Sex

 Sexual harassment. Rape. Sex trafficking. Pedophilia. Pornography. Prostitution. In the same society in which entertainment, marketing, attire and body image are stuffed to breaking with sexualized messages.

Any messages about healthy sexuality for men, women and young people are drowned by messages that make sex the driver of consumerism, body image and power. We speak against sexual behavior that we don’t educate against, that we don’t reject in our entertainment and personal lives.

All of the recent examples in the news of sexual misconduct must lead to a serious discussion of what makes a healthy sexual life for the individual and the society.

Cuteness

 Cuteness is an aesthetic disease that can cause paralysis if not treated promptly.

Faith, hope and charity

 We often refer to faith, hope and charity as important human qualities. I was thinking about what they really mean.

FAITH: We live in a natural and human world which is driven by chance and randomness. We work to find meaning in life, fighting against gnawing thoughts of life fully out of our control. Faith affirms meaning.

HOPE: We have no certainty in our futures. Why plan? Why sacrifice? Why invest ourselves? Hope give us the courage to commit ourselves to life.

CHARITY: Humans depend on one another to survive. But to thrive and to learn to love requires charity. Charity is an action of love.

Voice

 The form/image of a work of art is not the primary concern of a serious artist. It’s finding the passionate and uncompromising voice that drives the work from deep within. It may be a voice of sadness or protest or spirit or social justice or justified anger or any of the other things we confront as humans.

Some artists are born with this voice. Others struggle to find it. Some lose it. In the end, it’s the origin of their art and what makes the art endure. For young artists, skill, technique and talent must come second to listening for and nurturing their voices.

Every flower

 I want to take every flower—fresh, dying, rotted—left as memorials for murdered Americans and dump them into the chamber of the US Senate. I’d like to write the names of every refugee from violence who comes to the US border only to be caged or sent away and pile them on the desks of US Senators. I’d like to take every dollar donated by lobbyists to Senate reelection campaigns and use them to build habitats for anyone who needs them.

All of these issues affecting this country fester because of the failure of the US Senate to address them with serious purpose.

Gun control

 Prayers. But no serious gun control legislation.

Outrage. But no serious gun control legislation.

Mass killings. But no serious gun control legislation.

Policemen dead. But no serious gun control legislation.

Unctuous empathy. But no serious gun control legislation.

Extensive press coverage. But no serious gun control legislation.

Lots of commentary. But no serious gun control legislation.

Politicians chime in. But no serious gun control legislation.

Words from the pulpit. But no serious gun control legislation.

Citizens in fear. But no serious gun control legislation.

Flags at half mast. But no serious gun control legislation.

Families grieving. But no serious gun control legislation.

Staunch activism. But no serious gun control legislation.

The same old same old in America.

The canon

 A recent article about Julie Merhetu in the New York Times on noted that she was now in the “canon.” I admire her work, so I wish the article had indicated who put her in the canon. The art dealers? The big NYC museums? The art critics? Who?

The whole idea of the canon makes no sense to me now. When I studied art history in college, the canon was Western art of white men. Grudgingly some native arts came in followed by some women artists. Then black, Asian, outsider, Hispanic, the art of the mentally ill and more. 

The canon is a fluid thing because what art is is a fluid thing. Could you and I sit down and create the canon? Could we have a canon of artists who never made it to the art capitals. Let me know when you want to start.