Artists at Work/John Updike
Google Images has an amazing set of photos taken for Life magazine featuring artists at work. I've picked just a few of my favorites to share with you (they're mainly Picasso, Matisse, and Chagall) but there are 200 photos here.
Also, as many of you have probably heard, the American novelist and poet John Updike passed away. My grandmother was a librarian and Updike was one of her favorite novelists. Growing up, I remember seeing her copies of his Rabbit novels on the bookshelf and thinking that they were, perhaps, actually about a rabbit. There are already articles coming out left & right about Updike & I'm sure that all of them (all of them!) are quoting from the following poem, but I just couldn't stop myself...
Perfection Wasted by John Updike
And another regrettable thing about death
is the ceasing of your own brand of magic,
which took a whole life to develop and market -
the quips, the witticisms, the slant
adjusted to a few, those loved ones nearest
the lip of the stage, their soft faces blanched
in the footlight glow, their laughter close to tears,
their tears confused with their diamond earrings,
their warm pooled breath in and out with your heartbeat,
their response and your performance twinned.
The jokes over the phone. The memories packed
in the rapid-access file. The whole act.
Who will do it again? That's it: no one;
imitators and descendants aren't the same.