Rick Janson Art Studio

My Art Journal

Category: Art and Society

  • Peggy Oh Peggy!

    Tourism has been in the news lately. Despite the fact that most of us are or have been tourists at one point, the worm appears to have turned in our culture. Residents of cities like Barcelona are actually using squirt guns on tourists in their city, angry that tourism has led to overcrowding and a…

  • No joy please, we’re British

    I’m totally addicted to the UK Sky Arts duo of Landscape Artist of the Year and Portrait Artist of the Year. As Frank Skinner, the original co-presenter of the shows said, “I love the idea that you can make great entertainment out of watching paint dry.” If you are an artist or would be artist,…

  • Circle of Fantasy

    Women make up 80 per cent of fiction sales, according to statistics from an opinion column in today’s New York Times. “The fiction gap makes me sad,” writes columnist Maureen Dowd. Me too. It also explains a lot. Dowd quotes author (and man) Richard Babcock: “Not to blame the current cultural landscape on Ronald Reagan,…

  • Dispersing of a second life

    There is a sad story in the New York Times today. As an artist, it made me stop in my tracks. Could this be me some day? Author Alissa Quart writes about having to sell and give away about 400 paintings by her 90-year-old mother, who was a literature scholar up until her retirement 30…