Into The New Year
Dear Friends,
Happy New Year! May this year bring you and the world more hope, more peace, and more joy.
This week, a short post to share some of what might happen in this space in 2024.
— Sal
Into the New Year
I started this newsletter on the first of February, 2023, and it has been a joy. When I began, I wanted to write forward from my book, The Uses of Art, and also to find a community of readers I can actually come to know. I also wanted to write my way into a new book, one that I couldn’t quite see yet. All of this is coming to life. To my readers and subscribers, my profound thanks.
While I’ve been writing the essays that have appeared here, I’ve also been doing other, less categorizable, writing, that has been carrying me into new territory. After this past week of silent retreat, I feel ready to start a new book in earnest. Terror and wonder.
Everything I’ve learned in the past year will bring changes to this weekly letter. I expect to be freer in what I offer; parts of the new book are likely to appear; the subject matter will expand beyond art and attention into new spaces of inquiry.
I’m excited for what is emerging, and I hope you will be too.
Coming in 2024
Workshops! I’m planning some online workshops on deep attention and new ways of seeing.
In-person classes for those in New York. To begin with, I’ll be teaching a class on Dogen and Zen at the Strother School for Radical Attention in March (enrollment is already open!).
Chat! I’d love to talk more with any and all of you. Let’s try out together. I’ll be opening some collective questions in the coming weeks.
A Note on Substack Itself
As some of you know, there has been distress in the Substack community at the realization that extremists, including self-declared Nazis, are using the platform. A significant number of writers called for Substack’s leaders to respond, and the initial response from those leaders was not promising: they said they didn’t like Nazis, but had no intention of de-platforming them.
In the past few weeks there has been a great deal of discussion within the community about different approaches to content moderation and how the terms of service (which prohibit hate and incitements of violence) should be interpreted and enforced. There has also been increasing pressure from some of the largest Substack publications, and preliminary signs that Nazi content is starting to be removed.
A number of people have chosen to leave Substack, which I certainly understand. I left Twitter some months ago over related concerns. However, I’m personally feeling that it is worth staying, and worth being part of the community that tries to resolve the situation and make Substack a better place. For now, I am staying. If I do move, I will bring you with me.
What I Want to See
In the new year I’ll be sharing more of what shows I’m planning to see. My good friend Marina Zurkow saw this exhibition recently, and urged me to go. I already love Ruth Asawa’s work, so of course I will.
Ruth Asawa, Through Line at the Whitney Museum - through January 15
If you can’t get to the Whitney, you might enjoy this essay on Ruth Asawa’s drawing practice by curator Kim Conaty.
It begins: “While the world around her slept, Asawa often stayed up, reveling in the open, uninterrupted stretches of time and resting her mind while drawing.”
What You Want to See
I’d love to know what you want to see more of (or less of) in this space. Please write any thoughts or requests in the comments, or you can email me at uses@substack.com.
Further adventures and new ways of seeing can be found in my book, The Uses of Art.
Artist Sal Randolph’s THE USES OF ART is a memoir of transformative encounters with works of art, inviting readers into new methods of looking that are both liberating and emboldening.
Dazzlingly original, ferociously intelligent.
— Michael Cunningham
A joyful, dazzling treasure-box of a book.
— Bonnie Friedman
Here’s a guide, to waking up, over and over again.
— Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara
I knew about her sculptures, did not know she drew - that watercolor is GORGEOUS!
Glad you're staying with Substack (for now) Sal, I feel the same way - very concerning, but I couldn't leave this community now that I've found it, the first real refuge on the internet in perhaps ever... I'd be interested in your workshops... ::))
So glad to be connected here, Sal! Thank you for the lovely drawing and photo of Ruth Asawa at work. So peaceful. Lookin forward to your workshops and maybe further collaboration.