By Andy Weddington
Thursday, 20 September 2018
Politics is ugly. Never doubt what small men will do for great power. Paolo Bacigalupi
For some time I've thought about how to go about painting things that are things but are not things.
The non-thing thing is more easily described in word than rendered in other than word.
That is, how to paint things like politics, media, and news?
This week, amidst the savagery upon Judge Brett Kavanaugh, it occurred to me to consider three contexts.
Initial attempts to paint them ...
First, individual.
Gender irrelevant. Politics is ugly and animalistic. So the individual had to be ugly and animalistic, but interesting. And so from an abstract (without any green) to portrait (in green) to beast morphed the individual political animal.
Second, one-on-one.
Person-to-person. Politics at its core. The civilized, and uncivilized, exchange of opinions. Differences. Disagreement. Anger. Frustration. Violence. The political animal (in each) present but masked; at least some of the time.
Third, group.
A group being more than two. And as big as media can reach. Power of the airways. Power in numbers. Power of agenda. The struggle - how to paint the idea of a group?
The "aha" moment: (Social) Media.
Scrolling on Twitter, looking for something, anything, a profile picture stuck out. Foremost the design - not the typical headshot. And that face seen previously a few times as panelist on a news program.
With artistic license, the essence painted. More important, text and symbols to complement and confound - individual, one-on-one, group.
America. Politics. Animals. Small men. Small women. The grab for great power. Ugly. Civil and not. Words. Fox. Fox words. Fox News. Fact or Fiction? Channel. It depends. You decide!
Judge Kavanaugh?
Sworn to Constitution and law.
But being ripped to pieces by savage, lawless small political animals; to grab great power.
America the beautiful?
Paint her landscape!
By golly, Ms Mollie, that's Hemingway's civil way, if only painting in word.
Now, to rest - brushes. Politics, too. And catch some news - on Twitter.
Note: Paintings acrylic on canvas: 24 x 20 in.; 16 x 18 in.; 24 x 16 in.
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2 comments:
Colonel, another Hemingway...
In a letter to the writer Malcolm Cowley:
"You see it’s awfully hard to talk or write about your own stuff because if it is any good you yourself know about how good it is — but if you say so yourself you feel like a shit."
Gramps
Gramps, thank you. The vast majority think Elvis on velvet and the complementary prose are good. But they are bad. Really bad.
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