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Show Statement/ Kada 2010

Posted in Opinion, Recent Paintings, tagged , on November 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

There is an opening Saturday night from 6-9 PM at the Kada Gallery in Erie, PA.    It is for start of my new show which is currently hanging there.  Below is the statement that accompanies that show:

 

Toward Possibility

Kada Gallery, November 2010

 

For this show, I decided to use the title of the painting above, Toward Possibility, to act also as the title for the exhibit. I felt that the tenor and tone of this painting very much represented what I was trying to get across with much of this show, that being a sense of self-revelation and self-acceptance we sometimes find on our journey through this life.

The possibility mentioned in the title is the pure possibility offered in our simple existence and our imagination, the chance to evolve and grow individually and as a people. The possibility of moving beyond the obstacles put before us by our own shortcomings and prejudices to find a place where we can fully express our better selves.

The possibility to simply be better.

That’s not an easy task to accomplish or even attempt in this world. Perhaps that is why my paintings often deal with a landscape that is not solely of this world. One can step back and analyze them with a cool eye and say that this or that element in the painting doesn’t or couldn’t exist in the real world. An orange field or a bright red tree. But my goal and hope is to make them seem possible in the eyes and minds of the viewers, to create a harmony in the colors, textures and forms of the painting that allows them to comfortably assume the reality of the landscape I’m putting before them. To create a world that opens the mind to this and other possibilities.

Just having the knowledge that there is a possibility for a better place and a better self makes the journey that much easier to endure. And that is what I hope my work does in the long run– makes the journey easier.

 

 

 

 

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The Script

Posted in Current Events, Opinion on November 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

 

 

A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.

— Demosthenes

 

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For many years, my dad has said, “We’re the most gullible people on the face of the earth.”   Those words rang in my ears last night as I watched  politician after politician, most of them entrenched in the beauracracy of our government, stand before cameras and say that Washington was broken and they would fix it.   Their words didn’t jibe with their actions of the last two years.  Or ten years. Or twenty or thirty.

They were just words.

But they were words that, to the ear that wanted to hear them, sounded reasonable and true.  But to an ear that was skeptical, an ear that belonged to a person who spent a great part of their earlier life looking for angles and scams, the words were simply part of the script.  A script meant to lead those listening to actions that serve the speaker of the words.

The power of words and the willingness to believe what one wants to hear- the con man’s daily double. 

Now the words, the script,  will begin to change as they have to rationalize their actions in the months ahead that won’t mesh with what they’ve promised in the campaign.  There will be a parsing of words, a play of semantics.  A stall here, a place of blame there.  All classic con moves. 

It’s the same for both sides of the aisle.  There is not a gullibility gap here for either political party.  Just words and empty promises.  And we’re left waiting for that check from that Nigerian princess to come…

 

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Three Scary Days

Posted in Current Events, Opinion, tagged , on November 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Well, here we are on a Monday sandwiched between the two scariest days of this year, Halloween and Election Day.  In the run uo to the elections there has been a constant drumbeat  from candidates all uttering the words Tax Cuts as though they were some magical incantation used to bewitch voters.  And maybe they are.  A good portion of the American public pays little attention and responds to catchphrases and sloganeering without questioning the validity of the argument.

On last night’s 60 Minutes there was an interesting segment that featured David Stockman, who was the wunderkind behind the  Reaganomics/ supply side economic policy of the early 1980’s.   I felt a great sense of vindication when I heard him speak about the failings of this policy and how it has led to the great wealth inequality that bedevils our nation.  I knew that when I first heard of the policy 30 years ago when I was nothing more than a high-school graduate working in a factory.  It didn’t take a brain surgeon to see where those policies would eventually take us.

He was on the show primarily to say that this constant mantra of Tax Cuts is killing us as a nation and is not practically sustainable.  He calls for the Bush Tax Cuts to end for all income levels.

The story also concerned itself with the state of Washington and its ballot iniative to establish a state income tax of 5% that would start after $400,000 of income per year.  Washington currently has no state income tax and, like most states, is in a fiscal bind.  This measure’s largest supporter William Gates, Sr., father of Microsoft founder and bazillionaire Bill Gates, who also supports the bill.  The story didn’t mention that besides establishing a state income tax on the wealthiest 3% of Washington  residents, this bill would also lower the property tax statewide by 20%.  This is for everyone, including the wealthiest citizens.

Of course, it showed the typical scare tactics employed by the wealthy when faced with even the most modest of taxes– we’ll leave and take our jobs with us.  They featured a younger entrepreneur who runs an internet company selling novelty items who had already moved his business from Oregon to Washington to avoid state income taxes in Oregon.  He claimed this would make him pack up and take his prosperous firm elsewhere.  According to the story, under the new tax in Washington, it would cost this guy $50,000 a year in state taxes.  I know, that sounds like a huge number.  But using simple arithmetic, this means he is making a net income, after all expenses and deductions, of $10 million.  Actually, 10.4 million– the first 400,000 is not taxed. 

This man claims that this 50K would be enough to make him pack up and relocate his entire operation, which must be substantial in order for a guy to turn a 10M profit selling crap novelties online.  He also said that this 50K would prevent him from hiring any new employees.  The typical clarion call of business owners faced with taxes of any sort.  No, actually it is a threat and a ludicrous one, at that, made by greedy, greedy people.  I understand him wanting  to not pay more taxes but when they make these threats about taking their ball and going home – well, to some home somewhere in one of the 6 or 7 states that don’t have state income tax– well, it just irks me that they are so willing to play that fear card on the public.  This guy was a prime example of why Reaganomics/ supply side economics were doomed to failure: they could only succeed dependent upon the assumption that these folks were not filled with greed. 

Actually, Stockman, who was one of the main salesmen for these policies, admitted that  the trickle down effect was concocted only  to sell tax cuts for the rich to the middle and lower classes.

So, when you hear the nattering chant of Tax Cuts! without any reason answer as to how they can be paid for, recognize that you are being pandered to.  Recognize that you are being assumed to have a lack of intelligence and a lack of attention.  And question what other things they may be trying to pull over on you.

Think!  Then vote.

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Rally Day

Posted in Current Events, Opinion, tagged on October 30, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I wasn’t going to write any more about today’s Rally to Restore Sanity being held today on the Mall in Washington, DC.  I’ve written that I hoped it provided a way for many to see that not everyone out there is teetering on the brink of insanity.  But it’s been interesting the past few days, seeing how this event has grown in the media and hearing some of the commentary about and aimed at it.   Many words have been written against and in favor of it, the critics citing it as frivolous and self-important and the supportersseeing it  as an important statement on the current state of our political discourse.  Both are probably correct.  Satire is often frivolous and self-important but also often provides clarity in the form of social commentary.

I don’t know exactly where I sit in this situation but I will be watching today and hoping to get a laugh and hear something that makes me think that we are not, as a whole, crazy and/or stupid.  That last hope, to convince me of our sanity, might be quite a feat considering the political events of the last few weeks. 

Rand Paul supporters throwing a girl who was protesting Paul to the ground then stepping on her shoulder and neck.  Joe Miller’s security detail posing as police and placing a journalist under arrest, placing him in handcuffs until the real police arrived and made them release the man.  Sharon Angle refusing to answer questions of any sort about her positions on pertinent issues, often running away from cameras.  Anything concerning Christine O’Donnell.  Politicians from both parties blatantly lying about their military service, which seems crazy in a time when facts are so easily checked and exposed.

I’ve written before how Jon Stewart, despite his obvious handicap of being a comedian, has replaced serious journalists in being the source for the questioning of those who seek or are in power.  The so-called serious journalists have made it clear that they either don’t have the intelligence or the will to stand up to the gibberish and stonewalling that politicians often offer up.  This was made painfully obvious on yesterday’s morning show on MSNBC that is hosted by Chuck Todd.  In two consecutive segments, he hosted two Republican operatives and in both segments he allowed them to basically spew nothing but talking points without any challenge, any single question, as to the validity of these points or of how they hoped to accomplish some of their stated goals.  He sat there like  a lump and nodded  like a ventriloquist’s dummy.  David Gregory of Meet the Press was moderating a town hall event and was challenged by a member of the audience for this same attitude as Todd’s in his questioning of the guests on MTP.  The man accused him of asking softball questions and allowing his guests to evade answering.  Gregory became angry and claimed he was asking the questions but what could he do if they chose not to answer? 

Any good used-car saleman could answer that question.

Such is the state of our political world and the people of the press upon which we depend to be our watchdogs.

Is it any wonder that Stewart’s show has become must-see watching for millions of Americans?  Sure it’s comedy.  But there is also social commentary there.  Hopefully, today’s event will be humorous and maybe a little more.  We’ll see.

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Antikythera Mechanism

Posted in Neat Stuff, Opinion, tagged , , on October 27, 2010| 7 Comments »

I received a comment on yesterday’s post about the Victorian era stereopticon plates  that mentioned the year 6513 that was in one of the photos, New Years Day in Hell,  from the Les Diableries series that I was highlighting.  He thought the significance of the date was in indicating a very distant date that suggested eternity.  Sounded good to me.

But I began to think and was wondering if this date had to do with some prophecy, some Mayan calendar or Nostradamus thing.  After all, if the Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012 ( when doomsayers predict an end to our time on Earth), New Years day in 2013 would be pretty hellish.  At least I would think.

So I looked up dates and tried to figure some significance for 6513, thinking that the calendar used in such predictions went back that far.  But I came up with nothing.  Seems the Mayan calendar is in the 5200 year range.  But as I was looking it up I came across the Antikythera Mechanism, which I have always found incredibly intriguing.

The Antikythera Mechanism, considered the first known analog computer, was found in a box in an ancient shipwreck found off the Greek island of  Antikythera in 1900.  The mechanism was a mystery from the beginning and remained so for decades until technology allowed the device, heavily cemented from being deeply buried in the sea for millenia, to be scanned internally and dated.  It is dated back to about 150 BC and appears to be a very sophisticated device for ascertaining the location of the planets and moon and sun ( along with eclipses) at any given date.  It is complex and finely machined, predating modern clockmaking by about a thousand years. 

I find this amazing and just a bit more proof of how we often we are wrong when we view ourselves in this time as being so intellectually superior to times past.  We may have expanded our base of knowledge and our use of technology but at the base, the brilliant minds then would be the brilliant minds now.  The capacity for thought and intellectual inquiry has not grown over the eons, nor has our capacity for performing barbaric deeds diminished.  In fact, this mechanism shows that we have changed far less than we would like to believe, despite our advances in science and technology.  We are, at the core, the same as we’ve always been.

I don’t know if that’s comforting or sad. 

I would hope that 2000 or 3000 or 4000 years would find us more evolved, less tied to our baser self, less prone to stupidity and viiolence.  But it doesn’t.  We are no more civilized or intelligent than the folks who conceived and built that ancient device.  I guess that’s sad.

Well, now that I’ve depressed you,  here’s an animation of how the mechanism is assembled…

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Rally Tidbits and Media Fetish

Posted in Current Events, Opinion, tagged on October 17, 2010| 4 Comments »

Some interesting things on the upcoming Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Keep Fear Alive, taking place October 30 on the Mall in Washington, DC have been coming up lately.

Over 200,000 people have signed on as attendees on the Rally’s Facebook page.  The Huffington Post has agreed to provide free transportation to and from the rally from NYC and already has over 10,000 riders signed on.  Many news organizations– NPR, the Washington Post, the NY Times, ABC, CBS and others- have forbade their employees from attending, citing this as a political rally of the Glenn Beck/Tea Party sort. 

I suppose this restriction is customary for political rallies athough I am not sure this qualifies as a completely partisan gathering.  The very idea behind this rally is to put aside partisanship and get the wider population reengaged in the political system so that the more extreme and vocal fringe groups don’t dictate our national conversation. 

 Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post has a good article on these restrictions and how the media will cover the rally.  In it he talks about how the media is almost proud of the way in which they “fetishize the stupidity” of these most extreme groups, giving them coverage without ever questioning their content.  When was the last time you ever heard a news reporter ask a probing question (and is so, get an answer) of one of these candidates who make grand statements about how they would change Washington but only offer vague references as to how they would accomplish it?

That term. fetishize the stupidity, has stuck with me over the last couple of days.  It says so much about how we have come to value the  absurd rather than the sane, about how we are all more attracted to the side show than the mundane.  Unfortunately, solutions are usually of the mundane variety, requiring work and sacrifice and a unity of will.  And until the media realizes that, they will always fetishize the stupid, wallow in ignorance and make arbitrary restrictions on their employees, fearful that they might find some sanity.

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Calming Presence

Posted in Opinion, Recent Paintings on October 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I was going to write about the Delaware Senatorial debate that took place last night but I decided I needed something that would sooth rather than inflame myself  this morning.  I’m sorry to say that I did watch part of the awful spectacle between Christine O’Donnell (still not a witch at this point although the day is young) and Chris Coons but had to switch channels after about  a half-hour in.  My head was on the verge of exploding.

The idea that this person, this media darling, this spewer of factless platitudes,  could possibly be a United States Senator was too much to bear.  This is the best we can put forth?  Really? If so, we are in for a world of hurt.

So, instead I will focus on another recently completed tryptych, something that calms.  It’s on paper and consists of three small squares, each measuring 3″ by 3″.  It had a very gem-like quality with the interplay between the colors in the foreground and the clearand transparent greenish color that makes the sky glow.  It has a very peaceful feel, as though the central tree is exerting a calming presence over the houses that are scattered about it.  In fact, I just decided this moment that Calming Presence will be the title of this painting.

I like the symetry of the balanced tryptych and the colors here enhance and carry that  balance across the entire piece.  There is real brightness and clarity in this piece that brings whatever it is truly saying into sharp and immediate focus.  It says what it says quickly and easily. 

I can’t fully explain what I mean by that but I know that I like it.

Anyway, with this painting I have something that is truly a calming presence for me.  Not like the prospect of some of our candidates in the upcoming elections.

Vote.

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Disparity

Posted in Current Events, Opinion, Quote, tagged on October 12, 2010| 2 Comments »

In expanding the field of knowledge we but increase the horizon of ignorance.
——Henry Miller

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       I have written here in the past about the growing imbalance in income and wealth between the haves and the have-nots of this country, about how unhealthy it is for us as a nation to have so many people living below the poverty line.  One in seven, a little over 14%,  of us lives below the poverty line and for children it’s an even worse one in five, 20%.  For a country so full of itself in proclaiming ourselves the best at everything  (even when the numbers don’t bear it out) these are atrocious figures.

But I thought of an equally alarming disparity in our country, and the world,  when I came across the quote above from author Henry Miller.  We have a definite gap in education and knowledge in this country that runs pretty much through the same groups as the poverty line.   We are quickly becoming a more ignorant society, placing less and less emphasis on knowledge and wisdom.  In fact, we have become a country that is suspicious of anyone displaying a modicum of either, labeling them as elitists.

 We are at a point in human existence when we have more knowledge at our fingertips than at any time in prior history yet we have all the same problems that we have had for millenia.

Ethnic wars.  Racial intolerance.  Religious intolerance.  Subjugation.  Ignorance and poverty.  Famine and disease.

For all our knowledge of how we might best survive this world, these things continue and at exponentially higher levels.  Yes, we live in a time of wonder on many levels, with breakthroughs in medicine and technology.  But until we can make our knowledge accessible to everyone, at every social strata, we are doomed to be mired in the problems that have haunted us forever.

Do I have an answer?  Of course not.  In fact, I’m not even sure I’ve addressed the real problem with these few words.   But I am worried about these gaps between us.  In an increasingly more densely populated world, it makes for a volatile and dangerous situation.

 And that is not in anyone’s best interest.

 

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Folly of Resentment

Posted in Current Events, Opinion, tagged , on October 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Well, Rick Sanchez has moved on from what seemed to be a pretty good gig at CNN hosting his own show for a couple of hours every afternoon.  The man who has made a name for himself being tasered, as is happening in the photo shown here, fell prey to the folly of resentment. 

When asked about The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart on a Sirius Radio program, Sanchez chose to let his own personal insecurities overtake him.  He chose to attack Stewart’s success as being a product of something other than talent and hard work, inferring that Stewart was merely there because he was buddy-buddy with all the people like him who run all media– the so-called liberal elite and the Jews.  Of course.

What a fool.  In a few short moments Sanchez showed why he is considered “second-tier”, as he described, among newspeople.  It has nothing to do with his own ethnicity.  It has to do with performance.

It probably galled him that Stewart, a comedian and self-proclaimed fake journalist, is ridng a wave of popularity and now wears the mantle of  “most trusted newsman in America” that once belonged to Cronkite and other serious journalists.  Okay.  I understand that.  But instead of letting this resentment make you envious and prejudicial in your own thoughts and words, turn it into the impetus for making yourself a better journalist and a better person. 

 Rick, if you must ask yourself why Stewart is more popular and respected than you and the only answer that comes to mind is that it is because of him being favored by the perceived Jewish overlords who run all media, you’ve still got some work to do.

This story saddens me.  I was never a big Rick Sanchez fan but to see someone let their own feelings of inadequacy ruin all they’ve worked for is a sad thing.  And this event will probably only reinforce the resentment he was already feeling.

Sad.

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Every Man a King

Posted in Opinion, tagged on September 28, 2010| 3 Comments »

One’s only rival is one’s own potentialities. One’s only failure is failing to live up to one’s own possibilities. In this sense, every man can be a king, and must therefore be treated like a king.

——-Abraham Maslow

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I really like this quote from Maslow, who was the prime mover behind humanistic psychology before his death in 1970.  His work centered on self-actualization, which is based on  the individual reaching his own personal potential for satisfaction.  One’s own potential creates its own set of goals which are not dependent on anyone else’s goals or expectations.  In this mindset, the most humble of us can be as satisfied with their lot in life as the most powerful or successful in our society.  Every man is a king.

This seems to be a concept that is lacking in our society at this point and one that contributes greatly to our problems.  We base success and failure not on our own internal expectations and potentials but on a set that is based on outside influences.  We compare everything in our life to those of someone else.  Instead of asking if what we have satisfies our needs and desires we ask how it compares to our friends or colleagues.  Are we doing better than them?  Is what we have better than what they have?  Are we making more money than them? 

 It’s a sad commentary that we think our own happiness is based on surpassing someone else in material means.  I wrote a while ago about the hedge-fund trader who said that the tens of millions he had made were not enough because someone else is making more than him.  Or the whining well-to-do’s that claim they are not doing well enough because someone else is making 10 times their income and has a bigger home.  These are people who have lost their center, their capacity for happiness.  They do not appreciate the bounty of their lives, do not see that satisfaction is within reach.

I don’t know how things can change from this culture of attainment.  It would be nice if Maslow’s theories could resurface and become epidemic throughout our society but they make a fragile structure before the force of greed and selfishness.

For me, I will focus on who I am and my own level of satisfaction.  Not on what I am not or what you have.  If I can do that, peace and happiness are mine and I will indeed feel as a king.

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Just a quick addenda:  I realize that I usurped Huey Long’s catchphrase for this post and that it has nothing to do with the populist movement that Long started.  They had some really interesting concepts and might have been a powerful force in our country.  However, greed and demagoguery, as is usually the case, did them in.  Great catchphrase though!

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