an old writer and his words

  • MUSEUMS NO MORE

    Travel guides always wantto send me to museums of art,of history, of culture, of science.I appreciate their guidance but Iwould prefer to spend my timevisiting zoos, looking at animalsand ignoring the placardspainfully detailing what I am seeing.I have been to countlessmuseums and while each offeredbeauty and knowledge, eachdemanded that I needed to learn,to interpret, to…

    Lou Faber

  • PLACE NAME HERE

    Among all of the so-called artswriting does stand alone.How often have you seen arthanging on gallery wallsand look at the card next to itto see what the work is calledand find that all too uniquitous title,UNTITLED, as if the artist’s powerof language escaped into his brushes.And let’s not talk about composer’swhose work is later numberedand…

    Lou Faber

  • SAVANNAH

    The morning clings to youlike a damp sheet, the foglifting slowly, a magnifierpulled away from the square,the live oaks edging into focus. You sit at the table, wipingthe crumbs from you reallydon’t want to know when,a steaming cortado waitingpatiently for the first bitesof the large scones onthe mismatched plates. In the background a cry,“vanilla soy…

    Lou Faber

  • STRANGE BEAUTY

    There is a strange beautyin the slow loss of sight,for there is a progressivetransition, a discoveryof much that went unheard,unfelt, missing in the glareof the need to see, to categorizeand organize, memoriesneatly arranged in an arrayof curated visual files. But without sight what oncewas cast aside as noise isan intricate tapestry of soundand undistracted, you…

    Lou Faber

  • TALKING ART

    The good and the bad of acquiring a new work of art is that you have to listen carefully when it tells you just where in your home it has to be. You may have other ideas, but it is best to set them aside, for ultimately the art knows far better than you. All…

    Lou Faber

  • REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM

    Gertrude Stein saidpoetry is vocabulary,or so Simic reported it,but in that casewhat do we makeof Haiku, wherea poem at maximumcan use onlyseventeen words. Perhaps, if wefollow Levi-Strausshaiku is not poetrybut art, for all artis reductionand there is littleyou can doto reducea haiku further.

    Lou Faber

  • MIX TAPE

    There is an artto creating a mix tape,more so to day, whentape is usually onlyfound in museumsand antique stores. Then you chose carefullyaware of the sonics,aware of the limits on time,weaving a musical tapestry. You can do a mix CDbut everyone knowsthat with tape you listenedall the way through,for fast forward was onlyfor getting to…

    Lou Faber

  • COUPLING

    Walking through the art gallery,she frequently pauses to lookat paintings of couples in a baror a cafe, engaged in conversation. I tell her they seem sad, as thoughwhatever romance they hadhas waned, they having grownapart, this a parting of sorts. She laughs and says that I mistakewistfulness for sadness, menso often do, and adds they…

    Lou Faber

  • PERSPECTIVE

    It is always, the artist told me,a question of angles and elevations,but I am sure that was just his perspective. Dali threw all of that out, madea pretty good living at taking perspectiveout of his work, replaced by fluidity. For Dali that fluidity resultedin a fair bit of liquidity, which wasan irony not the least…

    Lou Faber

  • RED DOT

    I have visited countless galleries,stared at or shielded my eyesfrom all manner of art, butI always read the plaquesaffixed to the walls, nameof artist, of work price,the relative  amount speakingto the financial state of the gallery. I actually care very little aboutthe name of the artist otherthan as a historical reference,for the piece has already…

    Lou Faber