L A B O R O F L O V E
love
dad
Sunday, January 25, 2026
Saturday, January 24, 2026
s c u l p t u r e
D I O N Y S U S
G R E E K T E R R A C O T T A V A S E 4 1 0 B C
The ancient Greeks had a somewhat religious holiday
celebrating the maturation of wine. It was called
Anthesteria, which pretty much meant get stupid
with drink. Prometheus brought the humans fire,
and it was good. Dionysus, God of Wine, gave people
a pleasure only the Gods on Mount Olympus knew.
Afterwards, Zeus felt he ruled over a land of
worthless drunks.
T I M E A R R E S T E D B Y D E A T H
L O R E N Z O B E R N I N I 1670
This terracotta work is known as a sketch model -
something expendable for working out ideas before
taking on carving a monument from marble.
In this depiction Bernini has Time carrying a casket
beyond the reach of Death. Time cheats Death of
his prize because Time always reveals the truth.
Does that make sense?
Maybe you had to be there.
H E A D
A M E D E O M O D I G L I A N I 1 9 1 2
Modigliani carved 27 stone sculptures from
broken limestone blocks he scavenged at
construction sites. This elongated head with
almond eyes reflects Modigliani's fascination
with the art of ancient civilizations such as
Egypt, Greece and Africa. These works come
with a hefty price tag. Tete, a work similar to
the Head above, brought seventy million dollars
at an auction in 2014.
C O N T I N U I T Y I N S P A C E
U M B E R T O B O C C O O N I 1 9 1 3
Art should reflect the Machine Age.
It was the twentieth century. It was time
to celebrate cars, planes and industrial power.
The running figure above displays flourishes
of wind that resemble wings that propelled
the god Mercury to incredible speeds.
W A L K I N G M A N
A L B E R T O G I A C O M E T T I 1 9 6 0
What to make of this wiry, emaciated man, walking.
He is iconic. A fragile nature with enduring spirit.
Isolated. Experienced in madness.
T O U R I S T S
D U A N E H A N S O N 1 9 8 8
When did you start feeling you were on vacation?
Was it when you first walked into Palm Springs heat
in your new summer clothes? Your picture of Larry
spilling secret sauce on his shirt at Circus Burger
was hilarious. Maybe you could get me a copy.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, January 18, 2026
Saturday, January 17, 2026
c o u p l e s
T H E K I S S
G U S T A V K L I M T 1 9 0 8
T H E B I R T H D A Y
M A R C C H A G A L L 1 9 1 5
I N B E D
T O U L O U S E - L A U T R E C 1 8 9 2
L O V E R S
R E N E M A G R I T T E 1 9 2 8
B A L L A D
N A N G O L D I N
R O O M I N N E W Y O R K
E D W A R D H O P P E R 1 9 3 2
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, January 11, 2026
Saturday, January 10, 2026
m o d e r n
H O B O K E N W A T E R F R O N T
E R N E S T L A W S O N 1 9 3 0
Industrialization has taken over the natural landscape.
The water churns with the crisscrossing wakes of
passing tugs and ships. Putting the land and the
surrounding population to factory use made for
tumultuous times.
These tugs are right out of a Popeye cartoon.
Give Popeye a can of spinach and he will
get the job done. You can bet on it.
Cause he's Popeye the Sailor Man.
Toot toot!
E A R L Y S U N D A Y M O R N I N G
E D W A R D H O P P E R 1 9 3 0
Painting Seventh Avenue in Greenwich Village,
one year following the stock market crash of '29.
It was the beginning of the Great Depression.
Hopper shows a street silent, stark...
drained of vitality. Abandoned by life.
A barber pole and a fire hydrant cast impossibly
long shadows; stand-ins for the absence of
human form.
G E O R G I A O ' K E E F F E
A L F R E D S T I E G L I T Z 1 9 1 8
O'Keeffe left her teaching job in Texas to become
an artist living in New York. The photographer
Alfred Stieglitz was immediately captivated by her
as an artist and as a woman. They fell in love.
Stieglitz divorced his wife and married O'Keeffe
despite their twenty-three years difference in age.
Over the course of twenty years Stieglitz produced
more than three hundred images of O'Keeffe as she
transformed into an artist of world renown.
J O H N ' S D I N E R
J O H N B A E D E R 2 0 0 7
Actually it's John's Chevelle, the artist's car, out front.
The Diner's name is his one big fiction.
How many artists would choose this drab scene for
their next artistic statement? The next Night Hawks
cafe. The artist, Baeder, saw these modest food spots
as shrines for everyday Americans. A decent cup of
coffee for a dime and a spot of conversation on the side.
All this in the midst of a general blight settling about.
It was a time worth preserving
in this dry, skeptical manner.
T H E N I G H T
M A X B E C K M A N N 1 9 1 9
The senselessness of human cruelty.
Paramilitary thugs invade a home, terrorizing
the family within. The man hanged. His wife
violated. Their son dragged off into the night.
There are no sanctuaries in which to hide when
faced with this kind of political violence.
It was 1919 Germany, its society in collapse
following the nation's defeat in World War I.
Life was brutal, ugly. No time for Renoir.
No time for Impressionist beauty and romantic
picnics. Art became one big nervous breakdown.
I S A W T H E F I G U R E 5 I N G O L D
C H A R L E S D E M U T H 1 9 2 8
"AMONG THE RAIN / AND LIGHTS
I SAW THE FIGURE 5 / IN GOLD
ON A RED / FIRETRUCK / MOVING
TENSE / UNHEEDED / TO GONG CLANGS
SIREN HOWLS / AND WHEELS RUMBLING
THROUGH THE DARK CITY"
THE GREAT FIGURE
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
POET AND FRIEND OF THE ARTIST
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Thursday, January 8, 2026
Sunday, January 4, 2026
Saturday, January 3, 2026
Renaissance
S A I N T J O H N T H E B A P T I S T
D O N A T E L L O 14 3 8
For hundreds of years artists were limited
to portraying their gods as divine beauty,
too perfect for this world. So with this crop
of superheroes running the universe why
bother wasting time depicting anyone else?
It was the gods that determined your fate.
John the Baptist was a gaunt ascetic.
His hand to mouth existence living
in the desert was shared by many
of his followers. They were a dogged
group of scrubs, stubbornly persisting
about the harsh, skimpy landscape.
Donatello carved his Saint from the trunk
of a poplar tree, one both simple and rough
by nature. A marble monument was never built
to describe someone's humility.
B I R T H O F V E N U S
B O T T I C E L L I 1 4 8 5
Venus, goddess of love, was born from an
ocean's froth. To see her beauty first hand
was to awaken spiritual ideals that would
otherwise remain dormant.
Sensual pleasure was given a spiritual formula.
Botticelli painted for us a full-scale nude
to make his point about anatomical beauty.
A more sensual medium than stone would be
needed. Nothing but luminous paint would do.
His Birth of Venus was an early example of
brushing oil on canvas. Until now a wood panel
was the preferred surface and tempera the paint.
Da Vinci's Mona Lisa was painted on a panel of
Poplar wood.
V I T R U V I A N M A N
D A V I N C I 1 4 9 2
We are a microcosm of the universe itself.
The Roman architect Vitruvius mathematically
proved something having to do with perfect
proportions of the human body and how this all
concerned the governing of the stars and nature.
Even scientists read their horoscope.
Da Vinci speculated in all manner of things.
He was a scientist that happened to draw pictures.
His curiosity was expressed in both mathematics
and art. He was the Renaissance man.
P I E T A
M I C H E L A N G E L O 1 4 9 9
Michelangelo was twenty-two when he began
carving a large marble block into a sculptural
centerpiece of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.
Mary's face is serene, not contorted with agony.
She is also far too young to be the mother
of Jesus, her thirty-three year old son.
"Virgin mother, daughter of her son."
Dante, Divine Comedy.
Here was Michelangelo giving himself artistic license
to portray the mystery of baffling contradiction.
S C H O O L O F A T H E N S
R A P H A E L 1 5 1 1
Raphael painted this monumental fresco for
the private viewing of Pope Julius II, his patron.
Julius was pleased with Raphael's painting
but not enough to distract him from overseeing
Michelangelo's ongoing work on the ceiling
of the Pope's Sistine Chapel.
Raphael painted the world's greatest minds
of antiquity gathering to share among themselves
their reasoning and philosophy.
The message to Julius was that Classical
learning, pagan though it was, often
harmonized with Christian teaching.
The time was right to read from your
books by Plato and Aristotle.
V E N U S O F U R B I N O
T I T I A N 1 5 3 8
This isn't Venus.
It began with Botticelli painting nude women
posed at Venus, Goddess of Love. Now it's
the next door lady on a pin-up poster
sending seasonal blessings.
The Duke of Urbino commissioned this painting
to celebrate his marriage, one presumably filled
with seduction.
* * * * *
OVER EASY
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