Redtree Times

Moved By Light— At West End Gallery

Let no man imagine that he has no influence. Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power. 

–Henry George, Social Problems (1883)

This new 12″ by 36″ painting, Moved By Light, is another from my current solo exhibit at the West End Gallery. The exhibit, titled The Jubilee Dance, ends one week from today, on November 12.

While Moved By Light is a quiet and contemplative piece, I think it possesses a depth of meaning that goes beyond its surface. The kind of painting that soothes while whispering its message in your ear. What that message might be depends on who is looking and listening to it.

I have taken this piece in many times and have had multiple meanings appear to me. Each new reaction, each new meaning is as valid as the last. Some are obvious and some are not.

My most recent reaction to this painting is summed up well by the aphorism at the top from Henry George. Many of us often feel as though our voices go unheard, that whatever we do means little to anyone but ourselves. We cannot recognize how we touch the world and how the world touches us. As a result, we sort of just go through the motions of life without giving it much thought.

But when we attempt to find purpose and meaning– when we consciously think about it– we manifest our own light, one that is apparent to others. Those who live with purpose and thought emit a more radiant light. And as plants and trees reach toward the light of the sun, others are attracted to the light we emit. And even as we give off light, we are also still drawn to other powerful lights.

That’s what I see here, in its simplest form. The Red Tree is drawn to the light of the sun while creating its own light that attracts the trees surrounding it, symbolized by the visible tree trunks that seem to be in motion from this attraction.

That works for me this morning. Maybe it has something to do with the afterglow from Tuesday’s elections in connection with the words of Henry George. I have to confess that I knew nothing about Henry George who was an American political economist and social philosopher who lived from 1839 until his death in 1897.His writings and economic theories brought him great fame. For example, his most famous book, Progress and Poverty from 1879 sold millions of copies around the world. After George died from a stroke while campaigning to be mayor of NYC, his massive funeral procession, after a viewing at the Grand Central Place that drew over 100,000 people, moved through the streets of NYC drawing huge crowds that were said to equal, if not exceed, those of the funeral procession of Abraham Lincoln when his body was paraded in NYC in 1865.

George’s writings ushered in the Progressive Era that brought about many changes that we still benefit from today and helped bring about the end of the Gilded Age. He railed against the inequality of that era, observing that unchecked greed and acquisition can only lead to more and more poverty. His considerable influence continues to this day, and his theories seem even more pertinent in light of our current version of the Gilded Age.

Maybe it is the growing inequality and this election’s rejection of those who seemed hellbent on helping the gap grow for the very privileged few that I saw in George’s aphorism that connected in my mind with this painting.

Maybe. For today, I have to say yes.

Tomorrow it may say something completely different to me. As it should.

That is a quality I desire and value in my work. It is sometimes a mirror that reflects what I am feeling at any given time while at other times it is a window that lets me see and perhaps understand something outside myself.

Seeking the Design— You Could Win This Painting!

A reminder that in two days, on Saturday, November 7, I will be giving a Gallery Talk at the West End Gallery. It starts at 11 AM but we suggest you try to get there early in order to get a seat as seating is limited. Doors open at 10:30 AM. I always enjoy the time just after the doors open as people are coming in.  It’s a time when we get to have a little chat beforehand and I get to ask those folks questions instead of the other way around.

The Gallery Talk is usually a good time with some laughs, some serious thoughts, and a good amount of Q&A. The Talk finishes up with a Free Drawing for the painting shown here, Seeking the Design, which is 16′ by 20″ on canvas. There are always some other surprises which those who have attended my talks in the past know.

Hey, I am feeling pretty upbeat after the past few days, so you never know if I might be even a bit more generous than usual. You will just have to come out to the West End on Saturday morning if you want to find out.

The Gallery Talk and the Drawing are, as always, both free and open to everyone.

Here’s a song that I always enjoy from almost any of the many artists who have covered it. It’s This Little Light of Mine and this live version from Neko Case is a particular favorite of mine.

Open your mind and let your light shine…

Hokusai– Great Wave off Kanagawa (1931)

I dearly love the state of Texas, but I consider that a harmless perversion on my part, and discuss it only with consenting adults. If Texas were a sane place, it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.

–Molly Ivins, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (1 March 1992)

Wow.

I don’t even know what to say this morning. That was overwhelming.

Early this morning, still watching results come in, my jaw dropped to ground and never came back up. It was such a powerful and decisive, not to mention beautiful, statement by the people in nearly every state that they were fed up and ready for a major change. It was a stunning repudiation and rebuke of the Trump/MAGA divisive agenda with its callous cruelty and naked racism, not to mention its greedy corruption and mob-like bullying.

It was a beatdown, plain and simple.

None was more incredible than the blue wave that washed across Texas. I never anticipated the stunning beatings that took across the board in Texas. It was simply amazing as every statewide election went blue by margins that were beyond the reach of conspiracy and meddling by huge dark– and not so dark– money.

Thank you, my friends in Texas. You have shocked me in a way I never saw coming. And to those, as well, in Iowa and Kansas and in so many other states and localities where people made the choice to opt for a more humane form of governance.

I hoped for it but, as is the case with so many hopes, never expected it to come to fruition.

I am playing a song this morning that I have been waiting to play again for some time now. It’s Florence & The Machine doing her The Dog Days Are Over. Of course, the dog days are not really over until these elections have real-world consequences. The old adage is that you must be careful what you wish for because you might just get it. That is the case right now. There is deserved elation at the moment but there is so much to do that requires intense effort and a fearless effort to restore accountability and integrity in our government.

When and if they can boldly follow through on their potential, then the dog days might be over.

But for now, the horses are coming so you better run…

Wow.

Norman Rockwell- Election Day

Those who stay away from the election think that one vote will do no good. ‘Tis but one step more to think one vote will do no harm.

–Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals and Notebooks 1852-1855

I shared this post ten years ago as the 2016 election cycle was coming to an end. It was, as I write below, a nightmare election season, one that was unlike any before, with the twisted concept of alternate facts coming to bear. Russian Kompromat and a desire for oligarchic rule was in the air and though many dismissed it as election season noise at the time, the reality of it is now nakedly apparent. The years after that have been a struggle to deal with a constant daily onslaught of misinformation, disinformation, lies, empty promises, corruption, criminality, cruelty, brutality, and treason.

That nightmare election season from back then has continued as an ongoing national nightmare to this very moment.

But we still stand- for now. Today is an opportunity to change the direction of this nation. A choice to begin to bring this nightmare to a close with true justice and accountability. To begin to bring about change that serves the masses and not the privileged few.

As I said, I shared this 10 years ago. It’s short so I hope you’ll take a minute to take it and the Rockwell images in.

Well, we’re finally nearing the end of our national nightmare. With that in mind, I thought I would show a couple of paintings concerning our election process from Norman Rockwell who chronicled this country for many, many decades and often seemed to get to the core of things in his work.

I have also included a couple of his most famous paintings to show that our elections are something more than popularity contests. They do indeed have consequences. They shape our daily lives as well as our view of the world and our place in it.

Voting is our right, one that has been hard fought and bled for. But more than that, it is an obligation. For a democracy such as ours to survive, each of us must play our part. We must let our voice be heard in the form of our vote, so that our democracy might continue in a way that best serves the people.

Do not take this right and obligation lightly. Let your voice be heard. Vote.

Norman Rockwell- The Right to Know

Norman Rockwell- The Golden Rule

Norman Rockwell- A Time For Greatness

Norman Rockwell- Undecided

Norman Rockwell- At the Polls

Norman Rockwell- Obvious Choice 1948

Norman Rockwell- Election Debate 1920

Norman Rockwell- Elect Casey

Norman Rockwell- Election Day with Dog

Norman Rockwell- The Problem We All Live With

Norman Rockwell – The Four Freedoms

Chaos & Light — At West End Gallery

It partook … of eternity … there is a coherence in things, a stability; something, she meant, is immune from change, and shines out (she glanced at the window with its ripple of reflected lights) in the face of the flowing, the fleeting, the spectral, like a ruby; so that again tonight she had the feeling she had had once today, already, of peace, of rest. Of such moments, she thought, the thing is made that endures.

― Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

I am running a little behind this morning. I thought I’d share a post, slightly reedited, from a several years back about the painting above, Chaos & Light, that is currently hanging as part of my solo show at the West End Gallery. This painting has held been held in high regard in my heart since it was painted, mainly because I think it well represents a major them in my work, that we exist between worlds of chaos and order, light and darkness, the earthly and the ethereal. Between time and the timeless.

We are teetering at this moment from descending into a level of chaos that would throw the balance on which our lives depend out of order. Ad I write chaos is sometimes a virus that evades all our natural defenses. I thought this was an apt read for today, the Monday before an election that definitely represents the struggles to hold back chaos, an election that may bear grave consequences for this country and the rest of the world.

I am also enclosing a song at the bottom from Marc Ribot’s 2019 album, Songs of Resistance 1942-2018. It is his version of the old hymnal Ain’t Gonna Let Them Turn Us Around, that became one of the anthems of the civil rights movement. Sung here by Steve Earle, it’s a good song to keep in mind during our march away from chaos and towards the light.

[ From 2022]

Chaos has been a theme in my work in recent times, showing itself in the random slashing brushstrokes that make up the skies in many of my works. You see such a sky in the painting above, Chaos & Light. It is above and around us all the time and we try to find some sense of order, some means of tolerating it, in the lives we live beneath it.

This theme of chaos is most likely a result of my perception of the times in which we live. I say perception because maybe chaos as a state of being is based more on one’s tolerance and resistance to it. Maybe chaos is the natural state, and we have internal mechanisms that keep it at bay, that keep it barricaded away, unseen, from that part of us that allows us to live and even thrive in some orderly fashion in this world.

The broken irregular rhythms of chaos go unheard and unseen as we attempt to live our lives, simply and naturally.

Sometimes, however, chaos, like a virus, gets past those internal barricades. Chaos becomes apparent, visible and heard. Its rhythms disrupt, infect, our own internal rhytms. Life then becomes more and more filled with chaos. Finding order and simplicity becomes more and more difficult.

Maybe that is the purpose of art, to serve both as a vaccine and a curative to hold chaos outside our selves.

I don’t know.

I know that it makes some small degree of sense to me. I sometimes feel like chaos has infected me, that it runs rampant through my system and my own rhythms have been replaced by those that seem unnatural to me.

But then a dose of art, simple paint on a surface or the sound of a simple tune or the arrangement of words in a book or even the image of light breaking over the horizon in the morning, restores me for at least a short time.

I am sure this sounds crazy to some. That’s okay. Those folks who think this most likely have kept chaos away their whole lives and can’t even begin to understand the plight of those infected by chaos.

This holding off of chaos is what I see in this painting. In many of my paintings, actually. Does it translate as art? I think it does but that’s not for me to say. However, as a soothing balm in troubled and chaotic times, it serves the purpose.

Maybe that is one of the purposes of art? Maybe.

Reminder: This coming Saturday, November 7, I will be giving my annual Gallery Talk at the West End Gallery. It begins at 11 AM and finishes up with a free drawing for one of my paintings. Or maybe two. Who knows? It’s usually a good time. I encourage you to stop in for an hour on Saturday.

It is, as always, free and open to all. We suggest you get there early to get a insure you get a seat since seating is limited. Doors open at 10:30 AM.

The Tree at Time’s End– At West End Gallery

Now as I look around it’s mighty plain to see
This world is such a great and a funny place to be
All the gamblin’ man is rich and the workin’ man is poor
And I ain’t got no home in this world anymore

— Woody Guthrie, I Ain’t Got No Home in This World Anymore (1940)

First day of November. Phew, time flies.

Time flies. Time stands still. Time waits for no man. Time is money. Time heals all wounds. A stitch in time saves nine. Time is on my side.

Time just is.

We’re timeless beings built of eternal light trapped in a dimension ruled by the time on a clock.

Fortunately, we still get to choose what we do with our limited time here. We get to create the world in which we live through our choices. Who we love, how we make our living, where we live, what we believe– they’re choices we make and all contribute to the condition of our world.

Most of us make simple choices. We want a comfortable life along with the love of family and friends. We want a peaceful world in which to spend our precious time. Most of us want to see all the other people of the world not suffer or struggle for the entirety of their time here. It hurts us to see the pain of others.

Then there are those whose primary choice for their time spent here is acquisition. They want all the money, land, and power they can get their grubby mitts on and do so blind to the suffering of others. People are either assets to use and abuse or obstacles to eliminate.

I think the election on Tuesday, more than any other, may well be the turning point in the struggle between regular people who simply want a comfortable, peaceful world and those who wish to greedily grab it all and hold on to it until the time their clocks expire.

This election is all about greed of the highest order. The greedy have expanded their reach in governments around the world to the point that dictate laws. most which are written to favor them alone.

More, more, more is their credo.

Some might read this and think that I am anti-capitalist or against attaining wealth. That is hardly the case. I want everyone to do as well as they can with the time in which they are given.

No, I am against those whose sole purpose in life is constant attainment at the expense of all others. Those for whom enough is never enough.

Kurt Vonnegut wrote a poem called Joe Heller that addresses this:

True story, Word of Honor:
Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer
now dead,
and I were at a party given by a billionaire
on Shelter Island.

I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel
to know that our host only yesterday
may have made more money
than your novel ‘Catch-22’
has earned in its entire history?”
And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.”
And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?”
And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”
Not bad! Rest in peace!

As long as there are people with this sickness of extreme greed that goes unchecked, such as the near-trillionaire (I don’t want to write that name) who feels this election is important enough to have reportedly spent over 440 million dollars on it, we are not safe. That amount is something like the lifetime earnings well over 100 people.

Say that out loud– lifetime earnings of well over 100 people. You think this asshat doesn’t think this election is important?

If this level of greed is not restrained now, we may not have another chance. And if that happens, they will continue to attain and attain unencumbered. The wealth of this world is a finite resource so in order to get more and more, they will eventually come for everything from everybody.

Money, land, and time.

That means your time here will in effect become their time as well.

As for myself, I am not ready to cede my limited time to anyone. Certainly not these motherf****rs.

I hope I camouflaged that enough so as to not offend.

In short, I am saying vote as though your time here on this earth depends on it. Because it just might.

Here’s a song about the already disaffected. It’s a Woody Guthrie song, I Ain’t Got No Home in This World, performed by Billy Bragg. If we don’t take a stand now, it could describe us all in the near future. Maybe it already does, to a point.

Vote. I am, of course, implying that you vote blue. I think if you’ve read this blog, that will not come as a surprise or offend you.

On a lighter and more upbeat note, I want to remind you that this coming Saturday, November 7, I will be giving my annual Gallery Talk at the West End Gallery. It begins at 11 AM and finishes up with a free drawing for one of my paintings. And more, of course.

More, more, more– that’s my credo. Of course, the more I refer to is more giving.

It is, as always, free and open to all. We suggest you get there early to get a insure you get a seat since seating is limited. Doors open at 10:30 AM.

Seeking the Design— You Could Win This Painting!

What might we profitably do on Halloween? Look backward, and consider those who went before us. The road ahead is inevitably dark, but to see where we have been may offer unexpected hints about who we are, and where we should be heading. Triviality about the past leads certainly toward a trivial future.

–Robertson Davies, “Haunted by Halloween”, New York Times (31 October 1990)

Man, that sounds like the perfect advice for this particular Halloween in this country as we head towards an election day that will no doubt determine how dark the road ahead will be. But at some point, we must look back and reexamine these past years to determine how we became who we have been over that period of time. The misdeeds and crimes of our recent past cannot be normalized or trivialized.

Without total accountability, it will become our destiny.

Happy Halloween. Who needs monsters, zombies, or witches when we have such a fine group of ghouls and creeps already in place?

Moving on, I am going to leave today and head one week into the future. You probably didn’t know I could time travel here on the blog. Well, it’s true. My blog, my rules. While I seldom go into the future, I often travel backwards but for today I am jumping ahead in time.

It’s Saturday, November 7. I would like to tell you what happened in the elections but if I give away the results, but that would put my whole power to time travel at risk. Let me just say that I am smiling on this particular Saturday. I would like to say that was hint as to Tuesday’s results, but it really isn’t.

I often smile when things go haywire or seem too awful and absurd. I smile a lot, much like the village idiot, a job I once applied for. Fortunately, they felt I was over-qualified or we wouldn’t be having this one-sided conversation now.

Anyway, it is, as I said, Saturday, November 7. I have just finished that day’s blog urging people to come out to my Gallery Talk at the West End Gallery that begins later that morning at 11 AM. I begin to pack up the painting shown here at the top, Seeking the Design, which I will be giving away in a free drawing at the end of the talk. It’s a bittersweet moment since it’s a painting that has been a favorite of mine for a while now.

As I have said before, the paintings that I give away at these talks have to hold meaning for me or the whole act of giving is kind of moot. It has to hurt a bit to see it go away. And this piece hurts as it leaves the studio.

I also am packing up some other things that I might giveaway at the Talk. There might even be another painting, if it’s a good, fun crowd. If not, to hell with them! I feel I have to point out that this is a joke. I imagine somebody reading this for the first time, seeing me write to hell with them, not knowing that I sometimes say stuff like that for effect only.

Let me just clarify: The painting at the top will be given away in drawing that is free and open to everyone who attends the talk. There are other things that will given away, as well. For example, I have an old Makita drill that needs a new cord that will be given away. Okay, scratch the Makita off the list. The stuff I am packing up is pretty good, if I can say that.

Though I am smiling, I am a little nauseous. The prospect of standing before a crowd of people is sometimes a little overwhelming for someone who locks themselves in their studio away from world for most of the year. But the folks that come are always great which helps considerably. Makes me reconsider which mask I will be wearing, even though ti s a week removed from Halloween. I am thinking I might not even need one this year.

I guess you will have to catch up in time with me next Saturday if you want to find out which mask I will be wearing. Or not. Who knows? Well, I do since I have already been to next Saturday this morning but who besides me?

For this Halloween I thought I would play a classic from that supremely weird band, The Cramps. This is I Was a Teenage Werewolf from their Songs the Lord Taught Us album which I bought back around the time it came out in 1980. It is an album you could just put on and play over and over again as the soundtrack for a Halloween party. I was going to share TV Set from this album but felt that it was a bit too gruesome even if it is a catchy tune.

Slow Dance in Blue— At the West End Gallery

She says nothing at all but simply stares upward into the dark sky and watches, with sad eyes, the slow dance of the infinite stars.

–Neil Gaiman, Stardust (1998)

Slow moving this morning. Not exactly slow dancing. More of a slow shuffle.

Things on my mind and things that must be done have me sitting here this morning with a small, dull headache that doesn’t seem swayed by the second cup of coffee. Wasn’t sure I wanted to write anything but there were two things compelling me to do so. The first was my self-imposed obligation to promote my current show, The Jubilee Dance, at the West End Gallery and the upcoming Gallery Talk there. The show itself ends Thursday, November 12 and the Gallery Talk takes place next Saturday, November 7 beginning at 11 AM. I will have more details tomorrow including which painting will be given away at the end of the talk.

The other reason for writing today was the fact that I am within sight of the end of a year in which I have posted something every day here. It’s been like 340 or so straight days. It doesn’t mean anything, of course. Just a private goal that won’t get me a prize anywhere or anytime soon. Just something I feel I need to do right now.

Part of that goal is to write something meaningful every day. I can’t attest to whether that part of the goal has been met. I would like to think it has but who knows? I am sure there have been days when I felt like crap and tried to glide by with some sort of nonsense.

Kind of like today, I guess.

But you know what? Even if it is light on content or deep thought, there’s some good stuff here. Take the painting here, Slow Dance in Blue, that is part of the West End Gallery show. As I have been writing this, the image of it takes up the right side of my screen and it has been very soothing. Maybe even easing my headache a bit. Well, maybe not that but I do feel calmed by it. All I could ask this morning.

Then there’s the short passage from Stardust. Though I know Neil Gaiman has lost some of his luster, he has written many damn fine books. Stardust is a good read and was a very enjoyable film.

And to tie it all together, here’s Willie Nelson with his version of the Hoagy Carmichael classic Stardust. I don’t know that I have ever heard a bad version of this song which has been covered by a vast multitude of great singers over the years. But there’s something about Willie’s version from his 1978 album of songs from the American Songbook, also titled Stardust, that works beautifully for me. His phrasing and tempo fit it so well. I bought this album back in 1978 and it is always a good listen.

See? It’s not all just fluff this morning.

Now don’t make me say git this morning, okay? Just do it.

The Natural Life— Now at West End Gallery

How does part of the world leave the world?
How can wetness leave water?

Don’t try to put out a fire by throwing on
more fire. Don’t wash a wound with blood.

No matter how fast you run, your shadow
more than keeps up. Sometimes it’s in front.
Only full, overhead sun diminishes your shadow.

But that shadow has been serving you.
What hurts you blesses you.

Darkness is your candle.
Your boundaries are your quest.

I can explain this, but it would break the glass cover
on your heart, and there is no fixing that.

You must have shadow and light source both.
Listen, and lay your head under the tree of awe.

When from that tree, feathers and wings
sprout on your soul, be quieter than a dove.
Don’t open your mouth for even a cooooo.

–Rumi, Tree of Awe (13th century)

Your boundaries are your quest…

That line stopped me in my tracks.

What are those boundaries?

Are they the same for each of us?

Can we ever reach them and, if so, will we even know?

Should we know?

So many questions.

Maybe this one of those instances where our questions don’t serve a purpose and don’t require an answer.

Perhaps they simply make us realize that they are keeping us from being still and listening to the light and dark as we lay under the Tree of Awe.

Maybe.

It’s not for me to know.

That’s all.

And enough this morning.

Here’s Iron and Wine with his song Tree by the River performed at the Kennedy Center in 2019. Remember when the Kennedy Center was a place of joy and music?

The painting at the top, The Natural Life, is now at the West End Gallery as part of my 25th annual solo exhibit there, The Jubilee Dance. The show hangs until November 12.

There is also my annual Gallery Talk at the West End Gallery taking place next Saturday, November 7, beginning at 11 AM. If you plan on attending, the gallery is advising that you arrive early in order to insure you get a seat, as it is limited. Doors open at 10:30 AM. I am in the process of choosing which painting will be given away at the end of Talk in a Free Drawing. I will reveal my choice sometime in the next few days. Plus, as always, there is always a little more as folks who have attended before will attest. Hope you can make it.

The Gallery Talk and the Drawing are free and open to all.

The Heart Warms— Now at West End Gallery

All who are not lunatics are agreed about certain things. That it is better to be alive than dead, better to be adequately fed than starved, better to be free than a slave. Many people desire those things only for themselves and their friends; they are quite content that their enemies should suffer. These people can only be refuted by science: Humankind has become so much one family that we cannot ensure our own prosperity except by ensuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.

— Bertrand Russell, The Science to Save Us from Science, New York Times (19 March 1950)

Read that again: Humankind has become so much one family that we cannot ensure our own prosperity except by ensuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.

I started writing a whole thing on Russell’s words this morning but realized, he didn’t require anything from me to get the point across. It is plain and simple.

If everybody is not safe and secure, then nobody is safe and secure. Nobody is free unless everybody is free.

I think that it might very well sum up what is at stake in the election here and in the elections that have taken place around the globe in recent days that seem to refute the assertion of power by strongmen leaders that have bedeviled and threatened us in recent years. I believe the people are calling out for leaders who will work to protect all people and not simply serve in the best interests of the ultrawealthy or of one religion or race.

It seems too obvious to even write this, but recent years have taught us that far too many of us think that so long as we get ours, we can turn our backs on others. It might seem that this works in the short run for some, but eventually there is a reckoning.

Perhaps we are at the beginning of such a reckoning?

I don’t know. I sure hope so. But I don’t put too much stock on hope alone.

Vote. Not just for your own self-interest but for others, as well.

Read that sentence one last time: Humankind has become so much one family that we cannot ensure our own prosperity except by ensuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.

Here’s a song from 1967, Get Together, from the Youngbloods. I was surprised I hadn’t shared this song her before. Its message is much Russell’s. Plain and simple, almost naively so. But that might well be its greatest strength.

Art, after all, is meant to reveal and clarify, not to complicate and obfuscate.

Don’t Fence Me In (194)

I am amused to see from my window here how busily a man has divided and staked off his domain. God must smile at his puny fences running hither and thither everywhere over the land.

–Henry David Thoreau, Journal, Feb. 20, 1842

As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions. Our riches will leave us sick; there will be bitterness in our laughter; and our wine will burn our mouth. Only that good profits which we can taste with all doors open, and which serves all men.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Representative Men (1850)

I couldn’t resist going with the tag team of Thoreau and Emerson — an undefeated team, by the way– this morning for this post on an early painting from 1994 called Don’t Fence Me In.

The first passage above from Thoreau might have served perfectly well on its own but I thought the added spice in Emerson’s words made a statement that is applicable now as it was 176 years ago. Namely, that the greed and hoarding of the few that is shaping society and dividing the haves from the have-nots will be our downfall. That the only good that should come with great wealth is that it is used to serve and better all men.

I would imagine the people in the Red Hats would call that communism or socialism or some other word that they have not the foggiest idea of what it really means. Just a buzzword used to attack things they don’t or won’t understand.

Sorry for the short detour. Let me talk for a moment about the painting. It was painted in 1994 when I was still adapting the wet process that I had developed that best suited how I think. I was also at that time looking at a lot of Georgia O’Keeffe work which I greatly admired. I was especially taken with her work that often showed trees bisecting the painting’s surface, often with an animal skull, such as the piece shown here. Sometimes there was just a skull hovering over a desert landscape. The colors were clear and strong while her compositions were simple yet not uncomplicated, evoking a deep response.

Strong color and complicated simplicity were those things I greatly desired in my own work, so I made several attempts with her work in mind. One was the piece shown here. It certainly was not up to O’Keeffe’s mature work and didn’t reach the level of color intensity that I wanted.  I was still not yet to a point where I understood how to harness color for its greatest effect. I was still grasping in the dark.

But, overall, this piece still works for me, even today. It has clarity and an implied message in its strands of barbed wire with the bottom one broken and going to the ground. Much as O’Keeffe’s skull with its regal antlers speaks of the temporary nature of all things, this says to me that the boundaries and fences that we build to divide us are not natural and will eventually succumb to the weight of time.

As I said, even though it is not a great piece, it is one that still works for me. It gives me a degree of satisfaction each time I pull it out in that it accomplished what I wanted from it at the time. It was an indicator to me that I might have an ability to translate deeper feeling in simple terms.

And that was what I really desired. Still is.

Actually, this is all a subterfuge to play a song that might be the polar opposite of yesterday’s song from Måneskin, I Wanna Be Your Slave. Though I am a fan of that song, I thought perhaps something a bit more calming might be in order this morning.  The song is, of course, the Cole Porter classic Don’t Fence Me In. How could it be anything else? I had tons of choices because, like most Cole Porter tunes, everybody and their brother has covered it. But I settled on the Ella Fitzgerald version. You can never go wrong with Ella.

This is a line from a different song but I still have to say it– git along, little dogies…