Castles in the air
I knew a writer who wanted to transition from the technical documents that he wrote to pay his bills to fiction. His vision inspired a whole universe; not one novel but a series. He spent…
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They lost Jeffrey Sachs
Six months ago I would have described Jeffrey Sachs, the Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, as the consummate insider. For the past 30 years Sachs has taken leadership roles in economic and…
The problem with blended commercial oil paint
The ideal palette consists entirely of single-pigment colors. Such an ideal palette provides artists with total control over values and tones. This is especially important for artists, like me, who use lead white. These days,…
Amusement park series
I visited Lake Erie's preeminent amusement park, Cedar Point, five times this summer. I am using the thousands of photos that I took from these visits as reference material for my new series--Amusement Parks. I…
So, war it is
When I was a kid, we lived near a SAC base (Strategic Air Command) where the nuclear bombers were stationed. Depending on the prevailing winds, the noise from the B-52's flying over was so loud…
Book review: Ink Black Heart
I recently listened to the audio version of the detective novel The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith. Galbraith is the pen name used by J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame. This novel is the…
Book review: Ill Will
I recently read Dan Chaon's 2017 thriller, Ill Will. This is my first book by this author, which reinforces my resolve to ignore online reviews. Can it be that they're all fake? These days I've…