Political Season 2012 - A Morning Musing.....

I think it is really important to understand that each of us lives in different "states" of existence. In California most of our important manufacturing jobs left by the 1990's due to the heavy burdens of taxations. Lowering taxes in 1981 (GANS Prop/Reaganomics) did NOT help its citizens. Nor did it do anything to help business remain manufacturing in California. It made mentally ill homeless, AND it did not improve spending. The only solution would have been for business to pony up, cut profits, maintain employee benefits, and stay. Tax INCENTIVES should have been in put in place - but not lowered. Government and business should have worked hand in hand for the benefit of all. The "people" need help to sustain and maintain independents in society. They ALWAYS have. We do not survive well WITHOUT interdependency. Look for yourself - look at history - it has never been any other way. "No man is an island." - John Donne. Now CA sits on the brink of bankruptcy as a state. Education is a mess. 2,000,000 Angelenos live in poverty and there is still no manufacturing. I want to point this out because CA is a large state with a huge diversity in population and demands. It can never be really conservative BECAUSE of the diversity. It HAD a HUGE middle class that is now failing because unemployment. Huge amounts of cheap outsourced goods are outsourced. (ever try to buy something MADE in CA?!) Only the distributors are located here now. Other states, where I travel are "stratisfied" (distinct classes still in place between rich and poor.) CA had this strong middle class once upon a time that surpassed most other states and was very attractive. Not only the weather caused people to "go west." They came for economic opportunity and the prosperity that was offered. Now healthcare is a mess, and WE really need reform desperately. Californian's ARE looking to the government to bring business back, underwrite health care "ensurances" and more. You don't think business is going to come back on its own do you? Don't make a mistake in thinking people are lazy at their hearts. They just see no way out, and are now hanging on to whatever is offered because they are pessimistic about the future. So - if you don't think it should come from the government....and you don't think it should come through business through the form of taxation....and think its people have no resources left to contribute....then REALLY? what you have left is simply a dog eat dog mentality where it becomes survival of the fittest....We revert to the days of Serfdom and the Feudal Ages. If we have anything to learn over the past post WW2 generations is that turning our back on ethical & moral behavior in business,and the need to make EVERYONE accountable towards common economic goals - instead of a "I'm in this for myself future" would have made us better off today. If you can't see the corruption in Capitalism, look at these two things - the arbitrary relief given to business and not to the people of America. My investments in the stock market are taxed at a low rate. Why is that? The stock market is really not as much a place for me to invest in business and ideas (because the best businesses and ideas in which I've invested have been taken bankrupt) but rather its a "speculation game." All the investment options are gambling games. So why isn't it taxed more? Take a look at business losses....I can carry them forward for THREE YEARS. God, please tell my why I can't carry my $40,000 hip surgery/Dental expense for three years?! Why do I only get THIS year. Remember the days when banks gave 18% on your interest?! I think the year was 1981. Now what do I get.... POINT "0" "1" percent? Really? Yet the banks are CHARGING 25% when we borrow. Tell, me please, what KIND of economics is that?! It is the banks making sure they "get theirs" no matter WHAT is happening to the little guy. The fees they charge and the rackets they establish to take your money is pathetic. So tell me...do you think business has a conscious? IF you believe that "corporations ARE people" where is their conscious?! Where is their ability to share in the devastation wiping out the backbone of this country - the middle class! It IS really time for us to stop the insidious politicking - the HATEFUL and untrue, more over RIDICULOUS-insulting-to our-intelligence advertising. It is time for us to work across the isle to put Americans back to work. To ask business to provide benefits that leverage stability among those who WANT TO WORK and ask government to tax INCENTIVES not REDUCTIONS. And for REFORMS. Whether it be health or social security. DEMAND this of your elected officials. Stop allowing them to be bullied by lobbyists and stop allowing them to ignore their constituency - THE PEOPLE of their districts. And for God sakes, please stop buying cheap foreign outsourced goods. Buy American. Start a business and employ Americans. It really begins with you. It is YOU that really has the power. USE IT.

"A New Way of Seeing" is overrated.

I keep hearing that it is very important to demonstrate a “New Way of Seeing” in one’s art to be relevant. I would take that issue to task. That is simply NOT how historically movements in art have been written. Yes, somebody does create an important break from the status quo, but then, other artists must recognize that value and subscribe to that vision, and create the “movement.” For example, Cezanne was considered the “Father of Modern Art” (and a few other things) so that means that HE was the one credited with breaking away from the status quo, and everyone else (his cronies) went along with the idea. THEY did not create the new way of seeing....only HE did. And they followed in tow. I think, for the bulk of us artists, if we attach ourselves to a contemporary movement - that would be sufficient. And if you do something entirely renegade? Chances are you will be considered just that - renegade - and lost in time.

A Conversation with my Son...

I'm a painter...so I should know when something looks good or doesn't. But, sometimes I am the worst judge of my own work because I fall in love with the act of painting, and the work itself is not very good.

I asked my son if he thought I was a talented artist. He said I was, but if I really wanted to find out what people thought I should put my work on the web to strangers...because people that are close to me won't tell me the truth. This contradicts how I behave. I can tell the truth to the people to whom I am closest, and I would not be able to tell the truth to strangers. I am concerned about alienation. It was very interesting how our views differ (and our insecurities) on what we perceive hurts another person, and under what circumstance we withhold the truth.

My son indicated that there are a culture of people on the computer whose mission it is to judge (criticize) what other people construct. I thought about whether a "consensus" of opinion could be important....maybe not...once people agreed that the earth was flat and woman were witches. Why ask people who don't paint? ...and even the one's that do, may have different opinions.

And you know what is said about opinions....

I guess it is best to learn to paint for oneself and be happy in that form of self expression for nothing more than personal reasons that don't need justification from any external source. This is a new concept for me.

Blogging on Christmas...

I’ve often wondered if I have “no life” or “too much life.” When someone told me once to “get a life” I freaked. I thought I had one!

A life that was always full of too much! ....and at other times, not enough. I was contemplating this holiday season....too much or too quiet? I write on Christmas Day....all alone. But, certainly, not lonely. It’s really a choice we make. I can’t be busy 24/7 nor should I be. My holiday season has been so full, yet now, so quiet....

My son called me from DisneyLand on Xmas Eve. At that moment I realized that me and the dog,, sitting at home with our fake tree, waiting for “It’s a Wonderful Life” to air ...well, we are just boring. (okay, “me,” the dog doesn’t care.) And, I wondered “too much life, or no life,” for the millionth time. How is it I am looking forward to updating my website and filing my annual sales tax quietly Christmas morning?!

So, I looked back over the years and realized how magical times have been; how magical the season has been this year even in the worst of economic times, and that I have been blessed -it’s been a full life. I guess the point is: being “satisfied.” I am sublimely satisfied today. I hope whatever you are doing you are happy, too!

Like Eve Taking the Apple...

No wonder it was a sin to eat the fruit of Web 2.0 knowledge. God knew that it would keep me from cleaning my house and moving from my computer. Is this a sin? And am I going to digest the apple? That little devil in the tree knew what he was doing by offering me the temptation of knowledge. I have to tell you it is a dangerous thing! The danger of losing focus. The danger of getting lost in distraction. The danger of deconstructing.

Is there a place where deconstruction eventually meets up with construction? Am I falling down a hole that has an eventual bottom? OR, am I simply, entering a new dimension of possibilities? Have I left the garden of Eden for a land of all possibilities? It was nice: Eden was a nice place. But, I am here now. I ate the Apple of Web 2.0 and I’ve left Eden. And it’s a little scary!

(The painting is “Eve” after Titian/ Rubens and is available for purchase.)

Paradigm Shift 2.0

Yep. That’s me on the surfboard... NOT. But it’s a great iconoclastic image to represent my thrust forward and this Blog’s orientation. The image is elemental.

I just attended a life altering “Internet for Artists” program sponsored by Creative Capital and The City of San Diego Art Commission. The point is...(I know you are short on time) is our paradigm of web “usefulness” has changed. I’ve been a web user since the mid 1990’s when everything went one way - UP. And, then it went “back and forth.” The Y coordinate birthed the X Y coordinates and now we are finding ourselves in an XY and Z, dimensional, Cartesian system. Gone are the days when I store my isolated life in seclusion on my hard drive. Now the purview is an interactive, always “on,” always changing, always in motion, energized system of creativity, rushing towards our evolution. I am so excited to think that you and I can join forces, and in turn create something larger than our individual selves, and in turn reach out exponentially over the repository of human consciousness empowering ourselves to effect change. Change that will span social welfare (yes, SOCIAL welfare), art, health, environment and spirit.

Tell me....are you IN for the journey?