The political activist side of John Lennon seems to have been largely dismissed or forgotten by the general public, and corporate media reports on the anniversary of his murder are not likely to mention anything more controversial than Beatlemania. Obviously Lennon had an enormous impact upon my generation, setting us free with the primal rhythms and energy of rebellious rock…
[ Voices of Justice – Vallen 1989. Chalk pastel. On display at the Brand Gallery. ] Some 200 people turned out for the opening of Conflict: Works on Paper, the thirty-fourth annual juried competition at the Brand Gallery in Glendale, California. I am more than pleased that both of my submitted drawings, Voices of Justice and Not Our Children, Not…
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…
I’ll be showing two drawings at Conflict: Works on Paper, the thirty-fourth annual national exhibition at the Brand Gallery in Glendale, California. In this post I’d like to focus on one of the drawings I’ll be exhibiting, Voices of Justice, a large chalk pastel work commissioned in 1989 by the Guatemalan Information Center (GIC.) The GIC was an organization of…
I created this cartoon of a turkey at his Thanksgiving feast when I was only 17 years old. My pen drawing titled, No Thanks!, served as the cover for the Southern California psychedelic “underground” newspaper, The Tribe. This particular edition of the pre-Watergate paper hit the streets on November 26th, 1971. Its anti-Nixon theme certainly didn’t win me any friends,…
“People are crushed under the wardrobe. Without lifting up the wardrobe it is impossible to deliver whole peoples from their endless and unbearable suffering. It is terrible that even one person should be crushed under such a weight: to want to breathe, and not be able to. The wardrobe rests on everybody, and everyone tries to lift up the wardrobe,…
A major exhibition of socially engaged artworks is presently on display at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in Los Angeles. Art of Engagement presents works that address major world conflicts and conflagrations, from the Spanish Civil War, the Holocaust and Hiroshima, to the Vietnam war and the present debacle in Iraq. Some of the artists included in this amazing show include…
Imagine my shock and disappointment at not being placed on the list of artists to receive the National Medal of Arts from President Bush. I was also excluded from the list of those to receive the National Humanities Medal. I open my heart to the readership of this web log and confess that I’m crushed. Please believe me when I…
