Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Let's Get Political

Photos and Text lifted from:
"For more than twenty years, Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese have used art to address political and social issues. In Line Up, present and former high-ranking government officials, including George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, and Karl Rove (Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz are not on view here), appear in a series of fake mug shots. They hold slates inscribed with numbers that refer to specific dates when the “suspects” made “incriminatory” statements about Iraq. President Bush in his State of the Union address on January 28, 2003, reported, “Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa…. He clearly has much to hide.” On January 25, 2002, Alberto Gonzales reported to President Bush, “[t]his new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions.” In an accompanying DVD, these and other officials are heard making their assertions; the pop of a flashbulb is then followed by the mug shot of the speaker, growing progressively larger until it more than fills the screen. The screen goes dark, and a metallic clunk, presumably the sound of a prison door slamming shut, ends each sequence."
I guess I am left wondering what effect this type of political art has on the policies of our government. What is the artist trying to accomplish? What is actually accomplished? Any thoughts?

Monday, July 7, 2008

Painting for Peace


Quoted from Wikipedia:
"Guernica is a monumental painting by Pablo Picasso, depicting the Nazi German bombing of Guernica, Spain, by twenty-eight bombers, on April 26, 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The attack killed between 250 and 1,600 people, and many more were injured.

The Spanish government commissioned Pablo Picasso to paint a large mural for the Spanish display at the
Paris International Exposition (the 1937 World's Fair in Paris). The Guernica bombing inspired Picasso. Within 15 days of the attack, Pablo Picasso began painting this mural. On completion Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed. This tour brought the Spanish civil war to the world's attention. Guernica epitomizes the tragedies of war and the suffering war inflicts upon individuals. This monumental work has eclipsed the bounds of a single time and place, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace."
For more information on this painting check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_%28painting%29

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Justice Department Covers Partially Nude Statues

This story made me laugh when it broke in 2002 - I was just reminded of it and it fits well with our topic this month...



After some searching I found the photo of former Attorney General Edwin Meese mentioned in the hyper-link article.

New Month - New Topic!

Happy July! I just love July - I love the fourth. What other holiday encourages you to both drink heavily and blow things up? At least that is the way we did things in Wyoming :)
Ashlei was scheduled to host this month, but sadly she has retired from the group. I have what I humbly believe is a great topic so I eagerly asked to host on August 5th. I hope that you will all agree...
I had the great fortune of meeting the highly acclaimed artist Justine Wollaston a couple of weeks ago and was immediately impressed with both her talent as an artist and her engaging and compelling personality. You may recall the firestorm in 2003 over a mural depicting a nude Eve being offered an apple not by Satan but by the hand of God painted on a Pilot Point, TX art gallery. This was the work of Justine, and the story of the mural and the controversy that it provoked is a fascinating tale.
Gracious Justine has agreed to meet with us August 5th to discuss art and politics. I hope that she will recount this event as well as inform us what drives an artist to create controversial art. I know nothing about this topic, but would love to learn more about art and politics.
Here are a couple of links to get us started:
1. To read all about Justine and Eve check out this article written by a member of the Texas Green Party (I don't know why the Green Party is writing about Justine, but it is a good article) http://lists.gp-us.org/pipermail/texgreen/2005-December/000749.html
2. An article about Justine from Art on Trial: The Arts, the First Amendment, and The Courts http://www.tjcenter.org/ArtOnTrial/harmful.html
3. Justine's web site http://www.houseofjustine.com/
See you in August!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

awed, inspired...and a little hungover

Thanks to our Fairy Blogmother Holly for a truly illuminating discussion of the world of blogging last night. (Ooh, am I sounding too formal...too OLD MEDIA? Clearly, I need to let goooo of my neeeed for punctuation and grammatical order... I knead to gitwitit... Must admit, it is hard to do with haunting memories of Prof. Martha Dunsky still present... She put me on probation at Medill School of Journalism in '97 for my ineptness in her Syntax course and I've still not recovered... Actually, the history goes farther back: There's my third grade teacher Mrs. Anderson who nearly held me back a year and put me in the LOWEST READING GROUP at Ballard Elementary because I didn't "use the dictionary enough." See? THIS is why I feel like a cat being dragged into a swimming pool with this whole blogging bit. My inclination has always been to LET GO but nooo, the confining powers that be would not allow it and thus I was warped... I digress. Oh, did I digress? Maybe that's a SIGN that I'm gitinwitit. Seems there is hope after all for me in this world of New Media...) Ah-hem. But back to last night. I am just amazed, Holly, at all you've accomplished in six months... So impressive. And the possibilities of self publishing! (I'd think more about the possibilities but the glare of their shiny newness makes my head hurt after one stupid Mike's Hard Lemonade... Am pounding Diet Cokes to counteract its effect. Or is it affect? Martha would know. I will let gooo and ignore my impulse to grab my AP style guide and just push "post" now... " Thanks, H...and K. and L. and J. for the intrigue last night... I'll look forward to seeing you all at Liza's in July...

Saturday, May 31, 2008

WITNM (part gazillion posted today): Web community and what that means...

I just clicked over to Megan's site, The Velveteen Mind because there is a link (below) that I wanted to include as a reference and this is what she has posted today. It shows the community that is being built one blog at a time and the interaction that it creates. LOVE IT.

So the link that I went over there she references as one of her most popular:
MommyBloggers: The reference

And
How to be a Popular Mommyblogger

These are amazing resources if any of you would like to join the mommy blogging realm.

If you are interested in trying it out, I would glad to be of assistance.

OK, I promise that is the last post for today. I am going to play RockBand now...goodbye.

WITNM (next part, I can't keep up): Starting to pull things together...

Ron Davison again appears in our discussion after writing this yesterday:

A New Kind of Conversation: A New Kind of Democracy

(Hi Ron...how is it you keep popping up in my WOMEN in the new media series?)

I would love to get your ideas on this on Tuesday...

Another thing we will be discussing is how I know Ron will see this...

That will include tons of the information about how traffic flows on the internet, how I know if anyone mentions me, my name, my blog, my blog address and how anyone can become a "Big Brother" of sorts. It is information that just may change how you navigate the www.