Welcome. This blog site places before you a remarkable man, Charles Beck, an artist and teacher. This monthly series of stories begins by describing Charlie’s ways of being in the world, through my encounters with Charlie in the last decade of his life first as my colleague, then mentor and finally or rather for ever as my dearest friend. Year two of this blog expands to include my own hopefully and enduringly perspectives on art, on teaching and of a certain slant on life inflected by Charlie. ~ Peter London

Nana Achieves Satori

                                                       "This is a true story." ~ Peter

Not Necessarily a Bad Day


" . . . everything was already there."  ~ Peter

Concerning the Spiritual in Art

"The language of ultimate concerns is art." ~ Peter

Towards a Holistic Paradigm of Art Education, Part II of III

                  "To teach as if the whole world were in the balance." (Part II)

Towards a Holistic Paradigm of Art Education, Part I of III

                         "To teach as if the whole world were in the balance."

Love and Like

 unconditional love is the teacher’s responsibility only …" ~ Peter

What Good is Art?

"Art comes in the form of objects, 
but it is always more than that object …" - Peter

Art as Transformation


  " . . . art is also a Teaching, a Pointing, a process of individual 
transformation and, most hopefully, societal reform."

The Reading Lesson

"As I began to listen to them, they began to speak to me." - Peter

A note from Peter about this blog … one year into it.

Charlieandpeter Blog: Year Two

In the first year of this blog site; “charlieandpeter”, I presented a series of short stories I wrote about a remarkable man I knew, Charles Beck. He was an artist and a teacher.  I too am an artist and an art teacher, and Charlie hired me as a novice art teacher in his art department in a New York City high school in the 1960’s. We soon became friends. He was my closest friend for ten years, when he died. The stories told in this blog have been of Charlie’s way of viewing the world, which opened up a world that, it turns out, was much larger and better than the one I had been living in -- before meeting Charlie. He caused the same thing to happen to everybody fortunate enough to meet him -- under any circumstances. I have come to believe Charlie was one of the “Just” -- a handful of humans in each generation, who, unbeknownst even to themselves, are possessed with such wisdom and decency, that the Master of the Universe, stays the day of Reckoning, thus wiping out yet another experiment gone wrong. All these stories are on file on this blog site and are easily accessed below.

As our new "charlieandpeter" blog year begins, the posts above this one continues with Charlie's way of being in the world as well as now my own hopefully and enduringly perspectives on art, on teaching and of a certain slant on life inflected by Charlie.  Some are stories, some essays addressed to artists and teachers, some poetry addressed to who knows who. I hope you find the reading rewarding. ~ Peter London

Charlie teaches a kid how to draw feathers

". . . you are right - it is one helluva thing . . . "  ~  Charlie 

Charlie Does not Hire a Fabulous Artist

                    "What we really are doing here is helping kids to find themselves . . ."

Charlie and the Art Conservation Squad

  . . . this was an opportunity for these students to achieve notoriety, 
often for the first time in a noncriminal sort of way.

Charlie and the Bowery Bums

"Peter, I have everything." ~ Charlie

Charlie's recruiting techniques for Advanced Painting

" . . . who we really are, are artists, with fire in ours eyes." ~ Charlie

Charlie and the Latter Day Knights

"The many ways Nature employs of creating the world are not just techniques, they are ways of being in the world . . ." ~ Peter

Charlie and the Girl's Basketball Team

“You know Peter, that’s really our business, helping kids build castles in the sky. Who the hell else is going to ask them to do that? " - Charlie

Charlie and Jodi: A Dog and his Man

"Experiencing our Selves as possessing unique qualities from any one else sometimes makes us reluctant to employ these same aspects of our Selves in the world even though they may be of substantial worth." ~ Peter London

Charlie and the Ink Spot

"Stand up for us, be our champion." ~ Teens

Charlie and the Deaf Fishermen

"And then we wade into the depths, leaving the dry world, returning to our ancestral home, the great untamable water."

About Charlie & Peter

"Artists trying to see, trying to say it, nothing less and nothing more." ~ Peter London