I love Raven's work! Say thank you to him for these wonderful paintings. Of course my house is filled with books, but so is the back seat of my car. As my daddy would say, "might need 'em."
Beautiful paintings! Timely question, I just had my yearly mammogram and took along Sparrow Envy by J Drew Lanham. I came home and watched Baltimore orioles and an oriole I had never seen before, the orchard oriole and wrote these tiny odes to the birds, inspired by Sparrow Envy:
Baltimore Oriole
My jelly loving, grape Smuckers beak smacking, chattering and chucking blaze of wing flapping orangest of orange and blackest of black flash of bird, announcing at each landing, look up from your book, aren’t I pretty?
Orchard Oriole
The orchard oriole, double O bird, the oriole of feeder and field, the new to me bird, flew to me bird, bird landing on stalk and stem, waiting on me, whispering to me, please pass the jelly, I’d like to sweeten my flight.
Raven's work has such a nice, dreamy quality to it. Good to see a lot of his paintings! Yesterday I read The Serviceberry in a medical waiting room. I was disappointed how quickly the nurse came to fetch me.
These are beautiful <3 I love Raven's work. ... I often read books while waiting for my kids while they're at one practice or another; I do it intentionally so I'm not absorbed in my phone.
I read all the time in coffee houses and restaurants. I love the opportunity to be alone with a perfectly brewed cup of coffee or delicious food, amidst a stimulating or comfortable environment, lost in a good story.
What lovely images and a reminder to read in public. I always take a book with me to dentist or doctor appointment. The place where I saw many people reading was Chautauqua when I attended a children's writing workshop. Even teens rode by on bikes with s book tucked under an arm.
Also, love Raven’s artistic endeavor. We could take a page from this playbook and likewise post photos anywhere/everywhere of people reading books… a work of conceptual art carrying a beautiful message.
I love these. Takes me back to my preteen years when my best friend and I would walk to the library, find the best treasures to take back to my place and read in the lawn chairs. Today: restaurants, airplanes, airports, waiting rooms, on my back porch.
Amazing, powerful to see them all together like this. Love the paintings and the titles, too. Books save lives … they might literally have saved mine. My strongest memory is of reading Emerson’s essays aloud to myself sitting under a huge tree in a park when I lived in Gottingen, Germany in the late 80s. In fact, the only time I still read in public (on a public bench in city square or a coffee shop) is when I happen to visit one of the European countries. That tells me it’s so much more uncommon in the US. Here I read alone on my patio…
"Drifting into Darien" is such a bonny piece! I took a book to Creature Comforts last year during Athens' Wild Rumpus Halloween shenanigans; dressed as a fairy and reading a book about fairies got a weird amount of attention. When I can, I also read in public as part of Silent Book Club, but depending on the venue those aren't always truly public-facing events. Sometimes the places we're at have us in a secluded area more conducive to silent reading spaces, but others we're dotted around a park or brewery's outdoor yard amongst other customers.
The art included in this post is lovely. I also subscribe to Ravn's Substack and appreciate his art and comments on art.
I have never seen anyone reading my work in public, but I like to be outdoors, so I read there frequently. The deck attached to my apartment is a favorite spot, but parks are nice for reading, too. I also like to read in coffee shops where many others are glued to their tablets, phones, and laptops.
These paintings have a wonderful focus. Funnily, Janisse, I saw someone reading on a London bus just a few days ago and I thought exactly what you wrote: "we see this image—someone reading a book—so rarely in public these days...Of course people read on devices constantly, but a person sitting in public lost in a book strikes a deep note of nostalgia in us..."
Thanks for the prompt. I have books on my nightstand but haven't taken them out of the house lately. Also, a strange thing occurred with the changes Covid brought--I don't read fiction anymore, unless it's historical fiction. I used to read a fiction book a week but somehow that book lust for fictional stories is gone. It's strange to me. I do still love memoir and creative non-fiction and read that genre with regularity. Maybe it's just more honesty that I've been craving. I also love the conversations that reading a book in public can bring up.
These paintings are beautiful! I hope to own one sooner than later!
These are fantastic! I used to read in public a lot more than I do now...this is a sign to change that!
thank you
I love Raven's work! Say thank you to him for these wonderful paintings. Of course my house is filled with books, but so is the back seat of my car. As my daddy would say, "might need 'em."
thank you
Beautiful paintings! Timely question, I just had my yearly mammogram and took along Sparrow Envy by J Drew Lanham. I came home and watched Baltimore orioles and an oriole I had never seen before, the orchard oriole and wrote these tiny odes to the birds, inspired by Sparrow Envy:
Baltimore Oriole
My jelly loving, grape Smuckers beak smacking, chattering and chucking blaze of wing flapping orangest of orange and blackest of black flash of bird, announcing at each landing, look up from your book, aren’t I pretty?
Orchard Oriole
The orchard oriole, double O bird, the oriole of feeder and field, the new to me bird, flew to me bird, bird landing on stalk and stem, waiting on me, whispering to me, please pass the jelly, I’d like to sweeten my flight.
thank you
Raven's work has such a nice, dreamy quality to it. Good to see a lot of his paintings! Yesterday I read The Serviceberry in a medical waiting room. I was disappointed how quickly the nurse came to fetch me.
thank you
These are beautiful <3 I love Raven's work. ... I often read books while waiting for my kids while they're at one practice or another; I do it intentionally so I'm not absorbed in my phone.
thank you
I read all the time in coffee houses and restaurants. I love the opportunity to be alone with a perfectly brewed cup of coffee or delicious food, amidst a stimulating or comfortable environment, lost in a good story.
What lovely images and a reminder to read in public. I always take a book with me to dentist or doctor appointment. The place where I saw many people reading was Chautauqua when I attended a children's writing workshop. Even teens rode by on bikes with s book tucked under an arm.
thank you
Also, love Raven’s artistic endeavor. We could take a page from this playbook and likewise post photos anywhere/everywhere of people reading books… a work of conceptual art carrying a beautiful message.
thank you
So great to see Raven's paintings. I'm always carrying a book. Right now, The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane.
thank you
I love these. Takes me back to my preteen years when my best friend and I would walk to the library, find the best treasures to take back to my place and read in the lawn chairs. Today: restaurants, airplanes, airports, waiting rooms, on my back porch.
Amazing, powerful to see them all together like this. Love the paintings and the titles, too. Books save lives … they might literally have saved mine. My strongest memory is of reading Emerson’s essays aloud to myself sitting under a huge tree in a park when I lived in Gottingen, Germany in the late 80s. In fact, the only time I still read in public (on a public bench in city square or a coffee shop) is when I happen to visit one of the European countries. That tells me it’s so much more uncommon in the US. Here I read alone on my patio…
"Drifting into Darien" is such a bonny piece! I took a book to Creature Comforts last year during Athens' Wild Rumpus Halloween shenanigans; dressed as a fairy and reading a book about fairies got a weird amount of attention. When I can, I also read in public as part of Silent Book Club, but depending on the venue those aren't always truly public-facing events. Sometimes the places we're at have us in a secluded area more conducive to silent reading spaces, but others we're dotted around a park or brewery's outdoor yard amongst other customers.
The art included in this post is lovely. I also subscribe to Ravn's Substack and appreciate his art and comments on art.
I have never seen anyone reading my work in public, but I like to be outdoors, so I read there frequently. The deck attached to my apartment is a favorite spot, but parks are nice for reading, too. I also like to read in coffee shops where many others are glued to their tablets, phones, and laptops.
These paintings have a wonderful focus. Funnily, Janisse, I saw someone reading on a London bus just a few days ago and I thought exactly what you wrote: "we see this image—someone reading a book—so rarely in public these days...Of course people read on devices constantly, but a person sitting in public lost in a book strikes a deep note of nostalgia in us..."
Thanks for the prompt. I have books on my nightstand but haven't taken them out of the house lately. Also, a strange thing occurred with the changes Covid brought--I don't read fiction anymore, unless it's historical fiction. I used to read a fiction book a week but somehow that book lust for fictional stories is gone. It's strange to me. I do still love memoir and creative non-fiction and read that genre with regularity. Maybe it's just more honesty that I've been craving. I also love the conversations that reading a book in public can bring up.
These paintings are beautiful! I hope to own one sooner than later!
Thank you