Art is Empathy: Why Good Criticism Matters Also, What the Heck Is Up with the Newsletter’s Title?

Roger Ebert’s idea of movies as “empathy machines” has been a guiding star for my writing.

In my latest 'Life on the Balcony' newsletter, I explore why storytelling and criticism matter, and how art connects us.

#FilmCriticism #EmpathyInArt #Storytelling #RogerEbert

The Silence That Stays The first time I saw Job’s arm at the Richmond Museum of Fine Arts, I didn’t think about theology. I thought about hospitals. Specifically, ...

A man suffers. His friends sit nearby. And do nothing.

I wrote about Job’s Comforters—a brutal, quiet painting I found in Richmond that won’t let go of me.

Read the essay: tinyurl.com/6m8vbd9r
#TheSilenceThatStays #ArtHistory #EmpathyInArt #ArsMendacium

Fix Your Heart or Die: The Startling Empathy of David Lynch The films of David Lynch are strange creatures, but to focus only on their most ungainly appendages is to willfully ignore their equally beautiful qualities.

A look at David Lynch’s deep empathy beneath the surreal in Twin Peaks: The Return. His weirdness hides a moral, human core that resonates powerfully today.

#TwinPeaks #DavidLynch #EmpathyInArt