“I believe all art is political. When artists say they are not political, that denial is a political statement. We live in the world. What hurts or helps others should, at the very least, move us. Lately there have been terrible and frightening circumstances affecting our lives: unjust wars, particularly in Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan; global warming, and the crises and denial surrounding it. And, beyond these, the imperatives of Nature dictate to us; time passes and we age, with all that implies.

As an older Jewish woman, I am pained and angered by all these things. I feel shame and fear and anger and responsibility and frustration at my incapacity to change things. And, of course, as one ages, one’s puny power lessens. The demands on artists who work the way I do complicate the problem. To make a painting beautiful, without foregoing its sad or terrible content, is difficult, at the very least; one wants poetry, not propaganda. Well, to quote Beckett, one tries again, tries harder—and fails again, hoping to fail better. Or really, as Auden says, I have no gun/ But I can spit.” - Barbara Hope Steinberg