Michelle Obama and the Arts

I celebrate the fact that Michelle Obama is taking a stand for the arts recently (Harpers Interview), together with the President's declaration earlier this month.  You can show your support for their position by sending a message here.  Some excerpts from recent press reports:

Michelle Obama recently said, "The arts aren't somehow an 'extra' part of a community's life but instead, they are the heart of a community's life. It is through music, literature, art, drama and dance that we tell the story of the past and we express hopes for the future."

She wants to bring that same consciousness to American youth. "We want to lift young people up," she said. "The country needs to be mindful that we have all these diamonds out there, and it would be a shame not to invest in those talents." 

 

The first lady is also aware of the international reach of the arts. "That's the beauty of arts and culture, music and dance," she said. "It's a universal voice. 

 

Shine on, you crazy diamond....

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom,
blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter,
come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,
rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!

 

— Pink Floyd

Do Pelicans Dream?

Judy Irving, the director and producer of the film The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (based on the book by Mark Bittner) wrote to me the other day.  She is half way through her next film project, Pelican Dreams.  I find Pelicans to be really majestic, old souls.  We have many of them on the coast where my second home is and to sit on the cliff-tops there and just watch them flying and go about their own lives is one of my greatest pastimes.  Unfortunately, this was one bird that suffered greatly and many were lost during the gulf oil spill.

Here is a quote from Judy as she was remarking on Werner Herzog's view of nature and reflects something I think we all feel deep down:

“Nature is implacable. Nature is going to do what it will do. If we’re going to spill millions of gallons in the gulf, it will have an effect. I get the feeling from Herzog that he sort of hates nature. I want to go there. I want to experience the wild. Not something like a wild party where you drink a lot, or a road you drive down real fast, but I want to experience something that’s naturally wild, that’s wild out there on the planet.”

I encourage you to visit her website and if you can, help her by donating some funds towards the cost of producing this movie.

Here is her synopsis of Pelican Dreams (in progress):

One August afternoon, a young, confused, hungry, and very tired brown pelican created a spectacular traffic jam on the Golden Gate Bridge by landing on the roadway. Later named “Gigi” (for Golden Gate), she was “arrested,” put in a police car, and taken to a seabird rescue center. Pelican Dreams follows Gigi’s time in human hands and her release back to the wild, using her story to paint a broader picture of these ancient, mysterious birds.

Do pelicans dream? If so, what do they dream about? Who knows pelicans best? Fishermen compete with them, surfers share the waves with them, wildlife rehabilitators take care of them, and field biologists study their populations. These are the human characters in Pelican Dreams, and the various ways in which they know these birds will help us build up a picture of their personalities, habitat, population, and survival challenges. From the Channel Islands in southern California where Gigi was probably born, up the Pacific Coast to Sand Island in the Columbia River, the film creates a portrait of these elegant yet comical birds. As viewers fall in love with pelicans, they will be more motivated to protect the marine environment we all depend on.

Pelicans illustrate, metaphorically, the checkered history of our relationship with the natural world. Flourishing for 40 million years, they’ve barely survived the last 100. Plume hunting in the 19^th century and nest robbing during World War I reduced their populations, but after World War II, DDT nearly drove them to extinction. Ingested with fish, DDT caused pelicans’ eggshells to become so thin that they cracked during incubation. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and the Environmental Defense Fund’s DDT lawsuit launched the environmental movement and led to the eventual ban on DDT. Despite being taken off the Endangered Species List in late 2009, brown pelicans face daunting 21^st century challenges such as domoic acid poisoning caused by ocean algal blooms, and oil-spill disasters such as in the Gulf of Mexico. Pelicans are avian ambassadors, mirroring our stewardship of the coastal environment and helping audiences relate to it in a personal way.

The film is produced and directed by Judy Irving, a Sundance-and-Emmy-Award-winning filmmaker who produced and directed Pelican Media’s 2005 film, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, the third highest-grossing animal documentary ever released to theatres. The budget for Pelican Dreams, another feature-length film with wide distribution potential, is $470,000, of which $82,500 has been raised to date from individuals, foundations (Dean Witter, Wheeler, and Gerbode Foundations), CA Audubon, and in-kind contributions. Partnerships with the National Park Service—Channel Islands—and California Audubon provide production support: transport, lodging, and logistics. So far we’ve shot about 28 hours of film and video footage, have begun logging, and have edited a 16-minute DVD rough-cut of the first few scenes from the movie. We are actively seeking tax-deductible donations for this timely, in-progress, 501(c)(3) nonprofit film. 

Peace and Chalk

CHALK4PEACE is one great organization!  John Aaron is a artist dedicated to raising consciousness around the planet and getting all of us involved in expressing ourselves through art.   John began CHALK4PEACE in 2003 as a sidewalk event chalk project for children and has grown the movement to encompass four continents.  Anybody can put on an event with some spare sidewalk and some chalk.  All it involves is getting kids and adults together to make art, have fun expressing themselves, and focus on peace in our world.  I like the fact that young minds can make art with one of the oldest drawing mediums—pure, simple fun! This in a time when arts programs are being cut in many of our schools.  I encourage you to visit his website and donate something if you can.  Also, there are many CHALK4PEACE events going on in September, so there may be one near you that you can visit.

There is a blog here and you can also visit them on Facebook.

Wolves!

 

Hunters of the Woods, 2010  Oil on canvas, 44" X 36"

This is another new painting headed to Chloe Fine Arts in San Francisco.  Some years ago I spent 10 days in Northern Minnesota dog-sledding and camping in -30 degree weather.  Although we never saw any wolves, we would hear them at night and find traces of them every morning.  They remained a mystery to us humans.  The sled dogs paid little attention to the wolves' calls and scent.  We were definitely the outsiders.

New painting now available at Chloe Fine Arts

The Blessing, 2010, oil on canvas 24" X 20"

On its way to Chloe Fine Arts in San Francisco is this painting called The Blessing.  Please contact Chris or Greg at 415-749-1000 for more information.

The Tree of Life

 Terence Malick

The Tree of Life will be Terence Malick's fifth feature film in four decades of film-making.  He's been making it for several years now and it will feature Sean Penn and Brad Pitt with a story set in the 1950's, although we know very little about the plot.  Due later this year. 

I like writers and directors who spend a lot of time making their films and for Malick that time is spent in meticulous story crafting and attention to every detail.  He makes beautiful, meditative films about our lives, our distortions and the natural world around us.  I especially like that he weaves images of animals, birds and insects into his narratives as metaphors for the things we experience in our human lives.  This is a kind of re-enchantment that is missing in our modern culture and of which I intend to write a lot more about in the future.  He always uses a narrator who is one of his characters in his films which give them another perspective and eliminates the need for dialogue that would take away from the photography.  I watched Days of Heaven again last night with Sam Shepard, Richard Gere and Brooke Adams set at the start of the century, before the Great War.  I found myself wishing for a simpler life without complications, as do those portrayed in the film.  The characters find the best they can hope for is to continue the life they have and accept the way things are.

The other feature films Malick has crafted are Badlands,  The Thin Red Line and  The New World.

The Seed Cathedral shines!

 I am very happy to see the fruition of the United Kingdom's efforts at Shanghai— a precursor to the work that is going into the Olympic Games for 2012.  This is going to be a powerful reminder of the importance we can attach to bringing nature back into our cities.  The Seed Cathedral, shown above, is an significant symbol and aesthetic masterpiece!  Read about it here. Wish I could be there.

Burden of Dreams

For the fourth or fifth time last night I watched Les Blank's documentary, Burden of Dreams about Werner Herzog and the filming of Fitzcarraldo in the amazon jungle. Fitzcarraldo portrays a would-be rubber baron who pulls a steamship over a steep hill to access a rich rubber territory.  This in order to obtain enough money to bring opera, specifically the singer Caruso, to a small town in the Amazon jungle.

The documentary about Herzog's seemingly impossible task to film the entire movie on location in the depths of the jungle is a fascinating study of one man's obsession with realizing a vision and mirrors the story of the movie.  Herzog was up against overwhelming odds only made harder by his insistence to do everything realistically, without special effects.  Whether it was having to cut down massive trees, enlist the support of tribal people who are fighting between themselves, flying in massive amounts of equipment and supplies, creating very dangerous situations, or taming the wildness of the jungle.

Herzog believes we all have dreams but that only a few of us can realize them or "attribute" them and that it is by approaching the impossible and overcoming overwhelming odds that we are able to see and appreciate a new vision.  He also makes some questionable remarks about the wildness of nature, that it is a miserable and wretched, rampant, irrational and random.  He bemoans the fact that in the jungle there is no order to anything and that it is a godless place where everything is fighting for survival and things are constantly being killed and suffocated.  This view, which has seemed to persist for him, as in the more recent documentary of his called Grizzly Man, (which describes how Timothy Treadwell attempts to live with grizzly bears who end up eating him) belies the fact that he makes films that often express the beauty of nature.  It is his characters and himself that are at odds with the natural world.  I think this is his message in many of his movies.  He explains to me that if we are obsessed in a humanistic way with "conquering" or overcoming nature our rewards can only be small and marginal.

Patti Smith in San Francisco

I had the pleasure, courtesy of some good friends of mine, to see Patti Smith last night in conversation at City Arts and Lectures in San Francisco.  She was warm-hearted, happy and loving in her answers and in the way she moves through the world.  Although not an ardent follower, I have admired her music, activism and words for years.  She talked a lot about Robert Mapplethorpe, her onetime close friend and boyfriend, one of the most influential photographers of recent times.  During the evening we were told of the passing that day of Howard Zinn, historian and civil rights leader, someone else that Patti knew well.  Anyway, you may like to check out her excellent new book, Just Kids, from which she read many insighful and funny recollections of her stay at the Chelsea hotel and that time in NYC.

Thanksgiving

In the country I was born the local churches would celebrate Harvest Thanksgiving, usually in late September.  I seem to remember this being a pretty large festival and since our family were farmers it had more than a passing significance.  People would bring flowers, grain, home made bread, pies, fruits and vegetables to the church and I have this picture in my mind of everything being stacked around the altar and it looking very big!  After the Sunday service everyone would go home to a big meal and all the food and bounty left at the church was distributed to the poor or the local hospital.  Not unlike the Thanksgiving celebrated in the United States.

This painting I completed recently reminds me of this time of year with the bear in contemplation of some passing time.  Perhaps he is giving thanks also.

Caspar's Walk, 2009 18" X 24"  (Original still available through Lahaina Galleries)

Made after an oil by Caspar David Friedrich titled A Walk at Dusk.  I was able to view this painting at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles some years ago, where it made a great impression on me.  It is a small piece but a very profound statement contemplating the end of a day or a life.  It was painted shortly before he suffered a debilitating stroke in 1835. 

Claude Lévi-Strauss

Claude Lévi-Strauss  1908 - 2009

I received a copy of Robert Glenn's newsletter today (Robert's website is The Painter's Keys ).  Robert reminded us of the recent death of Claude Lévi-Strauss, the influential French anthropologist.  This scholar traveled widely in South and North America and developed a method of study called structuralism which rejected history and humanism.  He refused to see Western civilization as privileged and unique, and his emphasis was on form over content.  He believed that the savage mind is equal to the civilized mind.

Over the years, I have often used a quote of Lévi-Strauss to title my shows:  "....Animals are good for thinking".  His reflections on totemism have inspired me to attempt to join our natural world and our own true nature within modern society.  The most rewarding reaction offered by viewers of my own work is that it can stir up some history deep inside us that has been forgotten but not yet completely lost.

Here is some more on Lévi-Strauss from Robert Glenn's newsletter (used with permission);

....Through his study of native peoples, particularly the Amerindians of Brazil and North America, he drew some enlightening conclusions. He determined to his satisfaction that native art and its accompanying myths have no unique authors. According to him, native art just occurs and is transmitted over generations and from tribe to tribe. The individualist artist of today's world, with his claim to uniqueness and penchant for self-obsession, had no place for Lévi-Strauss.

The idea of individuality actually disgusted Lévi-Strauss. "The 'I' is hateful," he wrote. As if attending a great pot of soup, we artists just dip into it but have no real claim to it. We need only be thankful the soup is available.

Lévi-Strauss's work is full of challenging contradictions. He found earlier populations to be ideally isolated from one another and able to develop their art without sullying influences. Today's global village worried him. He felt all myths were now neutralized, and the pot had become the victim of both unbridled commerce and the tyranny of ego.

Lévi-Strauss also named a type of artist he called the "bricoleur." At first a crafty and devious trickster, bricoleur has come to mean one who works with his hands. The bricoleur is adept at many tasks and at putting pre-existing things together in new ways to the benefit of communities. The bricoleur features in Lévi-Strauss's best known book, The Savage Mind. He describes primitive people as being highly evolved and complex. It was his dream that we might someday return to such a desirable state.

For further reading see the Wikipedia entry.

Independent People

I am finally finishing up this amazing novel by the Icelandic Nobel Prize winner, Halldor Laxness.  Written in 1946, this book was out of print for many years, but is available through Vintage Press.  The novel chronicles the life of an ordinary sheep farmer, Bjartur of Summerhouses and his determination to achieve independence and not be beholden to any man.  However, his spirited daughter, Asta Sollija wants to live unbeholden to him.  They live a minimal life in a croft, without money and few possessions.  The whole book is full of heroic deeds, tragedy and an emotional intensity that is described with beautiful poetry.  For instance:

....a cold shiver of joy passed through her at the thought of being fortunate enough to stand of the eastern margin of the moors and see where the land ends and the ocean begins, the sea of the world.....she might well have known that this was the very ocean over which young heroes sailed to win fame in the Rhymes; far, far across this mighty sea lay the lands of adventure.  To her had been given the good fortune of looking upon the sea that swirls about the lands of romance; the road to the incredible.

Halldor Laxness, Independent People


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The Dream Road

The Dream Road was the title to a book of paintings and stories that I completed just before the turn of the century.  The title was taken from an Australian aboriginal tale about a coming-of-age journey of discovery.  Dreams or more accurately "dreamtime" are extremely important to the culture of the aborigine.  This quote from The Last Wave, a film by Peter Wier explains it a little more:

"Aboriginals believe in two forms of time; two parallel streams of activity. One is the daily objective activity, the other is an infinite spiritual cycle called the "dreamtime", more real than reality itself. Whatever happens in the dreamtime establishes the values, symbols, and laws of Aboriginal society. It was believed that some people of unusual spiritual powers had contact with the dreamtime."

The Wikipedia entry on Dreamtime is fascinating to read.  The Northern Territory homelands of the aborigine and its people are at risk from the Australian government that continues to marginalize their culture.  This is happening right now and you can find out more at GetUp!

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Nikola Tesla

Yesterday I was walking from my studio on what would normally be quite a busy street with lots of traffic.  For whatever reason there were no cars around for a while and all was quiet and peaceful.  Then I saw two cars leaving the curbside.  One was just ahead of me and the other slightly to the left and visible out of the corner of my eye.  But even with these cars moving the street remained stunningly quiet.  Then I noticed a faint whirr and hum from both cars but barely noticeable.  Electric!  

Noise pollution is one of the most insidious results of modern city life.  We dont even think about it most of the time.  I miss the quiet.  I think Nikola Tesla would have and probably Mark Twain too.  (The photo is of him with Tesla.) 
I am off  to Santa Fe tomorrow to check in with a new gallery there, visit some animal friends and experience the quiet of the desert.