Click here to listen. © Jane Pollak 2026 Years ago, as an art major in college, I visited an Adolph Gottlieb exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum. A guard pointed out an elderly man moving through the space ahead of me. "That's the artist," he whispered. ...
Click here to listen. © Jane Pollak 2026 The day after Professor Cavanaugh asked me to be the property mistress for the fall 1969 production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, he called me into his office. I knew nothing about the plot line or magnitude of...
Click here to listen. © Jane Pollak 2026 Last year I signed up to audit (for free) an art class at Hunter College. As a lifelong learner, I couldn’t resist. The registrar pointed me to an opening in a course called Everything is Personal (last spring’s...
Click here to listen. © Jane Pollak 2026 I moved to New Jersey on March 11, leaving Manhattan after nearly fourteen years as a full-time resident. A team of organizers packed me up on the 10th. Movers hauled my belongings to my new home at Lantern Hill...
Click here to listen. © Jane Pollak 2026 January was a busy month, but not one that photographs well. Which is ironic, because I do have photos (and screenshots)—though mostly of exposed wires, threats of legal action for copyright infringement, and a hat...
Click here to listen. © Jane Pollak 2025 After a wonderful visit with my daughter in Pasadena last January 2024, I set my sights on returning for a month-long visit for January 2025. I even began planning what art project to bring along for my 4 weeks...
Click here to listen. © Jane Pollak 2025 As a fellow card-carrying member of AARP, I barely blinked when one friend moved from Greenwich, CT to Sarasota, FL. I was only mildly curious when another friend told me about her winter place in Arizona. But,...
Click here to listen. © Jane Pollak 2025 Over five decades as an artist, I’ve experienced my share of milestones, surprises and reinventions. What has remained constant is the joy of creating and the deep satisfaction when someone connects with a piece...
Click here to listen. © Jane Pollak 2025 In June 2001, I mailed stamped invitations (pre-email) to a few dozen of my most creative friends and colleagues requesting them to join me for a dinner party at Bloodroot, a feminist vegetarian restaurant...
Click here to listen. © Jane Pollak 2025 The jury's still out on AI, but after my latest experience, I might just make it Employee of the Month. In my March newsletter I confessed to my insecurity at being a beginner when I described the Hunter College...
Click here to listen. © Jane Pollak 2025 (illustrated with pieces of my art process along the way) I’ll say it. I hate being a beginner. Which is kinda silly, because anytime I try something new, which I love to do, I’m in that role. I don’t like failing....
Click here to listen. © Jane Pollak 2025(illustrated with pieces of my art process along the way) Since my eldest child gave birth in 2011, I’ve kept an ongoing Notes section labeled Grandma Activities. Whenever newspaper articles or ads for family fun...
Click here to listen. I’m very suggestible. When a fiber arts colleague on Instagram shared her wisdom about material storage, I accepted and felt compelled to honor her methodology. “At what point do you throw out leftover pieces of wool?” I asked,...
Click here to listen. I took a hard stumble in mid-September, broke my shoulder and have had to pivot my well-organized life to accommodate what is. Still, I’m able to create exciting new digital mock-ups of wall installations. My fantasy: I would announce to you...
Click here to listen. Do you remember the staggering number of catalogs that used to weigh down our mailboxes day after day, particularly in the fall? LL Bean came weekly, if not more often, in various iterations: Women’s, Outdoors, Holiday, etc. But there were a...
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