Upstate Diary Features

I've written for Upstate Diary since October 2016, and in that time have reviewed books, art exhibits, filmmakers, and other notable personalities. Upstate Diary, founded by Creative Director Kate Orne, largely focuses on the creative lives of urban dwellers in more rural climates, and has both a web and print presence. I have contributed to both formats, as I detail below. It is, in essence, a curation of the artistic life of the region. I grew up in upstate New York, and am very familiar with the terrain, and I was so very appreciative to have had the opportunity to contribute (and will in the future) to this important periodical.


Tama Janowitz: Scream: A Memoir of Glamour and Dysfunction. (October, 2016)

Peter and the Farm, a film directed by Tony Stone. (December, 2016)

Andres Serrano at The School. (March, 2017)

The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, by Florence Williams. (June, 2017)

Strange Weather, starring Holly Hunter, directed by Katherine Dieckmann. (July, 2017)

Upstate Diary Print Issue 5:  Kathy Ruttenberg: A Trip Through the Looking Glass. (August, 2017) 



This issue of Upstate Diary, now sold out, included my feature on Kathy Ruttenberg, a Hudson Valley-based artist, specializing in, but not limited to, the medium of sculpture. Her subjects are flora and fauna, presented in dream-like settings, like snapshots from Alice in Wonderland. Above and below are stills from the story's layout. I visited her studio and saw works in progress, as well those completed, and those maybe never to be completed. She is also a prolific and gifted watercolorist. At the time, she was preparing for a show in New York City, an outdoor, public installation of six sculptures for the Broadway Mall Association.

From the feature:

"Snaking along a winding road to her bucolic residence on a mountain ridge, you begin to notice some of the trademarks of Ruttenberg's world: horses, pigs, owls, and cats, as well as beautifully painted sculptures of men and women adorning the tops of fence posts, as well as on her home and its roof above; and lovingly maintained pens housing this menagerie - her pets, confidantes and source of inspiration. In some ways, it is reminiscent of the Federal-era Massachusetts estate of "Lord" Timothy Dexter, who perched statues of lauded historical figures (Napoleon, Admiral Nelson, George Washington, etc.), atop the wall surrounding his home."  




Upstate Diary, Print Issue 6:  20th Century Boy: Notebooks of the Seventies, by Duncan Hannah. (December 2017).



Note:  This issue of Upstate Diary, now sold out, featured my review of Duncan Hannah's edited diaries of his life during the 1970s and 1980s, 20th Century Boy. This story, which references my Issue 6 feature, is a flashback to Issue 3: "Duncan Hannah at Home." This features photos by Kate Orne of Hannah at his northwest Connecticut home and artist's studio, and discusses some of the highlights from the book. From the introduction to that story:

Duncan Hannah may draw you into a certain kind of Anglophilic, mid-centuryish world with haunting images of women, or boats, or sports cars, but he does so with sensual objects known as paintings, which record events that took place in the artist’s studio — in time and space, with brushes and paint — as well as in his imagination. To register only the atmospheric side of Hannah’s work and to jam it automatically into some headline like “retro”, is to miss the sly inflections and mad passions the artist brings to his themes by way of considered brushstrokes, subtle coloring, and canny choices of glint and shadow that de-genericize even the most deadpan subject deliciously. What Hannah’s work wants, and what it deserves, is not just to be registered but looked at — really looked at, greedily, in that full-bodied way in which the act of looking draws on both wanting and thinking. 


Upstate Diary Print Issue 6:  Rockwell Kent. (December, 2017)


This sixth issue of Upstate Diary, now sold out, includes my feature on the history and legacy of Rockwell Kent - an artist whose work has always been in demand by collectors and museums, but who seems, at this particular time, under-appreciated in the canon of important American artists. From the article:

"Kent was a restless soul who, some might argue, selfishly set off on multi-year travels of often unforgiving and primeval climates variously touching the North and South Poles. Though his wives and children intermittently - and perhaps grudgingly - accompanied him on these travels, those experiences helped Kent's art and writing to flourish, earning him effusive praise from critics."