Art Fragment



Art Haboob Abhors the Vacuous

Got glue?

It is terrible to see ancient buildings, all over Libya, Mali, and Syria, being destroyed. The importance of a historical site may become apparent only after it is razed to the ground. Hopefully. Maybe. At least they may be worth something as art objects. It would be easier to sell the fragments to the Louvre, and flood the market with art and artifacts. It’s not like the people have a lot of paintings hanging around; so they can sell the broken pieces and make a few bucks. Seriously.

The line in the sand was drawn centuries ago. There was an embargo on art supplies. No problem.

What if everyone agreed to take care of  art? Time-outs would be called during battles to avoid damaging historical buildings. Artwork would be respected and appreciated, even rescued on special art stretchers, carried by brave art lovers. Battlefields just that: fields of flowers and battles of the bands. IED’s would become IAD’s. Improvised artistic devices to be placed alongside thoroughfares to delight, entertain, and enlighten innocent passersby. The world’s first, Art/Craft Carrier can be built. This artship could provide complete, mobile, artistic autonomy. Travel the globe, guard against forces Philistine, and defend art theory and presentation. It could go anywhere. Sow the seeds of art everywhere, and protect the sanctity of artistic expression for everyone. The war department would become the art department. The art department would conduct all operations on paper, then frame and sell them to our enemies, or other art collectors, so they could gain our perspective.

All an artist needs is a stick and a sand dune. The line is still there, somewhere, covered in oil and blood. There are more lines now, but less dunes than you can shake a bloody stick at. It is time to end the art supply embargo.

Whether one agrees with this sentiment, a certain, deliberate pause should be taken to appreciate our amazing diversity. Art is everywhere, in everything. But even Nature, the greatest artistic achievement of all, created by the greatest Artist ever, is being harmed, perhaps irreparably, by us all. Sorry.

Kill each other if you must. Please don’t! But, at least quit busting up the art. Stop behaving like drunken teenagers. This behavior is so 20th century.  Drag your knuckles up off the ground and be cool, man. It is understandable that there are grievances and grudges, but the pen is still mightier than the sword. Try it.


Smaller Government Means YOU  Probably Won’t Be Part of It 

We need to get creative with our immigration policy, and the way government treats its own citizens. A thoughtful administration could devise a simple, make-work policy to address the decline, and deterioration of our infrastructure. A domestic upgrade could provide opportunity for people to work, and learn new skills.

During the Great Depression the government tried to work for everyone. Anyone could work for the government. They had an incredible notion, something about a nation pulling together. All for one. One for all. United we stand. Divided we fall. And jobs are whatever we say they are, not so narrowly defined, and they may even be fun. The government was there to thoughtfully provide a basic subsistence for its citizens. This, after the private sector completely fell apart, leaving only the government as the go to entity for survival. FDR stepped up and initiated an almost utopian dream  which included anyone in the country who wanted to work. The jobs his administration came up with include everything from artists to machinists, librarians to zookeepers. The possibilities were limitless. Yet this was too good to be true. So most of these these programs were eliminated by subsequent administrations, except for social security. If our government had kept these programs, the immigrant issue would have at least one answer. Think of all the work that could have been done but was not, because the focus is on deporting workers and their families. What a waste. If someone wants to come here to work, then welcome to the USA, amigo! Eh?

This country has regressed since the 1930′s. That was when programs such as Federal One, Public Works of Art, and the Farm Security Administration, were created to give work to artist-types, and others not suited for “real jobs”. It was a renaissance for the arts here in the US, too early for its time, and all but forgotten now. Here it is eighty years later, same country, but with a one-eighty on the arts. It always had detractors, and by 1944, the FSA finally closed. This program had hired photographers and writers to document the Depression and the recovery. There were guidelines given for the art, which is to be expected for the times. Striving against all odds was one. Better living conditions can improve quality of life, is another. Not exactly frothing at the mouth propaganda. It was a society filled with hope, having survived the war, and with government offering jobs, the American Optimist was born. And not just jobs. Careers. Passions. Dreams. Instinctively it offered a great variety of work which covered the entire kinetic spectrum, and no doubt soothed the national psyche. It was a far cry from today’s universal bleats of manufacturing jobs, manufacturing jobs, manufuckingfacturing jobs. Why don’t they just reopen the plantations and the workhouses?

Contemporary administrations are reluctant to encourage artistic observation. They will get their money’s worth. And they already get enough crap from John Stewart and Bill O’Reilly.

How terrible is it when a government encourages its artists to be creative and productive? Limitation or control over content is obviously a bad thing. But this is 2012. We survived 1984; and now everyone has a cellphone with a camera. We are all familiar with nutjobs obsessed with media control. They are everywhere. Although, we as a nation may have bad taste, we also suffer fools, live under rocks, and are never exactly sure where Waldo is. But we love a good barbeque. And you can set your watch by that. We understand that there’s no accounting for taste. Agree to disagree. And art, unlike war, is good for absolutely everything. Say it again.

Be Kind and Support Local Art 

Forbidden Abstract

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