My friend Randal's request for another painting I'm happy to oblige even without a reward or bribe. This one from the late 70's is one of the very few that ever included a male figure since drawing 'manly' men simply eluded me. I think the Gaia Principle was affecting me a lot back then with its philosophy of our natural inclination toward stewardship of this precious planet we're lucky enough to share for a brief time. Of course, I had no clue that my light-hearted rendering of a 'Polar Bear Spring' might actually become a reality as the ice caps continue to melt. Ah well, maybe we'll have an especially cold winter now that we know Hell's frozen over :-)
Crow stopped by a little earlier and asked me to let you all know that if you're a little short of funds there's still time to apply for your Federal Bailout money. Just click on this link to find Taxpayers For Common Sense and their link to the genuine (as in the real, honest-to-God same one the banks have been filing) 2 page document that will allow you to sign up for your share of the $700 billion. Act fast. Offer ends on November 14th.
Finally, for anyone who might be interested in why the investment houses (now banks - where are the tellers?) shouldn't be bailed out with taxpayer money, here's a wonderful article by Michael Lewis who wrote 'Liar's Poker'. The picture alone is worth the effort but he has the gift of describing abstruse financial shenanigans in a comprehensible way. I like that since I don't have Crow's natural ability.
Randalicious!! LOL!!! I am sure Randal will enjoy that even more than I did, and I did enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteI am really enjoying your retrospective and your awareness of what was going on when you created this works. The painting makes me think of Narnia. Really lovely.
And, I certainly do hope that hell freezes over and that the bears find nice solid caps to chill on.
I'm now an adjective? I feel tingly all over!
ReplyDeleteI dig your painting much and I love the fact that there is what looks to be a polar bear in there, even if that wasn't your original intention way back when.
Is that the same golden calf those weirdos were praying to the other week?
wow the article by michael lewis is amazing indeed. yes, i remember those pre-crash prophesies of doom, but heck, prophesies of doom are a dime a dozen. and now they are worth even less, along with everything else.
ReplyDeleteYour art! i love it, even the beautiful border-slash-frame you did around the subject. it's beautiful, and all you.
ReplyDeletelbr - I loved CS Lewis so thank you so much for telling me it reminds you of Narnia. Did you ever read his space trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength)? I read nearly all of his work but the most intense of all was a book called 'A Grief Observed' about his reactions to losing his wife to cancer: 'No one explained that grief feels like fear'.
ReplyDeleterandal - Tingly? You mean like the old Vincent Price movie? I loved that.
Actually, all three animals are polar bears and were meant to look like them. It's the guy who's the odd animal out. Ain't it always the way?
sera - I guessed you would read the Michael Lewis and I'm glad I was right. It was pretty funny when he talked about seeing how crazy it was then and that he was afraid of being found out but it continued for another 20+ years.
I started doing the borders when I didn't want the painting to end and then they became integral.
Beautiful painting, as always, and great idea on applying for some bailout money!
ReplyDeleteI am really enjoying your work and adore the polar bears....it's so sad to think about the possibility of actually not having any more wild polar bears? unthinkable, methinks...
ReplyDeletecdp - It's called TARP for Troubled Assets Relief Program but that's just the name of the shop.
ReplyDeletelinda - My thought was always that there are so few truly magnificent predators left in the world and so many of us sneaky predators.
the bear in your drawing doesn't seem as kind today. i wonder what changed. perhaps the bear is angry at the loss of habitat? if we all walk away from our mortgages, perhaps the bear family will finally have someplace to live.
ReplyDeleteI really love that painting. Your talent is amazing.
ReplyDeleteThe other stuff just gives me a migraine of $700 billion proportions.
susan, thank you for your wonderful addition to the continuing haiku on my blog...I am wondering how I can keep it going! :~)
ReplyDeletesera - You mean polar bear markets? There's more than just a winter chill in the air which you can be excused for noticing.
ReplyDeletedcup - If it were only $700 billion and was going where it was supposed to go it might be palatable. We may need to resort to the vicodin and red wine cure.
linda - I was delighted to add a stanza (?). Haiku's are a wonderful exercise.
Yeah, that Michael Lewis piece was mind-blowing, the magnitude of the screwing which was tremblingly delivered to each and every one of us with a mortgage or a retirement account or a municipal government which we depend to handle our reluctantly rendered tax dollars.
ReplyDeleteBut more germane to my world (because I'm a Virtual Pauper™,) your painting is amazing as usual. I don't think I've seen any of your work, ever, which hasn't elicited that judgment from me!
Rereading my last comment, I find that it has the disconcerting air of being stream-of-consciousness financial analysis. I highly recommend that you disregard it entirely. :)
ReplyDeletecr - Always nice to see you've been by. Disregard? Au contraire. Crow's been clamoring to do another post about the ramifications of what's been going on in the economic sphere. People freaked about $700 a couple of months ago but it's all gone so far past that it's difficult to contemplate. I may set him loose. If I do so I may have to include another painting as a sweetener :-)
ReplyDelete