I haven't made any posts in over a month now. Had some health issues that gave me a couple of scares, but they're over with and all's good here now. Well, getting a lot better, anyway.
I've got several projects in progress in the studio. One is a painting related to the Black Lives Matter movement. It's coming along slower than I want, primarily because I haven't been able to work on it as much as it needs. But it's looking promising. No, I won't share images right now, but if you want to see some, go take a look at my studio Facebook page, where there are some teasers.
Even though the BLM one isn't done yet, I started a new painting related to the Portland protests/riots and the deployment of "federal agents", all of whom look remarkably like combat soldiers without any identifying tags. A video of them beating the crap out of a former Navy officer, a Naval Academy grad, made me blow my top. He went up to talk with them and they beat him with truncheons, broke his arm, and sprayed him with pepper spray. He wasn't fighting, wasn't looting, wasn't burning, just went up to talk. These unidentified thugs have taken protesters off the street, often just releasing them later somewhere else. This is too much like the Nazi Brownshirts, like the "disappeared" in Argentina in the 70's, or the same thing during military junta in Chile in the early 70's, or normal ways of working in China, Russia, Syria, or other dictatorships. Or you could compare it to the beatings at the Edmund Pettus Bridge that galvanized the Civil Rights movement. Only dictators, or wanna-be dictators, behave like this. So, yes, this particular event has really gotten under my skin and I'm going to fight it as an artist: with paintings.
Unless they come to Asheville. I'll be out there on the lines to protest. This must stop. Now.
I've got several projects in progress in the studio. One is a painting related to the Black Lives Matter movement. It's coming along slower than I want, primarily because I haven't been able to work on it as much as it needs. But it's looking promising. No, I won't share images right now, but if you want to see some, go take a look at my studio Facebook page, where there are some teasers.
Even though the BLM one isn't done yet, I started a new painting related to the Portland protests/riots and the deployment of "federal agents", all of whom look remarkably like combat soldiers without any identifying tags. A video of them beating the crap out of a former Navy officer, a Naval Academy grad, made me blow my top. He went up to talk with them and they beat him with truncheons, broke his arm, and sprayed him with pepper spray. He wasn't fighting, wasn't looting, wasn't burning, just went up to talk. These unidentified thugs have taken protesters off the street, often just releasing them later somewhere else. This is too much like the Nazi Brownshirts, like the "disappeared" in Argentina in the 70's, or the same thing during military junta in Chile in the early 70's, or normal ways of working in China, Russia, Syria, or other dictatorships. Or you could compare it to the beatings at the Edmund Pettus Bridge that galvanized the Civil Rights movement. Only dictators, or wanna-be dictators, behave like this. So, yes, this particular event has really gotten under my skin and I'm going to fight it as an artist: with paintings.
Unless they come to Asheville. I'll be out there on the lines to protest. This must stop. Now.
