Restoring Honor

Image by dengre

Sad and ironic.

The mind-numbing dissonance of today's right-wing politics is by design...it frustrates critics and hoodwinks followers.

Media outlets amplify and mainstream these reactionary and xenophobic political operatives. Glenn Beck cynically maneuvers himself to stand alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and the media puts him there—Beck is elevated and MLK is reduced. It is a slick game.

Update: Throw in a little "christ is the best" shtick and you're good to go. 

Oh look...Gohmert Pyle is back on TV.

What can one really say about this? Good job at reinforcing at least 3 or 4 negative stereotypes.

Painting #10 (final...done)

Painting #10 of 10       (30" x 31 1/4")

Details:

I'm not necessarily happy with this one. There are a lot of things about it that I now like, some having to do with it being—almost—a lost cause. I think the ground was too uniformly dark from the start. This limited the pictorial depth I could work with, incidental or intentional...it closed up too fast.
The tension between gesture and painted form is there and I like the different types of painting used—impulsive and considered (fast and slow).

Some of the difficulties I encountered with this painting go back a long way for me. They revolve around abstraction and its translation, flirting with the literal (space, color, object) and accepting the importance of a mark, shape or painted field without it feeling decorative.

Update: I struggle to make it not feel decorative, but know that it fundamentally is.

View preliminary states and comments below the break.

Frank Black and the Catholics

Bonus track:
David Bowie and Frank Black
Scary Monsters/Super Creeps

Watch for the great Tony Oursler piece at the front of the stage.