My oil painting, Man on Fire, is both a metaphor for our times and an artwork based upon real world events. The blazing man could be said to represent suffering humanity engulfed by war and conflict—alluding to the current catastrophes in the Middle East and beyond.
I’m showing a number of artworks at Religion, Politics and Society, a group exhibit that also features artists, John Paul Thornton, Dolores Guerrero-Torres, Paul Batou, and David Ross. The exhibition is at the Lake Arrowhead Gallery and Museum of Art (LAGMA), located in the beautiful mountain resort community of Lake Arrowhead, California, in the San Bernardino National Forest. For those…
Larry Beinhart, author of Wag the Dog, just published an interesting essay titled, Abdication of the Artists. In his piece Beinhart bemoans the complacency of contemporary artists, using the annual exhibit produced by the Woodstock Guild of Artists as an example of the apathy he detests. Beinhart writes: “This year there were 152 pieces. Some were very clever. Some amusing….
An important new opinion poll reveals that Americans know more about The Simpsons cartoon TV show than about the US Constitution. Conducted by the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum, the poll found that only 28 percent of those surveyed could name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution, while almost twice as…
On March 9, 2024, to celebrate her birthday, my wife and I visited the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. Once owned by the British Cunard White Star Line, the luxury liner passenger ship sailed the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967. In ‘67 Long Beach purchased the Queen Mary from Cunard and she was permanently docked in…
Many in the arts community wonder why the general public shows so little interest in contemporary art. Perhaps it’s time for a bit of reflection and self-criticism on the part of artists, who to a certain degree are responsible for the tremendous gulf between themselves and the public. Artists by and large have altogether ceased addressing the wider society. They…
Lately I’ve been reading the autobiographies of artists from the past. In part as a defense against the trivial and insipid postmodern art world, but also as a genuine search for inspiration. Not too long ago I read Writings of a Savage by Paul Gauguin, and was struck by his eloquence and abilities as a writer. Gauguin was of course…
