Our pal John Foster, the talented graphic designer; longtime collector of outsider art, folk art, vernacular photography, and artistically striking whatchamacallits; and all-around thoughtful aesthete, has dipped into his big trunk and shared with us, in honor of this month’s “Eyes on October” theme, four beautiful pieces from his treasure trove. About the photo seen here, the St. Louis-based Foster says: “This darkroom-manipulated image of an eye floating inside a spinning, time-travel-like vortex is stunning.” See photos of all of John's selections from his holdings and his appreciative observations about them. With a wink and fluttering lashes we say, “We only have eyes for you, John.” Free access to this article.

Recently, a Paris-based artist friend sent us a postcard showing a photo of Stonehenge, the prehistoric site that is one of Britain’s most iconic cultural properties. The photo that appeared on the card was several years old but certainly not as well-aged as Stonehenge itself. We got in touch with a few other brutjournal contacts who had some thoughts to share about this most enigmatic of souvenirs of a time whose mysteries are locked in the silence of its stones.

  Martha Wilson was the founding director of New York's Franklin Furnace Archive, a former alternative-space arts venue that is now an online research resource and sponsor of artists’ grants. She is also an influential performance and visual artist. Now, her solo exhibitions are opening in Paris at the Musée National d’Art Moderne (Pompidou Center) and at mfc-michèle didier. Her work will also be seen at the new Bourse de Commerce/Pinault Collection. Free access to this article.

The self-taught artist José Escuredo Vega (1917-2004), who was also known as “Pepe de Barrio,” was born and brought up in a tiny village in the Galicia region of northwestern Spain and remained closely tied to his native land throughout his life. In a second exclusive report for brutjournal based on her on-location research, Jo Farb Hernández describes Escuredo’s site-specific art environments, which he called his “museums.”

Nowadays, studio-art departments in many art schools are still dominated by postmodernist critical thinking; in them, there is little emphasis on what used to be called the fundamentals of art-making — developing technical skill in drawing and the handling of materials. For some artists, though, drawing is the very starting point of what they have to say, and their appreciation for line-making is profound.