Launch of my Daybook!

Please join me on my sybaritic adventures through art, literature and politics and history.

I should begin this Substack with a confession about my character: At seventeen, I commenced publishing faux-Victorian prose and (truly mortifying!) literary juvenilia under the Walter Pater-inspired pen name of “Marius Epicurean”. While I never finished art school in New York (I wanted to continue my studies in political philosophy and comparative literature), I keep ornate diaries and dress fastidiously. On weekends when I am not working, I might be found sifting through flea markets or used book shops in Odessa, Paris, London or Prague in search of curios and ephemera that can be recycled into my collages, paintings and assemblages.

Growing up rather alienated and plagued with discipline problems and authority issues in Brooklyn, I once quoted Oscar Wilde`s dictum that, “One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art” to the dean of the high school`as he reprimanded me for my latest infraction against the rules. “Well, you are certainly a piece of work, smart ass!” he pronounced. Then he proceeded to suspend me. Again.

I think about (the aesthetic and moral) judgment of the high school dean sometimes. I still remain an artist troublemaker — which is also why I went into journalism.

Twenty years later, I am a guest lecturer at the Paris outpost of the New York Art School that I never finished. I also write for a living, make art and travel to do it. I have been blessed with the opportunity to spend my life doing what I most enjoy — writing about art, literature and politics in Europe and painting.

This newsletter will constitute a very personal missive from my peripatetic life to like-minded individuals and comrades. Traveling a great deal for the sake of my vocation is both exhilarating and exhausting. It is, however, very easy to lose track of friends and acquaintances that one cares about in far-flung cities. I hope that this newsletter will help those who are interested in my work to better keep track of my various adventures, projects and hijinks. If you enjoy my work — or are interested in reportage on culture and politics — this Substack may be for you.

The about section of this newsletter contains a lengthy account of my variegated background and convoluted life. But don’t worry: It’s not too lengthy and definitely not boring.

Every single missive from me will be illustrated with a drawing or daybook entry.

I assembled and painted this collage painting of Odessa (above)— my Ukrainian domicile and the city to which I dedicated my first book — for an exhibition of my drawings and daybooks in Paris two summers ago. Today, exactly two years later, the city is still sadly under siege from Russian armed forces and is being bombarded (even more than it was before) by Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones refitted by the Russians. In fact, hundreds of Russian drones assaulted Ukraine last night — including in southern Ukraine where my friends are. The Russian war against Ukraine is still ongoing, and we are still hoping that America (my adopted homeland!) will not retreat from its support for Ukraine and will continue to supply the Ukrainian government with the weapons it needs to defend its population from bombardament and defend its territory.

Please subscribe if you can. And tell your friends, relations, and maybe even enemies to do the same. It would mean the world to me. Subscriptions support my work and allow me to keep writing about art, politics, and philosophy — as well as producing this Substack. I hope that my posts here will offer you an enjoyable, often irreverent, and insightful window into the world of art, literature, European and American politics, as well as Ukraine’s struggle for independence from Russia — one of the defining conflicts of our era and a battle that will influence many other facets of our life for years to come. As this Substack develops, I also hope to offer subscribers access to perks like talks, podcasts, Zoom events. I may even send out art postcards from the many destinations where my travels take me.