This modest bit of Sicilian landscape has an infamous history. This is the Latomia dei Cappuccini, an ancient stone quarry on the north side of the city of Syracuse. In 413 BCE, the Athenian attempt to capture Syracuse collapsed, and the entire Athenian army, its allies, and 200 ships were forced to surrender. The captives […]

Maid of the Mist approaches the Rainbow Bridge. Niagara Falls, 2024.

Among all the outstanding works I saw at the Corning Museum, this was one of the most impressive. Outwardly a modest genre painting, this turns out not to be a painting at all, but a mosaic— a micromosaic, to be specific. The picture is made up of thousands of tiny glass rods bundled together and […]

Another Banksy rat, this one found in the elevator of the Fenimore Museum. I admit I don’t know what the hell is going on here, The rat seems to have a cassette recorder strapped to his chest, and his face is— exploding?— undergoing transformation? His paintbrush(?) also seems to have suffered. Your guess is as […]