back from St. Thomas

It's good to be back in Boston. On Sunday I saw the SMFA Traveling Scholars Exhibit, which I've always enjoyed. The standout this year for me was Asuka Ohsawa, whose work talks back to the Japanese giga tradition (cartoons, basically) and brings in modern influences and concerns. It was so dense with allusion, hinting at its own hidden darkness, but so light and fun as well.
















As always, some of the stuff was absolute rubbish (though that's not always bad, see Tim Noble & Sue Webster), but my faith in humanity is always renewed when I see that good art is still being made. Last year's SMFA exhibit included Cliff Evans' The Road to Mount Weather, a video collage which was probably the best summation of and meditation on the Bush administration that will ever be created.

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There was another poetry reading at Forest Hills yesterday, which is always delightful. The Forsyth Chapel has to be one of the best venues in Boston. It was a reading of Jamaica Plain poets. Maybe some day I can hope to number among them.