were vague revolutionary slogans: “Freedom is a Right”, “Liberty”, and “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”
Grandma and Grandpa’s House
“When we got up the nerve to crack the door open, we were immediately met with the smell of air that hadn’t been smelled in a long time: a mix of dust, musk, and cedar — a whiff that gave a sense, even to a kid, of past lives and an odor that we didn’t experience in the city, where every space seemed to be in constant use and never remained closed off for long.”
Vietnam Travelogue
Pia De Girolamo shares a travelogue recounting observations and art from her trip to Vietnam.
My Rain
“The wind that comes off the Sahara towards the Atlantic is called Harmattan. The breezes over Senegal and Mauritania mingle with the warm waters near Cape Verde and occasionally become one of those end-of-summer storms that plod their way up the Mid-Atlantic states, dropping enormous amounts of rain and causing damage.”
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