Monsters in my head

Self-taught animator Bruce Bickford created an amazing world of images. Like many passionate outsider artists it also became his world. Check out his animation at www.monstorroad.com Art reflects our world- as scary as it can be, it is made better when we turn our visions and thoughts into creative actions like this- rather than the easier ways some choose to hurt themselves and others.

Also check out Bickford's Dupree's Paradise.

Hope Filled Designs for 9th Ward, New Orleans

Hope springs like a weed, pushing through the hurt and broken promises with the Make It Right Project in New Orleans. Check out the amazingly bold designs being built right now in New Orleans.

Of Ophans, Art, and Halos

Too bad art therapist have such a hard time finding funding in the US. They do so much good worldwide- we need their halos here too. Check out this video and then take a look at Halo Foundation's Website.

BAD ARTIST! GOOD ARTIST!

CHECK OUT THIS BLOG BY THE ARTIST: http://nicolasheller.wordpress.com/

Modest Mouse ruins my new hobby

Dang it. I just bought a fishing license and new reel. Now whenever I fish for trout I will be thinking of this provocative animation. It's for Modest Mouse's song King Rat and is a dark, graphic reminder of the injustice of illegal whaling practices still common in the world. This project was headed up by Keath Ledger before his death. Proceeds from the first month of sales of this song on itunes will go toward a non-profit fighting illegal whaling. Like all great art, its impact will go well beyond that. Steel yourself before watching, but do watch, and listen, and think.

Modern Masterpiece in the woods

This animation of Fallingwater, Frank L. Wrights masterpiece build on Bear Run Creek in Western PA, is wonderful. It does not however do it justice. What the animator could not put in is how much nature embraces the property. Visiting this building was a highlight of an otherwise personally awful summer. I was awe struck at how carefully Wright slotted this building into the landscape and how well the owners, the Kaufmanns, folded in nature on top of the site with new plantings. Today it looks like God created the house along with boulders and stream. That statement might have pleased the architect- who thought much of his abilities. Vanity aside, Wright has left us a monument to an alternate universe, one in which man lives WITH nature instead of against it. It is a vision of a future that we all should embrace and dedicate our lives to- begin by going to this "cathedral in the woods."

We cannot afford to do without the arts.

Check out this speaker on the importance of creativity and education. As our state supported schools and private schools struggle with budgets they should DOUBLE the funding for creative practices! We cannot spend our way out of a recession, we have to invent our way.

April 13th, 1927 - July 18, 2009

My mother, Elizabeth Shaw, died this past month. I have taken some time off from a lot of small things to process this profound event in my life.

I am inching back into the rush of everyday life and will begin again to celebrate here my passion for great humanist art.

Here is a website I just found and want to share.

Thanks for your continued interest in this funny little blog that, like me, so wants to make the world a better place.

Laughing With...........

Maybe it is because I have a gravely ill loved one in the hospital, but I find this new song by Regina Spektor to be profound.

Recycled Book Publishing

You may have heard of the two reporters being held in North Korea. They work for Current TV. Check out this short (too short) documentary on artists publishing books using recycled material. Check out the other documentaries at Current as well.

Update: I just watch a longer documentary by Current and am a total fan. Check out "Thankyou, Recession." Consider joining the Face Book Group that is supporting the family of the two current journalists.

Something Wonderful from Next to Nothing

In this time of shrinking wealth and growing worry it is refreshing and inspiring to see imagination at its best. The Guggenheim Grotto, an Indie band from Dublin, has created a wonderful music video for their song 'Her Beautiful Ideas.' If you've studied art history you may be successful in finding the numerous art references.

Touching Portraits by Laura

Laura Chasman has created a touching series of paintings of elderly nursing home residents and the aids and nurses that care for them. I came across her work while doing research for a similar project I am considering. Her gouache paintings stood out as I did a good image search of nursing home portraits. Laura has painted other groups of people. I like the way she has used her natural communities (family, friends, work) as the subject matter. Her work has the same directness as Alice Neel's. It comes across unassuming yet profound. Be sure to visit her site to see these excellent paintings.

Keep Getting Better

Maybe you bought the CD like I did and played it to death, but I bet you will still enjoy this video from the Playing for Change folks. Their music is great but combined with the images it is overwhelmingly excellent. Watch the expression of emotion on these singers' faces and you will get why art (music in this case) is so important to being fully human. These guys exude the suffering that New Orleans went through with Katrina- yet through their art their spirits have triumphed- yours will be raised as well. Enjoy!

Spanish Version of Give Me Eyes Book now online

This is a book I published in 2007. It is written in both Spanish and English. It tells the story of a couple who cross the border illegally. It was created in collaboration with undocumented immigrants living in my community and with families left behind in Mexico. I hope to share this video across Mexico. This book is now for sale on Amazon.com and on lulu.com

Has Nothing Changed?

More on Wislawa Szymborska

Tortures
by Wislawa Szymborska

Nothing has changed.
The body is a reservoir of pain;
it has to eat and breathe the air, and sleep;
it has thin skin and the blood is just beneath it;
it has a good supply of teeth and fingernails;
its bones can be broken; its joints can be stretched.
In tortures, all of this is considered.

Nothing has changed.
The body still trembles as it trembled
before Rome was founded and after,
in the twentieth century before and after Christ.
Tortures are just what they were, only the earth has shrunk
and whatever goes on sounds as if it's just a room away.

Nothing has changed.
Except there are more people,
and new offenses have sprung up beside the old ones--
real, make-believe, short-lived, and nonexistent.
But the cry with which the body answers for them
was, is, and will be a cry of innocence
in keeping with the age-old scale and pitch.

Nothing has changed.
Except perhaps the manners, ceremonies, dances.
The gesture of the hands shielding the head
has nonetheless remained the same.
The body writhes, jerks, and tugs,
falls to the ground when shoved, pulls up its knees,
bruises, swells, drools, and bleeds.

Nothing has changed.
Except the run of rivers,
the shapes of forests, shores, deserts, and glaciers.
The little soul roams among these landscapes,
disappears, returns, draws near, moves away,
evasive and a stranger to itself,
now sure, now uncertain of its own existence,
whereas the body is and is and is
and has nowhere to go.