By Lisa Wurster | Random Thoughts

Edward Goldman is an wryly irreverent, highly informed, wide-ranging critic and arts consultant; he has a lively weekly radio show called Art Talk that airs on KCRW, an FM station in Los Angeles. His commentary is always engaging. His latest essay, on Don Flavin and Richard Tuttle, is called "The Amazing Art of Nothing." To read it or to hear the podcast, go to http://www.arttalk.kcrw.org.
Another critic I enjoy reading is Peter Schjeldahl, who reviews the Edward Hopper retrospective on view at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (www.mfa.org/hopper) in the current New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/artworld/2007/05/21/07052/craw-artworld-schjeldahl. )(In our July-August issue, Sheila Hollihan-Elliot takes a look at the many drawings that led to Hopper's signature Office at Night.)

Other writers I look forward to reading: the radiant Stephen Holden, of The New York Times, who covers all the arts and is always rewarding; the iconoclastic Herbert Muschamp, also of The Times, who writes about architecture and culture and is sometimes disgruntled but always dazzling: brilliant, erudite, and funny; what more can you ask for? Who are some of your favorite writers on the arts?--Maureen Bloomfield

By Lisa Wurster | Notable Artists | Shows and Events | Videos

I just learned that Patricia A. Renick, a renowned sculptor, impassioned advocate for women in the arts, gifted teacher, and great spirit died on May 7th, as a result of complications from leg surgery. She was 75, a professor emerita at the University of Cincinnati’s acclaimed College of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning.

I met Pat more than twenty years ago, after I’d reviewed a show of contemporary sculpture at the University of Cincinnati’s Tangeman Gallery. She showed a silvery life cast of a woman encased in a shell/boat that was suspended from the ceiling. The haunting work had been previously shown as part of a large installation, and because it was positioned among disparate works by other artists, I didn’t know at first what to think of it. I came to admire that piece and, indeed, everything Pat did, because she had an unerring eye for design and an unswerving commitment to the integrity of the object and to the craft of making art.

I loved Pat, and whatever I can say about her art has to be accompanied by an appreciation of what can only be called her vigor. She was a life force; she could sweep you away. Her enthusiasm for the first international women’s sculpture conference was a case in point. She and Laura Chapman had a vision, and the world acquiesced, possibly out of fear. Pat was persuasively eloquent, always curious, and enchantingly funny: she delighted in anything silly. I once walked through a flea market with her and, believe me, it was a treat. She had an unbridled laugh that was sometimes like a whoop; her eyes were astute and kind; her heart was broad.  Pat was indefatigable if the cause was just. All of her causes were just.

I have so many memories of Pat and of Laura and of that wonderful space they created for their work. Pat always valued work. For her, work was a manifestation of the great love she had for the world.
Maureen

To see some of Patricia A. Renick's sculpture and to read about her life, go to http://www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag03/oct03/renick/renick.shtml.