Today's title is confusing but there are two very different subjects running through my mind this morning as I frame this edition. I was listening to a discussion on the radio about the growing number of young people from around the globe who today are embracing Leninism as a reaction against capitalism. I was musing over artists and where many of us fit into these philosophy s. Consider a successful painter today, gathering together about $200 worth of materials and creating an original and unique piece of art valued at $2000, $10000 or even much more. A selling price of $2200 is realizing a 1,000% profit. Remarkable. I'm not minimizing the decades of consistent work without any appreciable reward that go into any artist's preparation for a "successful" career but perhaps artists should actually be considered as super-capitalists. I am spending my search for motives or ideas in the low valley and hillsides around Okanagan Lake. The above painting is typical of our late-winter weather with fog stratum suspended above the lake, a low sun crossing the southern horizon and patches of vegetation breaking free of winter's blanket.
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At this latitude and at this particular time of year I feel the constraints of some kind of seasonal stalemate. I observe the land, the sky and the weather and it seems that my painting can go either way, trending toward the warmth of spring or falling back into the frozen winter. These new paintings come out of some of that ambivalence we northerners experience each year, an expectant stillness, hoping for the sunshine of spring but braced for yet more frigid weather. ![]() "Clear cut Survivor" garnered an Honorable Mention award at the New Beginnings FCA show in Osoyoos. |
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July 2017
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