Seeing Beyond The Optical Experience
By Elizabeth Fasolino 
In an age when the pursuit of fame has been all but enshrined as an inalienable right, the painter Hector Leonardi offers a bracing reminder that being an artist has less to do with self-promotion than with, well, making art. For the past 27 years, Mr. Leonardi has worked in self-imposed isolation, managing to succeed both critically and financially while shunning the press. Now, at 78, the artist may have to face the prospect that his days of anonymity are coming to an end.

Less Is More At Guild Hall
By Timothy Small 
Many dramaturges believe the one-act play is one of the most difficult forms to master, but three East End writers took on the challenge and had their works read on April 30 by the actors of the Naked Stage at Guild Hall. James L. Larocca’s “Jimmy Chen,” Hortense Carpentier’s “Divorce,” and Peter Fitzgerald’s “Play Ball” were featured.

Opinion
‘Maker/Taker’
By Jennifer Landes
With continuing violence in Iraq, a sinking economy, escalating gas prices, and warnings of global grain shortages in the near future, artists are taking notice and becoming critical of the “What, me worry?” consumer culture that doesn’t seem at all chagrined by the credit crunch.
 
Opinion
A Costumed Conundrum
By Michael Howell
In Caryl Churchill’s play “Top Girls,” opening today in New York City at the beautifully restored Biltmore Theater, there are no clear plotlines, no obvious dramatic denouements, and very little resolution of dilemma. But up on the Biltmore stage are seven of the most talented actresses plying the boards these days, moving with verbal and athletic agility through one of the playwright’s earliest pieces of dramatic acrobatics.