I have put together a collection of Marilyn’s recent drawings, from 2025, and called it “Icons & Relationships”, because that is what they mostly look like to me. Single figures appear to be like icons, and those with two or more figures suggest relationships.
Relationship 1: #325
Icon 2: #326
Relationship 2: #308
Icon 1: #314
When I was a child, I was confident that I had a future as a touring concert pianist; but of course, life had other plans! Nevertheless, throughout my long life, I have derived considerable solace from the piano and its vast and profound literature.
For most of my musical life I have focused on ensemble music, chamber music to be precise. It is less lonely, more popular, and very satisfying! Times do change (as we septagenarians very frequently notice!), and it has become much more difficult (not just for me) to assemble a chamber music ensemble. I have more and more in recent years found myself with no other option than to perform solo.
Carl Banner, in Hawaii
But what is that old expression from Br’er Rabbit? “Please don’t throw me in that briar patch!”
Since the pandemic, I have performed 14 solo house concerts, almost all of them sold out, sometimes weeks in advance. This may have something to do with the associated potluck dinners, of course; but you know, if people didn’t like the music, they would probably rather just go out for a pizza.
Gowanus, to be precise! There are artists that other artists know and love, who are not yet internationally famous. We were fortunate to bump into Dale Williams at a Gowanus Artists Open Studio weekend last year.
Dale Williams, showing me a rare LP of Kenneth Patchen reciting his poetry, backed up by a fabulous jazz band!
Dale’s work is overwhelmingly strong. Marilyn posted some of it on Instagram.
Around the end of 2023, Marilyn’s encaustic paintings started creeping over the boundaries of her rectangular supports and becoming more sculptural. So she began making sculptures from sticks, bones, wax and plaster from images in her dreams, like little boats. She was also picking up wood chips and sticks and bits of pine cone and bones on our walks and putting them in a little canvas bag. Eventually she began drawing some of these small objects on scraps of old canvas that she had saved from when she painted large paintings. The images of sticks began to combine with the images from dreams and dolls, toys, and other items of childhood memorabilia, and a whole new body of work began to form. The old canvas took the ink in very interesting ways, which newer canvas does not do as well.
By now she has made over 300 of these drawings, and has run out of old canvas, so she may be coming to the end of this series. Who knows? She titles them by (roughly) consecutive numbering and signs them on the back. About 100 of them were shown at Ceres Gallery NYC and at the 2025 Outsider Art Fair (“OAF”) in NY, where they generated some interest, but no sales. Later, two of them sold at M. David & Co. in Brooklyn. Now 32 of the drawings are at Susie Nielsen’s “Farm Projects” Gallery in Wellfleet MA, where Susie says they are receiving “a lot of love”, but so far no sales. Pricing is difficult, as it is for all art. Prices were high at the OAF, which is a prestigious (and expensive) venue. Susie has priced them almost painfully low, but that is the current art market.
Here are a few of the selections at Farm Projects:
#274
#129
#149
#2
#188
In the 1940’s and 50’s, my Aunt Thelma and Uncle Izzie had a weekly chamber music gathering at the their house on Fern Pl NW in Takoma Park. One of the violinists who occasionally played in their quartets was David Kreeger.
Marilyn and I had never been to his museum, so we went yesterday. There is a lovely concert hall with a 9 foot grand piano, but the art on the walls is really the knock-out. Degas, van Gogh, Picasso, Braque, Monet, Chagall paintings, as well as a few contemporary pieces.
One fabulous piece was this Miro. It was great to get up close and see that he had glued nails, string, sand, and all kinds of stuff to it.
Miro, detail
Miro, detail
Mei Mei Chang and Marilyn at Mei Mei’s Willow St Gallery opening
Our friend and neighbor Mei Mei Chang is one of the most interesting artists in Washington! Her work is inventive, playful, funny, and delightful, as well as subtly expressive. She has a show up now at Willow St. Gallery in Takoma Park, and we stopped in at the opening this afternoon. I loved this cardboard record player, with little cardboard records that you can place on the cardboard turntable.
Mei Mei Chang, artist. Record Player, 2025 (click on image or link for video demonstration)
She envisions a huge wall installation of this type at MOMA someday - I hope she gets it to happen!
Mei Mei Chang installation
Our friend Ruthanne sent this link to a rousing and intelligent speech by a French senator, Claude Malhuret, about the future of Europe and the United States.
Claude Malhuret
Europe is at a critical turning point. The American shield is vanishing, and it seems that Ukraine may be abandoned and Russia strengthened.
Washington now looks like the court of Nero, with a fiery emperor, submissive courtiers and a ketamine-fuelled buffoon in charge of purging the civil service. This is a tragedy for the free world, but it is first and foremost a tragedy for the United States.
The message from Trump is that there is no point in being his ally: he will not defend you, he will impose higher tariffs on you than on his enemies, and he will threaten to seize your territory while at the same time supporting the dictatorships invading you. The ‘king of the deal’ is demonstrating the art of the submissive deal. He thinks he will intimidate China by prostrating himself before Putin; Xi Jinping, however, seeing his subservience, is probably speeding up preparations to invade Taiwan.
Never has any President of the United States surrendered to the enemy, nor supported an aggressor against a US ally. None has trampled on the American Constitution, issued so many illegal decrees, dismissed judges who could have prevented him from doing so, at a single stroke dismissed senior military staff, weakened all the checks and balances, and taken control of social media. Worse than an illiberal drift, this president is initiating a capture of democracy. We should remember that it took only one month, three weeks and two days to bring down the Weimar Republic and its Constitution.
Read the rest here.
I knew an artist who, when he said “painting”, elongated the diphthong so much that it sounded like an extra syllable. Painting was that important to him. Young pianists in NY in the early 1960’s had a peculiar accent that was hard to place. It sounded vaguely European, but was actually an affectation peculiar to this subculture. My own speech may or may not have picked it up, but often people ask about my accent. I answer that I just have a thick tongue. But it may also be that the sound of my own words circulates through my head rapidly before it comes out of my mouth. This may be due to having been ridiculed for my speech in early life. I may also have picked up a Boston accent, before moving to Maryland, where I was continually ribbed by my friends for being a “Yankee”. And then of course there was a little St. Louis drawl acquired later.
It often happens that I cannot practise in the days before a concert. It is as if my work goes into a kind of eclipse, and needs to stew in the dark for a few days. This of course causes some anxiety, but I have come to accept the process. This week I have tried to focus on future programs: an all-Brahms program, and especially a Chopin group. I am especially excited about the Chopin, as I feel I have acquired a key to my own relation to this music. I think Chopin wanted every note to be beautiful.
Marcy Wheeler, independent journalist
I support independent journalism by reading Marcy Wheeler’s blog “emptywheel”. Here are a couple of quotations posted by “Rayne”, an editor/contributor to the blog.
Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.
Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love.
No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.
― Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History
Either we have hope within us or we do not.
It is a dimension of the soul and is not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world.
Hope is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart. It transcends the world that is immediately experienced and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons.
Hope in this deep and powerful sense is not the same as joy that things are going well or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not because it stands a chance to succeed.
Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out.
It is hope, above all which gives the strength to live and continually try new things.
― Vaclav Havel
Rhonda Buckley-Bishop
I am thrilled to be preparing two new song cycles with saxophonist Rhonda Buckley-Bishop: Gabriel Fauré’s “Bonne Chanson” and Franz Schubert’s “Die Schöne Müllerin”. In previous concerts we have performed Schumann’s “Dichterliebe” and “Liederkreis”, Beethoven’s “An die ferne Geliebte”, Franz Schubert’s “Auf dem Strom” and “Schwanengesang”, and many songs by Johannes Brahms. It is like working with a great soprano, only it is soprano saxophone. We will perform the new cycles this fall!
Susie Nielsen, artist, curator, and founder of Farm Projects gallery in Wellfleet (Photo by Ken Nichols)
Marilyn has 32 drawings on fabric in the print room at Farm Projects, the hippest and most exciting art gallery on Cape Cod! Be sure and stop in if you are in Wellfleet on the Cape.
In 1969 I was a piano student of composer/pianist Leo Smit at SUNY Buffalo. He was a very nice guy, and had a tremendous store of knowledge to impart. Unfortunately, I was in a very difficult period of my life, bordering on semi-psychotic, so my ability to take advantage of what he had to offer was quite limited. Nevertheless, I learned (by memory!) the Stravinsky and Berg Piano Sonatas with him. It was a particular privilege to study Stravinsky with someone who had known and worked with the composer. I have just a few specific memories of Leo Smit: once in a piano lesson, he said, “Banner, you’ve got juice!,” which meant a lot to me. He did try to impart occasional life lessons: “Avoid the sticky in life.” He was never mean, critical, or exploiting. However, he did “abandon” me after a year to go on an extended European concert tour, ending my studies with him. My “debut” in Buffalo took place in 1970 under the guidance of a pianist with none of Smit’s virtues. One other memory: Smit, Marilyn and I, and some of his other students (perhaps including student and collaborator Judith Sherman) were in a Buffalo neighborhood pizza joint, when the entire place erupted in a brawl - all the tables, including ours, were turned over in the fighting, and we fled out the door. What was that about? No idea.
Mostly, I had no idea who I had the great good fortune to have encountered in Leo Smit. Here are some amazing links:
Marilyn art shirts (via Vistaprint). We have sold a few, but we mostly wear them ourselves and give them as gifts.
Some of our shirts.
The Wellfleet Public Library is much more than a collection of books, although the books there are truly wonderful. It is a central cultural institution of the town of Wellfleet and other parts of the Cape. It hosts concerts, lectures, art exhibits, and more, and has the happiest children’s book room you have ever seen. There is a conference room with 60 chairs, a P.A., and a first rate Steinway B piano.
I have played over a dozen concerts there over the last 20 years, and Marilyn had a major exhibition there a couple of years ago. Remnants of the exhibit still remain: little quotations that were taped to occasional bookshelves, and one or two book cubicles that have been turned over to works that she left with the librarian.
Some of Marilyn’s sculptures, a painting, and one of the quotations that remain on the shelves, two years later.
But the real treasure of the Library is Naomi Czekaj-Robbins, Assistant Library Director. She has enthusiastically and gracefully enabled everything we have done.
I am very excited to be playing another program in the Library on September 26: piano music of Brahms, Schubert, and Beethoven.
Marilyn has been involved with artist Michael David as mentor, advisor, sponsor, and gallerist, initially through his “Yellow Chair Salon”, and then through individual consultation and critiques, and recently through his sponsorship of her at the Outsider Art Fair and a show at his gallery, M. David & Co. at ArtCake in Brooklyn.
We paid him a visit at his home in Tivoli, as he was preparing a major exhibition of his new work, composed largely of broken mirrors. His bio is pretty extraordinary, including a period as bass guitar for the Plasmatics. An unusually generous soul (especially for a male artist).
Michael David, in his studio at Tivoli.
Marilyn, reflected in one of Michael’s mirror pieces.
Marilyn had ~100 pieces up at M. David & Co. at ArtCake in Brooklyn. We were thrilled to see our two great artist friends there: Betsy Damon and Sue Collier.
Marilyn with friend and mentor Betsy Damon, at M. David & Co. at ArtCake in Brooklyn.
Betsy Damon, Marilyn, and Sue Collier at M. David & Co. at ArtCake in Brooklyn
Marilyn with Schroeder Cherry and the piece she purchased at Artists and Makers
Marilyn and I bought this piece from Schroeder Cherry at his show at Artists and Makers. He found it hilarious that I thought my phone was out of focus because I had not put on my glasses.
Duke Fightmaster in “Ghosting”
[Click on the picture to see the “Ghosting” short by Duke Fightmaster]
I find that I get very upset when musicians do not reply to my emails or phone calls. I call it “the Washington diss”, a variety of snub. In NY, in my limited experience, they do it differently: they want you to particularly understand how unimportant you are, or how much they hate you. But my experience is largely Washington, and this is how they do it here - they simply ignore or “ghost” you, and that is supposed to be understood on all sides. It’s not that they didn’t get the communication - it’s that silence is their answer.
DC diss: "Who you?"
NY diss: "Die, scum!"
I wrote about it in my 2013 journal, and it came out like a kafkaesque poem about communication:
“People coming to doors, windows; people knocking, ringing, phoning, texting. Telegrams, email, letter, fedex, messenger, skywriting, rumor, signs, signals. Flags, color changes. Futile waiting, standing up, misunderstanding, snubbing, rejecting, ghosting. Truancy, dilatory; apologies, no apologies; excuses, no excuses. Acknowledgment, no acknowledgment. Standing at the door shivering. At some other place, some other door. In the hospital, kidnapped. Forgot. Misplaced contact info, decided against, went away. Deliberately offensive. No excuses. Wrong day, wrong way. Thought better of it.”
(Indeed, I have been left out in the rain, shivering, for half an hour, while a church music director could not decide whether to give me a key to get into the church to play a concert).
“A musician declines an engagement, saying to me, "I have decided that I will only play concerts that will further my career." Well, this explains everything! My solitude and isolation, the unreturned phone calls and emails, the musicians who pretend they don't recognize me in a restaurant or on the metro.”
"The Jamie Raskin Oratorio" — World premiere, September 7, 2024 - A Washington Musica Viva Commission — featuring poetry by Anne Becker, adapted from United States Representative Jamie Raskin’s memoir, “UNTHINKABLE”, with original music by Noam Faingold. Performed by Anne Becker, poet, Chris Royal, trumpet, and Carl Banner, piano. Video courtesy of Church of the Ascension, Bailey Joy Myers, director of music.
(Uploaded to Vimeo, so without any ear-blasting irrelevant ads!)
When we closed the Hyattsville storage unit last year, seven large paintings on foamcore from 1989 came home with us, too big to fit in our house, so we leaned them against the back wall of the carport, where they have been weathering for several months. Two of them we destroyed, and we will ultimately lose the others as well, but we decided to do a little video documentation before they disappear. (Yes, there were a few mosquitoes).
