In the art school business

I've been the art school business for a long time as both a student and a professor. I've been in and run countless critiques, as you may also have.

Did anyone ever ask you this question:
What is the potential of this piece for drawing out from the viewer something deep that they never knew was there?

Isn't that the essence of art? How could I have let that by me for so long?

Why think for yourself?

Thinking for yourself is hard work and demanding and scary. And thinking for yourself actually requires thinking!

But no to worry.

Celebrity athletes can decide what deodorant or clothing is best for you.

Celebrity entertainers can decide what medicines and hair transplants are best for you.

Airbrushed and anorexic models can decide what clothing looks best on you.

Egotistical, airhead commentators can affirm what ideology best distorts reality for you.

Sexy blonds with big tits have the handle on the best driving machines for you.

Pundits can tell you when to ignore science, statistics and global dynamics.

And corporations know that you are the center of the known universe.

Corporate porn

Since the Supreme Court has decided that a corporation is a person who can give unlimited money to candidates for political office as a form of freedom of expression, it seems to me that there's no reason why an exhibitionist can't tear open his trench coat and go at it as a form of freedom of expression.

Look at it this way. Corporations cram money into their corporate dicks till they are stuffed and hard. They go to Washington, D.C. and hire their lobbyist pimps to line up the eager Congressmen. They tear open their trench coats, happy to let their members get sucked by our elected members.

In both cases it's perverse, obscene and distasteful. But for corporations, it's legal.

Love and war

Our age (perhaps every age) is awash in war; in civil, social and religious strife; in centuries-old hatreds; in ethnic conflicts. We try to tackle these conflicts with with more arms, negotiations, diplomatic efforts and economic sanctions.

"Love one another." The essential basis of every religion. How often do we talk about that? Of course, it is too naive to ask: "How can we most effectively teach and engender love?" But isn't thata the only question that really counts?

Shiva and Buddha

During a class visit to the CAM, we discussed the dancing Shiva and the Buddha in repose. With a little contemplation, each of these statues released its wisdom.

In our wealthy, secure, comfortable culture with its many safety nets, we often feel we have no need for this kind of wisdom. Then disaster hits: natural, social, political, personal. Things change. Then where are the contemporary images and icons which release the wisdom we need? 

Technology and ignorance

The reality is that technology moves faster than the vast majority of us can handle. There's a real question as to whether we use it or it uses us. We must have the latest and most powerful, tossing phones and computers away like used toothbrushes. Technology aids science and medicine in their quests for knowledge and healing. And technology lubricates communication for more pleasurable experiences. It's available, we must have it; just as if an AK-47 is available we must have it.

But just like the AK-47, what's the real value of the technology we use. Communication has lost its intimacy. Phones and similar devices fill the boring minutes in which we might have to have a conversation. The technology is so seductive that the real world has lost any allure.We plug into music to drown the sound of life and nature. There is no more awe to be found in the world, and we don't care. Just entertain us with gossip, mindless information, trivia, sports facts, celebrity updates and all the other things that work to dumb us down into submissive consumers and boring people.

Whether we realize it or not, so often when we opt for technology, we opt for ignorance.

A poem

The Poisoned Heart

Original sin exists

Only in the poisoned heart.

For this is where the seeds of war

Germinate.

Don’t look to annihilate

With tanks and guns and bombs and poison gases.

Don’t try to heal

The schisms and fractures and

Feuds soaked in centuries of hate.

Heal the poisoned heart.

When war calls, ask:

Why?

For what?

Why not your sons and daughters?

Why make me into fodder?

What will be the prize for the rich and powerful?

Who are the true cowards?

Why must humans measure their worth

In piles of bloodied corpses? 

Ask instead:

How can we heal the poisoned heart?

Who has the endurance and courage for that?

Who can unmask the motives of power and ego?

Who can reform the empty man

For whom no amount of wealth and power

Are enough?

Who can heal the poisoned heart?