ON A PERSONAL NOTE

All hail the most brilliant “dingbat” that ever graced the American TV screen as Edith in the All in the Family. She made us roar with laughter with her child-like innocence, and surprised & often shocked us when she handled the most challenging situations with the upmost grace & dignity. She captured the hearts of American audiences because of her exceptional, well defined, and perfectly crafted and acted American typical housewife persona. What was so incredibly brilliant about Edith is that she transcended all stereotypes of social class, the educated, success, motherhood, and the role of wife with her soulful and honest approach to and perspective about life. Norman Lear let Edith show us “how it’s done.”

The Edith character is one of those sages wrapped in “ordinary clothes & skin” who teaches us really important lessons: kindness, patience, acceptance, trustworthiness, being mindful, being loving, and that quiet servitude, that at times, can be all that is needed to remedy the cruelty and unfairness that we all face in the world. Edith: the “dingbat” we should all strive to be. If only…

Jean Stapleton was born Jeanne Murray in Manhattan, New York City, to Marie A. (Stapleton), an opera singer, and Joseph Edward Murray, a billboard advertising salesman. Her paternal grandparents were Irish. She was a cousin of actress Betty Jane Watson. Other relatives in show business were her uncle, Joseph E. Deming, a vaudevillian; and her brother Jack Stapleton, a stage actor. She graduated from Wadleigh High School, NYC, in 1939, and attended Hunter College. She worked as a secretary before becoming an actress.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE

I’ll never forget the feeling, the visceral response I had, when I read THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED by Tennessee Williams. It was as if i my heart had been blasted open with one of those crack-open-the-street’s-cement-machines…what’s it called? A jackhammer? I felt like I had been thrust into a different space and time; that I was different; that I was exposed to the truth of myself and to life itself, and it hurt me (even more than life already did/does) to see it, to see life, so plainly. I remember reading it again to see if I had made a mistake about what I read - to make sure I wasn’t in a fugue state; to ensure I hadn’t gone temporarily mad (it wasn’t unlikely). I knew after reading his words, Tennessee Williams’ delicious words, I’d been forever changed.

Throughout my life, I would sit, mesmerized, watching him perform. I felt as if I am struck by lightning. I remember turning my head wildly, checking to see no one was around; that no one entered “the TV den” to witness how flushed I’d become when I saw him tap, sing, move. As a little girl, I could not communicate the words to describe the thrill. I remember watching him so closely and imitating his movements; watching his curved mouth create a crooked O when he sang; memorizing his body and the way he moved: his walk, his limp arms hanging by his side. I just loved when he’d move forward toward the audience with his shoulders concave, the pause, the signal, intimating that he was about to let loose and really show us what he was made of. And, oh, the he way he held a cigarette, how he threw his head back when he laughed. I’d slide across the living room floor like he slid across the Las Vegas stages and I’d titivate my knee, to be sure it was turned in just enough to look “Elvis-like” and as slick as Sammy. My parents would marvel at how I marveled Sammy. Watching him, I knew I had I was greeting greatness and that he was my litmus test of the perfect stage performer. If only I could have seeped through that TV set and onto the stage with Sammy, moving next to him, singing with him, and tipping my hat to “my” Mr. Bo Jangles. Then, d. a. n. c. e.. If only….

Trained as a botanist, Anna Atkins developed an interest in photography as a means of recording botanical specimens for a scientific reference book, British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. This publication was one of the first uses of light-sensitive materials to illustrate a book. Instead of traditional letterpress printing, the book's handwritten text and illustrations were created by the cyanotype method. Atkins printed and published Part I of British Algae in 1843 and in doing so established photography as an accurate medium for scientific illustration. Learn more…

Alice Neel (1900-1984) is widely regarded as one of the foremost American figurative artists of the twentieth century. As the avant-garde of the 1940s and 1950s renounced figuration, Neel developed her signature approach to the human body. Working from life and memory, she created daringly honest portraits of her family, friends, neighbors, art world colleagues, writers, poets, artists, actors, activists, and more. Her paintings, which are forthright, intimate, and, at times, humorous, engage overtly and quietly with political and social issues. Read more…

Belarus-born director Darya Zhuk discovered filmmaking while studying Economics at Harvard. After beginning her career at HBO as a business analyst, she went on to earn her MFA degree with honors from Columbia University, focusing on Directing. Read more…

One of six children, Perle Fine was born near Boston in 1905, shortly after her parents emigrated from Russia. Her father was a dairy farmer, and while not in school, she helped out doing chores around the farm and house. She remembered, "We had a marvellous childhood. We always had lots to eat, lots of fresh good milk, cream, cheese, butter, everything. I never knew how poor we were." Fine's interest in art started at an early age, making posters and winning small prizes through her time in grammar school. When she graduated from high school, she was set on having a career as an artist. None of her other siblings were artists, but her sister was a pianist and encouraged her creativity. Read more…

Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011), whose career spanned six decades, has long been recognized as one of the great American artists of the twentieth century. A member of the second generation of postwar American abstract painters, she is widely credited with playing a pivotal role in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to Color Field painting. Through her invention of the soak-stain technique, she expanded the possibilities of abstraction, while at times referencing figuration and landscape in highly personal ways. She produced a body of work whose impact on contemporary art has been profound and continues to grow. Read more…