I have two upcoming shows in the San Francisco Bay Area between August 8th and 17th. If you are interested in attending or would like a private appointment or to host a small gathering of friends to see my work in the comfort of your own home, please email or text me and I can give you details.
The Nature of Pain
Click image to read about Shankar Vedantam,, the podcaster behind The Hidden Brain
One of my favorite podcasts, Hidden Brain “explores the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior and questions that lie at the heart of our complex and changing world.”
I listened to this Hidden Brain episode on pain and the research of Rachel Zoffness. Utterly fascinating!
It has been common knowledge now that pain is more than the biomedical model. Zoffness' research maps out in clear terms what is really happening when we experience pain.
These two stories below blew my mind and I hope you find them as interesting as I did. They illustrate the role our brain plays as a danger detector warning system, using the available data to perceive danger (or not). Pain is our protector.
A carpenter working on a construction site jumped off a ladder and landed on a 7-inch nail. It went right through his boot, clear out the other side. He immediately startedd screaming, in excruciating pain. His coworkers rushed him to the emergency room and when the doctors got his boot off, they realized, miraculously, that the nail completely missed his foot, landing just in between two toes. None of the surrounding tissue was affected: no blood, no wound. So why did he experience that excruciating pain?
Here is another story, coincidentally involving another construction worker, also illustrating the same point. A carpenter was using a nail gun and it accidentally went off. A nail shot out and he watched as the nail embedded itself in a wall across the room from him. He continued working. In the next few days, he experienced a slight tooth/headache and finally decided to go to the dentist to check it out. Little did he know that when the nail gun misfired, it had accidentally shot out not one but two nails. And one of them embedded into the frontal lobe of his brain! It was discovered on a dental xray He had been walking around with a nail lodged into his brain with just a slight amount of discomfort...How was it that this didn't cause excruciating pain?? To find out more, I highly recommend this Hidden Brain podcast episode entitled How to Combat Pain.
To delve deeper into Zoffness' incredible work on pain and perhaps with the aim of trying to avoid it, listen to her interview on the Optimal Body Podcast with Dr. Jen and Dr. Dom.
Artist Betye Saar (1926-2026)
Betye Saar 1926-2026
This is probably the most well known piece of Betye Saar’s—encompassing the themes that have preoccupied her: racism, family tradition, and the harmfulness of derogatory stereotypes and imagery.
Inspired by an exhibition of Joseph Cornell, Saar used the box form in her artistic creations.
Betye Saar’s studio with collections of things she has collected in her travels. Photo courtesy Max Hemphill
The Booker Prize
This year, in addition to awarding the Booker Prize and the International Booker Prize, two of the world’s most significant and influential awards for a single book, this charity is launching the Children’s Booker Prize supported by AKO Foundation, a new prize for children’s fiction.
Here are the nominations for the 2026 Booker Prize Longlist in full--the winner will be announced on September 22, 2026:
The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis
Switzy by Emma Cline
Helen Of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman
The End Of Everything by M John Harrison
The Disappearers by Marlon James
Black Bag by Luke Kennard
The Renovation by Kenan Orhan
May We Feed The King by Rebecca Perry
The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley
The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout
John Of John by Douglas Stuart
All Them Dogs by Djamel White
The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams
And while we are on the subject of books, Obama just released a list of what he read this summer (just like our current president, ha ha, who probably has never read a book in his life)
One of the nominees, Maine’s own Elizabeth Strout! This book is also on Obama’s list. I LOVED it! She is a master of human emotions and truly one of my favorite authors…I think I have read every book she ever wrote.
Photo of the Week
Photo from a recent show in Denver, Colorado at the home of my dear new friend Elizabeth Stopher…
Charity of the Week:
Doctor's Without Borders
Book of the Week
About The Author
New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.