Hello,

The Impatient Reader is my ultra-short writing about art and other things. For most posts, the word count is included in the title, so you know what you’re getting into.

Some people find the notion of impatient reading to be distasteful, and I understand. When I tell people the name of the blog, depending on their expression, I sometimes quickly add, “I know, I know—I have read Bleak House!” But I also tend to impatiently skim past whole sections of online articles, and I assume I’m not alone in that. And in addition to Dickens (and George Eliot and Lawrence Sterne and Donna Tartt, etc.), I also love the short writing of Montaigne, Kalil Gibran, E.M. Forster, E.B. White, and many, many others. So this is really not so much about impatience, but about making every word count.

In 2024 I wrote the MFAH 100, a personal tribute to my childhood museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in honor of their 100th anniversary. I wrote 100 words on 100 works in 100 days. It was surprisingly enjoyable and successful, and will be coming out as a book later on in 2025. In the meantime, I’m currently writing another 100 series, on music, and I’m developing a new series that will be a little different (not 100 words), about artists.

I’ve been writing about art in Houston for more than 25 years. I founded Glasstire, the online journal of visual art in Texas, back in 2001. ​ More about me, and older work, here.

Please feel free to get in touch:
Rainey Knudson, P.O. Box 66281, Houston, Texas 77266, USA
Email: rainey [at] raineyknudson.com

It’s a beautiful old universe, and I feel lucky to be a part of it. Thanks for reading.

Rainey