Peace or Annihilation

My New Painting

Hope for Peace in 2010

I did this as a Christmas Gift for my cousin Fred. I used spray paint and acyrlic and of course the ever popular Sharpie for the lettering. The words are from A Perfect Circle song, Annihilation

From dehumanization

to arms, production

for the benefit of the nation

or it's destruction?

Power is power

the law of the land,

those living for death

will die by their own hand.

life's no ordeal

if you come to terms.

Reject the system

dictating the norms

From dehumanization

to arms,production

to hasten the nation

towards it's destruction.

it's your choice

your choice

your choice

your choice:

peace, or annihilation?

The lyrics are something similar to what I always tell my cousin. I want his generation to be better, to care more and maybe one day we can have the peace we've always sought. Peace through reason and understanding rather than seeking peace out with war. I recently received a letter from a soldier in Afghanistan. (I am part of a letter writing team that sends personalized letters to deployed troops) The words he wrote only confirm my feelings:

"Killing people is by no means fun, even if they are terrorists, and it seems to me to be a very short term answer to a potentially very long term problem. The only hope for this country are it's kids. They have to be safe and educated. If we lose the kids, we lose the war. It's unfortunate more people don't realize that."

If we lose the kids, we lose the war. That applies to everyday life in any part of the world. No matter what the war that is being fought maybe, against hunger, poverty, lack of education. The world needs to realize that we should war against the problems, not war againt the people.

POST # 100!!!

Wow I can't believe it's aready been 100 posts! When I started this blog, I never thought I would actually be able to keep posting weekly. This post is dedicated to the person encouraged me to start a blog:
“There is nothing better than the encouragement of a good friend”

 jennifer@nolaagallery.com

http://www.gallerygirljen.blogspot.com/

Check out her art, it's full of color and whimsy. I have several pieces by her that seem to cheer up my living room.  She's amazing and her work is great. So....

Thank you Jen for getting me to do this blog and helping me to focus more on my art!

Love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art

New Shots from Woodlawn Cemetery

Faded Memories and Beauty

When I saw you today

My heart strings yanked your memory from

the overlooked and disregarded shelf of my mind

And though it was dusty, it was still there;

All the laughter of our school days,

Like faded construction paper.

The old pictures of us,

 long yellowed with age,

The cobwebs could not hide its beauty;

or the scent that enveloped me

 the way your hugs used to

Smelling like the ocean and sprinkled with sand.

It all made me wish I could go back,

Every time I have failed to stop myself from glancing behind,

You have been there.

Though now we both no longer feel the same inside

and whatever feelings we had for each other

have long since died

You have your new life and friends now

As I have mine

I know we can never go home again,

but

You will always have that place in my mind

On the shelf filled with

Faded Memories and Beauty

Work in progress:

By Me

We Are Happier Together

Though no one else remembers the past that scared our hearts

I know,

And you will never forget.

And that will be enough, I guess.

At least together we can have truth

Which no one else seems to share.

I know how you lived,

Alone, Broken, Lost

And I know you hate self pity.

You know me,

Wounded,

How I was never enough (or so I was told)

What does it matter if it was never true

When her ruler measures me still

We are both so damaged

You and I

Yet through the fragments

We found laughter in each other

Even if Laughter makes the sadness worse when

it inevitably comes

Just like it's so much darker when a light goes out

Than if it had never shone.

You toss your head and laugh

For that second I am with you,

Everything is perfect

We are happier together

We radiate light

Keeping sorrow and darkness at bay as long as we can

Hold tight; Against the shadows to this moment

And your breath

By: Me

Truth

Something told to me by an old convict who spent his life in prison:

"You can do alot better in the Truth. The best game you can play is No Game; because the Devil always trick himself. Control must be in order and order must be in Truth. And when in Truth you can face the problem as it is, not through distorted judgements. We alone effect ourself. There is no one, no we, unless we make it, redeem it and come back in grace with Truth. One lie and forever and Truth goes on and on without you. People that lie have no honor. Keep your honor and you keep your soul."

I Will Remain

I must not Fear.
Fear is the Mind killer.
Fear is the little Death that brings total obliteration.

I Will Face My Fear

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past me,

I will turn to see Fear's path.

Where Fear has gone there will be nothing.

Only I Will Remain

The Scream by Edvard Munch

Words by Frank Herbert

Depression and Fear Are Gone

What Now?

I was devastated when they said my depression had lifted. What shall I do now, I wondered, when opportunity accosts me in the street?
Depression had always been my escape route. ‘I can’t do that’ I would mournfully sigh, reaching for my bucket of Prozac ‘I’m depressed’, and opportunity would bother me no more. But the depression has lifted. The ace up my sleeve has been ruthlessly removed. I am completely fucked! .....Andre Jordan

‘I’m leaving’ said The Fear, dragging his suitcase into the hallway.
‘Does this mean I shall be fear-less?’ I asked.
‘Not quite’ said The Fear, ‘Apprehension has decided to stay’.
I smiled, wished The Fear well, and watched him nervously open my front door.
‘Maybe see you again’ he almost smiled, as he headed for the waiting taxi.
‘Maybe’ I said, not wishing to be rude.
 And then he was gone.
I closed the door, took a deep breath, and smiled [apprehensively]....Andre Jordan

What I've learned

I know how you feel Andre! But I guess it is like the alcoholics say, One day at a time. Sure Fear is gonna come visit every now and again, but at least he won't be the doubtful guest he always was; staying too long, eating your food, reading your books and ruining your art with his ever watchful stare. Even when you tried to avoid him or tried not to see him, there he was, like the person you never want to sit next to on a plane. And though you held your breath and tried not to stare as Fear made his way down the aisle, deep in your heart you just knew - you just knew - a matter of course, that he’d sit next to you. But now you realize that you can get up and change seats, and leave Fear behind.  Fear will wave at you from where he is, sitting with his best pal Depression, but they won't join you, not unless you wave them over and invite them to be by your side. Fear and Depression will be there, but only for the next poor soul who wants to take comfort in their company.

Simon Kenton Cemetery

One of my first cemetery pictures.

Simon Kenton Cemetery, OH

I just love the way the dog is looking up at him with such reverance and loyalty.

Simon Kenton tombstone, the epitaph is amoung one of my favorites;

In Memory of Simon Kenton,

His Fellow Citizens of the West

Will Long Remember him as

The Skilled Pioneer of early times,

The Brave Solider and

The Honest Man

Happy Birthday Micol

Happy Birthday Micol....Have some cake! Hope your day is great!

Your birthday's a time for careful reflection

  About your life, and its future direction.

You see where you've been when you look at the past;

Most of it's great; you had quite a blast!

You wonder what's coming, what life has in store;

Will it be just the same? Will there be a new door?

Remember this, as you blow out the last candle:

Life holds no challenge that you cannot handle.

By Joanna Fuchs

It’s your birthday time again;

It’s true; there’s no denying,

Another year has come and gone;

You know that I’m not lying.

So for you, the birthday person,

Here’s what I want to say:

I hope this birthday’s the best one yet,

In every delightful way.

So happy birthday to you.

Have lots of birthday fun!

May your birthday wishes all come true,

Even if you have a ton.

By Karl Fuchs

WOMAN

She wanted to be a blade

of grass amid the fields

But he wouldn't agree

to be the Dandelion

She wanted to be a robin singing

through the leaves

but he refused to be

her tree

She spun herself into a web

and looking for a place to rest

turned to him

but he stood straight

declining to be her cornor

She tried to be a book

But he wouldn't read

She turned herself into a blub

but he wouldn't let her grow

She decided to become

a Woman

and though he still refused

to be a man

She decided it was all

right

Poetry by Nikki Giovanni

Photos by me

Damien Echols Defense Fund Art Benefit

DAMIEN ECHOLS IS INNOCENT & WE NEED YOUR HELP

On October 25th an exclusive silent auction of artwork will be held with work from 30+ prominent artists from the NYC contemporary art scene. The goal of this benefit is to raise much-needed legal funds for the final push to free Damien Echols.


Echols is an artist and writer who, at 18 years old, was wrongly convicted of murder in 1994 along with Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, and all became known as the West Memphis 3. Echols was merely a goth-metal kid in a conservative small town who was targeted for being different. Both the trial and investigation were characterized by egregious misconduct on the part of the authorities. Echols alone received the death sentence. The 1996 HBO documentary on this case,Paradise Lost, calls this miscarriage of justice a “new Salem witch trial.”
We—a cross section of artists, museum curators, gallery directors, musicians, and actors—believe in the innocence of Damien Echols. We have put this benefit together as a group of individuals with a common purpose. Unlike other fundraisers that raise money for blanket causes, or institutions, this benefit seeks to save the life of one person, a fellow artist. After 16 years on death row and as many denied legal motions, the Arkansas State Supreme Court will again consider Damien's lawyers' latest motion for a new trial.
  Crucial new evidence of the WM3's innocence has been uncovered, including crime scene DNA that absolves Damien, Jason and Jessie and points to other persons. Some of the country’s leading pathologists have found that much of the forensic evidence presented to the juries that helped convict the West Memphis 3 was false and not consistent with the cause of death or wounds found on the bodies. And recently, sworn affidavits were presented to the ASSC detailing serious misconduct during Jason and Damien's original trial by the jury foreman.

Date: October 25, 2009 6-9PM
Place: Maccarone
630 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10014
http://www.maccarone.net/

PH: 917-753-6187

Your Extraordinary Mind

Burn Bright

My candle burns at both ends;

It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and
oh, my friends
It gives a lovely light!
Edna St. Vincent Millay

At the center of every bright flame,
there is always a touch of blue

Sometimes our Light goes out,

but is blown back into flame by another human being.

Each of us owes deepest thanks

to those who have rekindled this light Fire is beautiful and we know that if we get too close it will kill us,

but what does that matter?

It is better to be happy for a moment and be burned up with beauty,

than to live a long time and be bored all the while.

That is what life is for,

it is better to be a part of beauty for one instant

and then cease to exist,

than to exist forever and

never be a part of beauty.

I do not agree with him,

myself, I would rather have half the happiness and twice the longevity;
but at the same time

I wish there was something I wanted

as badly as he wanted to fry himself...Don Marquis

I've had an idea or rather a vision

It is a vision of every human being

bursting with Fire and with mystery

I write of indefinable and brilliant flames

That will forever burn bright.

The Light I see is there in you.

I see it in every one of us,

and will Always.

I hope it never takes Death or a rape

for you to see this Light

In those around you.

Forbid it should demand such a price

Let me pay the price for you instead.

Thank You Mr Rogers

My First (and still the best) Therapist

"If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person."

"When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone."

Ok you all can mock me and I fully accept your scorn; but I LOVE Mr. Rogers. I always say he is the best therapy ever. Because of him I am obsessed with cardigans. When my family took a trip to D.C. back in the 90's, I made them go to the Smithsonian so I could see Mr. Roger's sweater. One of my pals even gave me the book: The World According To Mr Rogers

"I hope you're proud of yourself for the times you've said "yes," when all it meant was extra work for you and was seemingly helpful only to someone else."
Here are some tips by Mr. Roger's
"Forgiveness is a strange thing. It can sometimes be easier to forgive our enemies than our friends. It can be hardest of all to forgive people we love. Like all of life's important coping skills, the ability to forgive and the capacity to let go of resentments most likely take root very early in our lives"
"There’s so much more to everyone you will ever meet than will ever meet your eye.”
"Some days, doing "the best we can" may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn't perfect on any front-and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else. "
"The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self."
"Who we are in the present includes who we were in the past."

My favorite quote by Mr. Rogers that I still say to myself. I love watching the end of the show sometimes to hear him say:

"You are special, by just you being you. There is no one in this whole world like you. And I like you, just the way you are"

Sigh, it's sad to remember that it was Mr. Rogers who told me this instead of my parents, but thank you Mr. Rogers. I think without you my self esteem would be in worst shape.

"The world needs a sense of worth, and it will achieve it only by its people feeling that they are worthwhile."

I wish some of the people I have known, friends and family, would adhere to Mr. Roger's idea of what love is:
"Love isn't a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now."
Thank You Mr. Rogers

Calvary Color Shots

From fields where glory does not stay and

Early though the laurel grows

It withers quicker than the rose...

And round that early laurelled head

Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead

And find unwirthered on it's curls

The garland ...AE Housman

The Grave is but a covered bridge,

Leading from Light to Light

Through a brief DarknessI can not see what flowers are at my feet,

Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,

But, in embalmed darkness guess each sweet scent Art is long and Time is fleeting,

And our hearts though stout and brave,

Still like muffled drums are beating

Funeral marches to the grave

New Necklace

Here is a shot of the new necklace I just finished for Spirit Jump

Below is just a little about the charm I chose. The meaning behind the charm are things I believe people in a difficult situation need

The charm is of Durga the Hindu god. Goddess Durga is the mother of the universe and believed to be the power behind the work of creation, preservation, and destruction of the world. Since time immemorial she has been worshipped as the supreme power of the Supreme Being. Another meaning of "Durga" is "Durgatinashini," which literally translates into "the one who eliminates sufferings." Thus, Hindus believe that goddess Durga protects her devotees from the Evils of the world and at the same time removes their miseries

Durga stands on a lion in a fearless pose of "Abhay Mudra", signifying assurance of freedom from fear.
Durga holds several weapons in her many hands.
-The conch shell in Durga's hand symbolizes the 'Pranava' or the mystic word 'Om', which indicates her holding on to God in the form of sound.
-The bow and arrows represent energy. By holding both the bow and arrows in one hand "Mother Durga" is indicating her control over both aspects of energy - potential and kinetic.
-The thunderbolt signifies firmness. The devotee of Durga must be firm like thunderbolt in one's convictions. Like the thunderbolt that can break anything against which it strikes, without being affected itself, the devotee needs to attack a challenge without losing his confidence.
-The lotus in Durga's hand is not in fully bloomed, It symbolizing certainty of success but not finality. The lotus stands for the continuous evolution of the spiritual quality of devotees amidst the worldly mud of lust and greed.
-The "Sudarshan-Chakra" or beautiful discus, which spins around the index finger of the Goddess, while not touching it. She uses this unfailing weapon to destroy evil and produce an environment conducive to the growth of righteousness.
-The sword that Durga holds in one of her hands symbolizes knowledge, which has the sharpness of a sword. Knowledge which is free from all doubts
-Durga's trident or "trishul" is a symbol of her as the remover of all the three types of miseries - physical, mental and spiritual.

My New Painting

Che Guevara
My painting of Che Guevara. I know he is a very controversial figure, some people think he is a hero, others consider him a monster. What I admire about him was the courage of his conviction. He followed his heart, even in the face of adversity. His is the story of an obscure Argentine doctor who abandoned his profession and his native land to pursue the emancipation of the poor of the earth. He said "I came into close contact with poverty, hunger and disease; with the inability to treat a child because of lack of money; with the stupefaction provoked by the continual hunger and punishment, to the point that a father can accept the loss of a son as an unimportant accident, as occurs often in the downtrodden classes of our American homeland. And I began to realize at that time that there were things that were almost as important to me as becoming a famous or making a significant contribution to medical science: I wanted to help those people"

In 1956, along with a handful of others, he had crossed the Caribbean in the mad mission of invading Cuba and overthrowing the dictator Fulgencio Batista. He is quoted as saying "The feeling of revolt will grow stronger every day among the peoples subjected to various degrees of exploitation, and they will take up arms to gain by force the rights which reason alone has not won them"
Guevara displayed such outrageous bravery and skill that he was named comandante, the insurgents entered Havana and launched what was to become the first and only victorious socialist revolution in the Americas. His famous last words were rumored to be "I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man. " Che felt "I don't care if I fall as long as someone else picks up my gun and keeps on shooting.” I hope you enjoy my "Rag Doll" painting of Che

“Let me say, at the risk of seeming ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.”


One of Che's famous Quotes hidden in the smoke of my painting "Hasta La Victoria" meaning "Until Victory"

I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves.

"If you tremble indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine"

Do You Remember Woodsy Owl?

GIVE A HOOT, DON'T POLLUTE!

No matter how bad I feel, this comic always makes me laugh. I have it hung up at work so it can cheer me up when I need it.

Truman Capote

American Author;

Literary Rock Star

Diva

Truman Capote, what more could be said about him than the above lines? I find him to be a genius of the written words, mostly for his simplicity. I've always thought him to be incredibly courageous for daring to be who he was. He once said of himself "I'm about as tall as a shotgun and just as noisy". He was braving for being openly gay and not conforming in a time when society wasn't as accepting as it is now. (Though I do not believe that society has evolved much from old prejudices and ways of thinking as we would like to believe; though that is a topic for another time. My personal favorite quote was

"I don't care what anyone says about me as long as it's not true".

A brief history for Truman is that he grew up lonely as a kid, befriended Harper Lee at a young age and went on to write what he called "non fiction novel" In Cold Blood and in doing so was often credited with pioneering the "true crime" genres.

Answered Prayers is the novel he never finished and the parts that were published cost him many friends who were unhappy with Truman's protrayl of them under thinly veiled characters. Truman was again lonely. I found this passage in Answered Prayers to be particularly poignant:

"I didn't say good bye to anybody, just left; I'm the type, and a type by no means rare, who might be your closest friend, a buddy you talked to everyday, yet if one day you neglected to to make contact, if you failed to telephone me, then that would be it, we'd never speak again, for I would never telephone you."

Ah Truman you are right when you say that the above mentioned type is not rare at all. People like that wander in and out of people's lives sometimes breaking hearts and souls with your silence. Still, though I've never met you, I miss your genius

" A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That's why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet"

Pic I took of Truman resting place

Spirit Jump

Here are some necklaces I did for some brave gals in need of a Spirit Jump

Teresa's Blue Dolphin and Shells and Ribbon Spirit Jump Necklace

Melissa' s Purple and Shell Angel and Flower Necklace

Darlene's Purple "May There Always Be an Angel By Your Side" Necklace

Crystal's Pink Hope, Faith and Butterfly Necklace

Emily's Pink Dream Necklace

My Painting of My Pals Old Band

THE BAND

WHATCHA ALL THINK?