I haven't posted anything for a couple of weeks. Maybe a few random shots are in order.
1- The Stupor Bowl. Ten years ago, Pittsburgh lost a game to Dallas. They should have won, except their quarterback kept throwing interceptions late in the game. Several of us thought the game was rigged.
Now, Pittsburgh beats Seattle, in a game where many thought Seattle played better, and Pittsburgh was the beneficiary of some questionable officiating. Hmm.
Could it be that the game was over before it began? After all, the fat lady sang the national anthem.
At least Mick Jagger didn’t flash the crowd. The stones have always been the oh so commercial rebels, pushing the boundaries of society and then deftly pulling back. The tease. The first song they did, "Start Me Up", has an infamous line about " ...a dead man...". When they first started playing, I was wondering how this would turn out. As it happened, Mick substituted the line before "dead man"..."you make a grown man cry"... until the last stanza, when he did say, "You make a dead man....". Who ever did the bleeping was very artistic, and if you weren't paying close attention, and knew what to listen for, you would have never known the difference. It was win-win...Mick played the bad boy, knowing that nothing would come of it, the NFL cut out the offending word, and lots of commercials were sold. Pardon the expression, it was "classic".
2-I have been working on a picture, and think it is going to be really cool. It is based on a painting by a famous dead european, and is a departure from the geometry that has dominated recent efforts. I have had to learn a few things about drawing random lines with a computer, which has been an experience. I used to do this with pencil and mylar, and erased a lot when I made changes. Erasing is a lot cleaner on the computer, and I can save the changes ad infinitum. I haven’t decided whether to post the final image here, or to my "alternative" blog. There are body parts in this image, and I wouldn't want any sensitive visitors to be scandalized.
3- I seem to have rubbed at least one person the wrong way with my previous post. For more details...possibly too much more...go
here.There is a feature on 0203 called "In other cartoon news..." and if you look in the comments you will see the "discussion". Centurdion seems offended that I give god credit for helping me with my images.
Of course, there could be another motive at work here. My comment that started the fracas was this:
Yes, the muslim reaction to the cartoons is regrettable.
What I find interesting is the contrast to jesus worship. In j.w. culture, the image/name of jesus is used in all sorts of tasteless ways.
Apparently, the islamic culture frowns on all sorts of images of the prophet, while j.w. culture thinks it is great. While many of the medieval images of jesus are beautiful, many of the modern uses are in bad taste.
My "favorite" is the blood gushing t-shirts depicting the crucifixion. Gross.
Perhaps the j.w.'s learn from islam, and use the image of jesus less frequently, and with a bit more taste.What I never mentioned in my commentary was the fact that centurdion owns a "christian" bookstore. Could it be that he sells some of this merchandise which prostitutes the image of jesus?
So anyway, centurdion was dismayed by my attribution of inspiration to a divine source. In his final comment, he said:
Well, that is at least as offensive as placing your artwork on-par with the word of God.I don’t think I said that.
1- I do not consider the bible to be the word of god.
2- No wars have been fought because of my pictures. ( Not yet anyway)
3- My images have not been used to justify slavery.
4- The images discussed in the post in question are geometric, and do not contain words.
5- I make no claims regarding life after death and my pictures.
6- The source of creative inspiration is an ancient question. My attribution of this gift to god is only one answer. Maybe the answer was inside me all along. Maybe these impulses in my soul are god. Maybe they are the devil ( I doubt this. If there was satanic inspiration, I would probably be better at marketing these images.)
7- I haven’t done any pictures of jesus since 1985. I threw it away when I moved last spring, but I do have some pictures. It might be time to do another one, though.
I don't make images like this anymore. It is big, opaque, with lots of day glo colors. If you look at it with 3d glasses it moves. When I was making this, I had a tough time getting the mouth to look right, so I finally covered it with his beard.
When I look at this image now, I am hit with a wave of nostalgia for the backyard/carport of my former residence.
I realize that I am veering into possible hypocrisy with this image. I said that jesus worshippers should show some taste and restraint in their use of images of jesus, and there are those that think that green hair and a pink nose are outside those boundaries. They will get over it.
