Things I Learned This Week

Oates, San Antonio Country Club, Newman, Perry, and Nigerian Rock

Things are wrapping up—only one more week to go. I’m beginning to register for fall classes, and we have a place to live next year. Good things are coming! Here are a few of the things I’m holding on to from this week.

I am ashamed to say that I’d never read any Joyce Carol Oates. Just finished You Must Remember This for American Lit. Set in upstate New York in the 1950s, it’s the story of a family and an incestuous relationship between a 14-year-old girl and her uncle. Man, she is a good writer, which I’m sure everybody but me until last Friday knew. At almost 60 books, that woman has had a prolific career and an interesting and slightly traumatic childhood. My professor is friends with her and said she once told him that the scene where a group of boys set a dove on fire was based on a scene she saw in real life—heavy stuff.

I’ve been working on my final for the Shakespeare class, which led me down the path of San Antonio’s gay history. I was going to do a photo project on the Bonham Exchange, a gay landmark club downtown, but research led me to its predecessor, The San Antonio Country Club. Hopping during the 1970s, It was one of the first safe spaces for the gay community to congregate and have fun collectively. I’d read about it in the book Cornyation before, but there’s a wonderful documentary about the club and its maker, Hap Veltman’s San Antonio Country, that you can watch on YouTube.

I’ve never been deep into abstract expressionists, especially color field paintings, but I’ve recently been turned on by the Jewish American artist Barnett Newman. I’ve seen his work in museums a million times. My mother was a painter and shuttled us often across state lines to see museum exhibits and kept us there looking long after they made the closing announcements on the loudspeaker. His was the kind of art she would have passed by in favor of Johns, Gauguin, or Matisse, but taking a closer look at the work has made me obsessed. I do have a thing for color, but there’s more to it that appeals. Perhaps it is the feeling of beautiful isolation it evokes in me. Peace and quiet and forever. I need more of that in my life.

I am still inching along and getting better with the pottery, but now I am spinning off to the actual painting and decorating side. I’m obsessed with Grayson Perry, who is a master of pottery and a spectacular painter. And he quilts! Of a less museumy stature, I love the Brooklyn potter Dave Zackin. I started buying some of his work off Instagram a few years back, and just love to see what he’s up to. I don’t know if I will ever get to the level of craft these guys have, but I’m working on it. I enjoy sharing these tidbits with my new pal Gabbe, who is a potter and a fabulous painter. Check out her WOW: Wonderful Old Women series here. :)

Lastly, thanks to my rad son, I’ve been turned on to Etran de L'Aïr, a Nigerien rock band made up of a bunch of brothers and cousins. If you want to listen to joy in-musical-carnate, check them out. Starter song, Agrim Agadez.

Quote of the week?

“Art is much less important than life, but what a poor life without it.” ― Jasper Johns

‘Til Tuesday kids.

Burgin

(I’m finishing college at 50+, follow along and read my story here.)