Love and anger @ the Painter's Keys

This recent topic in Robert Genn's Painters Keys came at just the right time for me.

"As yet Unbaptized"

I answered one of my own recent questions "why we do what we do" and they published my response to the article. I was tickled at the image the editors elected to use (my header is a detail from it) and mildly mortified at the title they gave the post (not mine I assure you) "What I did for Love". Jeez Bob. Thanks. I guess.

 Before the holidays I treated myself to a subscription to ART IN AMERICA magazine and after reading the first two issues I've been overwhelmed with the general tone of nihilism and anger that so much of the art conveys.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not looking for puppies, poppies and sunsets - I'm just repelled and bored by endless depictions of mutilations, gore, chaos, mayhem and horror. If I want more of that I'll turn to current pop crap-culture now infested with vampires, zombies and similar escapist nonsense.

All of these genres and their spawn illustrate my ongoing complaint with society in general- the abdication of personal responsibility for one's behavior. None of the heinous acts are anyone's fault because they are afflicted somehow and compelled to act the way they do because of the affliction. No one is responsible for their actions.

I'm convinced that none of the problems of our society will change until people own up to the fact that they constantly indulge their own slightest whims or desires without a thought for the consequences to themselves or anyone else. "I was high. I was drunk. I was a vampire. I was a zombie. I was from the Jersey Shore." Give me an effing break!

 It looks to me as if this magazine and the Art Machine in general is simply pandering to this segment of the population, a segment, I might add, that (despite current economic conditions) seems to be able to indulge in those whims to the tune of thousands of dollars for art that I would bury in someone else's back yard in the dark while wearing a string of garlic.

I can only hope my attitude forever keeps me from being "mainstream" because the mainstream is a polluted sewer.

Ahhh. Feel better?       I do.


PS..HUZZAH  June!

wayfinding

I know you'll pardon the sloth. Now that the detritus is getting up to level of my design wall, it's probably time to do some serious housekeeping.

But the purpose of this shot is to show the progression in the series I've been working on.


Some of the elements in this largest one  bother me and will be changed as the work progresses. 

I missed the morning light window in the studio this morning because I was hunkered down in the still dark bedroom working on the beginnings of a story.

Writing is an entirely different creative process from working with cloth - everything is happening behind your eyes instead of in front of them.

A whole 'nother part of the brain must be engaged and being one hundred percent present in that place is most important. 

There's no mindless stitching  (that I can tell so far) in writing although I did delete as much as I finished up with...akin  to ripping out?

hardbooting the muse

Acrylic paint sure is more expedient than cloth. Knowing when to put on the brakes at speed is an even bigger challenge. I think I like working with oil pastel on canvas better but then, these are small, 8x10 inches.

There's a thirty-six inch canvas gathering dust in the other room that I'll attend to soon. Jim, I may finally use that easel for something other than a craprack.

Yellow Peril