My mother was a terrific crocheter of afghan blankets. I have a collection of them. These photos are just a few. I now consider them pieces of art. Today Ruth Schneider, my mother, would have been considered a textile artist. I loved it when Argentinian artist Jessica Trosman visited us at our Miami Condo with her children and her daughter yelled out “look at that Bubby (Yiddish term for grandmother) blanket! I got such a kick out of it. Yes, I use one of them on cooler nights. Heavy blankets make you sleep well.
Eliot and I watch true crime TV shows practically every day. Dateline and 48 Hours are a must. Eliot owns one of the most extensive libraries of mystery books ever. The news about Savannah Guthrie’s mom has our attention 24/7. We are praying for a positive outcome. I’m not saying that Paul Ciolino has it right but I just want you to hear his take on the case. I keep checking for good news. 🙏
Keep your eye out for more collaborations from art curators Sophia Ballesteros and Ross Karlan. Today we visited with Ross to see “Echoes from Elsewhere,” an exhibition between Laundromat Art Space and SCAD’s School of Fine Arts, (Savannah College of Art and Design).
The show features work by three BFA students — Parker Schovanec, Anna Shao, and Ella Stouse — and two MFA students — Iris Alejandrina and Alejandro Giraldo.
Ross told us that these artists bring a fresh perspective and a vision of the next generation of creativity in the Southeast.
We’re planning a spring escape to Savannah to immerse ourselves in one of the most vibrant art communities in the country. Thank you, Ross, for the inspired tip — we can’t wait to explore.
The NFL is just not into your red hats and hate. They see the future. The Hispanic and Black culture is the American culture. These are good people who embrace Jews and Israel. It’s wonderful to live and work with people who respect and enjoy each other. You have one life to live. Make it work.
A nose picking friend sent this to me early this morning.
Potentially scary’ link between nose picking and Alzheimer’s
Well, it’snot good news for most people.
Some 90% of the population picks their nose — sometimes several times a day. This may seem like a harmless habit, but frequently digging for gold may have dire consequences.
Dirty fingers can introduce bacteria into the nose, causing infections that can lead to crusting, tissue damage and nosebleeds.
Most of the world picks its nose despite the gross and potentially dangerous consequences.
Researchers are investigating the theory that trauma to the nasal lining can transmit germs to the brain, potentially triggering inflammation and the formation of amyloid plaques.
These are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive neurodegenerative condition affecting over 7 million Americans.
Scientists have been unable to pinpoint exactly what causes Alzheimer’s, which gradually impairs memory, thinking, reasoning and judgment.
Some researchers have focused their attention on the crucial nose-brain axis, a direct pathway between the nasal cavity and the central nervous system.
Because the brain’s smell-processing centers are among the first areas damaged by Alzheimer’s, smell tests have become a noninvasive way to screen for Alzheimer’s risk.
Perhaps doctors should also ask their patients if they are incessant nose pickers.
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative condition affecting over 7 million Americans.
A 2022 study out of Griffith University in Australia found that nose picking can usher Chlamydia pneumoniae, bacteria that can cause respiratory tract infections, into the olfactory nerve in the noses of mice. The bacteria can then travel to the brain.
As a result, brain cells deposit amyloid beta protein. These fragments cling together to form sticky plaques that disrupt cell communication and cause brain cell death, leading to memory loss and dementia.
“We’re the first to show that Chlamydia pneumoniae can go directly up the nose and into the brain, where it can set off pathologies that look like Alzheimer’s disease,” neuroscientist James St John said when the research was published in Scientific Reports.
“We saw this happen in a mouse model, and the evidence is potentially scary for humans as well.”
A separate 2023 scientific review suggested that Alzheimer’s neuroinflammation “might be partially caused” by pathogens entering the brain via the olfactory system.
Researchers theorized that these harmful microorganisms change the bacterial makeup in the nose, potentially leading to a chronic low-level brain infection, neuroinflammation and Alzheimer’s.
What a night! Celebrating the Fountainhead Arts alumni team from Buenos Aires, 2022 Ornella Pocetti and 2025 Marcelo Canevari at Nino Gordo Wynwood. Don’t miss their show at the @mindysolomongallery starting next weekend. Thank you @kathrynmikesell, @francesca.nabors and @niki_frsh for a night to remember. Everything was perfect.
There’s a nonprofit art organization that’s quietly becoming a global force — using creativity to stand up for Israel and to fight antisemitism.
It’s called Art World for Israel, and I have to thank artist Dahlia Dreszer for introducing me to its incredible founder, Ariel Penzer.
Ariel told me that since the attacks on Israel on October 7th, 2023, too many Jewish artists have faced online harassment — and a heartbreaking drop in art sales. She decided to do something about it.
That’s how Art World for Israel began — as a simple chat group among friends. They invited more friends, and then more, and it just kept growing.
Today, there are more than 1,200 members — artists, writers, collectors, dealers, and advisors — from all over the world: Zimbabwe, Colombia, Europe, and of course, right here in the U.S.
The mission is powerful: to connect Jewish artists in with their peers in Israel, to build professional opportunities, and to promote positive visibility through exhibitions, talks, and events.
As Ariel puts it, “We believe in peer-led initiatives, local gatherings, studio visits, and professional development to grow our community.”
It’s a reminder that although the Jewish population makes up only about 0.2% of the world — roughly 15.7 million people — we continue to be, as Ariel says, small but mighty.
With everything from shows and openings to workshops and studio visits, Art World for Israel has become one of the most inspiring movements in the Jewish art world today.
Eliot and I met Laura Shabott at The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown two years ago. The minute we walked in to the international art establishment, Laura, an educator, lecturer, artist and ambassador at FAWC, became a good friend and networker for us. She kept us informed about all of the amazing art activities PTown had to offer. We were busy all summer long.
We also have to thank Debbie Bowles and Derik Burgess for introducing us to Laura.
The Provincetown Independent just featured Laura’s exhibition at the Cape Cod Museum of Art. DigiDame is thrilled to present it to you.
The event: An exhibition of work by Laura Shabott The time: Through Jan. 25, 2026 The place: Cape Cod Museum of Art, 60 Hope Lane, Dennis The cost: $15 general admission
When Laura Shabott describes her life as an artist, she talks about four interrelated pursuits: making, teaching, building community, and engaging with art history. “I’m not a solo artist,” she says. “I like to work with others.”
Laura Shabott’s exhibition “You Only Get One Body” is on view at the Cape Cod Museum of Art. (Photo by Abraham Storer)
The works on view in her exhibition titled “You Only Get One Body” at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, are not collaborations per se. But they derive their energy from her interactions: attending figure drawing sessions, teaching workshops, and studying art history.
The exhibition is punctuated by large figurative works existing somewhere between painting, drawing, and collage. She made them on raw, unstretched canvas after teaching a workshop on Helen Frankenthaler, an abstract expressionist known for her stained paintings on unprimed canvas. In the class, she asked students to work in the mode of Frankenthaler. “I wouldn’t ask my students to do anything I hadn’t done,” says Shabott. Her own explorations stain cascading lengths of canvas.
This is just one of many examples in the exhibition where Shabott’s art practice directly intersects with her present-day teaching and her interest in artists past.
David Perry, the exhibition’s curator, hung line drawings on Mylar among the larger works. They were made in the spirit of the assignments Shabott gave her students encouraging them to abstract the figure and experiment with composition. In the rear of the exhibition space there’s a room devoted to collages made from ripped-up figure drawings inspired by a similar project Lee Krasner made with her own drawings.
Shabott has taught a series of classes — the titles beginning with the phrase “Through the eyes of” — in which participants make art inspired by the principles and working methodologies of artists associated with Provincetown, including Frankenthaler, Hans Hofmann, and Lester Johnson.
Shabott taught her first class in 2017 at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum and has since continued to teach at PAAM as well as the Cape Cod Museum of Art and the Fine Arts Work Center. During the pandemic, she began teaching online and founded the art collective Prompt with Alana Barrett, an artist living in Miami. Their classes generated a tight-knit community bonded by the isolation of the pandemic and a passion for art. Many of the older students were rekindling a commitment to art after years of neglect. Shabott could relate to their stories.
In the Drawing Room no. 2. (Photo courtesy Cape Cod Museum of Art)
As a child growing up in North Haven, Conn., Shabott regularly visited the Yale University Art Gallery. “I would go there a lot alone,” she says. As a teenager, she took figure drawing classes, which she continued in art school until life and work got in the way and she took a 10-year hiatus.
In 1992, she enrolled at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. “I immediately went into figure drawing, because for me it’s very grounding,” says Shabott. Eventually her focus broadened and she began studying film and acting in addition to drawing and painting).
Sometimes I Feel Like Two People. (Photo courtesy Cape Cod Museum of Art)
During this time, a friend introduced Shabott to Provincetown and she moved here in 1995. “I worked at the Boatslip, the Governor Bradford, and in hospitality until 2014,” she says. All the while, her artmaking was on the back burner as she contended with the pressure of paying off a student loan that had ballooned to $110,000.
In 2014, she started working at Berta Walker Gallery as an assistant. Inspired by the artwork around her and Walker’s encouragement, Shabott began painting again. “I said to myself, ‘You know, you have to stop beating yourself up over the student loan and go back into painting and drawing, which is all you’ve ever wanted to do. You bought the degree — now use it.’
Five Line Prayer. (Photo courtesy Cape Cod Museum of Art)
And once again, a figure drawing class was where she found her footing. PAAM offered her a scholarship to draw from the figure for six months. “I was shaking,” she says. “I was scared to return,” The current exhibition shows that things turned out well. “I gave myself permission to do it again, and through a miracle, the loan was forgiven during the Biden administration,” says Shabott.
The show, says Shabott, is about her desire to make art and the way that desire helped her transcend difficulties. More than anything, she says, “this exhibition is a celebration.”
The artworks on view reveal Shabott’s continued devotion to the figure. It grounds the exhibition, providing continuity in a show that incorporates painting, drawing, collage, printmaking, sculpture, and installation and an equally permissive approach to scale, with some pictures measuring more than 14 feet and others less than a foot.
One wall looks like it could have been lifted from her studio. There’s a mix of quick sketches and a large painting, Sacred Space. It’s an image of a reclining nude painted with black paint on raw canvas. The improvisational manner in which it is executed, along with the use of black lines, places this work within the territory of drawing. The viewer gets a snapshot of the back-and-forth process of an artist working across different scales with related imagery and materials.
Sacred Space. (Photo courtesy Cape Cod Museum of Art
In two medium-size drawings on canvas, Activated Space 1 and Activated Space 2, Shabott draws the figures in a manner recalling the gesture or blind contour drawings one might do in a figure drawing class. Here the line is more felt than descriptive. It embodies the physical energy of the model.
Line is Shabott’s great strength. In one gesture describing the edge of a model’s backside, the line quivers, echoing the graceful if imperfect quality of a body.
Working in the traditions of abstract expressionism and figurative expressionism, Shabott uses the embodied gesture as a means of conveying the body’s presence in an image. In Waiting, one of the strongest paintings in the show, Shabott uses dirty pinks, scrawling marks, and alternating dry and juicy brushstrokes to reflect the corporeality of the curvaceous woman in the image.Waiting by Laura Shabott. (Photo courtesy Cape Cod Museum of Art)
Waiting by Laura Shabott. (Photo courtesy Cape Cod Museum of Art)
A devotion to experimentation and a sense of exuberance echo through the exhibition. On one wall there is a variety of works about figures or objects in interiors including a sculpture of a flower on a pedestal that projects into the actual space of the gallery. Shabott festooned the ceiling with purple fabric — a soft voile — that she painted with rough outlines of an elongated figure. In Spring (After Rousseau), a 14-foot painting, a central figure is constructed (or deconstructed) with a patchwork of lushly painted collage fragments.Spring (After Rousseau). (Photo courtesy Cape Cod Museum of Art)
Spring (After Rousseau). (Photo courtesy Cape Cod Museum of Art)
The show, says Shabott, is about her desire to make art and the way that desire helped her transcend difficulties. More than anything, she says, “this exhibition is a celebration.”
DigiDame 