Ring of Fire #1– At West End Gallery
No one today remembered why the war had come about or who, if anyone, had won. The dust which had contaminated most of the planet’s surface had originated in no country, and no one, even the wartime enemy, had planned on it.
–Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
There’s no real reason for today’s theme which I guess seems pretty dystopian. Part of it came from looking at some of the work from the Ring of Fire series from early this year such as the piece shown here.
This series came about as both an exercise and a way to use up a huge pile of photo paper that had accumulated over the years. It felt much too wasteful to just chuck it out. As a result, I began doing these quickly done faces.
This was the first of the series. It was painted quickly with an economy of strokes. That was part of the exercise, to use just a few expressive strokes to create a recognizable reality. If you were to zoom in on this piece, you might be surprised at how few and simple the brush slashes are.
It was the speed and the unconsidered manner of these pieces that attracted me. There was little time taken to prettify them and it gave them an immediacy and rawness that fits the emotional content of these people in obvious crisis.
Maybe it’s war or a natural disaster. Or maybe it’s just their own inner world being set on fire. It depends on what perspective from which one looks.
For today, I am seeing as being in wartime. That allows me to set up today’s Sunday Morning Music which is David Byrne and the Talking Heads with their 1979 classic Life During Wartime. This performance is from their 1984 film Stop Making Sense. As with most David Byrne/Talking Heads songs, it is enjoyable in all aspects and has aged well.
Hopefully, the same can be said for most of us…
Redtree Times 
I saw a T-shirt on a pop-up ad, that read:
“I’m already against the next war.”
only thing is, is that it kind of implies that the might be a pause between wars where we could catch our breath and reflect on the costs and the causes and decide to maybe not start the next one.
I agree, Mr. Tony. Unfortunately, there is always someone out there who doesn’t want to be included in the “we” of your statement and is more than willing to start the next war. While “we” may not start the next war and may be against it, “we” can’t ignore it. The trick comes in trying to get everyone everywhere to see themselves as being included in the “we” and not part of the “us” and “them.”
I see Emperor Nero.
Hmm… that’s an interesting take.