This commentary is a somewhat unusual take on the timelessness of American folk music, with its focus being a young Virginian named Oliver Anthony, a former factory worker who became a farmer that lives off grid, but now hopes to make a living as a country folk singer. On Aug. 8, 2023, Anthony released his song Rich Men North Of…
On July 26, 2023, Randy Meisner, a founding member of the American soft rock band the Eagles, succumbed to COPD, otherwise known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He died at the age of 77. Gone to join the great majority after leaving his mark on contemporary music, he will be missed. This will not be a conventual obituary, because frankly…
In the Vatican City State on June 23, 2023, beneath Michelangelo’s High Renaissance mural in the Sistine Chapel, Pope Francis addressed some 200 invited artists and creative types. One attendee was Andres Serrano—maker of the infamous Piss Christ photograph and other sacrilegious images. I’m not writing this essay as a practicing Catholic, but as a working artist. The Pontiff’s assembly…
On June 14, 2023, two women from the eco-extremist group Återställ Våtmarker (Restore Wetlands), raided the National Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. They attacked Le Jardin de l’artiste à Giverny (The artist’s garden at Giverny), a painting created in 1900 by the French Impressionist Claude Monet. The two vandals, a 28-year-old nurse and a 25-year-old nursing student, wore white T-shirts emblazoned…
Funding is one activity that has sustained the acts of vandalism carried out against art museums by the UK group Just Stop Oil. That faction has received financial backing from the Climate Emergency Fund, a global network of “climate activists” headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. This was verified on Aug. 10, 2022 when the New York Times reported that the…
On May 24, 2023, the US District Court for the District of Columbia issued a Grand Jury indictment against two members of the American eco-extremist group “Declare Emergency.” Timothy Martin and Joanna Smith, both 53, were charged with “willfully” committing “an offense against the United States,” by injuring an object of art and an exhibit “within the National Gallery of…
Years ago I visited the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy. Built in the mid-1700s and located in the Piazza di Trevi square, it is a breathtaking structure bursting with history and glorious art. Like most tourists, I tossed a coin into the fountain pool… legend says those who do so will visit Rome again. I’m infuriated to get the news…
This essay will broach the subject of The Last Supper, a controversial artwork by photographer Elisabeth Ohlson. Deemed blasphemous by many, it was exhibited at the European Union Parliament in Brussels, Belgium in May of 2023. I will contrast Ohlson’s irreverent photo with a brief overview of how visual artists in the West have portrayed The Last Supper—the final meal…
