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A Painting Shows Up at Goodwill

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on June 23, 2025| 5 Comments »

Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd. 2025.
Eva Hesse, “Landscape Forms” (1959).

If you found a painting you loved in some cheap second-hand shop, what would you do with it? Even if it turned out to be valuable? I think if I bought it because I loved it, I’d want it on my walls. Everything in the world is not valued only in terms of gold.

In April, Laurie Gwen Shapiro reported at Hyperallergic about a brother-sister team who are in it for the gold.

“One afternoon last fall, 55-year-old Kara Spellman was working from her Upper East Side apartment when her phone pinged. Her big brother Glenn, 58, a longtime licensed appraiser and self-described ‘picker,’ who lives in the same building, had texted a photo and a short message: ‘Take a look at this.’

“The image was of a small abstract painting — 30 by 24 inches — titled ‘Landscape Forms’ and newly listed on ShopGoodwill.com, the online auction wing of the national thrift store chain. The brushwork was gestural, the color palette felt just right, and in the lower-right corner, a signature: E.H.

“Glenn had a hunch. Kara, director of Estates and Acquisitions at Hollis Taggart Gallery in Chelsea, had a stronger one.

“ ‘We both have a good eye,’ she told Hyperallergic, laughing. ‘The brushwork looked too specific to be a copy.’

“But instinct wasn’t enough. The siblings, who’ve teamed up before on treasure hunts, needed the catalogue raisonné — the official compendium of an artist’s authenticated work.

“Kara emailed the Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and begged them to pull the volume by the end of the day. Miraculously, someone she knew replied right away: They’d do it. She jumped in a cab.

“ ‘There it was,’ she said. ‘Landscape Forms’ (1959). Signed. Documented. And officially marked: ‘Whereabouts Unknown.’

“The only visual in the book was an off-color image made from an unmarked slide in the artist’s papers at Oberlin College’s Allen Memorial Art Museum. In fact, as noted in the catalogue raisonné, it’s ‘one of 15 paintings known only by unmarked slides’ included in that archive. But it matched exactly. And it was lost for decades until it popped up at a Goodwill warehouse in Frederick, Maryland.

“The Jewish artist Eva Hesse, born in Hamburg in 1936, escaped the Nazis as a child via the Kindertransport to London with her sister. Their desperate parents followed soon after, and the family eventually resettled in New York. Hesse would go on to become one of the most influential figures of the postwar American avant-garde. Best known for her radical, impermanent sculptural work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and cheesecloth, she died in 1970, at just 34. Fragile and emotionally charged, her most important pieces helped define Post-Minimalism and, though rarely offered at auction, have sold for millions. Most are held in the collections of major museums.

“But before all that, Hesse painted. ‘Landscape Forms,’ made while she was an MFA student at Yale under Josef Albers — who affectionately called her ‘my little colorist’— is part of that rare early body of work. …

“And then one day, it was gone. Was it lost? Stolen? A gift quietly passed along, then forgotten?

“ ‘I’m not an artist,’ Glenn said in a phone call late at night after a grueling 10-hour day looking at estates. ‘I’m a treasure hunter. A detective.’ …

“ ‘Once or twice a year, something outstanding shows up there,’ he said of ShopGoodwill. ‘You just have to know what you’re looking at.’ …

“For bigger finds, Glenn often partners with Hollis Taggart, his former boss and longtime friend. They agreed it was worth pursuing together. After winning the lot for $40,000 — not exactly a steal, but Hesse’s auction record is above $4 million — Glenn drove to Frederick, Maryland, himself. …

“Back in New York, Glenn brought the painting to Hollis Taggart Gallery. There, it underwent conservation: surface cleaning, minor restoration, and re-stretching.

“It was shown at two major art fairs, including the Armory Show last September. There was interest — almost a sale — but no one bit. …

“Now, after regrouping, ‘Landscape Forms’ is headed to Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale in May, with an estimate of $60,000–$80,000. [Update: It sold for $107,100.]

“The Spellman siblings, Gen Xers who’ve been in New York for decades, grew up in Ballston Spa, near Saratoga Springs, and got their start as bottle diggers.

“ ‘There was an old slaughterhouse near the creek bed,’ Glenn recalled. ‘We’d find colored, hand-blown bottles and sell them downtown, because there was also a one-cent candy store in town. If we sold an old bottle for a quarter, we’d get 25 pieces of candy. A home run would be a dollar bottle, which equaled 100 pieces of candy!’ …

“Both are longtime fans of American Pickers (2010–), the History Channel’s reality TV series whose hosts travel across the country in search of valuable artifacts. ‘I still watch it religiously,’ Glenn added. ‘You pick up more than you’d think.’

“When asked how it felt to hold the Hesse in his hands for the first time, Glenn got quiet.

“ ‘It was very exciting,’ he said. ‘You get the thrill when you win it, but when you finally handle it, when you know it’s real, that’s the magic.’ ”

More at Hyperallergic, here. No paywall, but your donation helps keep great art coverage going.

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Sierra Leone: The Woman on the Bike

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on June 22, 2025| 1 Comment »

Photo: Caitlin Kelly.
The Bombali Bike Ladies of Sierra Leone hope that by learning to ride a motorbike and take up package delivery services it will be possible to improve their lives.

I’ve been reading a mystery about some Minnesota Indigenous women who, fed up with a spate of kidnappings, unite to fight back. Whenever I read stories about women uniting to improve their lives and the lives of other women, I rejoice. After all, the individual women who eventually get to run their countries do not always operate differently from their male predecessors, but women in mutual-support initiatives definitively behave differently.

In today’s Guardian article, Caitlin Kelly writes about Mariama Timbo, the sole female biker in her Sierra Leone province ferrying people and goods to town and “training a new generation of women to follow her lead.”

“Streaming through the green fields of Sierra Leone’s Bombali district, Mariama Timbo sits tall on her pink motorbike. Women selling nuts on the side of the road wave as she glides by; policemen give an approving nod as she passes through checkpoints. ‘They don’t give me any trouble,’ she says – a badge of honor in the rural district. Taking her time on the rocky roads, she brakes, slowly approaching the bumps. …

“The 26-year-old is the sole female motorcyclist in the northern province ferrying people and goods to Makeni, one of Sierra Leone’s fastest growing cities. …

“At a petrol station en route, male drivers greet Timbo with fist-bumps and high fives. ‘At first when I started, people were mocking me,’ she says. ‘Now they see how my life has changed since I started riding the bike.’

“In Sierra Leone, motorcycles are a lifeline. The locally known okadas are often the only accessible and affordable way to reach markets, hospitals and cities. With nearly 60% of the country’s rural population living in poverty, commercial riding offers income to hundreds of thousands – nearly all of them men.

“In her early teens, Timbo left her village, Kagbere, to ‘join society’ and attend school in Makeni, but the opportunity turned into a nightmare when she was sexually abused by a male relative who was helping her financially. ‘I didn’t feel safe,’ she recalls.

“She managed to move out and pay for the last years of school by doing odd jobs in Makeni but couldn’t afford further education. In 2022, she turned to Kisimi Kamara at eWomen Sierra Leone, a local NGO that supports business initiatives for women. One thing she had learned during her time away was how to ride a motorbike. The NGO helped Timbo get funding for a motorbike via a World Bank grant.

“ ‘I decided to ride because I knew I could survive,’ says Timbo.

“Defying stereotypes, Timbo has since started transporting goods and people – earning about 50NLE [$2.42] a day.

“Since the civil war in the early 2000s, okadas have become a popular mode of transport after the fighting destroyed public infrastructure. A recent survey by the Institution of Civil Engineers found that women make up almost half of motorcycle taxi passengers in rural Sierra Leone – but the drivers are almost always men.

“Timbo makes the 45-minute journey between Makeni and Kagbere twice a day, mostly to the market. Like many rural villages in Sierra Leone, Kagbere is isolated, agriculture-dependent, and cut off from mains electricity and water. As she arrives, women flock to greet her.

“ ‘We are exchanging things – we are constantly giving to each other because we are family,’ says ‘aunty Marie,’ one of the women in the village.

“Marie hops on the back of Timbo’s bike to sell pepper and groundnuts at the market, but she also helps tend the land Timbo has recently been able to invest in.

“ ‘Mariama has changed over the past few months … because of that motorbike,’ says Kamara. According to him, more than 60 local women – including sex workers in search of alternative work – have shown interest in learning to ride after seeing Timbo on her bike in Makeni.

“On International Women’s Day in March, a group of young women gathers in a dusty school playground, watching as Timbo skids around confidently. One by one, they jump on the bike, nervously revving the engine. They are the newly formed Bombali Bike Ladies – under Timbo’s leadership. Timbo recently won a grant from the UNFPA and the government to teach others how to ride.

“ ‘It’s good for women to ride bikes, because they are very patient and caring,’ says Aysha Kamara, a 21-year-old student who hopes the motorbike could help her secure work with an NGO.

“ ‘Job opportunities for young people in Sierra Leone are so difficult … unless you create one for yourself,’ says Adama Makaloko, 24, who is hoping to master the bike to ’empower herself’ and sell produce.

“Sibeso Mululuma at the UNFPA says: ‘The challenge presented by the group was that young women in Bombali district faced economic hardship, making them vulnerable to exploitation and gender-based violence due to a lack of skills and financial independence.

“ ‘It sends a strong message … that there’s nothing wrong with taking up space or doing things differently. That’s powerful.’ ”

More at the Guardian, here. Great photos and no paywall.

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The Power of One

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on June 21, 2025| 7 Comments »

Photo: Zach Mordan.
Armando López Pocol, who set up Guatemala’s Chico Mendes Reforestation Project in 1999.

Sometimes I am just overwhelmed at the power of one person to make the world better. It may be the man who starts a regreening project on ruined land. It may be the woman who draws cheery pictures on patients’ insurance bills. It may be you when, after getting a long run-around on a robotic telephone chain, you are kind to the poor schlemiel who is the first human you talk to.

Let’s start with the artist in the billing department. Steve Hartman at CBS, recounts what happened to a patient called Melody Morrow.

“A few years ago, Melody Morrow of New York City hurt her foot and needed physical therapy. However, she said what really made her feel better was paying the bill.

” ‘On the envelope, on the front of the envelope, it had these little music notes,’ Morrow told CBS News of the billing statement she received in the mail, a play on her name, ‘Melody.’ …

” ‘This was a stranger,’ Morrow said. ‘And she was doing that just for me.  And that’s the beauty of it.’ ”  More at CBS, here.

Now let’s turn to Armando López Pocol in Guatemala. Suzanne Bearne has an in-depth report at the Guardian on what he started.

It begins, “Armando López Pocol is showing off some of the thousands of trees he has planted in Pachaj, his village in the highlands of western Guatemala, when he suddenly halts his white pickup truck. Alongside an American volunteer, Lyndon Hauge, he gazes out over a charred field. Clouds of smoke are still billowing from the ground.

“As he walks through the ash-covered field, his optimistic speech turns to sadness and he pauses in silence to take in the barren landscape.

“Before the fire, this 2-hectare (5-acre) plot of land in the mountains of Cantel was home to 2,000 trees, all planted through Pocol’s reforestation project.

“Over a quarter of a century, he and his small team of volunteers and community members have planted thousands of trees, regenerating the landscape of Guatemala’s highlands and mitigating the impacts of the climate crisis, while also generating revenue for local communities.

“Pocol initiated the Chico Mendes Reforestation Project in Pachaj – located 2,400 metres (7,900ft) above sea level and about 6 miles (10km) from the town of Quetzaltenango, known as Xela – in 1999. At that time, the region had suffered extensive deforestation over several decades.

“The organization was named after the Brazilian environmentalist Chico Mendes, who fought to preserve the rainforest and for Indigenous rights until he was murdered by a cattle rancher in 1988.

“ ‘The struggles he went through in Brazil are similar to the ones we go through in Guatemala,’ Pocol says.

“ ‘From the 1960s to the 1990s, there was a lot of deforestation in Cantel, as the wood was used extensively for building houses and as firewood for families,’ he says. ‘I started Chico Mendes to stop the deforestation, as I was worried about climate change and environmental problems in Guatemala, with mining companies destroying the community forests of Indigenous people.’

“He says deforestation is now largely caused by fires during the dry season, and attributes the latest one – the third in his fields so far this year – to an arson attack.

“ ‘We’re losing many tree plantations,’ he says, adding that the region lost more than 100,000 trees to fires in 2023 alone.

‘What keeps my spirit alive are the workers and volunteers showing their support and not giving up.’

“Since he embarked on his tree-planting mission, Pocol has become resigned to the fact that he cannot stop fires. ‘We just don’t have enough staff,’ he admits. ‘It’s expensive to have people out here watching all this land.’

“While he believes some of the fires are due to foul play, he says they have tried to reduce the number by creating fire corridors in the forests. …

“Pocol says his organization has not received any money. ‘We don’t receive funds from the government as we are against mining projects and environmental injustices in Guatemala, and we know that all the funds the government manages come from transnational companies.’ …

“Without a regular income, the Chico Mendes project depends on donations and a ‘volunteering fee’ (equivalent to about [$20] a day), which covers a homestay and three meals. Volunteers gather seeds, source decomposed leaves, fill bags with soil, and plant trees.

“Donations and the volunteering fee are crucial for Chico Mendes, as Pocol sees his initiative as much more than a reforestation project. The organization also supports the community through ecotourism, with funds circulating through the local economy via homestays and treks, as well as volunteers spending money in the village. …

“[Dr René Zamora-Cristales, outgoing director of the Latin American restoration initiative 20×20 at the World Resources Institute] praises Pocol’s work and says Guatemala needs more people like him. ‘Deforestation has always been an issue, but different efforts, such as the one from Armando, have reduced the overall deforestation in the country. We certainly need more local leaders committed to improving the livelihoods of local communities by restoring nature,’ he says.

“Pocol, who works on his project every day without a break, including weekends, and tops up his income in the evenings as an Uber driver, admits he is exhausted.

“ ‘I wake up in the night and wonder what the future is going to be for the project as there’s been a lot of difficult times. But I’ve never given up, and it always lifts my spirits when volunteers come.’ ”

More at the Guardian, here.

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Rescuing a Great White

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on June 20, 2025| 8 Comments »

Photo: Atlantic Shark Institute.
A Great White shark.

Here I am on the island of New Shoreham reading about a Great White shark that people in Australia actually dared to rescue. Oy! Some sharks are harmless, but keep me away from that particular shark!

In New Shoreham, we know that warming seas are bringing more seals north. And seals, of course, mean lunch to the Great White. Grandchildren are told to keep clear of seals.

Recently, I read an Associated Press article at the Guardian about a different kind of shark adventure down under. A rescue.

“Tourist Nash Core admits he felt some fear when he and his 11-year-old son waded into the ocean off the Australian coast to help rescue a three-meter [10 foot] great white shark stranded in shallow water.

“Three local men managed to return the distressed animal from a sand bank into deeper water after an almost hour-long rescue effort [near] the coastal town of Ardrossan in South Australia.

“ ‘It was either sick or … just tired,’ said Core, who was visiting with his family from the Gold Coast in Queensland. ‘We definitely got it into some deeper water, so hopefully it’s swimming still.’

“Core came across the unusual human-shark interaction while traveling around Australia with his wife, Ash Core, and their sons, Parker, 11, and Lennox, 7.

“Nash Core used his drone to shoot video of the writhing shark before he and Parker decided to help the trio who were struggling to move the shark into deeper water. …

“The three men had used crab rakes – a garden rake-like tool for digging small crabs from sand – to move the shark into deeper water by the time the father and son arrived. …

“ ‘They … got it into deeper water where I thought it’s probably not a good idea to go any further. That’s its territory and I’ll stay back,’ he said. …

“Macquarie University wildlife scientist Vanessa Pirotta said while shark strandings were not common, they were becoming more visible through social media. …

“ ‘If you see something like this, human safety comes first and foremost,’ Pirotta said. ‘You can contact environmental authorities … who will get someone appropriate to come and assist.’ More at the Guardian, here.

Meanwhile, here is a relevant research project being conducted at the Atlantic Shark Institute. It’s called “White Shark and Seal Interaction — Block Island, RI.”

“The focus of this study is the White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias), a growing Gray Seal (Halichoerus grypus) population, and the potential for interaction between the two in the waters off Block Island, RI.

“Through the use of an extensive acoustic array, the tagging of white sharks and seals with acoustic transmitters, the tagging of seals with satellite (SPLASH) tags, and detailed seal counts and assessment using cameras and visual counts, the team hopes to better understand the ecology of white sharks and gray seals in this area, and potential interactions between the two.

“With a wide variety of white sharks being tagged (young-of-the-year [YOY],  juvenile, sub-adult and adult) and little baseline data for either species at Block Island, this is a unique opportunity to investigate if and when predator-prey dynamics are established. The Atlantic Shark Institute, RI Department of Environmental Management, Mystic Aquarium, NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Dr. Greg Skomal, Atlantic Marine Conservation Society and the Block Island Maritime Institute are collaborating on this study.”

Read about other Atlantic Shark Institute studies here. 

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A Migrating Herd of Animal Puppets

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 19, 2025| 2 Comments »

Photo: Berclaire/walk productions.
Above, a puppet herd beginning its 20,000km [~2,400 mile] journey in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The caravan of zebras, wildebeest, monkeys, giraffes and baboons “will make its way from Dakar to Morocco, then into Europe, including London and Paris, arriving in the Arctic Circle in early August,” the Guardian reports.

Do you remember Little Amal, the world-traveling puppet designed to spread empathy for asylum seekers, especially children? Well, now the creators of Little Amal have launched a slew of puppet animals to bring attention to another cause — the effects of global warming on all living things.

In April, Isabel Choat wrote at the Guardian about the project. “Hundreds of life-size animal puppets have begun a 20,000km (12,400 mile) journey from central Africa to the Arctic Circle as part of an ambitious project created by the team behind Little Amal, the giant puppet of a Syrian girl that travelled across the world.

“The public art initiative called The Herds, which has already visited Kinshasa and Lagos, will travel to 20 cities over four months to raise awareness of the climate crisis.

“It is the second major project from The Walk Productions, which introduced Little Amal, a 12-foot puppet, to the world in Gaziantep, near the Turkey-Syria border, in 2021. The award-winning project, co-founded by the Palestinian playwright and director Amir Nizar Zuabi, reached 2 million people in 17 countries as she travelled from Turkey to the UK.

In Dakar more than 300 artists applied for 80 roles as artists and puppet guides.

“The Herds’ journey began in Kinshasa’s Botanical Gardens on 10 April, kicking off four days of events. It moved on to Lagos, Nigeria, the following week, where up to 5,000 people attended events performed by more than 60 puppeteers.

“On Friday the streets of Dakar in Senegal will be filled with more than 40 puppet zebras, wildebeest, monkeys, giraffes and baboons as they run through Médina, one of the busiest neighborhoods, where they will encounter a creation by Fabrice Monteiro, a Belgium-born artist who lives in Senegal, and is known for his large-scale sculptures. …

“The first set of animal puppets was created by Ukwanda Puppetry and Designs Art Collective in Cape Town using recycled materials, but in each location local volunteers are taught how to make their own animals using prototypes provided by Ukwanda. The project has already attracted huge interest from people keen to get involved. In Dakar more than 300 artists applied for 80 roles as artists and puppet guides. About 2,000 people will be trained to make the puppets over the duration of the project. …

“Zuabi has spoken of The Herds as a continuation of Little Amal’s journey, which was inspired by refugees, who often cite climate disaster as a trigger for forced migration. The Herds will put the environmental emergency center stage, and will encourage communities to launch their own events to discuss the significance of the project and get involved in climate activism. …

“The Herds’ Senegal producer, Sarah Desbois [expects] thousands of people to view the four events being staged over the weekend. ‘We don’t have a tradition of puppetry in Senegal. As soon as the project started, when people were shown pictures of the puppets, they were going crazy.’ “

More at the Guardian, here.

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Sand Sculptures from the Nomad

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on June 19, 2025| 1 Comment »

2025 Hampton Beach Sand Sculpting Classic (Hampton Beach, Hampton, NH)

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Teenage Sherpa Points to a New Path

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on June 18, 2025| 1 Comment »

Photo: Nima Rinji Sherpa.
This sherpa “aims to inspire more young people to break away from the Sherpa tradition of serving only as helpers on expeditions,” says the Monitor.

It reassures me about the world when I see young people deciding on new paths and leading the way. In today’s story, we learn about a young Nepalese sherpa who wants to help young people like him to start climbing on their own terms.

Reporting from Kathmandu, the Christian Science Monitor‘s Aakash Hassan, writes, “On a bright afternoon, Nima Rinji Sherpa’s stroll down a crowded Kathmandu street is frequently interrupted by people coming to greet him. Some give him a warm pat on the back. As he joins friends for lunch at a pizzeria, its owner rushes to embrace him, gushing, ‘You are making us proud, Nima.’ …

“In October 2024, at age 18, he became the youngest person to summit the world’s 14 mountains higher than 8,000 meters (26,247 feet). Apart from Nepal, these mountains are in Pakistan, China, and India. 

“Mr. Rinji hails from a family of Sherpas, an ethnic Tibetan tribe living in Nepal whose people are pioneers in mountaineering. For generations, they have been highly sought-after guides and porters for international clients making the world’s most difficult climbs. …

“He is seen as a trailblazer who is pursuing climbing as a professional mountaineering athlete and who aims to inspire more young people to break away from the Sherpa tradition of serving only as helpers on expeditions. …

“Mr. Rinji’s father, Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, has summited Mount Everest nine times; at age 19, he became the youngest person to summit Everest without additional oxygen. …

“Mr. Rinji nevertheless showed no interest in climbing in his early teenage days. But in 2020, during the lockdown imposed for the COVID-19 pandemic, he developed an interest in photography and eventually followed his father up mountains with the hope of capturing scenic photos and videos. 

“On the first trek, Mr. Rinji says, he surprised his father by matching his pace and kept following him in the coming weeks on more trails, awestruck by the ‘beautiful and overwhelming’ mountains. Soon, Mr. Rinji was part of his father’s training sessions for professional climbers and was determined to summit the Himalayas. 

“In September 2022, a few months after Mr. Rinji turned 16 – Nepal’s legal age for climbing – he was part of an expedition to Mount Manaslu, the world’s eighth-highest mountain at 8,163 meters. There Mr. Rinji had firsthand experience of the challenges climbers face and of how tirelessly Sherpas work for their clients.

“Out of 500 people who were at the base camp preparing to summit that season, he says, only about 100 achieved the feat. Twenty people were caught in avalanches and had to be rescued. …

“ ‘I think I was one of the last people to summit. Then it clicked,’ he says with a smile and some pride showing on his face. 

“After that, he kept summiting one after another ‘eight-thousanders.’ …

“It was during his 14-peaks expedition spread over the span of two years that Mr. Rinji realized the extraordinary, underrecognized work of Sherpas. …

” ‘It’s our duty to vocalize ourselves, to take credit for who we are.’ 

“Making his own case as an example, he says he didn’t receive support from any major sponsors for his 14-peaks expedition and had to rely on the resources of his family. …

“Mr. Rinji has been meeting with young Sherpas who work as guides – or aspire to be guides – to motivate them to see themselves as athletes. He visits schools, addresses public events, and posts on social media about the need for young Nepalese to be ‘leaders’ in climbing. 

“With the help of his father’s expedition company, he provides free courses, or charges a nominal fee, to train young people who want to become athletes. …

“Mr. Lakpa is proud of his son not only for what he has achieved but also because ‘he is working for himself.’ 

“Lakpa Temba, a Sherpa who works for an expedition company in Kathmandu, says Mr. Rinji is broadening the employment horizons for Sherpas. ‘Nima is showing us a middle path,’ he says, ‘where you are climbing mountains for yourself, on your own terms.’ 

“Veteran Sherpas also believe that having more people from Nepal become athletes in climbing will bring new attention and opportunities for Sherpas. And it could attract more people to Nepal, a poor country that relies on tourism.”

More at the Monitor, here.

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Barbara Pym: Novelist and Spy

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on June 17, 2025| 8 Comments »

Photo: United News/Popperfoto/Getty Images.
British novelist Barbara Pym is said to have been trained as a spy.

Barbara Pym had a unique style of novel writing, very homey and at the same time, full of intrigue. I went through an intense Barbara Pym phase back in the day and am not surprised to learn that her powerful ability to observe and interpret small details might have made her a good candidate for a different field. Both wartime censorship (ugh!) and spying.

In today’s article, we learn that Pym received special training as an “examiner” to find coded messages and secret writing in normal-seeming letters. And there was probably more.

Nadia Khomami writes at the Guardian, “It is an irony that she herself would have reveled in: Barbara Pym, the author who punctured the social strictures of 20th-century Britain, worked as a censor during the second world war.

“But research suggests that rather than just poring over the private letters that must have helped hone her talent, she may have also been working for [British spy agency] MI5.

“New work by Claire Smith published {in May] proposes that Pym’s time as an ‘examiner’ for the government and in the navy could be more than a poacher-turned-gamekeeper tale about a future satirist. …

“Smith said: ‘In one of her novels, she said being an examiner was really rather dull. But when I began to look closely at her, I discovered many oddities.’

“She believes that Pym’s keen eye for detail was utilized for coded messages and secret writing in otherwise normal-seeming correspondence, becoming one of a group of female examiners who received special training.

“Smith, who worked in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for 27 years and is the only female diplomat to have negotiated with the Taliban, said: ‘They were the ones looking for the micro dots, the secret writing, the messages concealed in ordinary letters. And because Pym was a writer, she would have noted odd ways of constructing sentences. She’d have been extremely valuable.’

“Dame Jilly Cooper described Pym as the author who ‘brought me more happiness and gentle laughter than any other writer.’ But before she became feted for works such as Excellent Women and A Glass of Blessings, Pym spent the prewar era looking for a job in publishing.

“Instead she became a censor in 1941, ostensibly charged with checking private correspondence between Irish families in Britain and Ireland.

“ ‘I thought it very odd that an Oxford graduate who speaks German and is already writing should really only be looking at letters between Irish families,’ Smith said.

“Pym made several trips to Germany in the 1930s, and even had a relationship with a young Nazi officer.

“The research, British Naval Censorship in World War II: A Neglected Intelligence Function, is being published with the support of the Barbara Pym Society. It coincides with the commemoration of Pym’s home in Pimlico, London, with a blue plaque by English Heritage.

“Within Pym’s notebooks and diaries, which are housed in the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, Smith discovered that she had written about learning code when she was an examiner and how she even made a submission to MI5.

“Smith said: ‘If you’re just reading everybody’s letters to strike out forbidden parts, why would you be learning code?’

“And Pym’s time as a postal censor in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (nicknamed the Wrens) also holds key clues to a hidden past.

“She was fast-tracked for promotion and became a naval censor in Southampton when the admiralty was preparing for D-day, before seeing out the rest of the war in Naples.

“It was during her time on the south coast that the biggest oddity occurred, according to Smith. ‘In the second world war, MI5 used PO Box 500 as their address, and in correspondence they were often referred to as ‘Box 500.’ That’s quite different from the box numbers that naval personnel used.

“ ‘But on the back of one of her letters that was going outside the UK, Pym – in her own handwriting – wrote her initials, [naval land base] HMS Mastodon, and Box 500.’ …

“One final piece of the puzzle Smith stumbled upon was that after Pym died, her literary executor was ‘at great pains to say one piece of work, the comic spy thriller So Very Secret, wasn’t successful because Pym didn’t know any spies.’

“ ‘I thought: why mention that at all?’ Smith said.”

So it’s still conjecture. Seems likely, though. We know from the story of Jane Austen’s sister that literary executors can be extremely cautious about revealing anything. And Pym would have been good at spying.

I think anyone who’s a little bit paranoid, a little touchy about double meanings in the words of others could be good at finding hidden messages. What do you think? Any Pym fans here?

More at the Guardian, here.

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Urbanites Embrace the Tree Challenge

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on June 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Photo: Martin Godwin/The Guardian.
Residents in Tottenham, north London, with a tree sponsored through Trees for Streets. “City residents are working out how to fill their streets with trees as evidence grows of their benefits,” says the Guardian.

Can you bear another story about planting trees to beautify and bring warming temperatures down in neighborhoods?

Although really in-depth biodiversity efforts go further (read about Miyawaki urban forests here), street plantings are important, too. Each time I read about another community organizing to plant trees, I want to share the news.

Olivia Lee writes at the Guardian, ” ‘I wanted to do something that would benefit as many people from the community as possible,’ says Chloe Straw, pointing at a small but promising sapling visible through the window of her local cafe.

“In 2023, Chloe began chatting to her neighbors in Haringey, north London, about trees. ‘I thought it’d be really nice to raise some money for trees on the main road. Everyone uses West Green Road, regardless of whether you have a lot of money or not, regardless of your background.’

“After getting in touch with Trees for Streets, a sponsorship scheme that guides communities across England on how to plant trees in their local areas with support from local councils, a small group was formed to work out how to do it. As a first step, Straw and friends were provided with an interactive map to choose the location of the trees, and that was passed along to Haringey council.

“Then they got help to set up a crowdfunding campaign, which was shared in local WhatsApp groups and community forums, secured 168 backers and raised more than £6,000 [$8,000] in one month.

“Mohamed Eljaouhari, a co-chair of Haringey Living Streets, said [of WhatsApp], ‘It is a very powerful tool for getting a very simple message out very quickly to a lot of people. I got in contact with, like, a thousand people in a few minutes, because I forwarded on the message with a bit of an explanation to a local group here, a local group there, people who were interested in the environment and maybe wanted to help West Green.’

“The remaining costs were covered by Haringey council. The result? Twenty beautiful trees planted across the neighborhood. …

“Around the world, city residents are working out how to fill their streets with trees as evidence grows of their benefits. As temperatures rise, research has shown that urban trees can play a fundamental role in keeping cities cool, evaporating water to provide a natural form of air-conditioning, cooling air temperatures and reducing the urban heat island effect. Work by Friends of the Earth in five English cities in 2023 showed that areas with more trees and greenery were up to 5C cooler. …

“Public funds are stretched everywhere, and the community model followed by Trees for Streets empowers local people to take their own action without waiting for a government plan.

“The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) is a non-profit organization in Philadelphia that trains individuals to lead community groups to plant trees across the US city. So far their program, Tree Tenders, has trained more than 6,500 people, who have led volunteers in planting more than 3,000 trees each year.

“[Andrew Conboy, an urban forester in Philadelphia, says,] ‘There’s a heavy emphasis on native species here in the Philadelphia area, which is good thing because the native species are ultimately better for our wildlife and for our ecosystems, because those are the species that evolved here.’ …

“The Garden City Fund, a charity in Singapore, runs a similar initiative, the Plant-a-Tree program. Individuals and organizations can donate to the cost of a young tree and then plant it in one of their managed green spaces.

“Tree People, an environmental advocacy organization, runs a forestry program that supports communities to plant and care for trees in cities in southern California. The organization also runs the School Greening program, which provides training to parents, students, teachers and district leaders to plant and maintain trees in schools. …

“As the West Green residents take turns discussing their local initiative over cups of coffee, it’s clear that one of the most significant impacts the project has had is in strengthening connections within the community. …

“[Says Dan Snell, an urban forest officer at Haringey council,] ‘There was another tree scheme on my mum’s street who lives in Haringey … suddenly there were all these new street trees and my mum had met a load of neighbors that she hadn’t really met before, even though she’s been there for 30 years. It’s had this really lovely long-term effect on bringing the street together.’ It’s such a wonderful thing to connect over.’ “

Plant a tree, make a friend. More at the Guardian, here. No paywall.

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Promoting Fatherhood in Japan

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on June 15, 2025| 7 Comments »

Photo:  Ken Yoshida at CarterJMRN.
Gen Z Japanese men are leading a cultural change that the government is fully supporting.

When my husband worked in Rochester, New York, we knew several coupes from Fuji Xerox who settled there for a period of years. I remember the laughs my friend Yuriko had over the effects of a different culture on Japanese men. She couldn’t get over the memory of a Japanese husband in a laundromat doing his own laundry. That would not happen at home in the 1970s.

Other cultural changes have been taking place since then.

Patrick Winn reported at Public Radio International’s The World about fatherhood in Japan, where traditionally, dads were not engaged with the daily lives of their children.

Winn writes, “Yuko Kuroda and her husband, Takashi Kuroda, live in a modest, two-story home in Tokyo’s outskirts. Both in their early 40s, Yuko Kuroda works at a daycare center, while Takashi Kuroda has a white-collar job. …

“In contemporary Japan, roughly one-third of women under the age of 50 do not have children. Couples who choose to raise kids usually stop at one. …

“Takashi Kuroda, his face streaked with black marker, just emerged from a rolling-on-the-floor play session with his son and daughter, aged 3 and 6, on a Sunday afternoon. The children drew whiskers on his cheeks while shouting, ‘Neko! Neko!’ (Japanese for ‘cat’). 

“ ‘I really recommend this lifestyle,’ he said. ‘Raising five kids is fun.’ …

“Officials warn that if the birth rate doesn’t rise, Japan could become unrecognizable in decades to come: less affluent, less vibrant and less powerful.

“What currently is deterring couples from raising children is being associated with overwork and sky-high housing prices. 

“But one of the major factors concerns dads ‘doing too little around the house,’ according to Mary Brinton, a Harvard University sociologist who has studied Japanese demographics for decades and has even advised Japanese officials.

“Traditionally, when Japanese couples have children, ‘women do most the housework and child care,’ Brinton said, and for working moms, the idea of holding down what is essentially a second, unpaid full-time job is ‘not very attractive.’ …

“Among the world’s high-income countries, including the US, fathers average more than two hours of daily housework and child care. In Japan, the average is only about 40 minutes. 

“But what erased Yuko Kuroda’s reluctance in raising five kids was that Takashi Kuroda wasn’t afraid to wipe a butt or wash a dish. 

“ ‘If one of the kids falls ill, he’ll immediately ask for a day off from work,’ she said. …

“Takashi Kuroda believes raising Japan’s birth rate requires a revolution in fatherhood. More than a decade ago, the government launched a social engineering campaign urging fathers to become ikumen, a Japanese word that loosely translates to ‘super dads.’ 

“Through public service announcements, namely posters, websites and online videos, Japan promoted this ideal of fatherhood. The ikumen eagerly burp babies, change diapers and walk toddlers to the park. …

“Fathering Japan, a nonprofit organization, contracted with the government to promote an ‘ikumen boom’ and teach fathers, through in-person classes, how to care for kids and do chores. 

“Manabu Tsukagoshi, a director with the group, believes it has successfully shifted fathers’ mindsets across Japan. But workplace culture is much harder to change. 

“Plenty of dads now want to live as ikumen, Tsukagoshi said, but — especially in white-collar jobs — they might toil for old-fashioned bosses who pressure workers to stay late and, after hours, bond over beer and sake. 

“Japan’s paternity-leave policies are now among the best in the world, but too many fathers fear taking time off work and risking the disapproval of their bosses or colleagues.

“ ‘I’m actually a bit ashamed of our Japanese men,’ Tsukagoshi said. ‘As employees, we have rights, but men hesitate to break from the norm. If other guys in the office aren’t taking paternity leave, they won’t feel keen to be the first.’

“But Takashi Kuroda is hopeful. He believes the revolution in fatherhood — in which dads stand up to corporations and put family first — is on the horizon. 

“Fifteen years ago, the rate of fathers taking paternity leave was almost zero. Only in recent years, it’s edged up to roughly 15% while by the decade’s end, Japan’s government hopes to up the rate to 85%.

“[Takashi Kuroda] credits Gen Z fathers for helping redefine what it means to be an attentive dad, unlike their own fathers, who often stuck with a corporation their entire working lives.

“ ‘Younger Japanese dads don’t feel like they have to belong to one company. So, they’re not so terrified of their bosses … and will stand up for themselves,’ he said.

“The COVID-19 pandemic, which saw more parents working at home, spurred a higher number of fathers to refocus on family, Takashi Kuroda said. He’s among the fathers who not only demanded paternity leave but took an entire year off for his third child, also insisting on remote work. …

“By late afternoon, Yuko Kuroda read to her children from a storybook while Takashi Kuroda was in the kitchen, elbows deep in dirty dishes. The sink was full of bowls used for breakfast, and water-logged noodles swirled around the drain. He looked silly — the cat whiskers remaining on his face — as he radiated joy.

“ ‘I’m very, very, very happy,’ he said.

“When asked if he’d be happy to have a sixth child, he answered maybe, as Yuko Kuroda popped in to end the questioning.

“ ‘No way,’ she said. ‘Our car only seats seven people. This is it.’ ”

More at The World, here. Lovely pictures. No firewall.

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Duolingo Adds isiZulu. And More.

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on June 14, 2025| 11 Comments »

The Duolingo bird can be very encouraging to a language learner. But it can also get angry.

With Suzanne’s family leaving soon for six months in Stockholm, I’ve been trying to learn some Swedish. I hope to try it on my grandchildren come next January. So it’s daily Duolingo for me. If I ever get to the point where I can understand Erik when he uses Swedish with the kids, I might also try expanding my French. I like the way the silly Duolingo bird cheers me on.

I was surprised to learn how many new languages the app has been adding lately. In the beginning, it didn’t even have Swedish. Now, according to an article in the Verge, it’s adding things like Maori, Tagalog, Haitian Creole, and isiZulu.

Jay Peters reports, “Duolingo is ‘more than doubling’ the number of courses it has available, a feat it says was only possible because it used generative AI to help create them in ‘less than a year.’

“The company [said] that it’s launching 148 new language courses. ‘This launch makes Duolingo’s seven most popular non-English languages – Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin – available to all 28 supported user interface (UI) languages,’ dramatically expanding learning options for over a billion potential learners worldwide’ … the company writes.

“Duolingo says that building one new course historically has taken ‘years,’ but the company was able to build this new suite of courses more quickly ‘through advances in generative AI, shared content systems, and internal tooling.’ The new approach is internally called ‘shared content,’ and the company says it allows employees to make a base course and quickly customize it. …

“ ‘Now, by using generative AI to create and validate content, we’re able to focus our expertise where it’s most impactful, ensuring every course meets Duolingo’s rigorous quality standards,’ Duolingo’s senior director of learning design, Jessie Becker, says in a statement.

“The announcement follows a recent memo sent by cofounder and CEO Luis von Ahn to staff saying that … it would ‘gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle.’ AI use will now be evaluated during the hiring process and as part of performance reviews, and von Ahn says that ‘headcount will only be given if a team cannot automate more of their work.’

“Spokesperson Sam Dalsimer tells The Verge in response to questions sent following von Ahn’s memo. ‘We’ve already been moving in this direction, and it has been game-changing for our company. One of the best decisions we made recently was replacing a slow, manual content creation process with one powered by AI, under the direction of our learning design experts. That shift allowed us to create and launch 148 new language courses today.’ …

“Dalsimer acknowledges that there have been ‘negative reactions’ to von Ahn’s memo. Dalsimer also notes that Duolingo has ‘no intention to reduce full-time headcount or hiring’ and that ‘any changes to contractor staffing will be considered on a case-by-case basis.’ “

Hmm. That is giving me pause. But I do like the app and the way that for English-speaking students like me, Duolingo starts out with some vocabulary that sounds like English. It makes me wonder if it does the same for learners who come from other languages. That could be really tricky.

Have you used Duolingo? I know that blogger Asakiyume, a mega language learner, used Duolingo to add Spanish and Portuguese to what she already knew in Japanese and more obscure languages. One thing I know for sure: she won’t like that Duolingo contractors will lose jobs thanks to AI.

More at the Verge, here.

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The Radio Reading Service Nobody Knows

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 13, 2025| 1 Comment »

Photo: Nieman Labs.
Volunteers reading the newspaper for radio listeners who are not able to read for themselves.

I’d like to say a word for radio. Every time a new, shiny technology comes along, we hear that the old ones are dead. Especially radio. Radio is dead more often than than theater.

But I love radio, and I’m not the only one. I love it for news without pictures, because pictures alter the story. I love it for interesting stories that are not news. I can find those online, too, but the human voice is the part that means most to me. I like it better than podcasts, which seem to overdramatize, as if I need scary music to understand the next bit might be important.

In today’s story, from Nieman Labs, Neel Dhanesha reports on a little-known radio service that means the world to a particular audience.

“A few years ago the staff at Aftersight, a nonprofit radio service based in Boulder, Colorado, got an angry call from a man whose child was trying to watch Barney on PBS Kids.

“ ‘All we can hear is you guys reading the paper!’ the man said.

“His child had accidentally switched the audio channel on their TV, and the family had stumbled onto a form of broadcasting that, for the most part, remains hidden away by design: They had discovered a radio reading service.

“When color television arrived in the United States, [it] was the product of many technological breakthroughs, but the one most relevant to our story is the sideband, or subcarrier: a modulated radio wave that can, in essence, carry more information on the same frequency. Color TV worked by sending a black and white picture in the main band of a frequency and a color picture in the sideband, and the two bands would then be recombined in the tubes of a color TV.

“Radio reading services work on the same premise, except instead of pictures they transmit a radio broadcast. Where color TV brought more vibrant pictures to living rooms around the country, radio reading services, which are also called audio information services, have almost the opposite audience: every day, across the country, hundreds of volunteers read newspapers, magazines, and books on the radio for thousands of listeners with blindness or vision loss, bringing them access to local, national, and international news around the clock.

“ ‘I always tell folks we’re on super-secret radio stations,’ said Bekah Jerde, executive director of Radio Talking Books Service, a reading service based in Omaha, Nebraska. She’s also the vice president and treasurer of the International Association of Audio Information Services (IAAIS) a collective of 39 audio information services that are mostly based in the U.S. (and one in Australia). The stations are ‘super-secret’ because they are designed to be used by people with vision impairments and other disabilities that can make reading or turning pages difficult. Thanks to a provision in copyright law, copyrighted materials like books, magazines, and newspapers can be reproduced for free for the sake of accessibility.

“The first radio reading service debuted in Minnesota in 1969 as a side-channel on KSJR — the birthplace of Minnesota Public Radio. That first ‘Radio Talking Book’ schedule included two hours of the Minneapolis Tribune newspaper in the morning and two hours of the Saint Paul Dispatch in the evening, with readings from magazines and books in the intervening hours. More than 50 years later, the live morning newspaper reading — now from the Minnesota Star Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press — remains the service’s most popular programming.

“Today there are 79 of the services across the country. … In the past, listeners who wanted to tune into those super-secret stations would have to send in an application for a radio that could pick up their signal or, as the man in Colorado learned, switch their audio language on certain TV channels. But streaming has come for the radio reading services, just as it has for TV.

“ ‘We went online three years ago, which did wonders for our listenership,’ said Michael Benzin, executive director of the Niagara Frontier Radio Reading service in Buffalo, New York. ‘The big restriction we always had was that our listeners needed one of our radios, so we were managing a large inventory of radios, picking them up and dropping them off all the time. But now anybody with an internet connection can play our live feed on a tablet or a cell phone or a computer.’

“The majority of the listeners for these services are over the age of 65 and have aged into vision loss or other disabilities that prevent them from reading the news on their own, Jerde told me. That means they often don’t know how to use technology like screen readers, which don’t play well with many websites anyway. The radio reading services provide their listeners with an experience that’s hard to replicate with a computer: reading a newspaper or magazine from cover to cover, including comics and grocery ads. …

“For many people, especially in rural areas with poor internet access, the reading services’ radio and TV broadcasts are essential lifelines to the outside world. Some of the services even allow people to listen by dialing a phone number.

“ ‘Part of our goal is to go out in different parts of the state, especially the rural areas, and ask how people are getting their information,’ said Kim Ann Wardlow, executive director of Aftersight and president of the IAAIS. ‘We’re trying to figure out if there are other things we should be reading to best serve folks who are seeking hyperlocal information that isn’t necessarily in the traditional newspaper anymore.’ Both Aftersight and the Niagara Frontier Radio Reading Service have started offering programs in Spanish. ….

“Every service in the network is tiny, often run on a shoestring (usually) nonprofit budget: Benzin, in addition to making programming decisions, told me that part of his job as executive director includes mowing the lawn, vacuuming, and washing the windows at the Niagara Frontier service’s office. IAAIS has a program share, similar to the Public Radio Exchange, that allows member stations to share content to help fill the schedule. And while each has its own ways to raise funds, Wardlow, Benzin, and Jerde all told me one thing is the same across the country: the volunteers are incredibly committed to their work.

“ ‘I’ve got volunteers who’ve been coming in every week for thirty years,’ Benzin told me. ‘I’ve been working in the nonprofit world for going on 40 years, and I’ve never had a volunteer base this dedicated.’ ”

I’m thinking of other groups that could benefit: English language learners and people who simply never learned to read. I wish there were more publicity for this service.

More at Nieman Lab, here.

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Astonishing Fingernails

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on June 12, 2025| 6 Comments »

Photo: Prestel Publishing.
Kumi Chantrill (@nailsbykumi on Instagram) is a resident of Queensland, Australia, She began her nail business in 2019.

People can create art that lifts up any aspect of life, and if they do, I want to write about it here.

Today it’s about miniature art on fingernails — intriguing in ways that most other art isn’t. It’s easily destructible but must be used in constantly in life. With nails like these, how do you not have a meltdown when you break one immediately after leaving the salon?

At Hyperallergic, Rhea Nayyar explains her own interest in the fingernail phenomenon: “As a small-scale painter, I’ve been interested in meticulous manicures since 2005, when my mom presented me with the holy text — Klutz’s Nail Art tutorial book with six peel-off nail polishes. Twenty years later, I’m pivoting into DIY gel nails and poring over beauty and culture writer Tembe Denton-Hurst’s Fresh Sets: Contemporary Nail Art from Around the World (2025), which contextualizes advanced manicures as a form of visual art and cultural expression. …

“Casting a wide net, Denton-Hurst included select interviews and work samples from 35 international artists from Mexico, India, Japan, Korea, and across the United States and Europe. In a brief introduction, she traces the exponential growth of salon culture and nail art in the last two centuries, highlighting how Vietnamese immigrants began to shape the industry in the United States in the 1970s and the historical significance of custom nail art as a form of personal style for Black women.

“In an interview, Denton-Hurst told me that the driving force behind the project was not only to get readers to appreciate their nail artists more, but also to call attention to both the fine arts and fashion applications of the form by highlighting artists who are doing boundary-breaking work in the field.

“  ‘The thing that was most interesting to me was the range of experience across each included artist,’ she said in a phone call. …

Denton-Hurst noted that many art and design workers ended up pivoting to nail art in 2020 during quarantine.

“I did, too. With the pandemic raging around us, nail art became an outlet for both anxiety and boredom, allowing artists to regain a sense of control and reignite their creativity during a time of uncertainty and limited resources. …

“This new era of avant-garde nails has continued to evolve in the last few years, as material science advances in tandem with human imagination. Denton-Hurst cites the 2017 inception of the Aprés Gel-X nail extension system as a catalyst for experimental nail art, and new products for two- and three-dimensional designs regularly shake up the industry. From 3D elements on natural nail foundations to what I could only describe as wearable sculptures sprouting from fingertips, nail art has far exceeded the boundaries of a curved millimeters-long canvas.

“Photographed in Fresh Sets, sculpted novelty nails by Juan Alvear and Nathan Taylor stand out as structurally and conceptually marvelous. Moscow-based artist Margarita Tsibizova embraces the grotesque with her signature ‘dirtycore’ claw extensions, while Tahvya ‘Tav’ Krok‘s fine-line precision makes references to art historical forms, from Manga to mandalas and Victor Vasarely’s Op art to Claude Monet’s Impressionism.

“Fresh Sets ultimately emphasizes manicures as a medium for cultural and personal expression for artists and clients alike. Shirking racialized and gendered critiques of nail art as impractical, frivolous, and unprofessional, Denton-Hurst emphasizes that this wearable art form isn’t just an extension of our fingertips, but an extension of ourselves, our heritage, our interests, and our stories.”

See some fantastic photos at Hyperallergic, here. (No paywall, but please consider donating to keep their art coverage alive.)

I myself have always felt funny wearing nail polish. Like those baby turtles that ignorant five and ten stores used to paint with a kid’s name in the 1950s. I can feel the smothering quality of paint. And then, after chemo in 2002, my nails have been a mess anyway and definitely not worth decorating. But what about you? Have you ever tried nail art?

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Hilma af Klint, the Underground Version

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on June 11, 2025| 2 Comments »

Photo: Maya Pontone/Hyperallergic.
Grand Central Station hosts the New York subway system’s newest public artwork, “Abstract Futures” (2025) by a collective called Hilma’s Ghost. The work was supported by the city’s Percent for Art program, which has brought more than 400 commissioned public works into the transit system.

Hilma af Klint is having a moment. I hadn’t heard of this mystical Swedish pathbreaker before the Guggenheim mounted a retrospective in 2018.

Now some artists inspired by her work have merged her eerie geometric style with Tarot cards to make beautiful subway art beneath New York’s streets. Maya Pontone at Hyperallergic has a report.

“Celestial motifs and cosmological geometries strewn across a prismatic landscape comprise ‘Abstract Futures’ (2025), the newest public artwork to grace the walls of the New York City subway system. Designed by the feminist art collective Hilma’s Ghost, the 600-square-foot glass mosaic mural now greets transit riders between the turnstiles and escalators at the 42nd Street entrance to the 7 train in Manhattan’s Grand Central Station. …

“The project was commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) Arts and Design program through the four-decade-old Percent for Art initiative, which has brought site-specific works by more than 400 artists into the city’s subways, buses, commuter rail stations, and other transit areas. …

‘Abstract Futures’ [fuses] reinterpreted tarot archetypes with classic heroic tales to highlight the shared transformations experienced by commuters on their individual journeys.

“The first segment of the mosaic begins with the story of ‘The Fool,’ a tarot card signifying new beginnings and opportunity. … The next panel is laden with earth-toned tiles as the fool grapples with challenges and spiritual evolution, represented by the symbol for the ‘Wheel of Fortune‘ tarot archetype in the center. Situated closer to the subway turnstiles, the final section of the mosaic traces a spiritual metamorphosis in which the main character discovers a deepened [self-knowledge]. …

“Brooklyn-based artists Sharmistha Ray and Dannielle Tegeder, the founding duo of Hilma’s Ghost, told Hyperallergic that the artwork was developed over two years and executed in close collaboration with master mosaic fabricator Stephen Miotto, who has been working with the MTA since the 1980s. It shares the same name as their first visual art project, which consisted of a limited-edition abstract tarot deck, building on the collective’s commitment to reimagining historically under-recognized spiritual practices and gendered cultural narratives.

“Inspired by the work of Swedish Theosophist artist Hilma af Klint, Hilma’s Ghost has engaged in a variety of art projects since its founding in 2020. …

“Ray and Tegeder described their new mural as ‘both a celebration and a meditation on the city’s perpetual cycles of arrival, growth, and renewal honoring New York’s resilience, ambition, and the shared sense of collective belonging.’

“ ‘Our intention is to create a contemplative space that centers inclusivity, connection, and healing,’ the pair added.”

More at Hyperallergic, here. No firewall, but membership are sought.

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Bookshop Plus Cats

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on June 10, 2025| 5 Comments »

Photos: The Literary Cat Co.
Since Literary Cat Co. opened in Kansas about a year and a half ago, 32 of the store’s foster cats have been adopted by bookstore customers.

Today’s story is about a business in Kansas that meets two very different goals at the same time — and makes a lot of people in the community happy.

Sydney Page reports at the Washington Post, “At a bookstore in this Kansas town, three cats are on the full-time staff. Hank, a domestic longhaired cat, is the ‘regional manager.’ His job duties involve keeping track of the computer cursor and ‘sleeping in adorable positions 22 hours a day,’ according to the bookstore website.

“ ‘He’s the boss of this place,’ said Jennifer Mowdy, owner of the Literary Cat Co. in Pittsburg, Kansas — a bookstore that doubles as a cat lounge and feline foster home.

“Scarlett Toe’Hara, a black short-haired cat, who is polydactyl — meaning she has extra toes — is the ‘assistant (to the) regional manager.’ She is the front door guard, plant inspector and treat tester.

“Mike Meowski — a domestic longhaired cat with one eye, named after Mike Wazowski in Monster’s Inc. — is ‘assistant (to the assistant to the) regional manager.’ His role involves cuddling guests and quality control for boxes. …

“Mowdy opened the store in 2023 after 17 years as an educator. While teaching, Mowdy volunteered with animal rescues and fostered cats. She also loved bookstores. …

” ‘I decided I could do it; I could create something,’ Mowdy said.

“There are typically about seven cats — in addition to Hank, Scarlett and Mike — who live in the bookstore as foster cats. They’re ‘temporary staff,’ and Mowdy’s goal is for her customers to adopt them.

“ ‘We partner with a rescue, and when they get a cat that they think has a personality that would fit, or they haven’t been successful in adopting a cat through other means,’ she said. ‘If we have the room, we take them in.’ … The cats come from SEK Animal Advocates, a local rescue network. …

“Lori Seiwert and her husband adopted a brother-sister duo from the Literary Cat Co. shortly after it opened. The cats are named Frog and Toad after the picture book. …

“Frog, who is male, and Toad, who is female, turned 2 in February. Seiwert said she and her husband often stop by the store to visit Mowdy and play with the other cats.

“ ‘It’s a nice thing for such a small community,’ she said. ‘It’s very homey.’

“Most cats are adopted within six months of arriving at the bookstore, though some find homes much faster; others have stayed for up to a year. …

“Mowdy looks after the cats with Caitlin Fanning, a bookseller. They also have a volunteer who visits the store on Sundays and Mondays when it is closed to feed the cats and care for them.

“The bookstore is near Pittsburg State University, so college students often bring their own books to study there and snuggle some cats.

“ ‘We’ve got lots of cozy chairs and reading nooks,’ Mowdy said. ‘Lots of people don’t buy anything, they just come and play with the cats. That’s perfectly okay. We need to get the cats socialized, too.’ …

“The bookstore has become an environment for shy or unsocialized cats to get comfortable around people. …

“Before leaving work for the day, ‘we just make sure everybody is fed and watered, and anybody that needs meds gets them,’ Mowdy said. ‘We tell them goodnight and don’t cause any trouble, and we see them in the morning.’ …

“As far as books go, the Literary Cat Co. carries a wide range of authors and genres.”

This bookstore sounds like a place that “shy or unsocialized” humans could make friends, too, but I can’t help wondering how long a bookshop can last if it doesn’t matter that “lots of people don’t buy anything”!

More at the Post, here. Lots of pictures.

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