The Way We Live Now: Questions for Jonathan Santlofer – The New York Times Magazine
By Marcelle Clements Q: You’ve been an artist for more than 20 years. This fall you have two shows, plus a novel about a serial killer in the art world, ”The Death Artist,” that has just come out. What inspired you to write the book? Let me just say that the death artist may have killed five or six people in my book, but he happened to have saved my life, truly. I had lost several years of work in a fire. I had an exhibition in Chicago, which I had actually postponed twice because I didn’t want to have it. It opened on a Friday, and it burned down on Saturday. I came back to my studio and there was nothing, just ghosts on the wall where the outline of the paintings had been. What did you do? I hadn’t smoked in 15 years. Within a week I was smoking a pack and a … Read more
To Assisi and back, real life and not so real world…
My Assisi visit has already come and gone. I taught drawing for the 2nd year in a row at the amazing Art Workshop International with its headquarters at Assisi’s Hotel Giotto, a short walk from the basilica and those beautiful Giotto frescoes that never fail to break my heart. This year it was the cathedral’s Cimabue that captured me. I always recognized it was a great painting but this year I was struck by the pathos in the Madonna’s face and the equally emotive faces of the attending angels, not to mention sweet St. Francis standing by looking appropriately simple. The art workshop is always great, attracting the best students in visual art and writing and this year seemed better than ever – and that goes for the Hotel Giotto’s food too: though I every night I swore to skip at least 1 of the 4 courses I ate every … Read more