A Visionary Fall

I have great respect for the daily bloggers. It takes a lot of discipline to post on a regular basis. This time of year is crunch time for my family. In addition to painting, for the past sixteen years, my wife and I have produced a line of pottery and an assortment of gift items and more, of her wonderful work. So the fall is the busy, thankfully, time preparing for the holidays.

The beauty of the blog world is that I don't have to miss a beat. If there is anything of interest going on, someone is writing about it. During the run up to the election Daily Kos, Newsgrist, Newsblog, or Juan Cole among others did a fabulous job keeping me vote-smart. My usual assortment of art bloggers wrote of the new shows and the anticipated opening of MOMA this week. A humble bow to you all.

When time gets limited and the choice is writing or painting, painting wins. I've recently posted new work on my site, with more to come this week. If I could have written anything, it would definitely been something about the VERY way cool Venus, Mars, and Moon alignment or the beautiful explosion of color this fall, or about amazing sunrises as we slipped into October and November. The clouds, the stark contrasts as we move towards winter have been amazing. I don't often paint landscapes, but I shamelessly steal from nature all the time and have yet to be challenged with a law suit. There's probably something in the forthcoming new and improved Patriot Act that will challenge that.

The main reason for this post was to report on the gala opening of the new addition to the American Visionary Arts Museum here in Baltimore, The James Rouse Center For Visionary Thought. I really did have a nice post in mind, and it was a wonderful event, and the new building couldn't be more beautiful. But, you see, there was a trapeze artist, this fine twelve-piece band, and this really cold beer and, oh yeah, these dancing feet. Oh well, go here and here for writing by more disciplined folks. Or,come to Baltimore and see for yourself.

Mark Barry (www.markbarryportfolio.com) is an artist working in Baltimore.