The Muse

Life as a Pork Chop...

2012-01-14T20:39:00.000-08:00

I discovered an Australian artist named Tony Edwards sometime back in 2009 and dug his old surfing-influenced art so much I actually wrote to him and asked about getting some prints. He was real nice but said he'd moved on to landscape painting and that his older stuff was basically behind him. I kinda wanted to say "anybody can paint barns, but wit is rare" but I didn't, and a good thing too, as you'll see later.

The Goodvibes art that caught my eye.

Tony wrote to me again last month about his new collection of Captain Goodvibes material, and in spite of the exorbitant Australian postage rates went ahead and got one. If you want one too ya better hurry, they're only printing 1,000.

Da Big Book.

And what a book it is. On newsprint, with dayglo inks throughout. It's a truly beautiful book, and big too, about 13.5x9 and around 400 pages. These notorious Captain Goodvibes strips started around 1973 and ran in a paper called Tracks. There are hundreds of these faithfully reproduced along with various other pieces, and they're so visually dense I haven't begun to digest them all yet.

You could say they're "Underground" in appearance, but there's a meticulous artistry to much of it that most of the American Comix guys couldn't come close to. It's as if some artistic proto-species had evolved alone downunder without much input from elsewhere and not giving a marsupial damn either.

Can you zoom in on this one?

And I'm glad I bit my tongue about the landscape stuff because Tony's pieces are flippin' exquisite, a term I don't use loosely. They simultaneously embody the kind of linearity he employed 30+ years ago and yet are completely "painterly" as well, so the tension between the two approaches generates some real eyeball interest. If I had to compare them to anyone, and no kidding, it'd be Edward Hopper.

A beguiling sample of Tony Edward's current paintings.

If you're rich and lucky you may still be able to grab a copy from captaingoodvibes.com

You can't have mine but if you drop by I'll let you look at it.

Post #300...

2012-01-03T10:55:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Post #300, and not only is it an anniversary, but it's also a New Year. It also turns out I've been on eBay for ten years, but that's not exactly cause for celebration around here.

I recently wrote some stuff about Art today, and here's part of the correspondence--I'll try and reference w/text when necessary:

Well, thank God Frazetta didn't go to this guy's ( An Italian "Maestro") school. He'd have been smashed down flatter than a pancake. The world would have been robbed.

As for Art students, only a small % of grads will ever amount to anything. My experience is that the teachers know all along who doesn't belong there--and they take the money anyway. Usually the parent's hard-earned money.

Speaking of money, these Classical Art techniques apparently developed in order to flatter the people with lots of it. Now, the Fine-Art grads can go out into the world looking for folks with lots of $ who need flattery. Or, as they actually suggest, learn how to crank out paintings by the yard. Then you can try to compete with the Chinese on eBay.

Maybe it's just me, I am not a "joiner". All I need is a book.

Then there is the question as to how relevant all this Art History and its techniques really is anymore. Some young kid, when smacked with centuries worth of "This is how it must done" may never be able to escape mentally. It's a kind of prison.

A few hundred years ago, when life was much slower and quieter, I suppose the effect of these paintings was very different. Now, I think the effect is not the picture, but to the young artist it's "I want those skills".

And I admit that's what it was with me, too. Having the best skills is really just another way to beat people up. It's a form of violence. You wouldn't believe how many artists have told me their dreams where they went to visit Frank Frazetta. Why? Because he's the Art Uber-male, the Alpha, the Bad-ass.

I guess this is where Ego will serve the artist better than anything else. Like a Picasso had the audacity to tear up everything up to that point and reassemble something new from other inspirations. He drew from plaster casts too, so no wonder he was a little crazy.

At this point, I'd rather look at a cave painting from Lascaux than any clever Still-Life no matter how technically good it is. Who taught them how to draw? Did they have their own schools, where some fat parasite charged them in fresh meat and women?

All this stuff sorta reeks of that "Past Is Better" idea to me, that the "Old Ways" are still the best. They're not the best, although they may have been for their time, but today is a different time.

There's groups online that champions people like Bougereau, and they actually claim that those paintings "speak" about life whereas Modern Art is a hopeless dead-end. Check these people
out, they are totally rabid:
http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/Philosophy/ArtScam/artscam.php

So it's all fight-fight-fight, and in true religious fashion, indoctrinate the Young and clueless. Some of the Young may be looking to their Elders for advice and direction, and God help them
if Classical Painting chops is the best they can offer in view of the Future we're facing.

I've seen modern "classical" paintings, with all the rendered light and oil paint stuff, trying to be relevant about things like 9/11, and to me it's like listening to a Edison wax-cylinder recording
about the Moon landing. I can't describe it any other way than CORNY. Pure, unadulterated, maudlin CORN.

How about a series of hand-tied lacework depicting the chain of events of the Afghanistan war? Heck, Lace is lost art, too.

Maybe human nature doesn't change, but societies do, and I don't think there's anything much about our contemporary lives that is screaming out to be immortalized in Oil Paint, lace, or anything similar. We need to use our own tools and techniques to talk about ourselves.

Easy as Pi...

2011-11-30T16:43:00.000-08:00

It seemed an exciting moment for a moment, a major news story about "aliens", that is if you call Al Jazeera mainstream, which for us around here it certainly is. Hello, FBI.

The recent SETI News Story.

The SETI program, the Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence, went broke and wound up getting enough donations to start up again. The idea is to monitor space for radio signals that denote "intelligence".

As someone who keeps up with wacky stuff like The Disclosure Project and Crop Circles, looking for radio transmissions from Space seems like looking 180 degrees in the wrong direction, like maybe even intentionally. Many people in the know agree that they're already here.

Complex and intelligent communications.

If you think Crop Circles are hoaxed, for example, then either you probably don't know anything about them or the idea is too scary. There's a clear difference between stomping plants flat and seeing them bent over, unbroken and otherwise unharmed, by a force which is probably incredibly focused microwave radiation.

Can you really talk with pictures?

Then there's the mathematical content of the geometry, which communicates a good bit of stuff, as least as far as we can understand it. Some people call our own understanding of it "Sacred Geometry".

If you wanted to communicate with a backward race, you'd probably choose something like that, a quiet and polite notice that's subtle and slightly ephemeral, rather than landing at the White House or dropping off the saucer at Jiffy Lube.

You can learn all the details for yourself, and I recommend the following documentary.

A Christmas Story...

2011-11-24T13:48:00.001-08:00

Daughter Art...

2011-11-21T06:19:00.000-08:00

My daughter did the following drawing of me as a kid for a recent birthday card, and I share it with you now.

Please ignore the size of my calves.

Yesterday's entry featured an uncredited T-shirt design actually made by me and offered on Cafepress.com. Soon after I'd visited there to grab that image, it came up again on an unrelated page--Youtube.

My own design is following me.

Is this eerie "marketing" coincidence an example of a corporate Big Brother watching my online activity?

Hot Turkey...

2011-11-19T09:35:00.000-08:00

I admit my PC is on for most of the day. Because I run a business with it, I am constantly fielding inquiries, filling orders, scanning artwork and doing pre-press production work. I'm not overjoyed about it and feel an acute nostalgia for rubber cement and huge copy cameras with built-in vacuum pumps to hold the artwork flat. I can't even find a picture of one of those online.

Basically, I feel that being wedded to an ancillary brain has robbed me of a good bit of my life, not to mention mental acuity. But many, many people have it a lot worse. They can't even leave the house without maintaining the connection. Plus, being online is habit forming, so don't believe people who say they can walk away at any time. Young people today are aware of the withdrawal symptoms, which is like being thrust into a featureless, motionless void. That void was once Reality.

But you can get all this from Marshall McLuhan, and his axiom that any technological "extension" atrophies the organ it replaces, like driving weakens your legs. That's why I refer to computers as "ancillary brains". They weaken our minds just by supporting their activities.

Al Jazeera English--my main news source.

So, I manage to keep it to an absolute minimum--my work activities, reading the News, selectively watching video on Youtube and lately some FB. The "comments" on Youtube are bad enough, like an infernal toilet-stall that stretches out to infinity for the scrawlings of faceless, unidentified juveniles, all contesting themselves with urinary yearnings.

Face it, there's no real "face" in Facebook, nor any actual "space" in Myspace. You couldn't even call it MyPLACE, even if you could identify the location of your account's hosting server. Even "in the clouds" is a lie when you get right down to it.

Why do these Social Networks grow and thrive so, and what makes users devote so much time and energy to contributing via pictures and postings? I know from my experience that some of my own friends must spend a good part of the day doing it. Probably, they fit the other non-addictive portions of their lives neatly around it. But would they admit it? Do Junkies "admit it"?

An unpopular T-shirt design from Cafepress.com

No, they don't--and immediately you get rationalizations and excuses full in face of the facts. That fact being that using computers is habit-forming, i.e., addictive, but nearly no one is studying this or talking much about it. These Social networks don't deliver what they promise, a real connection to other people, only an excuse to be online--to use a computer.

I'll say it again: These Social networks don't deliver a real connection to other people, only an excuse to use a computer.

When was the last time you heard someone remark about how much they enjoyed Facebook, or how much better this technology has made their lives? I feel sure that on their deathbeds, people won't miss the years spent surfing the Internet, they will in fact realize their lives passed them by.

Art by Martin Fletcher.

I've enjoyed the content of much of Youtube, but I stay mainly with documentaries and interviews and far away from cute pet tricks. As I mentioned before, the typical "comments" there are truly beyond the pale, and I feel the existence of the system itself is one of the darker accomplishments of our age.

But on Facebook I can no longer tolerate being so close to what I call people's "privates". It's well know that at any given time millions--perhaps billions--of people are masturbating in front of their computers, and this activity is not one they'd advertise, right? But all those "private", personal thoughts they'd never say to another person in public all come right out online. And I'm tired not so much of the proximity but the banality.

I want to specify that I don't often partake in what Psychologist Albert Ellis calls "Musterbation", i.e., that if you don't behave as I think you should or "must" then I will be offended. I understand and accept common human faults, in fact, in a real sense I love them.

Kindness makes the World a better place.

Eastern spiritual traditions say that just as the Lotus grows out of mud, or, essentially, shit, so do people develop and grow. I believe that, but nonetheless I try not to step in it.

The last straw was the flurry of "Natalie Wood jokes" on Facebook.

The Outer Limits...

2011-11-19T09:20:00.000-08:00

The other night at 3:00 PM I had a cathartic insight while lying in bed digesting perhaps 50 ounces of Pale Ale. I've felt pretty rotten since, but the message was worth it and was this: NO LIMITS. That means no limits you place on yourself, or your work, your life and activities.

Sure, exceeding some limits will land you in jail, but putting other limits on yourself are exactly the same thing as jail, and it's 100% voluntary.

A new painting "Countess Dracula".

Developing this idea further: every label you might apply to yourself, Liberal, Conservative, Libertarian, Christian, Atheist, or Packers Fan might create a sense of belonging and a comfortable "space", but you've still locked yourself in and thrown away the key, because you have severely limited yourself options, not to mention your potential.

But are people ready for "no limits"? I think I am. Just think about how many you apply to yourself every day, and how easy it could be to just walk away.

Coming Christmas Comic...

2011-11-16T10:41:00.001-08:00

It's a Hit...

2011-11-15T09:54:00.000-08:00

I think that the rise of the Internet may have done a lot to lower the quality of public discourse in our Society, and if it hasn't, it's certainly made some rather unpleasant speech more visible. We seem to be witnessing a torrent of thoughts and ideas that never previously were able to escape the human heads that contained them. Now they're all out there in the light of day.

A corporation overcharging for fashions you can find in any Thrift Store.

I'm not trying to be judgmental of people per se, but rather their actions, and I believe there is a big difference, because to me a person is not a "thing" but instead a process. The trouble begins when people's minds ossify and they think they are "a thing", because then all growth and development stops.

Personally, being in the business of making endless judgements while creating Art had in the past bled over into my personal and public life. I judged people like I judged my work, and so I've seen both sides. It seems to be far easier to judge than to understand, but really, shouldn't the latter precede the former?

And, if you really understand a person before you judge, then there's no longer any need to judge.

Oldster Hoffman worked hard not to judge the integrity of a pierced and tattooed "Scientist".

At any virtual venue where people can "comment", droves of egotistical males arrive with weapons in hand. Almost anything at all can serve as a club: a word, a creed, or even a DNA molecule. Youtube, for example, is a wonderful resource, but blighted by the sheer mass of negative and outright hateful "comments". It's enough to make you cringe at the mere prospect of "scrolling down".

The most popular subjects attracting these militants seems to be Religion vs Science, Science vs Pseudoscience, and Politics. Apparently, almost every person on Earth has in their mind a clear, easy solution to all our problems. You don't even have to ask to get them, they deliver. You'd almost think the problems weren't especially complicated.

Implicit and intuited design structure of a recent painting.

What particularly concerns me is the rampant name-calling, the most popular tag apparently being "idiot". If you're familiar with the psychological mechanism of Projection, you will likely understand that when someone uses an insult like "idiot" they do so because they are publicly promoting themselves as intelligent. But, if they were truly "wise" then they would know that insults don't teach anything and therefore can't ever bring a positive result. It's just knocking someone down to try and appear superior.

In other words, only someone insecure in their own mind calls others idiots, because ultimately no one is "a thing" that can be named but rather an evolving being on a particular and unique path, even if some are immobile on that path.

And as soon as you've named yourself anything, you've created a prison.

Alley Economy...

2011-10-30T09:09:00.000-07:00

We have poor folks searching the alleys behind the houses here in Riverwest, Milwaukee all the time looking for anything of value they can sell. Mainly they come from the "other side" of Holton Street. Some residents complain, but of course they have money and nice houses to live in. Me, I don't complain.

Vietnam--safer than Germany?

In fact I even talk to them, like one fellow the other day with a Vietnam Vet cap on. I said "My wife's half Vietnamese". He said he hadn't actually been in Vietnam but instead was in Germany, and that he suffered from PTSD and Anxiety, further volunteering that these were caused by a rape committed by a higher-up--a sergeant.

The story grew as he explained the suit against the rapist, resulting in a pension for him, the victim. He added that he got off better than another victim in the case, who got a settlement but was also fitted with a colostomy bag for the rest of his life due to the destruction wreaked on his intestines.

Rape in the military is still epidemic, affecting men and one in three women. Then they rape us by taking our wealth away and giving nothing back.

I think that after Wall Street, the Military Industrial complex will be the next focus of protests.

The Hard Lessons...

2011-10-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

Did you know there is no word in the English language that is the equivalent of Karma? Not too surprisingly, that's why we use the word Karma.

I recently gave out copies of my two Octavia novels to someone, free, and I may have asked for an opinion or critique, I don't recall precisely what was said. What I do know is that an emailed "critique" did in fact arrive, and that it was neither kind nor positive. Instead of illuminating, it was negative and demeaning. In fact, it was clearly designed not be constructive and helpful but to be destructive and hurtful. You could call it a suckerpunch.

Nowadays I always respond positively when someone shows me something they've done, even if I aesthetically find it distasteful or just plain don't like it. If they ask me technical questions about what might need improvement, I try and give useful answers, and most importantly I try to be kind. I do this on a regular basis with the new online Art Academy that I run via my website, for example.

But it was not always so; in the past, I have given the same sort of cruel commentaries as I just received, disguised as "criticism" but in reality designed to tear down someone else and inflate my own ego.

In the recent Octavia affair, what really hurt was not the critique itself but the realization that I had done exactly the same sort of thing before myself.

And the shame I felt was intense as those Karmic Chickens came home to roost.

Gone For Good...

2011-10-20T12:54:00.000-07:00

I've deleted all 288 past Blog entries. I would have liked to have left them, as I do know some people like to read back through them, but as I've just released them in book form that doesn't make much sense, does it?

Confessions of a Comic Book Artist is years' worth of writing, a lot of thought, emotion and hard work. I've read through it myself and am quite impressed with the insights contained there--even if I hadn't written them all myself! It's also illustrated with all the images from the original entries.

A 330-page monster is born.

The main reason to make the book was for readability's sake. I will say that folks at the recent MCBA Fallcon who picked up the book and started reading it had a hard time putting it down. I keep a copy beside my bed, but it's just as good in the bathroom.

In future there will never be more than a few new entries up at a time. The rest will be archived for the next paper edition somewhere around 2014, if we survive that long...