OCCUPY THE ART WORLD!

       I've tried hard to get away from what for me can only be described as the pain of being an artist. Once again, I am sucked back into it all, with what I can only describe as all the ugliness attending what by all rights should only be a beautiful thing, a consolation. For me art is a kind of slavery. That is what it is for all of those who give themselves over to her, spirit courageous and raw...only to be slammed one way and another, no matter the intrinsic worth of us as people, as artists.

 Well...someones gotta say it.

      Yes,  and I thank you all again for all the help that you,  fellow artists, and others who care have given me, especially as I was doing the painful process of pulling away from it. Abandoning something one has sacrificed everything to over a lifetime is painful. 

      Sometimes the downright honor of being invited back into that realm and then my own natural feeling of wanting once again to involve myself...that can be  painful. But I shall do the very worthy task at hand, and then I will slip quietly back into retirement...film and photo notwithstanding.

Occupy Wall Street---The Time is Now For You To Lead

        We are the 99%. Who is the 1%? Monsanto! We have no choice any longer than to resist and free ourselves from these phenomenally self-serving and destructive promulgators internationally of Frankenfoods that are actually a recipe for hunger, starvation, suicide, and destruction of earth and life. We need good government to regulate, not deregulate! Ban GMO! Don't just listen to me, ask Vandana Shiva.
        ‎"People once thought slavery was normal. It took a few people saying slavery was wrong to abolish slavery of another time. Now we need to speak up and get ourselves out from the dominion of Monsanto and GMO. Each of us has a spirit that is dyeing to break free." - Vandana Shiva http://www.vandanashiva.org/

Pink Flamingos, and Sympathy For Those Who Do Not Always Have Sympathy

      
       You know, I have some experience. To all former wealthy who can no longer make a living, and to people of all ages pushed out of the job market. I feel for you, to be sure, who doesn't? It was the case all along and still is the case that for 99% of artists, facts of education, talent, ability, work ethic, productivity, real can-do attitude and willingness to do it all...counted for virtually nothing in U.S. middle American culture; they also did not count in the exploitative art world. Most of us were far from appreciated all along, let alone honored or allowed to earn a living. Always generous, I have this to say to the unemployed and those employed beneath their level: yes, it hurts to feel you are a tree falling in the forest with no one there to hear. My heart goes out to you, just wait it out, keep going, you never know. Survive.

      Along the road to destruction, how many jewels have been thrown by the wayside, how much cultural wealth, our national treasure, has been allowed to slip through the cracks? People will not pay for fine art, but millions of dollars have been thrown away on pink flamingos for the garden. The question remains, what did most waste their money on then, and what is money wasted on now?

       I was taught in grad school that our reputation was everything, we could easily be blacklisted, be careful. But the level of repression of every genuine human instinct and thought that this engendered was phenomenal. In the long run all the walking on eggshells has done artists little good. Maybe it is time for a paradigm shift? Easy for me to say, I recently gave away a lifetime of art work, which did incidentally free me up to say what I please, no small matter at all.

Adam and Eve XVIII

This is one of a pair in a series, as were the originals,(see below).

The sculptures, also in the grouping of Adam and Eves, stand alone in the crowd.

Somewhere Between Collage and Sculpture

The paintings "fall somewhere between collage and sculpture," as has been pointed out by a critic or two. So many artists, critics, and historians have described the painting as object. In my work the three-dimensional qualities inherent in collage and sculpture (in the round and on the wall), grow out of the textural qualities in the paint, as well as out of the metal plates I used to create Intaglio (Italian for gem, seal, piece of jewelry, or metal plate having an incised, sunken design) prints. Ink is then transferred from the grooves to paper, via a printing press. It is the historic (many would say authentic) way to make a print, as opposed to a reproduction, examples are Drypoint, Photo Etching, Monoprint, Lithograghy, Silkscreen, Engraving, and other centuries old print-making processes. All are labor intensive, highly technical, and involve the multiple uses of metal, ink, acids, various resins, grounds, tar, solvents, feathers, and many toxic substances. It is the main reason I quit making prints; the toxic substances and the delayed gratification of having to carry a work through so many processes before I could get anywhere near the finished product. I made prints using these methods a total of six years, beginning in High School. It was excellent discipline, it led to sculptural qualities in my painting, mixed-media and sculpture. There is something to be said for hard work beginning in high school. Sadly, I doubt that Printmaking is still offered to High School students. One can only hope for a return of the arts to education, I have always looked forward to a world of people who know and love the arts. It begins with education.