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On Matisse and Osama Bin Laden

I was going to write a blog post about my visit to the Art Institute of Chicago last week, during which I saw some pages from Matisse's 'Jazz' for the first time, even though I've known the pictures and loved them for many years, and I've used the book in the Journal and Sketchbook class.

But then the epoch-making news about the killing of Osama bin Laden took over the day, and I was left in a limbo, between writing something about that, or writing nothing at all (because what else of interest can there possibly be on a day like this?), or writing something that tries to force a connection between that event and the daily art concern of this blog.

Then I remembered the Meditation on Matisse that I created at the beginning of last year. It was on 'Icarus', which is one of the images from 'Jazz'. And I remembered that the text I wrote for the short talk was originally published in 'US Catholic' magazine, speaking to the theme of universal suffering and the victims of all crimes against humanity. (It happens to be the most viewed piece that I've put up on You Tube).

So perhaps it's not entirely inappropriate to post this again:



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