“Many people lose the small joys in the hope for the big happiness.” -Pearl S. Buck
Day to day, we wake up, go through the motions of work, home, socialization, sleep and repeat it all over again. Often, we begin losing track of the small moments as we move through this repetition, thinking only ahead to some unknown, unnamed time and place where it all proves “worth it” without knowing how we’ll know we’ve arrived there. What if we set aside this idea that the endgame is the goal, embraced the idea that today is what we have been striving for. That the very act of waking up once again is the ultimate victory.
Jennifer Paige Cohen sat down with us to talk about her show, Accompanied, which ran until mid-January at Nielle Beauchene Gallery in New York. A considerable amount of thought went into the title, she explained. It speaks to the concepts of being accompanied by self, by others and by your own personal and collective history passed down from those who came before. The sculptural works in the show reflected on the body, what it experiences as it moves through time and space. To hear more about this and other aspects of her work, listen to the complete interview.
Jessica Westhafer joined us to talk about Somewhere That’s Green, her recent show at Vito Schnabel Gallery in New York. The show, Westafer’s first with the gallery, featured six large-scale canvasses, each of which reference childhood in some way. There is a playful yet tragic quality throughout the pieces, all of which speak in some way to Westhafer’s upbringing in Arkansas. To hear more about the exhibition as a whole as well as some of the individual pieces, listen to the complete interview.
A Few Words to Keep in your Pocket
Let go of someday.
Interviews are available on iTunes as podcasts, and for Android, please click here. All weekly essay pieces in a shareable format are here. The full archive of interviews is here.
Books to Read
What are you reading? Add your titles to our reading list here. Praxis user Melissa recently picked up Life After Death: The Burden of Proof by Deepak Chopra. Meanwhile, Praxis user Cary is re-reading The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck.
Deadlines:
Mudflat Studio in Somerville, MA offers a year-long residency. Selected artists receive private studio space with 24/7 access, a monthly materials stipend and monthly housing assistance. There are also paid teaching opportunities in Mudflat’s educational programs, opportunities for retail sales and a solo exhibition and reception at Mudflat in July to showcase work created during the residency period. For more information, visit the website. Deadline for applications April 16.
Brainard Carey is an author, artist and educator. He is the director of Praxis for Aesthetics. He has written six books for artists, most recently Making it in the Art World.