Christmas 2010

I have promised myself that the space between now and the day after New Year's Day will be Internet free. Therefore, this is my last entry until January 2, 2011. My Christmas wishes are below.

The mixed media distressed painting shown above was made for the front of our Christmas card this year. In that artwork I am directly quoting William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s painting, Madonna & Child. The image is buried under two layers of paint, torn, and scraped, the torn reversed partial image, removed from the complete image and laminated above and to the side of the image's corner. I drew gold leaf lines around the repeated image of Madonna and Child to emphasize the value of the gift God gave to all humankind. The distressed technique lent itself to the expression of my notion that Jesus’ actual message of peace and love has been distorted and – yes, damaged – by the various Christian institutions. No, I do not personally hear Jesus, or converse with him as so many others claim. When I pray, I talk to God, and I ask for things like strength and a better understanding of others. In all humility, God doesn’t talk back. Instead, I sense his presence. How to explain that - warmth inside like a light within, accompanied by a heart-felt flutter, like any of us feel when another person performs an act of love and/or kindness toward us personally or toward another present, whether they be human or animal.

At the same time I know this as fact. God doesn’t have to tell me that Jesus Christ walked on this earth, and that he lacked prejudice against any people or person. Neither race, nationality, ethnicity, religion nor sexuality made him fearful or angry. God doesn’t have to tell me that Jesus Christ did not advocate war. Other men may advocate war. Jesus of Nazareth did not. Most of all, God doesn't have to tell me that all men may walk with Jesus.

With these thoughts in mind, my seemingly impossible Christmas wish is that the spirit of this holiday - in which we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ - will bless us with his love, and the peace he desires for all mankind.

Waterworks

Unfortunately for the West, our creation myth (Genesis) makes it sound as though God gives us this planet to do with, as we will. It does not stress that with God’s gift comes the RESPONSIBILITY of caring for the Earth. Genesis does not emphasize the connectedness of all things through God.

I’ve finished a group of small mixed media distressed paintings (8” x 8”) for the not so new series (Waterworks) that began on the Beach April 20, 2010, the day of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion. I say “not so new” because most all my work, pastel paintings, photomontages, and the mixed media distressed paintings have been and are based on water. As I’ve stated in the past, I’d like to do a show or series of shows based on my concerns about clean water, all life including human, and the planet. The Gulf Oil Disaster demonstrated just how fragile our oceans and seas are – how easy it is for us to kill-off our coinheritors of planet earth, to destroy land and sea through our careless profligacy. It also demonstrated to me how connected we are to that life and this planet. Unfortunately, missing in our Western conceptualization of that connection is the knowledge that it is as much a part of us as we are of it, and we ignore that side of the connection at our own peril.

B-r-r-r-r-r! Is This an Indication of Winter 2011 Conditions?

If the extreme cold pre-winter and national politics have you down – stare at this photo of Paradise Beach, Tulum, Mexico and project yourself into the 84 degree waters of the Caribbean Sea.

Then envision all the maniacal GOP and/or Democratic politicians (depending on your current view of national politics) being projected onto that beach and into that blissful tropical sun and water – actually way out in that water where they either sink or swim to shore. I wonder, could they? Would they? Or would they just thrash about and push each other under and drown.

H-m-m-m-m, in the case of the latter, we are left alone on the beach to enjoy the sun and water by ourselves. I’m not suggesting anything (honest, I’m NOT!), just creating a happy vision to relieve my worn out political nerves.

"I will not dwell on politics until after Christmas."
"I will not dwell on politics until after Christmas."
"I will not dwell on politics until after Christmas."

End Export of USA Jobs Overseas this Christmas 2010!

I apologize for this entry because, once again, it is not an “Art” entry. Never the less, I’ve done my own artwork as always. It is imperative that the middle class does everything we can do to bring jobs back to this country because our president, government and politicians in general aren't fighting for us. This entry describes my personal attempt to achieve that goal.

“Good idea,” you say. “But how do I do that?”

There are Websites dedicated to products made in the United States. Just “Google” “made in America,” and/or “made in the USA, and you will turn up a list of those Websites. I’ve been doing most of my Christmas shopping on “made in the USA web pages." It is hard to find some products, because so much of our manufacturing has been shipped overseas. For instance, I could find but two manufacturers of sheets! I ended up buying two sets of sheets from Mayfield on “Mattress.com” because all Mayfield sheets are made in our country. Now that I’ve done my shopping I’ve begun a list of products and companies still manufacturing in the USA. For instance, Calphalon makes all its aluminum pots and pans in Toledo, Ohio, though they don’t make a point of that fact (THEY SHOULD!). Once I have built my list, I can use it to shop in the actual world physically. I found that many of these products do cost a bit more than products made in China. However, the United States has strict regulations on production. Thus, the products made in our country are less likely to contain lead, mercury, and other toxic chemicals dangerous to your health and the health of family members.

So – if everyone with a computer does his/her Christmas shopping at these Websites, it will be a start in trying to convince our foolish corporations to bring jobs back to the United States. I plan to continue shopping ALL United States ALL year long whenever possible. I will also contact each company that I use to let them know why I am buying their products. I’m toying with the idea of starting an interactive blog dedicated to buying products made in the USA. Is there anyone interested in joining such an enterprise?

Breakfast With the Enemy

My partner’s sister and brother in law and the brother in law's sister have been visiting since before Thanksgiving. We all went on a very wonderful trip to the Yucatan Peninsula, stayed in a five star hotel in the special private section for preferred folk, ate haut quisine every night, and were served by an unbelievably attentive staff twenty-four, seven. The weather and water were heavenly. Seven days with no news, no phone calls, just endless pleasantries with the local Mayan and Mexican people, a few other guests and between one another. Above is a photo of the beautiful Caribbean Sea, and a young man who seemed to be walking on water at Paradise Beach near Tulum, Mexico.

Yesterday we returned to south Florida, and this morning my family had FOX news on during breakfast. There was John Boehner wanting huge tax cuts for the rich, John McCain blithering about his hypocritical stand against gays in the military, and Boehner again, fussing about Obama’s Presidential Commission on the National Debt. I became angry and had to go to my bedroom. I pray to God to help me understand and love all my partner’s family, but it sometimes feels like a loosing cause. They are staunch Republicans, all, or vote with the Republican Party. Some of them hate all Arabs and Muslims indiscriminately. Some hate blacks and all people of any color, though they won’t admit it (“I’m not prejudiced. "Besides, he lied, he's only half black."). I don’t get to talk openly about my sexuality, though they all know that my partner and I are (e-e-e-e-u-w!).

Yes, I will work at loving each and every one of them, and in many ways they are wonderful. However, understanding their Republican stance on issues is another matter. They don't register that a large part of the Republican Party separates us all by race and ethnicity, religion, and sexuality, and that the Corporate Plutocracy uses those social issues to separate us as members of the middle class from one another. Yes there are other issues that the Republican Party stands for traditionally, like fiscal responsibility - I use to be one (a Republican, that is - I'm still fiscally responsible) - but more and more it is the Protestant, male, women whose minds are stuck in the 19th century, whites and heterosexuals only party.

Yes, I am trying to accept that this all is simply the world as it stands, that God has nothing to do with it, that Jesus would not be recognized by many Republicans if he walked into their church or homes. I wish I could at least appear to walk on water like the young man at Paradise beach. I also wish and pray that I can be more accepting of views other than my own as was Jesus' example for us all. Never the less this morning with FOX news felt like eating breakfast with the enemy.

Magnificent Ocean!

I took this photograph this past July as part of "The Waterworks." I was trying for the greatest depth of field possible, from about 2 feet to infinity. The boy in the middle ground with arms extended, looked as though he was praising the glorious day and God's creation; clean air, clean water, magnificent sun!

Social Realism in 21st Century Art: Part II

The following is a continuation in what I hope will be many entries about my desire that a strong social consciousness return to the Arts rather than the watered down version that some call Social Realism in contemporary art (that which depicts ordinary people in their diurnal activities). The Mexican Social Realists of the early to mid Twentieth Century actively criticized war, and anything that wasn’t in their view a human version of a democratic society with a social conscience. Also, please note that Soviet style Socialist Realism should not in any way be confused with Social Realism as an Art movement!

One more qualifier. If you are the kind of person who - stumbling upon this journal, and seeing Siqueiros' painting "New Democracy" - is revolted by her breasts, wishes to protest, just close your eyes, and please move on.*

*2

Let me start this entry by saying that, “I’m really tired of our U. S. American aversion to Twenty-first Century European style socialism as it actually exists in practice.” Does it really mean bigger government? In fact, I am concerned about our illogical fear of big government, when in reality we have handed our United States government over to the interests of the very rich gigantic international corporations. We have been duped into thinking that these very rich Brobdingnagian not so capitalists represent the benign “Mom and Pop” Capitalism of the Nineteenth and first half of the Twentieth Century. Instead, they are in the process of destroying it.

So, what is this European style SOCIALISM that everyone thinks is such a BAD word? In theory socialism advocates for public ownership and management of production. In capitalism the public gets to purchase pieces of corporations, but has no means of direct management of production. And, now that UNIONISM is also a BAD WORD, the worker has little if anything to say about his/her part in production. In socialism, production is based directly on economic demand based on an exacting measure of labor time of all components. Thus, income / consumption is based on actual individual merit and / or contribution of work. In practice European style SOCIALISM is much less dogmatic, and involves government intervention in the free market where necessary to distribute public services like medical care more equitably among the populace. All of this has nothing to do with the bogey of COMUNISM. The key thing to remember here is that socialism advocates for the individual to receive reward based on his/her own effort/merit. Instead, modern capitalism defines the individual person as if he/she were a cog in the corporate machine, and the corporate machine has become the individual of worth (see the Supreme Court Decision of January 21, 2010).*3 That decision created the avalanche toward the Republican Party in the November 2010 elections through manipulation of gullible public opinion by the extremely rich corporate world. Thus, we no longer live in a Democracy. Rather, we live in an oligarchy, a country controlled by the interests of the extremely rich, and the large corporations.

All of this anti corporate tirade started me to wondering if there is any evidence of a backlash among people who actually think, that is people who use their intelligence - which does not necessarily imply “INTELLECTUAL” [another bad word in our cultural lexicon] but that they use their God given intelligence - thinkers of all kinds, as well as visual artists, writers, composers to oppose this Brobdingnagian corporate control that has nothing to do with actual capitalism. So, I’m back to my original question on October 27th, 2010. Does the early to mid Twentieth Century art movement, Social Realism, relate in any way to contemporary concerns in American Art? I ask that question because we need champions for humanity in this crazy world of capitalism destroying RICH MONSTER CORPORATIONS.

Having dwelt on socialism to the exclusion of all else, it should be noted here, that the Mexican Social Realists of the 1920’s through 40’s often placed democracy at the center of their visual discourse. Siqueiros' artworks express an expansive vision of a world without ethnicity, class or nationality, a world that will not tolerate totalitarianism and/or WAR, in which Democracy has broken all chains that tie humanity down. It must also be a qualified statement that socialism (ideas prizing the worth of the individual in material production in capitalist societies) is often present in Social Realist works of art from the past.

Now I must begin my search for Twenty-first Century Social Realism in Art. Does it exist? That is the subject for a future entry.

I could use some help. Does anyone have examples of contemporary composers, writers, visual artists who are creating ARTWORKS in opposition to the 21st Century CORPORATE OLIGARCHY? Are there Twenty-first century artworks that look toward a world lacking prejudice, ethnicity, class or nationality?

Notes


* Siqueiros is not objectifying women, but praising woman as democracy breaking the chains of totalitarianism.

*2 Siqueiros “New Democracy” at Palacio Bellas Artes, Mexico City. From SAH Study Tour Blog by Amanda Delorey, http://sahstudytours.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/day-2-%E2%80%93-august-5-2010-%E2%80%93-historical-centre-of-the-city/. August 18, 2010. Viewed 11:15 P.M., EST, Friday, November 19, 2010.

•3 Liptak, Adam, Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit, in the New York Times, January 21, 2010 (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/politics/22scotus.html). Viewed 11:00 P.M., EDT, Friday, November 19, 2010.

Clouds and Ocean in South Florida

Ever since moving here in 2005 I’ve been fascinated by the magnificent skys above the marsh and seascape, especially the cumulus clouds that can turn dark and forbidding in an instant or gold, salmon and mauve with the setting sun. These clouds are as much a part of “The Waterworks” as is the clean clear water that supports so much life, sport, and fun in our state.

The day after we returned to Florida, we were on the beach, a beautiful sunny morning. We went swimming in the 82 degrees Fahrenheit water, walked on the beach, lay in the sun and hunted for exotic shells. As if God sent a rapid-fire cue to his angel stage crew, a band of dark cumulonimbus appeared over the water and began trailing from east to west. They spread across the sky, their shadows moving ominously across beach and sea, and my camera shutter click-clacked repeatedly before we packed up to leave the beach. The abrupt change, as in life, can just as quickly reverse itself here in south Florida.

Sand Recordings

On October 28th after a typically long cold and damp spell we woke to bright sun and fresh air that was warm enough to open the windows at 7:00 AM. Knowing that we would be leaving Delaware for Florida in two days we decided to make a last trek to Cape Henlopen. Unfortunately there was a land breeze and the black flies had the same idea as did we. Thus, our afternoon at the beach was cut to 45 minutes. However, I took lots of photographs, this time of the sand instead of the water, while simultaneously offering my flesh as sacrifice to the voracious insects. My partner, Joe, looked like a one man comedy act as he shuffled around the beach, bent in his usual shell inspecting stance, and swatting constantly at whatever part of his body the malicious critters were visiting.

I will call these photographs part of the Waterworks because the record of water’s passage is in the markings of the miniature landscapes. Also, small sea critters dug into the sand as the water receded, creating dimples and craters in the “sandscape.” The angle of the afternoon fall sun created great lighting, and every fleck of sand and shell had its own distinct shadow, which made an abundantly detailed surface. As I look at these images, I find myself pretending that I’m in a spaceship flying over the surface of Mars, or perhaps heavenly bodies in another solar system, say 70 Virginis or 47 Ursae Majoris.

Rehoboth Beach Nor’easter

The photo was actually taken in November of 2007. However, it is so appropriate to my feelings about leaving Delaware early this year in order to vote in the 2010 elections at my legal residence here in Florida. The mid Atlantic can be much more magnificent in fury than in repose. I love it when she shows her temper especially when it is not especially destructive. The photo also demonstrates my own feelings about the election this week – the anger and frustration with so many silly people who expected the economy to be repaired in only two years, and angry white folk that are being duped into voting for extremely conservative candidates most of whom advocate doing away with the new healthcare law, the department of education, privatizing Medicare, Medicaid and the V.A., remove and/or downgrade social security, and entertain the use of guns, (reads) possible revolution if they don’t get their childish way. I’m angry with a Republican Party that said “NO” to everything for those same two past years, caused the financial disaster in the first place and now claims that it can fix all the problems by keeping in place the disastrous Bush 700 billion dollar tax cut for the rich. I’m also angry with a president who has not lived up to the promises he made in 2008 concerning the public option in healthcare, don’t ask, don’t tell, and many other progressive issues, and has already promised to cooperate with Republicans in dismantling his own healthcare law. I’m angry at a political era in which any form of socialism is seen as terribly evil while Tea Party candidates can get elected to office by proposing gun-toting rebellion against our democracy!

Putting all my political frustrations aside, I like the way the sand is blowing over the dune in the photograph despite being soaking wet, the very threatening sky, and the huddled figure of my partner as he braces against the cold sand pelting wind. I remember pieces of foam were actually flying through the air the day we took the picture. Additionally, all three, flying sand, foam and braced figure demonstrate power and strength in adversity. The single point perspective of the drift fence leads the eye to the figure and the angry sea beyond, and that hoary churning ocean also demonstrates how helpless we really are against Mother Nature. Delaware friends I’ve talked to on the phone since election day tell me that the weather this week has been exactly like that in this 2007 photograph. Critically, I am capable of understanding that the photograph belongs to a generic category of pictures that might be labeled “stormy sea,” and therefore something like 2 million other stormy sea photos exist. However, as stated above, the composition including the figure, sand, crashing waves, and strong one point perspective set it apart. Thus, I see that Art (photography in this case) is my way of attempting to take charge in a world over which I have little if any control.

The Republican Tea Party is Victorious in the 2010 Midterm Elections

“We’ve taken our government back!”

 

The Future of Government in the USA

I just listened to Rand Paul’s speech, made upon winning the Kentucky senate seat.  Like Senator Elect Paul, I am proud of America.  However, unlike Senator Elect Paul, I am fearful for the people in a United States of America in which the government is thought to be a hindrance to the well being of the people.

Goodnight.

2010 ELECTION POSTER

Well, it is my Art!  Under my own description of this journal's intent, I'm allowed.

Social Realism and the Popomo

Since “Popomo” is a term peculiar to this and a very few other sources it is important to clarify. “Po” stands for Post. Pomo stands for Postmodern. Thus, the Popomo is that period after the Postmodern, which I contend passed around the turn of the century.* Social Realism in Art History originated among the Mexican Muralists during the 1920’s and blossomed in the United States and Europe during the 1930’s. *1 My interest here is how that movement relates to art in the Twenty-First Century. Perhaps I should ask the question, does Social Realism relate in any way to contemporary concerns in American Art? Sounds like the topic for a scholarly tomb, and I certainly can’t do that here. Never the less, I can and will write a few journal entries on the subject.

“Let’s start at the very beginning…” in Mexico with the big three Mexican Muralists, Diego Rivera, Jose Orozco and David Siqueiros. Some scholars separate these three along with other artists into another movement they call Socialist Realism thus constructing an artificial opposition to Social Realism. Instead, these great artists are based in a Mexican nationalism and social concerns that grew out of the Mexican Revolution. Yes, they were interested in Carl Marx as were most Social Realists both in Europe and the United States during the 1930’s into the 1940’s. That is not sufficient reason to make two movements where there is but one. I posit that reasons for the separation are based in a 21st Century conservative political world view, or an illogical fear of such. Below are images of the big three Mexican muralist's artwork.

Diego Rivera, Tenochitlan *2

Jose Clemente Orozco, Mural at Baker Library, Dartmouth College *3

David Alforos Siqueiros, Mural in Tecpan *4

To be continued in the future.


Notes and Permissions

*Entries in this journal about the Popomo include the following; 1) John's Post-postmodern Position, 2)Post-postmodern characteristics, 3) Post-postmodernism Defined: Really now John! (Continued), 4) Post-postmodernism: Danger / Caution! Peligro / Precaución, and 5) The Death of Postmodernism: PoMo versus Po-Pomo among others.

*1 Anreus, Alejandro et al, The Social and the Real. Penn State (2005).

*2

*3

*4

Making Peace in the Sand

Ten days ago I went out to Cape Henlopen to letter the word “peace” in the sand. Once lettered, I took photographs of the word to possibly use in a mixed media distressed painting for the “Peace on Earth” exhibit at Lighthouse Center for the Arts in Tequesta, FL. The painting is a real rush job, because I have but a few days to finish it in order to get a digital image mailed to Lighthouse Center before the October 27th deadline, and it may or may not be accepted for exhibit. Never the less, I want to enter the work because I will hopefully be teaching the “Mixed Media Distressed Painting” course at the center this winter. I’m about half way through the work, and these mixed media works progress in slow motion with the accidental process of the distressed paint hiding and/or revealing letters, words, and images. Thus I’m still not sure if this Cape Henlopen “peace” photograph will appear in the actual artwork.

Chalk this entry up to the semi-crazed ramblings of an artist trying to describe a bit of the process involved in a particular act of creation.

Guillaume Reymond – Video Artist

Reymond is a Swiss multimedia artist who won the 2007 YouTube video competition in the creative category. He also runs a multimedia company named “NOTsoNOISY, based in Vevey, Switzerland.

The winning 2007 Video project was titled “Gave Over,” and it included the human stop action photo performance of Tetris, Pong, and Pac-man.


While I personally don’t find these videos terribly fascinating, the greater culture certainly does. I do find the Postmodern ideation behind Reymond’s videos made from hundreds of still photographs to be extremely interesting!

Reymond says he is not trying to (moralise), but is fascinated by the potential of his creative collaborative processes. 

"Everyone's a consumer; it's important to get people to participate," he said. 

"Also, there is a tendency to (digitalise) people to make 3-D films, and I thought it was more interesting to do the opposite: rather than use a computer to imitate reality, to imitate the computer using reality – humans," he added.

* *2

Reymond’s latest video is titled “Transformers." There are three of these videos so far.


Notes

• Bradley, Simon, swissinfo.ch, “Classic video games project goes viral, http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Home/Archive/Classic_video_games_project_goes_viral.html?cid=6596012. April 18, 2008, Viewed, Friday 15.10.2010.
• 2 (moralise) and (digitalise) – spelling is in the original article.

Critter Tracks

I drove out to Cape Henlopen with my partner and his sister yesterday with the objective to shoot another waterworks montage. I did that. However, we also found these bird tracks on the dunes. The angle of the eastern side of the dune and the sun conspired to create the perfect light, and we all marveled at the subtle gradations in the sand and the funny little critter tracks.

Art Banksy

The Videos and Photo below tell most of the story. The artist’s actual name and portrait photo aren’t available because he doesn't want them to be. His work is all over YouTube, and there’s plenty more to view where these came from. I describe his work as Popomo High Graffiti and Junk Sculpture – Post Postmodern because Banksy is definitely in the tradition of Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress. The works are social criticism with painful references to innocent tots and war, fastened to urban walls with stencils, masks and spray paint. This last, a characteristic of the Popomo, that is the work inflicts pain/anguish on the viewer.

The Sculpture / assemblage, Pier Pressure makes the devastating accusation based on the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster that the only experience a child might have of the sea and porpoises in the future will be through dowdy oil based plastic amusement park creations.

Pier Pressure on UTube



Banksy Graffiti Artist



The Conservation Report on Banksy

The Station Museum

An interesting find, I’m assuming the physical plant is a modified fire station or police station. The Website doesn’t say. However, the Website does list as one of the museums goals the “emphasis on the fine arts and artists that are rarely, if ever acknowledged by other cultural institutions.” I found that admirable especially if the emphasis is actually on artists that remain outside the Art World’s concerns because production is aimed tangentially (that is not directly related) to the current commercial goals of the global Popomo (Post Postmodern) era - a time when the 19th century concern for "beauty" in aesthetics is considered by many to be ancillary to the political and cultural concerns of art production. Not that I have anything against cultural and/or political concerns in art production. I do not. Never the less, the primary concern should be the artist’s personal aesthetic, which will often include cultural concerns, and which (I maintain) should include a concern for the aesthetics of beauty.**2

I would always ask the following questions first. What about this artwork is aesthetically stimulating? Does it invoke an emotional response through the use of space, form, shape, line, color, and/or other such devices? What are the techniques involved in production? How does the use of any/all the above enhance/ contribute to the expression of the cultural/political concerns of the artist? Only then should I ask, what exactly is/are the cultural concern(s) embodied in this artwork? I personally also wonder if the cultural concerns must be made readily apparent, or might they be obfuscated by other aesthetic concerns. Might that also be a production goal of the artist?

I took the time to explore past exhibits at the museum, and most of the artists exhibited do have cultural, political, and / or economic concerns expressed through their artwork. Indeed a primary goal of the museum is “to encourage the public’s awareness of the cultural, political, economic, and personal dimensions of art.” Unfortunately, the Website doesn’t show me enough of the actual artworks of the various exhibitions over time to establish whether or not my concern for “aesthetics first,” is also part of the museum’s mission. Indeed, the goals of Station Museum are such that I believe the definition of aesthetics here includes the cultural and political as just one more dimension of an inclusive format.

Now that I’ve expressed my own concern for beauty in aesthetic art production, first, it must be said that the Station Museum is privately funded and run by a power art couple, Jim and Ann Harithas. He was a past director of both the Corcoran Museum of Art, and the Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston, thus insuring that the primary concern of the museum will be to service the commercial goals of the global Popomo, probably all the while, not realizing that Station Museum is an integral part of a sub/culture that governs so much of recognized art production during the first decade of the Twenty-first Century. This last is not to disparage the International Art World, just to recognize that its goals are tangential to my own, and often to the goals of parochial artists in any/all American locals. Indeed, it is essential that ideas contrary to the local region be expressed and placed in the public eye in the hopes that such will influence growth in public understanding of the world beyond.

"So what, John," says my alter ego.

To which I reply - ss a working artist whose artwork remains outside the mainstream of the "Art World" I fantasize that we will see a resurrection of, and/or at least a concern for the aesthetics of beauty in Art, FIRST.

Never the less, I know that if I find myself in Houston once again, having lived there for two years as a twelve to thirteen year old (oh so many years ago), I will definitely look for and visit the Station Museum of Contemporary Art.

Notes

*A definition of beauty in aesthetics would of necessity be an extensively annotated philosophical treatise, and is beyond the scope of this journal. Suffice it to say that beauty is often in the eye of the beholder, and in this journal I - THE ARTIST - am the beholder.

*2 The Postmodern placed the viewer in the primary position of importance, not the artist or artwork itself. I maintain that the artwork is the most important because it is the switch through which the artist, viewer, and culture function, thus placing limits on my own argument in this particular journal entry.

“The Write Wing Nut” Addition to the Links Bar

We interrupt this Art Blog for politics one more time.

Though I have removed the heavy liberal political entries from this journal about Art in general, my art, and LGBT art, I can’t help but add a new link to the Links section to the right (pun intended). I found this “Blog” while reading bizarre Wing-nuts on line in order to be familiar with the most recent nutty stuff ready to boil over into the mainstream. This guy is actually interesting, because there is a kind of honesty behind all his craziness. I wonder if he isn’t the “Crazy” all the Republican pundits in the FOX mainstream (Beck et al) are consulting about method to madness.

I do fear the crazies will win the November elections. That will mean repeal of healthcare, doing away with and/or minimizing social security and medicare. What's the matter with all the retired people in this country? Don't they get it?

That’s it! I promise - no more directly politicized entries.

Giant Waves

I must create a waterworks photomontage based on the photographs I took Sunday while out at Cape Henlopen with visiting friends, Anna and Bill. The waves generated by Igor were incredible to watch!

Green Art

As part of my interest in creating my own Green Art, “The Waterworks,” I’ve been researching the subject. This entry is about my meandering through the Web looking for Green Art. It includes links to some of the locations that were most informative, and I will look at a couple of Green Artists who most stimulated my own interest.

Mashup Culture by Jacob Fuglsang Mikkelsen

1.  Green Art - lists green art sources, galleries, artists, organizations.

2. Green Museum- Equates Green Art with environmental art. I’m not so sure about that. Instead, some environmental art is green.

3. World Wide Arts Resources - some of these are concerned with ecology.

4. Blog Entry about Green Art – “Old School and New School Green Art” in Mashup Culture by Jacob Fuglsang Mikkelsen – Art Curator

5. Natural Artificial - An on line journal a bout art that contrasts man made and sustainable with that which is man made and destructive.

6. Robin Maria Perdrero - pastel artist whose subject matter is often green / natural related.

Rehoboth Beach, (Etc.)

Interesting that greening the earth is seen as a geek concern or perhaps more of an extremely flaky liberal cause - "what fools these mortals be." The 2010 Gulf Oil Disaster convinced me otherwise.  It is in everyone's best interest to green this planet.  Thus, I hope to champion the cause with my waterworks montages, the pastel drawings, and other mixed media distressed paintings about water. This is the latest waterworks montage, and I chose these 30 photos in groups of 5 from over 250 images taken between1:00 P.M. and about 1:20 P.M. on August 21, 2010. In order to shoot the photos for the grid, I set the camera for multiple shots, and hold the shutter button down until the camera runs out of juice. The complete title of each waterworks montage is the location, time and date on which the photographs were taken. I have written about these works in past journal entries (August 22, 2010, and August 16, 1010, and I will continue to do so until I manage to have at least one show of Greening the Earth Waterworks.

Henryk Górecki’s Third Symphony

A friend posted the Third Symphony to her Facebook page, and though it is not about Art, LGBT art, or my art directly, it cannot be denied that music is just as great an art form as are the visual arts. Górecki himself has never sought commercial and monetary success in this age of Western commodification of anything and everything. As such he is one of my personal heroes.

Though it's known as "The Symphony of Sorrowful Songs," Górecki's 3rd is one of the most calming pieces of music I've ever heard. The mark of such greatness is that it soothes the heart through the release of intense pain and suffering. The third symphony demonstrates the truth of horrific human suffering, the cost of man’s inhumanity to man. And, yes it could happen again. We are not immune to such horrors. God bless us all, each and every one.

“Art 21 - Art in the Twenty-First Century” the PBS Series

I love this series. You can watch 214 trailers and samplings of the series on You Tube, and you can subscribe and / or donate to Peabody and PBS the sponsors of the series through links on You Tube. I am working my way through it. Lacking a photographic memory I replay some parts over and over because the series is pretty encyclopedic. As I watch, I think that “Art 21” is about Art at the turn of the century because it is a bit presumptuous to assume that the 21st Century can be labeled, described and defined during the first decade of said century. However, I do enjoy listening to the famous artists talk about their art as they work. I know that the working interviews must be staged to an extent though the series has a feeling of actual intimacy often lacking in “Reality TV” staging. I notice that most of the artist’s artwork involves global issues and/or ideas and concepts. None of them are terribly interested in depicting the pretty stream in a nearby park, or, even the grandeur of Niagara Falls, unless the latter could be shown as a Brobdingnagian hole in the center of main street USA. All of the lesser artists interested in such things are left to the sidelines. Never the less, Art at the beginning of the Twenty-first Century is not about the artist’s interaction with any definition of “beauty as some form of truth," unless beauty is understood as ancillary to another concern, such as communication). Having said that, “Art 21” does a wonderful job of summarizing the concerns of the International Art World at the beginning of this century.

Drill = Kill

I’ve begun working with distressed paint because I hope to teach a course in mixed media at Lighthouse Center for the Arts in Tequesta, Florida this coming winter. This is one of two paintings I’ve completed, shooting step by step as I worked in order to make a PowerPoint presentation to use in class. The artwork is made of layers of acrylic, tempera, oil crayon, tape, photographs and type printed from my computer. I’ve also shot the painted layers with the intent to use them in future digital mixed media work as well. In some cases I paint into the photographs before copying them into the computer, and printing them out for use in the distressed painting. In the future I plan to do some transfer of photos from magazines onto paper using lighter fluid as the transfer medium, then burying those pictures under layers of paint. Origination of the technique was based on inspiration of layered painted walls in Mexico. Those walls with posters beneath the layers of paint were historical records of a sort, and I loved their appearance. My paintings are hopefully also historical recordings of a particular location in place and time.

This particular mixed media artwork also has obvious political purpose, as it expresses my opinion - based in part on the disastrous Gulf Oil Spill of 2010 - that the “Drill Baby Drill” mantra needs to be rethought at the very least. At best, we need to repurpose our entire energy infrastructure to make the most of reusable energy sources like wind and solar. As such, I hope that the mixed media artwork along with the water related pastels and photomontages will be part of a future exhibit to make money for the Worldwide Fund for Nature, the Nature Conservancy, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and / or other not for profit organizations involved in protecting mother nature’s infrastructure from mankind’s abuses.

Healing the World

This progressive photograph is the latest in my ocean wave grid photographs, the first of which was taken on April 20, 2010 the day the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig went BANG. This particular set of photographs was taken on Poodle Beach in Rehoboth Beach on July 28th, 2010. I would like to do an exhibit of these and other ocean / saltwater marsh related artwork, and contribute the proceeds (after expenses) to the Worldwide Fund for Nature, the Nature Conservancy, the Union of Concerned Scientists or other organizations whose philosophy and goals are similar to my own. Thus, the goals for such an exhibition would be the following.

1. To protect existing natural environment and wildlife.
2. To promote a clean natural environment that encourages the growth of bio-diversity.
3. To promote clean / renewable energy such as wind and solar.
4. To raise awareness of the threat to the natural environment from the consumption and use of oil based products.
5. To help provide funding for (an) organization (s) whose goals are the same as or similar to my own.

A major concern of mine is the specious argument put forward by conservatives that climate change does not exist. Of course, it does – it is a proven fact! So, I want to argue for those things that will create change in human behavior. There is no point participating in an argument based in faulty logic and behavior.

Edgar Mueller’s Street Tromp l’oeil

Last month a Lighthouse Center of the Arts student sent me an e-mail about Edgar Mueller’s unsettling and fascinating murals. Actually, I imagine that seeing these Brobdingnagian artworks in person must be at minimum a vertiginous experience, followed be incredulity and that might finally be capped by a spine tingling thrill accompanied by a giggle. These colossal artworks also trigger playfulness in the viewer that has always been a characteristic response to the artist’s intent in creating Tromp l’oeil art. Beyond all else, this stuff certainly fits the “Popomo” credo of making hyperrealism that is unsettling to the viewer. *

Mueller’s Website includes this U-Tube video of The Crevasse (part of the Ice Age project) being created in a type of anamorphosis that allows the viewer to perceive the work in perspective at ground level, though from only one direction. The perceived hole in the earth dislocates the viewer’s impression of a solid earth thus challenging his/her sense of a secure egocentric universe.



Other works are titled Lava Burst,Waterfall, and The Cave Project. This last a series of street paintings prepared for various festivals and competitions. Below is a photograph of the Waterfall created as part of the Moose Jaw, Canada “Prairie Art Festival.” * 1

The photo below is of Mueller’s current project “Duality” from the series Unconditional Love, and is located in Moscow where he and his helpers are laboring intensely against burning eyes, noxious gases and poor visibility caused by the smog there.

There are many artists working in Tromp l’oeil street art today, but to my eye, Mueller is one of the best with these huge illusionistic imaginary spaces seemingly opened up in the middle of everyday streets all over Europe.


Notes

*Popomo – Post Post Modern

* 1 Puetz, Gabriela, E-mail with rights and permissions, 10:02 AM EDT, August 1, 2010.

“The Search for Life in Distant Galaxies” by Rudy Lemcke

I happened upon Lemcke’s Website after Googling (as I often do) “LGBT Art.”
The guy must be related to me! Either that, or we’re channeling each other’s brainwaves. His protagonist, Ed Marker and the "The Search for Life in Distant Galaxies" (hereafter, SFLDG) Website is so similar in conceptualization to Isaac Stolzfuts that I am thunderstruck as I explore Lemcke’s personal cyber world. Lemcke uses Video, photography and written narrative to illustrate the various parts of Marker’s world. Instead, back in the early to mid 2000’s, I used digital photographic tableau and written narrative to describe Isaac’s world. Isaac’s journal develops as a specific time line, while SFLDG progresses in random bits and pieces that have no specific location in time, but rather describe elements of Ed Marker’s existence; Marker’s various domiciles, his box and its contents, Ed Marker’s library research, and so on. It is a life traced by bits and pieces of evidence, with historic ties to artists like Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Cornell. Ingrid Schaffner (et al) describe a process for creating such a construct in Deep Storage: Collecting, Storing, and Archiving in Art, an Exhibition at P. S. 1, Brooklyn, N.Y. (1998), and book of the same title published in 1995. However, I haven’t seen new examples of cyber archiving recently. Perhaps I haven't been looking because it appears that Lemke and others have been producing a number of similar works.

SFLDG is apparently part of the San Francisco Queer Cultural Center’s 13th annual National Queer Arts Festival. That event took place in June during National LGBT Pride month. I will have to spend a week or two exploring all the vast system of links both within Lemcke’s project, as well as those tied to the National Queer Arts Festival.

Writing About Art

Lately I've been writing mostly about the Gulf Oil Spill and/or my upset with foolish Americans who want the “NO” Republican Party shenanigans “Drill Baby Drill” and the Tea Party more than they want to maintain and develop a truly free democracy in America. Yes, America - if we get rid of Democratic Senators and Congresspersons we will indeed have crazed Tea Party folk and “Just say NO” Republicans in office who want to get rid of social security, healthcare, and government in general. AND YES, THERE ARE THOSE WHO ARE PREJUDICED AGAINST PEOPLE OF COLOR IN THE TEA PARTY.

PROOF! Just look at and read the signs they carry at rallies.

See how easy it is for me to go off on a rant.

I illustrate the journal with my own artwork, but I am straying from the original intent of my journal, which is ART in general, my art, philosophy about art, and LGBT Art. What to do? Here's the program.

1. Open a new journal that is specifically about my political / religious / philosophical view of the world.
2. Limit this journal to ART.
3. I can post a series of photographs, drawings, and/or paintings on a particular subject that goes beyond art, though they might also be expounded upon in the “Political/ Religious” journal. However, there should be little or no political / religious comment about them in this journal.

At the same time, writing two journals necessitates fewer entries in the separate journals in order to not take time away from actual visual art production.

“Sounds like a catch 22, but let's try it, John.” So says the alter ego.

History of Gay Art Exhibition in Miami

*

Wish I was in South Florida to see 'Gay Art: From Ancient to Modern' which opened June 23 at World Erotic Art Museum in South Beach. * The exhibit runs through the 27th of July, and includes a Wilhelm Von Gloeden history as well as works by Robert Mapplethorpe, Keith Haring and others. I've included Bon Gloeden's Caino (1902) here though I don't know whither that image is in the exhibit.Naomi Wilzig (collector) has put the exhibit together from her own collection (http://jbkart.blogspot.com/2008/05/baron-wilhelm-von-gloeden-part-iii.html). "The Art of John Bittinger Klomp" includes past entries about most of the artists in the Miami exhibition. Check Steve Rothaus blog entry about the exhibit.

Notes

* “Von Gloeden, Wilhelm, “Caino,” 1902, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gloeden,_Wilhem_von_(1856-1931)_-_1902_ca._-_Caino.jpg. Viewed 9:25 A.M. EDT, Wednesday, July 21, 2010. This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.
This applies to the United States, Australia, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.

*2 Rothaus, Steve, in the Miami Herold Blog, http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2008/06/gay-art-from-an.html. Viewed 10:33 A.M. EDT, Tuesday, July 20, 2010.

How to Downplay the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill Disaster.

New First Grade Reader For America

Okay addicts!

Drill, drill, drill!

Drill Baby Drill!

Baby, baby, baby,

Kill the Planet!

Kill, kill, kill

Kill baby kill!

"So Angry," says the alter ego.

I am ANGRY! Even though I know that oil is absolutely essential at this point in time. We just can't stop our addiction to oil without totally destroying the economy, and the economy is in enough trouble. Never the less, the writing has been on the wall since the early 1970's, and we have chosen to ignore our addiction. I refuse to enable those who would continue that addiction! It is also absolutely imperative that those of the conservative political persuasion look at the alternatives to their "Drill Baby Drill" ideology.

"Here's something that might help, John," says my alter ego.



I can't help but think that Anton Dvorak would have to be pleased if he heard this version. Now I'm ready to take responsibility for my own part. And, I might even be able to hear some pro oil folk if they were also able to be reasonable, listen, and promise to work toward a cleaner, and healthier planet. Besides, I am as addicted to oil as the next fellow. So, I have done a few things to begin to ameliorate my own participation, and will continue to add to the list in the future. So far, I have accomplished the following.

1. Substitute florescent and LED lights throughout the house.
2. I turn all lights off when I leave a room.
3. I do not leave the refrigerator door open, ever, for any reason other than to remove and/or put things in and out.
4. The doors to the house are never left open for any reason other than to exit or enter.
5. I keep the thermostat set as low as I can stand in the winter in Delaware, and as high as possible in the summer.
6. I use cloth bags instead of plastic.
7. I use cloth towels in the kitchen instead of paper.
8. I use paper plates instead of plastic for picnics.
9. I do not buy water in plastic bottles.

In the future I will do the following.

1. Buy a new car that does at least 20% better with miles/gallon than the current car. (I've been saving for 3 years.)
2. Ride my bicycle when I need to do small grocery orders instead of taking the car.
3. Start saving money to convert the house to a combination of solar and wind (estimated 10 years).
4. Invest in alternative energy companies, and close all investments in oil related industry.
5. Save money toward purchase of a 50 mile per gallon or better car for local travel (estimated four years).
6. I am canceling travel plans because they will prevent saving toward energy conservation.

I could use some help here. What other ideas do people have? Pie in the sky is good. What can each of us do individually/ What can we do as a subgroup within the larger culture? How do we persuade conservative folk to change their energy orientation? Please write comments about this.

The Damned Well From Hell is Capped!

Above is my latest photo from the series, a paean to a clean planet, air, land, water including beaches and marshes.

At 84 days and counting, the destroyed Deep Water Horizon well has a new cap. Hopefully the 80,000 barrels of oil per day has been cut to zero during the currently running 6 to 48 hour test.

What then? The closed down well demonstrates that it is leaking into the bedrock below the Gulf of Mexico or that it is in tact. The well is opened to release pressure and most of the escaping oil and gas is siphoned off, and placed in tankers on the Gulf’s surface. The cap doesn't work and has to be scrapped.  Those are the foreseeable possibilities.

Why isn’t this a wake up call?  And, why aren't the rabid “Drill Baby Drill” folk able to realize that the amount of oil already released into the ecology of the Gulf of Mexico is quite lethal? I hope that science will be allowed to tell the truth about this disaster. And, I hope that we will have enough sense to curb our appetite for oil. Finally, I hope that we will be sensible and turn the world’s most powerful economy toward clean energy instead of dirty energy.

“Drill Baby Drill”

See no Evil, Hear no Evil

Click on the title to link back to the original entry in this photographic series about a healthy & clean Gulf of Mexico, ocean and world.

I’m seeing and hearing less and less about the Gulf Oil Spill. Instead I’m seeing and hearing more about Afghanistan, Russian spies, World Cup and east coast heat wave. All of these are important, but…

I refuse to take my eyes and artistic intent off of the Gulf, and this is the latest in my photographs of ocean, waves and water. They symbolize progression, progress, growth, a healthy earth, and the hope that man will learn from his mistakes and serve as steward to God’s rich and beautiful earth, rather than its destroyer. Think clean energy, wind and solar. Pray for it. Insist on it!

I’m making a pledge to personally do all I can to shepherd change from dirty to clean energy sources. In a future entry I will describe the many ways I can do that.

Fourth of July 2010

Memorial: Gulf Coast Oil Disaster

Day 71

By way of protest, and since this is an Art Blog and not a political journal, I will post a series of photographs. They will be posted in memorial of and in honor of this nations magnificent coastal regions that are threatened by the BP Gulf Oil Disaster. My pastel drawings are also about our beautiful coast, north and south, and these can be viewed at John Bittinger Klomp Pastels.

My center, the only small part of me that is able to touch God can be found on the beach and in the wetlands. Thus, I am in a panic that my sanctuary, my personal church is being destroyed several large chunks each day the man made 2010 Gulf Oil Disaster continues.

In the future I will title each post “Memorial” and each will always link to the initial post - just click on the title to go back.

General McCrystal's Dirtbag Aid said...

On one more level, I am personally angered by General McCrystal, at least with his staff, and staff takes on the characteristics of the leader with his implicit permission. In the Rolling Stones Article an aid is quoted as he goes out to dinner with the French minister saying, “It’s F(BLEEPING) gay!” *

*2

“No,” It’s a diplomatic attempt to make this war look like it has a particle of foreign support. And, you need to fix that prejudiced-man-mouth of yours, DIRT BAG!”

* Hastings, Michael, "The Runaway General," in Rollingstone Magazine on line at "http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236. Viewed 7:30 AM. EDT, Thursday, June 23, 2010."

* 2 I hope the artwork background looks like the swirls of toxic oil spiraling through the Gulf of Mexico in photographs taken from Earth orbit.

LGBT Pride Month - Fighting the Haters – a Gay Christian Artist’s Perspective

During Gay Pride month it is wise to remember that the extreme right wing of the Republican Party is the group of people responsible for the hate legislation banning lesbian and gay marriage at the state level during the past several years. These are the same people who rationalized the 2005 non-response to Katrina with “The residents of those parishes deserve what happened because they lived in a flood prone area.” They are the same folks who screamed "Drill Baby Drill" leading up to the 2008 election.

And, they are the same people who are proclaiming even now that the Obama administration has browbeaten poor BP corporation with Chicago style political tactics into creating the 20 billion dollar fund to help Gulf coast residents whose livelyhood has been destroyed by the BP oil disaster.

“Why is it important to state the obvious when instead, you should be working toward doing away with such illogical behavior, John? “

Because, dear Alter Ego, in order to fix problems, you must first adequately identify the exact causes. We are not fighting an abstract non-specific thing. We are trying to fix a set of problems caused by a specific set of people with a small range of closely held beliefs and fears. In order to create change we must first discredit those people. Secondly, we must discredit the belief system that supports their illogical behavior.

In the case of the Gulf Oil Catastrophe, the discrediting evidence is there. The facts must be stated and restated as often and in as many different ways as possible. Noses must be rubbed in the oil gushing onto our shores and into our wetlands. Noses must be rubbed in the rotting flesh of the dead fish, turtles, porpoises, whales and birds. Noses must be rubbed in the death and destruction that marked the end of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform. Noses must be rubbed in the dismantling of the 29th most important economic region in the world.

In the case of LGBT freedom, the evangelical institutions that foster hate through a discredited and antiquated belief system must also be discredited over and over again.

“Oh, and how do we do that John?”

We do that by insisting that Jesus Christ came to us in order to save all people from the hate, fear, and self-serving behavior of a few people. We do that by insisting that the message of the New Testament is Jesus’ special message that God gives us love, not hate, that redemption is achieved through love. We must always remember that God “gave his only begotten son…” through love for us “…that who so ever believeth in him should have life ever lasting.” We must not argue over the particulars of heaven and hell, angels and demons, whether individual verses in the Old Testament support stingy and hateful beliefs. Rather we must argue that the transformative nature of Jesus Christ’s message in the New Testament changes all that went before. God, through his son, Jesus, gave the human race the means to lose fearful, stingy and hateful behavior in favor of a more mature loving and caring nature.* We do that by stating over and over that God has not changed his message. It is the message written by men that God wishes to change to fit more closely with God’s nature, not mankind’s nature.

God is not man's vision! Rather, God made man in his own visionary belief that we would develop into a people more god-like and capable of sharing God’s universe.

So, LGBT people must reaffirm our love for all God’s creation and demonstrate love toward the heterosexual brothers and sisters who transgress against God’s love for each and every one of us. That does not mean that we passively absorb self-serving and hateful behaviors. God through Jesus Christ asks that we become a transformative power on this earth. We must actively work toward removing faulty self-serving fear and hate where it exists. This struggle will continue to be a long and difficult fight. I have come to accept that I may not see the conclusion of that fight during my life. Never the less, I know that with pride and love LGBT people will win that fight!

*I must qualify my use of the pronoun "his" in relation to my belief that the holy family more clearly represents God in that God is greater than a father (in human terms) could ever be. The loving relations between mother, father, son and daughter as an active system are more clearly like God, and beyond that I cannot know.