As I started this newsletter, I kept asking is there a way of being online without being so online? Aiming to keep mornings a bit sacred, with less scrolling and more intentional reading and information seeking, I found this place to be one that felt safe to share and support creative work.
This week, instead of discussing thoughts on style, I wanted to share a few other ways I am seeking beauty.
Here are a some enlightening podcasts, films, and art exhibits I’ve enjoyed or am excited about.
WEEKLY CULTURE RECS
Podcasts:
Since the film industry has halted, I find myself listening to Chani Nicholas weekly astrology podcast every Monday. This week started with a New Moon in Scorpio, a time to reset a bit, release and let go of whatever we find is no longer serving us. Scorpio doesn’t do anything lightly and we might have this feeling that we need to “break free of something.” Chani described this week having “wild astrology,” asking us to be bold about what we want to do and how we want to direct our power. So I am hoping we all feel a bit of renewal after reflecting this week.
Elise Loehnen from “Pulling the Thread” has a been one of my favorite people to listen to for years. I found her interviews to be so expanding when she hosted the GOOP podcast and then I followed her to her own when she left. She interviews so many tremendous guests and experts, from Esther Perel discussing love and conflict, to Buddhist teacher Frank Osteseki who explores the wisdom that emerges from embracing mortality. After a summer filled with grief, I found the latter quite soul satisfying.
When times are feeling quite just a bit too hard, I return to this episode of On Being with Krista Tippett and Irish poet & philosopher John O’Donohue. This quote sums up the conversation perfectly, “Beauty isn’t all about just nice loveliness, like. Beauty is about more rounded, substantial becoming. So I think beauty in that sense is about an emerging fullness, a greater sense of grace and elegance, a deeper sense of depth, and also a kind of homecoming for the enriched memory of your unfolding life.”
Film:
The Cinematographer of the last film I Costume Designed, Jamie Ramsay shot this beautifully moving film by Director Andrew Haigh, All of Us Strangers. The fantasy drama feels like a healing art piece, opening your heart to the complexities of loneliness, trauma and grief. Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal give such captivating and intimate performances, creating moments of mystery and queer love in a truly breathtaking way.
Past Lives by Celine Song was a film that really hit hard. The story, starring Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro, touches on connectedness and humanity, old friendships and contemporary realities with such naturalism. There is so much cultural richness in this film that revolves around the Korean concept of fate or In-yun, how you can't control who walks into your life…and who stays in your life.
Art:
I titled this post “Art Therapy,” as I continue to find all forms of art to be the most healing now during times of such world upheaval. Nature, always helps as well.
Mimi Lauter’s solo exhibit ‘Gardens of Human Nature’ on view in NY at the Mendes Wood DM Gallery. “Comprising of sixteen soft pastel and oil pastel framed works on paper of varying scale, Mimi Lauter’s work welcomes the strangeness embedded in its title: cultivating what is inherently unmannered, but also fostering the excesses and passions of spirit that make “human nature” rather unlike our concept of the natural world.” On view until 12/12.
Duncan Hannah, “On Paper”at the Kasmin Gallery “Featuring not just drawings and collages, but paintings of collages, book covers and magazines, his paintings have a sense of longing for this lost way of life. They have the patina of a dream. An ethereal world of slightly muted colors that seems to fade further away, even as we contemplate it.” On view until December 16, 2023.
Ruth Asawa at The Whitney in NY, which chronicles Asawa’s daily drawing practice, conveys how ideas start to grow and evolve over time, and that sometimes the dedication supersedes the subject matter. In Asawa’s words,“The most important thing…is in the doing—integrating your life and your work and everything together.” Asawa was an art educator and a mother of six in addition to the act of art-making. There were errands to run, dinner to make and many responsibilities in her life to uphold. The art making was her choice. On view until 1/15/24.
In LA, I am excited about the new exhibit in Echo Park, Wild Form. “This show features works on canvas, paper, photographs, textiles and functional ceramics from a group of emerging artists we love whose work is informed by the themes of dining and gathering.” They will be donating a percentage of proceeds from the show to the Garden School Foundation (@gardenschoolfoundation ) who provide in-depth garden-based education to youth at Title I schools in Los Angeles, strengthening connections between food justice, environmental stewardship, and community health. By appointment through Dec 10, Catalog here.
Codi Barbini at the Simchowitz Gallery in LA. “The Sound of Water,” is an exhibition of vibrant oil paintings and works on paper. The exhibition offers Barbini’s perspective on the symbolism and essence of flowers, as she views them both as symbols and objects, appreciating their complex cultural dichotomies. Her large-scale oil paintings and smaller works on found (magazine) paper embrace abstraction and metaphor, pushing the boundaries of creativity through gesture, color, and scale.” On view until December 16th.
"Oh To Be a Painting 2," at Abigail Ogilvy Gallery LA in curated by Katelyn Ledford. So, is painting image or object? I surely hope neither and both. Just enjoy the pleasure of looking at a painting, seeing its edges, dissecting its layers, studying its imagery. Leave the baggage of theory and pigeon-holing ideas behind. Bringing together artists of all painterly qualities, we will blend these two competing ideas so that viewers have to consider this group of paintings in equal footing. All must be viewed within the context of image and object, flat and sculptural." On view until December 16th.
Judy Chicago at The New Museum in NY - The exhibit “will span Judy Chicago’s sixty-year career to encompass the full breadth of the artist’s contributions across painting, sculpture, installation, drawing, textiles, photography, stained glass, needlework, and printmaking. Expanding the boundaries of a traditional museum survey, the exhibition will place six decades of Chicago’s work in dialogue with work by other women across centuries in a unique Fourth Floor installation. Entitled “The City of Ladies,” this exhibition-within-the-exhibition will feature artworks and archival materials from over eighty artists, writers, and thinkers, including Simone de Beauvoir, Hildegard of Bingen, Artemisia Gentileschi, Zora Neale Hurston, Frida Kahlo, Hilma af Klint, and Virginia Woolf, among many others.” On view until Jan 14th.
Fashion Designer and Adidas Collaborator, Grace Wales Bonner, has curated an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. For the show, Spirit Movers, Wales Bonner has gathered more than 50 artworks from the Museum’s collection that explore sound, movement, performance, and style in the African diaspora and beyond. Artists include Man Ray, Alexander Calder, Betye Saar, Moustapha Dimé and Terry Adkins. Spirit Movers creates a deeply personal meditation on Black expression—and reflects Wales Bonner’s commitment to archival research as a form of spirituality and an aesthetic practice. On view until April 7, 2024.
Thanks for reading and spending time with me here. Let me know what else you would love to see and read in the comments below. Speak soon.
x
Claire