It’s Thankful Thursday, a weekly pause to express appreciation for people, places, things, and more. Attention attracts gratitude, and gratitude expands joy, and my gratitude grows when shared with you. Please join me.

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I’m grateful for art. In the obvious ways, of course — in galleries, museums and places that offer a “this is art” experience.

But, even more, I’m thankful for the unexpected encounters with art: a mural in an alley, a letter tucked in a homemade card, a worn ceramic vase passed through time, a friend’s latest canvas still wet with paint.

I love the experience of falling into the self that absorbs, before reason, before order. Art lets me feel first, then think.

But lately, I’ve been encountering, and tripping over, the intellectual side of art.

What is art?

If you’re a writer, you’ve faced this question in different words: What makes a novel work, a short story sing, an essay engage? What is a poem?

I don’t debate or defend. Instead, I’m interested in the question, not because I want answers but because I’m drawn to the exercise of clarification.

And with this tendency, I’m struck with a recent gift from a friend: Art-As-Art Dogma by Ad Reinhardt. I’ve been pondering the manifesto for months.

Ad Reinhardt was a mid-20th century painter, cartoonist, writer and a major influence on minimalist painting. With a sharp wit and oppositional manner, he was known as a relentless defender of “pure” abstract art.

I’m both intrigued and challenged by his (long) set of principles, part of a larger work that appears in the book, Art As Art: The Selected Writings of Ad Reinhardt.

Is this word play, satire, polemic, poetry? Is it insightful or inciteful?

I don’t have answers, but I’m thankful for the vigorous thought this piece has ignited.

ON a lighter note, this week I enjoyed a fascinating true story.

Secret Mall Apartment is a 2024 documentary about a group of artists who lived in a secret space within a shopping mall — for four years!

The film is now showing on Netflix, Prime, and Apple TV.

Are you living your art? And is the way you live a form of art?

The questions are endless — and that’s my kind of art.

What are you thankful for today?