In preparation for the neurological section of my physiology exam, I’ve resorted to desperate measures:
Older enteries: Apples Snakes Skies & Fires |
What you are… and what you might be |
Don’t Panic… You Have a Towel! |
Politics and the English Language |
My Carnation Revolution |
Malaria: an integrated approach |
Earth Days |
All roads lead to Persepolis |
Hummingbirds against fires |
Out to the printers… |
The Waste Land (T.S. Eliot) |
Explaining Everything, Explaining Anything |
Sleepwalkers |
Straining into starlight |
Hafezieh |
You should view rest of archived posts »
Feb182007
Avant-gardes of a new generation
Tags: activism, art, cool sites, internet, politics, youtube No Comments »I wanted to share the links to some online artists whose works I enjoy tremendously. Each of these individuals, with their unique styles and influences, seems to be breaking barriers in artistic creativity.
Popaganda, The Art and Crimes of Ron English
http://www.popaganda.com/
Ron English
From his site: “Born in Dallas, Texas 1966, Ron English ‘paints, infiltrates, reinvents and satirizes modern culture and its mainstream visual iconography on canvas, in song, and directly onto hundreds of pirated billboards. English exists spiritually somewhere between a cartoon Abbie Hoffman and a grown-up, real-life Bart Simpson, delivering a steady stream of customized imagery laden with strong sociopolitical undertones, adolescent boy humor, subversive media savvy, and Dali-meets-Disney technique. Dedicated to finding the sublime in the everyday and breaking the momentum of the didactic approach to art and life, English offers up an alternative universe where nothing is sacred, everything is subverted, and there is always room for a little good-natured fun.’ ”
*Take a look at Bombing Begins in 5 Minutes, a reinvention of Picasso’s Guernica.
The Monster Engine
http://www.themonsterengine.com/
David DeVries
In his own words: “I’ve loved art from the time I was a little kid– especially comic books. When I got older, I actually got a chance to draw my childhood heroes– and got paid to boot. It was a dream come true. I was asked to paint spiderman swinging over New York and Wolverine slashing robots with his unbreakable claws. My job was to make these heroes real for all the people who loved them. It wasn’t easy but I learned to make them colorful, detailed and full of action. Comics, however, weren’t the only thing I painted– I also painted monsters for Universal Studios, but those monsters weren’t as cool as the ones I saw lurking in my niece’s sketches. It was then, at age 33, that I decided to take all the lessons about color, action and detail and apply them to little kid’s drawings. It made me remember my childhood and also realize that no matter how old I became I could always see things like a child.”
The Optic Nerve
http://www.theopticnerve.com/
Katie Miranda
In her own words: “I’m American, I’m Jewish. I live and work in the West Bank, occupied Palestine where I teach art to kids, draw cartoons for the Palestine Times, paint murals, perform a circus routine for detained Palestinians at checkpoints, train volunteers in non-violent resistance and crisis intervention and generally try my best to stick it to tha man. No the Palestinians haven’t slit my throat, no they don’t hate Americans, no one has tried to push me into the sea yet. I’m also an artist and I draw and paint the life here… Five years ago I made my first trip to Israel. I worked on a kibbutz in the northern Galilee for three months where I learned and lived the Israeli side of the story. Now I am learning and living the Palestinian side. Anyone who comes to the conclusion that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is two equal sides squabbling over a piece of land is profoundly mistaken.”
* Take a look at her moving collection Postcards from Palestine.
Meet the World
http://www.brazilianartists.net/home/flags/index.htm
Icaro Doria
and finally, take a look at this.
Nov192006
http://www.worldonfire.ca/
I found this music video by Sarah McLachlan through Media that Matters Film Festival several months ago and since then I haven’t been able to help but admire how well it is executed. To an extent, pictures and words of the suffering in the world have made me somewhat desensitized to that particular thing. But this is an exception, someone actually DID something… every time I view it I am moved by its empowering, uplifting message and cannot help but feel– simply inspired!
“The song is about trying not to feel paralyzed when we see all that is wrong with the world, and remembering that even the smallest gesture can make a difference — corny but true. I wanted a video that wasn’t about me and wasn’t preachy, but one that would help shine a light on the tragedy and turmoil in the world and also show the beauty and strength of the human spirit. Sophie and everyone else who touched this video worked tirelessly and for free to make it happen. This was a labor of love for all the right reasons and I’m proud to be a part of it.”
-Sarah McLachlan
Sometimes others’ plight, others’ worlds, seem so distant from our own. We become so wrapped in our cocoons that we lose perspective of where we stand in the world, we lose touch of reality, we exaggerate– the bumps in our path transform into mountains, our pain transforms into unbearable suffering. I have always been afraid of that– afraid of forgetting the things that matter the most, afraid of falling into the lines of the consumer culture.
The world is on fire, literally, and if you are reading this, like me, you are probably part of a fortunate minority, and elite who growing up has escaped the wrath of poverty, hunger, persecution, war, addiction, droughts, homelessness, helplessness among the entire body of humanity. There is an ever-growing gap among us and we, this fortunate elite, are not in this position because of our great merits. But rather, in an interconnected world, the quality of life and wealth that we enjoy as a society is built on the life and suffering of other human beings. We take, we take… and we give back so little. If you and I can’t help anybody else, if you and I do not each take a share and repay the debt that we owe to the world, to our fellow human beings and our planet, who do we expect will do it for us before our choices come back to haunt us?
- Marzieh Ghiasi
