Hasta La Gadget!

by guest blogger Maya Rodale, author of smart and sassy romance novels

My goal this year was to read 100 books, including everything on my to-be-read (TBR) shelf and all those books I’d bought and forgotten about on my e-reader. Ha! Snort. Like that happened. I blame the people publishing all the amazing books I needed to read immediately.

I did read 54-plus books (as of this writing) and since picking my favorites is hard, I narrowed the list down by selecting the eight best books for women from 2014. Some are memoirs or romance, some are serious or seriously funny, but they’re all great books…

1. Yes Please by Amy Poehler

I knew I was going to love this book because I have a major girl crush on Amy. She is so funny, isn’t afraid to look ridiculous, and does things like create Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls to counteract all the crappy messages girls find on the Web. Yes Please is full of stories ranging from her first experience onstage in elementary school to her time at SNL and Parks and Recreation and her friendship with my other favorite funny lady, Tina Fey. What I really loved seeing: how not perfect she is and how hard she’s worked for all her success. Also, all the laughs.

2. The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan

There’s no way I could resist a historical romance novel about a heroine who runs a scandalous feminist newspaper. I was hooked from the moment Frederica Marshall informed the hero that the proper pronunciation is not “Huzzah. Suffragettes.” but “Huzzah! Suffragettes!” This is not the book you might assume–a suffragette and the man who opposes her, but they “have explosive chemistry et cetera blah blah,” to quote the author in her note. This is a smart, beautifully written romance about a hero and heroine who work together to accomplish their own goals and yes, have amazing chemistry. And you just have to find out what Milan means by the dedication: “For everyone who has ever carried water in thimbles and teaspoons throughout the centuries. And for all those who continue to do so. For as many centuries as it takes.”

3. Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay

Free yourself from the tyranny of being a perfect anything, even a feminist! This collection of essays covers everything from how to be friends with another woman to writing about women’s weight and reproductive rights to holding out for a hero. It’s a fascinating and often funny look at women and pop culture.

4. My Lady, My Lord by Katharine Ashe

This is Regency romance–with a twist. And that twist is that the hero and heroine switch bodies à la Freaky Friday. Originally enemies, Lady Corinna Mowbry and Lord Ian Chance are forced to get to know the other intimately when they wake up in each other’s bodies. It’s hysterical to follow Corinna making her way in a man’s world and to watch Ian find out what life feels like for a lady. The newfound understanding leads to a love that endures even when (spoiler alert) they switch back.

5. All Your Worth by Elizabeth Warren

I sighed (maybe even wept) with relief when I read this book*, written by the badass and brilliant Elizabeth Warren and her daughter, Amelia Warren Tiyagi. Finally. All the scary financial stuff was explained in a way that not only made sense, but also left me feeling more empowered to get my financial life organized and under my control–and I did! Her plan is simple: 50 percent of your income is for your must-haves (rent, debt, and such), 30 percent is for wants, and 20 percent is to save. This is a book for everyone, no matter how much money, debt, or whatever they have. If you have an angsty feeling about finances you’ve left on the back burner of your mind, read this book and you’ll feel better.

*All Your Worth was actually published in 2006, but I read it this year and I want everyone to read it.

6. Three Weeks With Lady X by Eloisa James

In some ways, this is a typical Regency romance–corsets, carriages, manners, and a hero and heroine trying to resist an intense sexual attraction while discovering how they’re actually perfect for each other. But in other ways, it’s actually quite atypical. The heroine works: Lady Xenobia is an interior decorator of sorts to the aristocratic. And the hero isn’t a duke; in fact, Thorn Dautry is the bastard son of one, and he’s made his own fortune in trade. Together, they are creating a new kind of home and a family. P.S. This has one of the sweetest epilogues I’ve read in a long while.

7. Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan by Jenny Nordberg

This is an amazing look at the curious practice of bacha posh in Afghanistan: dressing daughters as sons. The book highlights the economic and cultural situations that have made sons and reputations so highly prized–and made women almost worthless. But it’s not some dry academic text; the author creates intimate, revealing portraits of girls and their families as they navigate contemporary Afghan society as girls disguised as boys. Sometimes families have their daughters cross-dress for prestige, or in the belief it will magically lead to a real son, or simply because they need a boy to work and support the family. One of the most poignant moments comes when the author is tucked away in a room in a remote province on a research trip with her translator, who has only ever danced “by herself or with other women, corralled in the bride’s area at weddings.” She asks to learn how to “couple dance.” The author obliges and writes, “As we waltz in our sweat-drenched pants and tunics with a touch of Swedish bug repellent, most certainly ridiculed by Afghan mosquitoes, I think about how I should dance more when I return to my world.”

8. I’ll Drink to That: A Life in Style, with a Twist by Betty Halbreich and Rebecca Paley

I picked up this book eager for behind-the-scenes gossip on all the celebrities, socialites, and regular women who came to the superposh department store, Bergdorf Goodman seeking Betty’s help in figuring out what to wear. I also wanted fashion advice. This book delivered–in a very tasteful and elegant way. But it’s also a story about a woman who wasn’t raised to do much other than be a wife and mother, wear glamorous clothes, and go out to fabulous clubs every night. And then she hit her 40s and found herself alone; her kids were grown and she’d left her husband. It was time to reinvent herself. She ventured out, getting jobs in fashion before landing at Bergdorf’s and creating its personal shopping department, where she’s been for decades (she’s now 86 and is still working!). It’s a wonderful story of empowerment. With pretty dresses.

What were some of your favorite books from 2014?

Maya Rodale is the author of multiple historical romance novels as well as the nonfiction book Dangerous Books for Girls: The Bad Reputation of Romance Novels, Explained. She has a master’s degree from New York University and lives in Manhattan with her darling dog and a rogue of her own. Visit her online at mayarodale.com, or say hello to her @mayarodale on Twitter.

For more from Maria Rodale, visit www.mariasfarmcountrykitchen.com

Creating jobs is one of the greatest global challenges facing the world today. While job creation is a top priority for policy makers here in the United States, worldwide poverty reduction is essential for our economic future as well.

One of the biggest impediments to poverty reduction, sustained growth, and higher living standards is the large percentage of the world’s workers who are confined to operating in the informal economy. People who work in the informal economy are essentially off the books. Entrepreneurs in this sector are locked out of the legal economy by a wall of red tape. They don’t pay taxes, their businesses aren’t registered, and they have limited legal protection or access to credit. They often operate at a subsistence level with little opportunity to thrive and grow.

It is estimated that about half of the world’s employed population work or conduct business in the informal economy. In poorer countries, the figure is often much higher. The reason the informal sector is so large is due to a lack of strong legal institutions and laws that protect citizens and businesses. Complex regulations and institutional barriers also make entry into the formal economy almost impossible for most.

Reducing world poverty is being tackled on a global level through the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that were established by the United Nations in 2000 and will expire next year. Deliberations on the post-2015 development agenda are currently underway and significant progress has been made toward defining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will replace the MDGs. Two of the SDGs spell out what is needed to drive domestic economic growth and create environments where businesses can thrive.

Goal eight calls for the promotion of inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all; and goal 16 recommends building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions to support sustainable development. These are the reforms necessary to bring informal sector workers into the legal economy.

Governments and the private sector have a crucial role to play in this process by supporting business enabling environments that allow individuals to start and grow businesses and take part in the economy. Key are systems that give entrepreneurs and small businesspeople control over their assets and a legal framework that protects property rights and upholds contracts.

Such an environment requires institutions that support entrepreneurs and businesses. These institutions include the rule of law, property rights, and regulations that provide a level playing field where individuals can pursue their dreams and build a better life through hard work and innovation. Without these fundamental elements in place, many small businesses are unable to move from the informal sector where they have difficulty accessing the credit needed to expand their businesses and where they can fall prey to corrupt practices. When you create an environment that enables people to succeed, citizens have a stake in the economy and a sense of hope for the future.

In fact, Louise Kantrow, the Permanent Representative to the United Nations for the International Chamber of Commerce, has said that rule of law and effective institutions are the bedrock of our economies and societies, without which sustainable development would be impossible. Her office recommends that any new SDG framework include a greater emphasis on the implementation of laws in all sectors that effect the economy. But designing good laws is not sufficient in itself. Institutions must enforce laws to minimize the risk of bribery and corruption.

Concentrating on enabling environments that address the informal sector will help countries mobilize and attract domestic and international investment and build the infrastructure necessary to spur inclusive economic growth. Without a sound legal system and good governance, there cannot be long term economic growth. These elements are central to sustainable development.

Businesses and employees that pay taxes, and a fair and sound tax system, are also needed for building a nation’s economic and physical infrastructure. Without government revenue there cannot be education, healthcare, roads and other government services that are vital to a nation’s economy.

Policy makers and experts must keep these key issues in mind as they discuss future strategies for addressing global development challenges. Developing and building the institutions that allow entrepreneurs to fully participate in the economy will need to be a fundamental piece of any strategy to address world poverty and improve the quality of life for people around the world.

The fossil fuel industry has created a bit of a scandal for itself here at the UN Climate Talks in Lima.

For the last week, a group called the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) has been passing around a booklet of side events they are hosting throughout the summit. Scheduled for Monday is an event hosted by the Global CCS (carbon capture and sequestration) Institute that features speakers from Shell and the World Coal Association. The title: “Why Divest from Fossil Fuels When a Future with Low Emission Fossil Energy Use is Already a Reality?”

If you were looking for evidence that the divestment movement is beginning to put serious pressure on the fossil fuel industry, look no further. The title couldn’t be more hilariously convoluted. First, low emission fossil fuels are an oxymoron. Second, even if they did exist, they’re certainly not a reality today: carbon emissions are increasing each year and are directly tied to fossil fuel use.

With this one, even the industry lobbyists realized they’d gone a bit too far. Sometime this week, the event planners quietly changed the name of the panel too: “How can we reconcile climate targets with energy demand growth?” (They didn’t however change the URL of the event, which still keeps the old title alive and well).

Civil society groups are rightfully outraged that such an event is allowed to take place at the climate talks. They are hosting a protest on Monday morning, just before the panel, to shine a spotlight on the fossil fuel industry’s terrible history in Latin America and call for industry lobbyists to be banned from the talks. While the World Health Organization, has banned tobacco industry lobbyists from taking part in tobacco control talks, the climate process has no such protections.

Whatever name the panel goes by, it’s speaks to the growing influence of the divestment campaign. Divestment efforts have grown in leaps and bounds since the last year’s negotiations in Warsaw. This September, the Rockefeller Brother’s Fund announced they would be divesting from fossil fuels, dealing an iconic blow to Big Oil. Earlier in the year, Stanford University announced it would be divesting from coal and looking at the possibility of full divestment. Meanwhile, religious communities, including the World Council of Churches, are taking up divestment as a moral cause. According to a recent report, the combined assets of institutions committed to divestment has topped $50 billion.

That is still a small fraction of the total funds invested in the fossil fuel industry. But the goal of the divestment campaign has never been to financially bankrupt the fossil fuel industry. The goal is to morally bankrupt them.

That process of social stigmatization is well on its way. Tar sands companies in Canada are speaking out about the “difficult environment” they face in convincing the public to allow new pipelines. In Australia, the coal industry is lashing out at divestment activists for (rightfully) dragging the industry’s name through the dirt. A giant power company in the United States just committed to reduce its GHG emissions by 90% and cited the next generation of eco-conscious consumers as a key motivation. In Germany, the mega utility E.On is divesting itself from fossil fuels and focusing on renewables.

The erosion of the industry’s social license has begun to help open up the space for politicians to take action. France just made an important move to cut financing for coal fired power plants. Germany is going after coal to meet their emissions targets. Perhaps President Obama will even finally go ahead and reject the Keystone XL pipeline once and for all?

Meanwhile, inside the UN climate talks in Lima, the rhetoric about the need to get off fossil fuels has never been stronger. Negotiators and civil society representatives are speaking about the potential for 100% renewable energy. On Wednesday, developing countries endorsed the goal of bringing greenhouse gas emissions to zero. UN Climate Secretary Christiana Figueres is openly talking about the need to completely phase out emissions.

The case for going fossil free has been strengthened by the growing understanding of the carbon bubble. The idea of the bubble is easy to grasp. Fossil fuel companies are valued in large part on their ability to being their reserves of coal, oil or gas to makers. But in order to limit global warming to below 2°C, the target the world has agreed to meet, roughly 80% of those reserves must be left underground. That wipes potentially trillions of dollars of the industry’s balance sheet. As this inconvenient truth begins to settle in, investors are becoming increasingly nervous. Earlier this week, the Bank of England announced it would be looking seriously at the threat of stranded assets. When major institutions like that start questioning the future of fossil fuels, you know a sea change is underway.

With the world turning against them, the fossil fuel industry is grasping at straws, namely the massive deployment of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology. Talk about living on a prayer–and in this case the industry is far from halfway there. CCS has never been demonstrated at scale and the test projects underway are riddled with difficulties. Even if the technology was viable, it would be massively expensive, undercutting the industry’s ability to compete with renewable energy.

The climate movement will have to remain vigilant in protecting the various pieces of the climate process from being corrupted by “false solutions” like CCS, but this is a fight that we’re well equipped for. Monday’s panel here at the climate talks will be met with protests and a social media barrage designed to get out the real facts on CCS. Fossil fuel divestment has helped put the industry on the defensive. Time for negotiators to start playing offense.

Last year when announcing the top 50 resorts we began by stating the obvious: there are a lot of great ski resorts out there. While that hasn’t changed, our list of the top 50 certainly has–thanks to our readers.

Click Here to see the Complete List of Best Ski Resorts in North America

In 2013 we asked avid skiers and boarders to vote on 80 North American resorts to determine which of those was worthy of top 50 status. This year, we brought the number of nominated resorts to 103 and asked our readers to vote once again.

Though there are more than 600 ski areas throughout the continent, with the help of publically available statistics, industry lists and expert opinions we narrowed the initial list to 103. Then with the help of our voters we narrowed it down even further to a ranked list of the top 50 ski resorts in North America for the 2014-2015 season.

A lot can change in a year. Resorts across the continent have made additions like offering cat-skiing and completely new beginner programs, they’ve made enhancements in snowmaking capabilities, lifts and trails–and those are just some of the more notable on-mountain improvements. There have also been additions and improvements to the après scene at many of these great resorts. Those changes–along with the opinions of our voters and data–were reflected in this year’s list.

From the famous massive mountains out west to some of the smaller gems hidden away in the east and some top competition from Canada–see if your favorite ski resort ranked on this year’s list.

Click Here to see the Original Story on The Active Times

– The Editors, The Active Times

More Content from The Active Times:
Cool Climbs: The Best Ice Climbing Spots Around the World
10 Spectacular Ice Caves You Can Visit Year Round
Stunning Winter Hikes
Picturesque National Parks to Visit in the Wintertime
The Most Beautiful Remote Destinations Worth the Trek

Andrew Forge Fragment Torso III Oil on Canvas 44 x 36 inches

Andrew Forge was an influential painter and teacher for years at Yale among other places. His influence was formative for me and I know for many others as well. An ideal tribute to his memory would be a sprawling museum show of his work and the work of artists he influenced, since that’s not in my power; I reached out to artists who have generously shared their memories and work below. If you’re in New York this December, you can see a couple of Andrew’s paintings as they demand to be seen, in the flesh, at The Betty Cuningham Gallery The show is called, “It’s Magic!” a group exhibition of works by Andrew Forge, William Bailey, Rackstraw Downes, Jake Berthot, Forrest Bess, Alfonso Fratteggiani Bianchi, John Elderfield, Alison Wilding, and Christopher Wilmarth, December 10 – January 10, 2015 with an opening reception on Saturday, December 13th from 4 -7 pm.

Ann Gale Rachel with White Robe 14 x 11 inches oil on masonite 2011

Ann Gale had Andrew Forge as a teacher and I was happy to get the chance to talk about him with her. She remembered in particular a short two-part question he asked her: ‘What are your intentions, and what are your assumptions?’ a short question which fosters a self-critical reframing.

Julie Heffernan Self-Portrait Between a Rock oil on canvas 68″ x 66″ 2014

Andrew Forge by Julie Heffernan
My first semester at Yale was a disaster. I came into the MFA Program as a painter but not really understanding what painting is (this was the time of BFAs in self-exploration) and found myself in a space of magical thinking where I assumed, now that I was in the same program that graduated the likes of Chuck Close and Brice Marden, I would suddenly be able to paint anything I wanted. I went at it, stretching huge canvases and smearing on colors, hoping the instincts that had gotten me into the program would now work to keep me there.

My first critique was with Andrew Forge. I can still see his tall lanky frame in the doorway of my studio, how he paused and looked around before actually entering; how he paced around with his head down and brow furrowed, trying to give respect to the presence of another human being in the room but not knowing how on earth he might give intellectual cred to the awful messes in front of him, or what to say in general to give this poor clueless student the beginning of an idea of what a painting might be.

That’s how it went the entire first semester. I would paint one sorry painting after another, and call Andrew in to look, who would patiently scrutinize the calamity and search his capacious intellect for something to say about it. With his infinite kindness and great mind he always would, in the end, find something wonderful to say to legitimize the poor thing he was conscripted to care about, and then break into a big grin as though he had discovered some marvelous treat in the bottom of a box of stale cheerios. Slowly, slowly, with that kind of intelligence guiding me I did get a clue, and I made some paintings worth discussing, was awarded the famous Cup and, best of all, Andrew Forge telling a friend that he would like to know me after graduation. I never took him up on it. A huge regret.

Denzil Hurley #4

More Dots to Be Connected by Denzil Hurley
Andrew always seemed to see more, and ask more of a given work, a situation and himself. His presence, his questioning, and keen perception located a listener or viewer to the inside of things, and away from a periphery to acknowledge an expanding and a pulsating core. He would often say, “press on!” and that would indicate that there is something there and more to be realized. Andrew’s passion and thoughtfulness embraced knowledge with an openness that pointed to complexities and affirmations of beauty that his own work carried and holds.

Margaret McCann Sideshow 48 x 60 inches 2012

Margaret McCann

I studied at the New York Studio School in the 1980s with Andrew Forge’s wife, Ruth Miller, and with Gretna Campbell, who also taught at Yale and suggested I schedule my grad school interview the day Forge and Jake Berthot were conducting them. They responded positively, so at Yale I took a seminar with Forge, which involved reading Gombrich, analyzing Turners at the British Art Center, and following assignments like ‘do a painting involving an oval’. I made one of my best within those curious perimeters, “Self-Portrait as a Lady” (I’d just read the Henry James novel), which the director of the Yale Art Gallery purchased. I wrote an ambitious paper comparing the genres of portraiture, still life, and landscape, and Forge urged me to try to publish it, and to keep writing. He brought in a book on Dada and Surrealism for me to peruse, and suggested I take visiting professor Umberto Eco’s class, advice I sadly didn’t follow. I see now that like any perceptive teacher he was showing me how to take myself more seriously. Although his recognition of my artistic voice – something beyond technical ability, which back then was suspected of suppressing authenticity – initially bewildered me, over time it became an encouraging voice in the studio.

Forge’s judicious remarks at critiques were short on the kind of flashy drama that shocks and captivates, but fades beyond the memory of injury. While painting and teaching in Italy for eight years after Yale, I read a lot of art history, including Forge’s excellent book on Monet. Auden’s observation in “Secondary Worlds,” that it takes experiencing two other cultures to understand your own deeply, made me wonder if being a foreigner had shaped Forge’s more expansive viewpoint, in comparison to other teachers’ focus on the fickle politics of the art world. Eventually I got a couple poems published, and after returning to the states wrote art reviews for “Art New England,” and a humor column for a local New Hampshire paper. When David Kratz of the New York Academy of Art recently asked me to edit “The Figure,” a Skira/Rizzoli book, the confidence I felt pursuing my vision for it – evolving approaches from antiquity to cyberspace – owed much to Andrew Forge.

Paula Heisen September Gold 9 x 12 inches oil on linen 2012

Paula Heisen

As a Teaching Assistant for Andrew Forge at Yale in 1981-82, I was often as enthralled with his teaching methods as the beginning drawing students in the class. The subtle philosophical method with which he emphasized both the realities and mysteries of perceptual experience, and his vivid presentations of the tradition of art, were so seductive that even at this point in my life I often cannot disentangle his ideas from my own.

In a typical demonstration, he asked me to stand in front of the class in a Kouros pose, legs straight, one in front of the other, while he gave a lecture on the history of the representation of the human figure in art. When he got to ancient Greece, he asked me to pull the front leg back, shift my hips, slightly bend one leg and twist my torso. Voilà! Thousands of years of imagery upended by a minor shift in stance, Kouros to contrapposto. In another class, he placed a student in front of an easel, next to a still life setup. He talked about the “triangle” formed by the artist, the thing observed and the painting itself, explaining how during the process of painting or drawing what one sees, the artwork itself takes on a power as important as the thing observed, and that part of an artist’s job is to recognize that particular power. I think of that triangle all the time. I watch as a painting slowly takes on a reality beyond perceptual observation, eventually replacing it in importance. It is this psychic unity that Andrew was illustrating, something I look for in my own work and in the work of others.
Once, while talking to him at an opening in New York City, I had the sensation of his presence blinking in and out of existence, something like a quantum particle. It seemed to me an essential part of his intelligence, his feeling at home in flickering ambiguity. At that instant, I understood an aspect of his painting that I had never before grasped. That there, not-thereness in his work: the elusive presence of things, sensed more than seen; the need for openness and exploration. I saw his paintings as a complete manifestation of the complexity of his brilliant mind.

Tommy Fitzpatrick Zeppelin Bend 30 x 30 inches acrylic on canvas 2014

Tommy Fitzpatrick

Once I remember a studio visit at the Art and Architecture Building where Andrew Forge discussed how painting is a non verbal art that transcends words. He then proceeded to discuss the importance of Broadway Boogie Woogie for at least an hour. His generosity and patience for young people helped me find myself as an artist. As a professor, he was full of life. When I meet Andrew he was working on his dot paintings.
You could tell how passionate he was for his work. Andrew would glow when he discussed his latest discovery. Andrew Forge made me and others aspire to do more.

Mark Brosseau Frenzied acrylic flashe ink on canvas 66 x 60 inches 2014

Mark Brosseau

One of the first things that Andrew said to me in my studio at Penn was “Do you want your paintings to be better because they’re painted better, or because they’re more what you want them to be.” It seemed like a simple but important distinction that I had never made before, and it’s stuck with me since then.

Andrew Forge Fragment Back Oil on Canvas 44 x 36 inches 1985

Steve Hicks

I’ve always considered Lennart Anderson my mechanic (so willing to muck around with my palate and painting) – and Andrew my analyst. What is so obvious to all that knew him is how he was able to put his finger on at once both the most simple and elusive ideas (typically after a St School lecture). Most importantly he didn’t say anything when he didn’t have anything to say. Once at my studio at Yale we had some initial small talk as we might had if we met by chance in a coffee shop – then after a pause he’d say “so great to see you” and leave! But more often there would be just one “simple” (Columbo-like) last question that would leave me thinking for weeks if not years.

Stuart Elster Dazzle Blue 2 16 x 24 inches oil on canvas 2012

Stuart Elster

I remember one specific time Andrew saying, “that meaning in a work of art is the sum total of the artists choices.” I know he was talking about painting, and that every decision the painter makes is present for the viewer in the fabric of the painting. What I took from this was that painting is a form time machine; the artist’s choices are present to the viewer when looking, and that we (the viewer) are transported back the moment of the paintings making. There is no past in painting!

Denis Farrell gouache on paper 1993

Denis Farrell

Battered and bruised, in June 1993, having just graduated from Yale University MFA in Painting I had the privilege of spending the next three months living at the home of Andrew and Ruth deep in West Connecticut. I was helping to restore their magical colonial house, with the building contractor and also Yale grad, Dawn McDaniel. There in that hidden place, they had themselves, their gardening, evening swims in their small outdoor pool (Andrew nude) trees, night, light and painting. Andrew painted in the evening into night. When I glanced him through the studio window smoking his pipe in his chair, he was in the act of looking. He never separated painting from looking. The extent to which he could look and discern was remarkable. He could also communicate-articulate his analysis of artworks with a spirit of generosity, and at the same time could leave you with something to think about. The paintings included here; I found in a book this past summer that I had brought for students at Lodestar School of Art painting intensive at Kylemore Abbey, Connemara, Ireland, and had framed for a recent exhibition. I made these paintings at Andrew’s house in that summer of 1993. He was a wise and beautiful soul.

Marc Trujillo 1644 Cloverfield Boulevard 23 x 31 inches oil on polyester over panel 2014

I consider myself very fortunate to have had Andrew Forge as a teacher. He had a palatable way that he would couch something substantial, so that you took the hint as a nudge rather than a jolt; and his words had a gentle, luminous precision. I tried to compliment him on this once by telling him that I had been in interviews where the first thing that came to mind as an answer to a question I was being asked was something that he had said, and I tried to recast the idea into my own words so that I wouldn’t just be quoting him as a response, but I couldn’t do it, to which his response was “Rubbish!” and he changed the subject. Refusing the compliment was a part of his gracious style of interacting; he once said “It’s better to be wrong about something, because that’s when you’re learning something.”

In the final critiques at Yale, someone had a painting of themselves nude with butterfly wings and talked about ‘making a personal statement’. Forge said ‘I think you’re confusing a personal statement, which is rhetorical, with being as involved as you can be, which is the most personal thing that you can do.”

Another time Forge defined ‘Arty’ as ‘when the aesthetic effect is a consequence of things known beforehand.’

I signed up for as many crits as I could get with him, took figure painting and the ‘Pictures and Writing’ class he co-taught with John Hollander. I remember Forge quoting Auden ‘Poetry is the precise expression of mixed feelings.’

He was also a great practical help and got me to organize my palette in the studio, I had been mixing color on the paintings and it was a cumbersome, inefficient way to work. He showed me different ways of organizing the palette and gave me some limited palettes, having me make a painting only from the primaries, which he was sure was what Pissarro was doing; or telling me how Whistler would have his students mix a large pile of neutral color from more saturated colors and have this pile in the center of the palette to use to desaturate the other colors they were using. Both have remained a part of the way I teach painting to my own students. Another thing I tell my student is that since I had Forge as a teacher, their lineage goes directly back to Jaques-Louis David. Forge gave a toast once ‘To my teacher William Coldstream, whose teacher was William Tonks, whose teacher was Ingres!’ which leads to David. Cheers to you, Andrew Forge!