When academics start writing about a living artist, you might say that artist has achieved a certain amount of success – or infamy as the case may be. I’ve only just been informed that my work has recently been mentioned in two books I’ve not heard of until now. I received a brief but satisfying mention in American Studies in…
This photo shows a US occupation soldier standing near a painting by an anonymous Iraqi artist. The artwork was inspired by the tales of One Thousand and One Nights, the classic book of Arab literature. First compiled in Arabic during the 9th century, the stories have inspired untold thousands of artists. It is the only Arabic work to have become…
During the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon released to American troops a wanted list of Iraqi leaders that came in the form of a deck of cards. The playing cards featured photos and information about various government henchmen, and were designed to help U.S. troops identify and capture members of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Now, four years after the…
On Sept. 17, 2024, a maniac used construction equipment to destroy The Angel of Harmony statue that stood outside the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica in Missouri. The 14-foot-high sculpture of welded stainless steel was created by Polish-American artist Wiktor Szostalo (born 1952). The sculpture had been on public display for 25 years before the goon knocked it from its pedestal…
