April 30th, 2005, marks the 30th anniversary of the US defeat in Vietnam. As a twenty two year old in 1975, I commemorated the end of the war by creating a large oil painting simply titled, Vietnam. The preliminary sketch for that painting is reproduced at left. The Vietnamese peasant woman portrayed in my artwork glances at you with cold…
I did this small oil sketch on canvas after witnessing the Los Angeles Rodney King riots of April 29th, 1992. Titled Lost Angeles, the canvas is part of a series of paintings memorializing the violence that swept across my city. When people heard the LAPD officers who had nearly beat King to death were found “not guilty” the city went…
I’ve long understood the connection between visual art and music. To me the musician and artist are kindred spirits, and music has always fanned the flames of my own creativity. Naturally I’ve always been an avid music fan, and since my childhood I’ve enthusiastically collected music recordings. In fact when I was 7 years old in 1961, the very first…
Los Angeles artist and printmaker John Carr organized the Yo! What Happened To Peace? traveling exhibit 2 years ago. The exhibit is a collection of contemporary anti-war prints “designed to spread the message of non-violence.” The exhibit was shown in Boston and New York during the Democratic and Republican conventions, and is now traveling overseas. What makes the exhibit unusual…
On this web log I often rebuke the excesses of postmodernist artists, excoriate the state of modern day art, and berate the apolitical intellectuals and art critics who justify and praise every inane and dim-witted act carried out in the name of art. It seems that almost every day we read about yet another imbecile whose “artworks” exemplify the utter…
Many people are familiar with the artworks of famed Colombian artist, Fernando Botero. Even those who have never paid a visit to a gallery or museum have most likely seen Botero’s paintings reproduced as poster prints and postcards. His characteristically joyful landscapes and scenes peopled with contented individuals have won the hearts of millions around the world. The 73-year-old artist…
Axis of Evil, the Secret History of Sin, a group show at the Columbia College Chicago Glass Curtain Gallery, was visited by Secret Service agents who photographed artworks and asked the museum director for the names and phone numbers of all participating artists. The Columbia group exhibition is made up of submissions from 47 artists from 11 countries. The exhibit’s…
In 2005 I rediscovered a number of my old sketchbooks that had been packed away for decades. These sketchbooks contain hundreds of pencil and pen drawings created by me during my high school years. Most of the artworks were created in 1970 when I was only sixteen years old. The drawings were largely of my classmates and friends, and some…
