Leanne Shapton, Freelance Journalist Profile

Articles

“Here Comes Trouble” | Leanne Shapton

1 month ago | nybooks.com | Leanne Shapton

This issue of the art newsletter comes from GoldenEye, the resort on Oracabessa Bay, Jamaica, that was built around the villa where Ian Fleming wrote most of his James Bond novels. For twenty years Goldeneye has hired me to do their hand-painted signage and graphics; this time I brought my daughter and worked on closing the Spring Books issue by the lagoon. The days alternated between sunny skies and downpours, and the water, orchids, and trees shimmered in the humidity.
Far from Heaven | Leanne Shapton

1 month ago | nybooks.com | Leanne Shapton

This newsletter comes to you while I’m watching Thunder on the Hill, part of the “Douglas Sirk Noir” series currently streaming on the Criterion Channel. A convicted murderer, bickering nurses and nuns, a risky childbirth, a sadistic composer, and a flood all feature in this appealingly gloomy 1951 movie. I like painting black and white film stills, so Sirk’s high-contrast drama was excellent material.
Far from Heaven | Flipboard

1 month ago | flipboard.com | Leanne Shapton

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A Midwinter Swim | Leanne Shapton

2 months ago | nybooks.com | Leanne Shapton

Some mornings, after I’ve dropped my daughter off at school, I swim laps at my local YMCA. I do about a mile, enough to get my heart rate up, to ruminate on all the big and little concerns, to stretch my limbs and lungs and hamstrings, and, when I’m kicking with a kickboard, to look at the other swimmers. Most of them are elderly Chinese women; most of them wear pink swim caps, which I find cheering. This art newsletter comes post-swim, midwinter.
Anemones | Leanne Shapton

Jan 15, 2025 | nybooks.com | Leanne Shapton

The new year began with sad, heavy chords. I made a last-minute trip to Berlin for a funeral, while across the ocean friends were evacuating from their homes in Los Angeles. As the winds blew cinders and ash over Altadena and snow fell on the streets of Mitte, I found some brightness by painting anemones with my godson.
Wintry Mix | Leanne Shapton

Dec 18, 2024 | nybooks.com | Leanne Shapton

The last art newsletter of 2024, covering the art and illustrations from our Holiday Issue, comes from a small cabin upstate, where I retreated to work on my book after closing the issue and spending Thanksgiving with friends. The Holiday Issue is one of four each year for which we commission a hand-drawn and -lettered cover. I wrote to the New York–based illustrator, cook, and author Tamara Shopsin to see if she’d do this one.
A New Leaf | Leanne Shapton

Nov 20, 2024 | nybooks.com | Leanne Shapton

The month our office spent working on the November 21 and December 5 issues was marked by the strange New York weather—a drought, temperatures in the seventies—and the anxious drama of the election. During the weekend between issues, I launched a new edition of The Native Trees of Canada, a book of my paintings of trees, at the McNally Jackson bookstore. My Canadian friends Sheila Heti and Jason Logan came to town; Heti had written a new introduction while Logan makes ink from trees.
On the Gray Lakeshore | Leanne Shapton

Oct 19, 2024 | nybooks.com | Leanne Shapton

Between closing the October 17 issue and beginning work on the Election Issue, I spent five nights on a remote lake in Canada with four friends. Every morning and evening I’d sit on the dock and either watch the mists rise or count the seven sisters in the Pleiades. I wished on four shooting stars and swam in the cold, glass-smooth water.
Ways of Seeing | Julien Posture

Sep 14, 2024 | nybooks.com | Leanne Shapton |Julien Posture

In April I got an e-mail from Julien Posture, who introduced himself as a PhD student, to ask about illustration, style, and the creative industry. After a lively conversation, I looked up his work and found that, in addition to writing about creativity, he was a wonderful illustrator, so I asked him to draw the cover for our Fall Books issue.
How the Sun Rose | Leanne Shapton

Aug 21, 2024 | nybooks.com | Leanne Shapton

On a road trip this August, I stopped at the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts. The house she lived in for most of her life, including the bedroom where she wrote, and her brother’s family’s home just across a lawn are open to the public for guided tours.