Emmett Moskowitz, Welcome Back, Pt.2 Gallery
Dancer
Oil on canvas
30 x 22 inches
2026
This essay is part of our “Artist on Artist” series.
Rod Roland is a poet and artist living in San Francisco. His books include The Playgroup (Gas Meter, 2012), Thrasher2 (Gas Meter, 2012), Best Loved (Old Gold, 2013) and Lunch Poems (2016).
By Rod Roland
I love these paintings. They make me think about my life. That's me in the bathroom. My mom topless dancer just kidding. That is the Phone Booth bar on South Van Ness Avenue. Emmett seems to be following me. Another rainbow locked away in a cafe. I enjoy paintings that let me get involved. These are a perfect example. I even know Emmett a little he is dating my ex's best friend. It's cool, I swear. But I went to Pt.2 gallery knowing I wanted to try to write something. I've done this before with other shows. A lot. And here I am pouring my heart out at Emmett's show. But it's appropriate. These paintings forced onto me by fate have awakened in me a STUD,
I'm not talking about breeding. More shoe gazing nothing but sweatpants when robbing a senior home. I'm off track. I don't know what Emmett will paint next but it may be a senior living situation. My mom is 83 and it's cool where she lives but weird. I hope Emmett's paintings aren't just film stills from my life. They look like sets I could have just walked off of. Enough about me. What I know of Emmett I've already told you. I do know he made comics or something before. Probably still does if he's smart, which he seems not disillusioned by the art world. I have your back. Again, just kidding mostly.
There were three other openings happening at the same time as Emmett's at Pt.2 gallery. I only looked at Emmett's work and went straight to the backroom to make exquisite corpses with the kids. I sat there with two friends, the artists Ed Loftus and Will Yackulic. Both terrific, Will is having a show at Pt.2 gallery on June 6th. You'll be sad to miss it. He makes these oil paintings where the light explodes through, blinds you. They both were excited about Emmett's paintings and to me that is the best sign to go on. Do other artists like the paintings? In Emmett's case we have an astounding yes. As a poet, I've always been obsessed with the line. Trying to perfect it in different ways. I'm trying to teach these kids. Use the line like Emmett Moskowitz.
I'm able to catch the line Emmett is tossing out. It was meant for me. How could someone recreate my life so easily. This has happened to me before reading a graphic novel. I thought this is me or as close as it will ever get. And here it has happened with oil paintings. These are personal to me. There was a time in my life when I thought a great deal about painting. I went to see them in the museums and would stay for hours watching them, observing their clutter, their faint color. Now I am a painting.
Roland’s writing originally shared with us from his typewriter.
