I am currently working on a self-portrait  for a show at the Tannery Row Artist Colony in Buford, Georgia. The title of the show is The Music in Me and the format is square, as if we are designing album covers. Those of you who are familiar with my Liberty paintings will have some idea of where this painting is going. Because I work in so many layers, I have decided to start documenting each step in my paintings. While the details show through subsequent layers, it is often difficult to capture them in photographs, mostly because I am photographically challenged.

Here is the first step below showing the filigree that is often the first layer in one of my paintings. The gray menace in the background, scowling with disdain, is my husband's cat Odin. He fancies himself a studio cat and loves to lounge on my work table, tossing my mixed media components to the floor with malicious glee. At seven, he is finally calming down, but he still enjoys making a mess.

This article will also be posted at MachinePolitick.

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In early 1860, Abraham Lincoln was a little known regional politician from Springfield, Illinois. The Republican Party was new, and had failed runningnational heroJohn C. Frémontfor president in 1856. Abraham Lincoln chances of ascending to the presidency under the Republican banner were slight. All that changed in New York City on February 27, 1860. That afternoon, Lincoln had his photograph taken by Mathew Brady, and in the evening, he gave a historic speech at the Cooper Union. Lincoln often said that Brady’s photograph and his Cooper Union address propelled him to the presidency.

Below is an abridged version of Lincoln’s speech. I have reprinted it in honor of Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial, and in tribute to theanniversary of Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech at the same site.

“We hear that you will not abide the election of a Republican president! In that event, you say you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us!

“That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, ‘Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you and then you will be a murderer!’

“What the robber demands of me—my money—is my own; and I have a clear right to keep it; but my vote is also my own; and the threat of death to me to extort my money and the threat to destroy the Union to extort my vote can scarcely be distinguished.”

“What will convince slaveholders that we do not threaten their property? This and this only: cease to call slavery wrong and join them in calling it right. Silence alone will not be tolerated—we must place ourselves avowedly with them. We must suppress all declarations that slavery is wrong, whether made in politics, in presses, in pulpits, or in private. We must arrest and return their fugitive slaves with greedy pleasure. The whole atmosphere must be disinfected from all taint of opposition to slavery before they will cease to believe that all their troubles proceed from us.

“All they ask, we can grant, if we think slavery right. All we ask, they can grant if they think it wrong.

“Right and wrong is the precise fact upon which depends the whole controversy.

“Thinking it wrong, as we do, can we yield? Can we cast our votes with their view and against our own? In view of our moral, social, and political responsibilities, can we do this?”

The hall burst with repeated shouts of “No! No!”

“Let us not grope for some middle ground between right and wrong. Let us not search in vain for a policy of don’t care on a question about which we do care. Nor let us be frightened by threats of destruction to the government.”

Prolonged applause kept Lincoln silent for several minutes.

“Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it!”

When Lincoln stepped back from the podium after this dramatic conclusion, the Cooper Union Great Hall exploded with noise and motion. Everybody stood. The staid New York audience cheered, clapped, and stomped their feet. Many waved handkerchiefs and hats.

If you want to see how a principled politician gained national repute with honor and integrity, please read the entire Cooper Union speech.  You’ll find an example of the kind of honorable leadership we need today.

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Here are some images from one of our newest artists.

1)"Olive's field with clay's pots"-- Oil-- 2002.

2)"Quiet river"  (Cuba landscape) --Acrylic--  2002

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I have always been a big fan of Byzantine art. I love the richness of color and symbolism employed by these classical artists. Here is a modern artist working in this beautiful style.

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This has been sitting on my to-do list for a while now. As always, I am juggling a million flaming balls and it kept getting pushed down the list. A friend recently sent me some videos that reminded me of the idea. SO, here are some links to Mr. Hopper's work.

The Middle Word in Life

Dennis Hopper, the subject of this video appreciation by Matt Zoller Seitz (first posted on April 6), died on May 29, 2010, at age 74.

"Dennis Hopper: The Middle Word in Life" is an attempt to capture the essence of what we think about when we think about Dennis Hopper. This video essay isn't trying to be a comprehensive biography because the prospect of capturing Hopper in a relatively short running time is too daunting to consider. The piece offers glimpses of Hopper the method actor, Hopper the monologue master and word-jazz babbler, Hopper the scenery-gnawing villain, Hopper the substance abuser and ex-substance abuser, and Hopper the filmmaker (a facet that often gets overlooked because, while Hopper appeared in nearly 60 films and hundreds of hours of TV, he directed just seven motion pictures). ... (Full Article)

Dennis Hopper & the New Hollywood [Hardcover]

DENNIS HOPPER DOUBLE STANDARD

Dennis Hopper Double Standard is the first comprehensive survey exhibition of Dennis Hopper's (b. 1936, Dodge City, Kans.) artistic career to be mounted by a North American museum. Best known for his work in film, Hopper has produced an oeuvre of remarkable breadth that blurs the boundaries between art, film, and popular culture.... (Full Article)

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By Stan Transue

Confusion does reign in Liberals’ brains
It makes them defenseless and weak
Whenever I deign to try to explain
They rebuff the wisdom they seek

They’re led by emotion, envy and greed
To sanction their brutal desires
The warnings of prudence they never heed
While stoking the class-envy fires

They claim that our rights are subject to need
While increasing their needy-ones list
They chastise those on whose labors they feed
But upon whose support they insist

They rally the poor, the ignorant masses
By saying they can live off the rich
To keep them all resting on their lazy asses
They use the same old bait and switch

In the depths of despair they call on the able
To remedy their faulty schemes
Then blame their saviors for their empty table
While maintaining impossible dreams

To the ghost of society they hold us in debt
For the good of this ghost they all strive
To steal all the money they've not stolen yet
To enslave us like drones to the hive

At the pinnacle of this crazy pyramid scheme
Rests the spirit of cannibalism
Our blood is to buy their utopian dream
Our bones ground to feed Communism

To restore the blessings of liberty’s vision
And stop our demise in its tracks
Expose the charade that they have permission
And give all these looters the sack

When two thousand ten comes rolling along
Your ballot can express what’s desired
Open your throat and sing freedom’s song
Tell Congress that they are all fired.

Stan's work is available at the Habersham County Conservative Examiner and at The American Exile

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Kurt Wenner: Artist, Architect, Performer

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These paintings are by Michael LeKites, who was kind enough to post them on our Facebook page. They were inspired by last year's Taxpayer March on DC. I eel a personal connection to the work because I also attended the event. From the perspective of an artist, they are very well executed. The color and composition are amazing. From the point of view of a propagandist - they rock and I hope to see more work of this kind in the public forum. Please keep an eye out for future postings of Mr. LeKites' work, as I plan to keep track of his progress.

These images have also been posted on MachinePolitick

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How do those two topics relate, and how did I come across them? That's not a bad question for a reasonable person to ask. When I picked up Origami on the Edge, I thought I would be teaching my son how to make some cool monsters.

Like everything else that involves raising a child, I should have known better than to make an assumption. If I haven't learned anything else in the last six years, I've figured out that I don't know squat about kids and just when I think I've seen everything, I'm proven wrong yet again.

We went to the library this week to get books and origami was a subject we were interested in. So we came home with this book by Xander Arena: American Mensa member, custom stone craftsman, full time student, and animal groomer of all things. I think you can probably guess what I thought of the biography, so we'll leave that alone. Once I was actually reading the book to figure out how to make the monsters, which was the actual purpose of getting it, I realized there was a blog post in the making.

On the front cover is this little icon that says Green Edition. I bet you can guess where this is going. Before you assume I burn trees every day because I like to watch the shiny embers float about or club baby seals for their fur, let me say - I understand the need to conserve and protect our resources and the environment. However, those goals should not be accomplished at the expense of human life, under false pretences, at the point of a gun. The inside of the cover on the book describes why the book qualifies as 'planet friendly publishing' in a smarmy, you suck manner that makes me want to add Dover Publications to the long list of companies I don't want to give my money.

So, on to the point of this post. Why do I care about the blatant propaganda campaign in one origami book? Because it is obviously geared toward young people. You wouldn't believe how many books like this are out there. I don't believe it is coincidental any more than I believe that The Rainbow Fish is about sharing. It is a blatant campaign to teach children from a young age that humans destroy the earth and we all need to do without. Once that goal is accomplished, it's a baby step to the concept that we're all equal and should have equal things. Equality of outcome not equality of opportunity.

Why is this in a post on an art page? Because we need to be doing the same thing to promote honest, Conservative philosophy. Yes, you can find beaytifully illustrated books on American history and Liberty in the children's section. However, very few of them are the storybooks geared toward toddlers and young readers - they're picture books(just pretty, ot smart). If we don't ingrain these ideas in our kids before we pack them of to public school, we have no one to blame but ourselves when they turn into blithering fools dependent on the State for their 'needs'.

All of this brings us full circle, back to the origami book. The portion of the book that set all of this in motion is included below. You would think the description of how the artist designed the polar bear would be innocuous. Again, you would be wrong. The intro reads as follows:

"Originally, I viewed this model as simply a bear, but after reviewing photos of various sorts of bears, determined that it was definitely the arctic variety. Polar bears are presently in a bit of trouble, and I really do hope that they are able to adapt to our changing climate. Or conversely, that we slow the change...It would be a shame to lose them."

I promise to come back from my family camping trip with something positive to say about art. I'm sure a weekend in a national park will lift my spirits. I know cooking meat over an open flame will!

Just in case you'd like to know what your kids are learning on TV, check out this article by our contriubtor Greg Contiero.

I will also post this article at MachinePolitick

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