Chloe's Boots

I'm trying something new, as of two days ago. I'm going to make some sort of "art" every day, if I feel like it, and post the results of my effort. I'm intentionally keeping the pressure on myself to produce as low as possible, but I do have a goal. The urge to make art again has been growing for weeks, and is accompanied by a sense of restlessness I haven't been able to shake. I need something I'm not getting from books, movies, music, or other people's art. I have been looking for my own art, and not finding it, I guess. The only chance I have of satisfying this craving is to give art a try again. As I have examined the specificity of this craving, I find that I know what I need to do, for a change. I am usually clueless about where I'm trying to go with my art. I hesitate to say too much about what I'm looking for at this early point, but I want my images to evoke a sense of vertigo and flight. I want a fully saturated range of shades from dark to light. I want mystery, rough texture and earthiness. I want enough realism to allow the viewer to believe in the space to some extent, and to be comfortable with any figures I may represent, but it needs to be loose enough to evoke a sense of things being slightly out of control, wild, and unreal. I don't want to get bogged down with my choice of subject matter or emotional tone. I'll leave that wide open for play. My mentors for the moment will be Francesco Goya, Guy Anderson, George Tooker, Edwin Ushiro, and Hayao Miyazaki. Let's see where that takes me. I'll keep posting my efforts.

The work I did yesterday was practice. I was practicing my observation skills and getting my hands dirty again for the first time in ages. Don't take it too seriously.

Racism, alive and well in the USA

I’ve never seen such a climate of mistrust and antipathy toward the president of the United States of America. Granted, I’m only 43, and I’m sure things were worse during the civil war, the Vietnam war, and probably a few other choice points in history. Granted, some level of antipathy has been there all my life. Even in my twenties, I understood that Clinton’s impeachment had nothing to do with his ability to serve well as president, and everything to do with politics. His enemies found his Achilles’ heel and tried to bring him down with it. Liberals like me mistakenly thought Bush’s Achille’s heel was his lack of foreign relations skills. We did our level best to bring him down for getting us into the wrong war at the wrong time. President Obama’s Achilles’ heel is that many white Americans are not comfortable with a black president. His enemies are using the weapon of mistrust to try to bring him down. They are using your unexamined, unspoken, guilty little secret, racism. Never mind that he is the most qualified president we have had since the founding fathers, in terms of education, intellect, temperament, and natural leadership skills. Never mind that he more truly represents our nation today than any white man could. His personal history is black and white, Christian and Muslim, welfare and Ivy League. His story is quintessentially American.
I should be philosophical about it, I suppose. All is fair in politics, after all. But I can’t because Clinton and Bush made really big, stupid mistakes. To some extent, they brought it on themselves. As far as I can tell, Obama has not. Instead, his enemies are spreading lies and rumors about him, playing up our most disturbing, nameless fears. The stories are designed to keep you profoundly uncomfortable, even afraid of the untrustworthy black man. “Obama wants to socialize health care.” “Obama is like Hitler, fooling Americans into creating death camps for ‘undesirables’.” “Obama wants to euthanize the elderly.” ‘Don’t let your kids see his stay in school speech and be indoctrinated by our most liberal president ever.” “Obama’s birth certificate has never been produced.” “ Obama is responsible for the biggest budget deficit in history.” Really? Do you believe the shit being spouted by the likes of Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and their like? Why? Why believe that instead of doing a little bit of research, not on conservative blogs and talk shows, but on factcheck.org. You can even read the health care bill (as it stands now) on congress.com. The stories are racist. Believing them is racist. Holding this president to a different standard than any other is racist. I cannot let it go unsaid any longer. I’m fighting the racism right now.

Death Panels

Sarah Palin claims that “Obama’s” health care plan includes a provision that will result in the creation of death panels of doctors who will decide when your life is too costly to maintain. Off you’ll go to be euthanized, thus saving the insurance company lots of end-of-life expenses. Typically, the overdressed Alaskan sociopath has grossly misunderstood the facts. We do need the “death panel” provision, which has unfortunately been cut thanks to the furor the megalomaniac bimbo from the 49th state raised.
When my mother was hospitalized for her final illness, we had to choose day by day to what extent we would honor her wish not to be on life support. Each decision was excruciating to make. If we said no to the ventilator, she would die. If we said yes, we were going against her wishes. Did her odds of survival justify saying yes? We were not ready to let her go. One doctor gave her 50-50 odds of survival. Even I thought that was overly optimistic, but his input was important in making decisions. We badly needed a conference with her pulmonologist, her nephrologist, and her hospitalist to discuss the choices. Fortunately these doctors saw this as part of the job and did not charge for their time. But what if she had had a slower course of disease...say, cancer? What if we needed an appointment to discuss when to withdraw treatment because it would only prolong her suffering? Would insurance cover that? What if we needed to discuss palliative care? Is that permitted in conservative ideology? Or is it too similar to assisted suicide? Do they have the right to force her to keep fighting even when it’s obvious she hasn’t a chance and the fight is simple cruelty? The right to die takes on a whole new meaning.
I tend to watch the antics of the conservatives with a shake of my head and a look of disgust. My first reaction to Obama’s statement that they were dropping the end of life counseling provision was, “Oh well, that’s a reasonable concession.” But it isn’t. We’ve let a flat out fabrication undermine good medicine. I was a hospice volunteer years before I had to handle my mother’s end of life care. I have seen how much end of life care matters. Most of us will need it eventually. I know that hospice will continue to fill in the gap for many, but we should be making insurance pay their share. It matters. Please write to your representatives and ask that this provision not be cut. We need clarity, not concession. Define end of life care so Americans can understand it.