Shepard Fairey Admits “He Lied” About Obama Poster Image.

Shepard Fairey Admits “He Lied” About Obama Poster Image.

A new twist in the controversial case of Shepard Fairey and the copyright infringement case filed against him by the Associated Press has taken on a new dimension. Fairey admits he lied about which image he used to create the now famous Obama poster. He has also admitted to attempting to conceal the truth by submitting false evidence to the court and his attorney.

“In an attempt to conceal my mistake, I submitted false images and deleted other images,” Mr. Fairey said in a statement, released on his Web site. “I sincerely apologize for my lapse in judgment, and I take full responsibility for my actions, which were mine alone.” Shepard Fairey

Read More Here

Artist Admits Using Other Photo for ‘Hope’ Poster

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/arts/design/18fairey.html?_r=1

Fairey who has been represented by Attorney Anthony Falzone of the Stanford University Fair Use Project is now looking for a new lawyer. Falzone has said it would be effectively impossible to represent a client in this situation. Falzone is withdrawing from the case.

http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/node/3136

The big disappoint here is that Fairey has taken the stance that he intended to pursue the right of an artist to use an image as a source under the Fair Use and Transformation  factor of copyright law to create a new and unique work of art. Which I believe is a very important issue today given the growth of modern media.

Before you get your back up stop and ask yourself the question, is there anything really new in the world of creating images that does not reference some historical source?

The whole issue is a Can of Worms that Fairey opened under false pretenses when he decided to lie and create false documents. I guess the question is why? Because under the Fair Use rule it would not have made any difference to his case according to his attorney Anthony Falzone. The fact that Fairey lied about which image he used however does change the issue. Now he is not an Artist who used a source image to create a new work of art; he is a, perjure, a liar. That changes the focus of his defense from Fair Use to Perjury.

Shepard Fairey has stepped up now, has taken full responsibility for his actions, and admitted his mistake. As disappointed as I am that he lied I have to give him credit for now telling the truth.

The truth is today it is far more complicated to make images than every before and it is just going to get more complex in the future. Just look at just about any TV commercial and you will see a reference to familiar imagery. The same is true in modern image making. We have all been assaulted with the imagery of the past. Because we are human, we react to the familiar. I think recognizing the fact that we individually do retain an image vocabulary of our own, built upon a history of images of the past; we need to be truthful to our audience and ourselves and give credit to the source, the influence. This may not help you as far as the Law is concerned but it will help you be truthful about your work and your influences and inspiration. It may help you make more honest art.

We only need to look back in time a short way to the DaDa and Pop Art movements to reference the obvious. Warhol’s Campbell Soup Cans or DaDa collages. It is not about the source it is about the truth. We are not even close to figuring out the complexities of modern image making. What we have to decide as artists is, are we going to pursue the question or are we going to allow the courts to decide for us? If you never achieve fame, it is probably not a very important issue, but if you do, it might be. Guess Shepard Fairey found out.

An Important Footnote to the Story and the AP Case

Manny Garcia the Photographer who took the Obama image has filed his own suit against the Associated Press AP. Garcia stated in court documents that AP has never owned the copyright to the image in question. Garcia stated he was hired to photograph George Clooney and that he never assigned the copyrights of the Obama image to AP. Garcia contends he alone owns the copyright to the Obama image, which Fairey used.

Read my original post here:

Copyright Fair Use and the Transformative Factor, by David Eubank

http://davideubank.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/copyright-fair-use-and-the-transformative-factor/

Check it out for Yourself

Resource: Stanford University Library Copyright and Fair Use

CHAPTER 9. Fair Use

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/index.html

B. Measuring Fair Use: The Four Factors

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/9-b.html#1

Filed under: Art, Art News, Culture Economey, How to survive as a Working Artists, Journalism, Media, News, On Art, Shepard Fairey, Trash, Uncategorized , http://davideubank.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=771#, http://davideubank.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=771&message=1#, Shepard Fairey, Shepard Fairey Associated Press Lawsuit, Shepard Fairey Lied

Buky Schwartz (1932–2009)

Buky Schwartz (1932–2009)

Sculptor and video artist Buky (pronounced “Bookie”) Schwartz died on Wednesday September 2, 2009 He was 77.

I met Buky in 1979 and assisted him with his video installation Color Bars at the Akron Art Institute where I worked as an exhibit builder. I was also an art student at the University of Akron at the time and had limited experience in the visual concepts that Buky so patiently attempted to explain to me as we began the work of building the installation.

He wanted to build a wall in the middle of the gallery floor shaped like a triangle. Then we would plot out lines across the space and paint the video color bar across the gallery floor, walls and over top of the triangle. He told me when we were done that the sculptural space of the installation would appear on the video monitor as the traditional color bars used at the beginning of a video. I understood what the color bars were but still didn’t get how we were going to accomplish the task of compressing the visual space of the gallery that would become a visual burst of color and three dimensional form into a controlled two dimensional square when viewed on the video monitor.

I didn’t have to understand I just needed to build the triangle wall and prepare the gallery for the installation. I was an experience carpenter and exhibit builder I had worked on numerous conceptual installations. John Coplans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Coplans was the Director of the Institute and he liked Conceptual Art and installations. I had worked with artists like Vito Acconci http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vito_Acconci and Robert Morris http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Morris_(artist) and many others on their installations and Buky’s  request was simple and right in line with what I did all the time.

So, I got to work building the triangle wall, two by fours, drywall and mud. With the triangle wall up and the first coat of mud (Plaster or Joint Compound) applied and drying Buky said it was time to start installing the video camera. The process of mounting the video camera seemed to take as long as it did for the mud to dry. After careful positioning of the camera, Buky began taping, not with the camera but with tape. He taped a grid on the TV monitor where the color bars would appear when we were finished with the painting. As he did that, I applied another coat of mud to the wall.  The day was done, I worked late to finish the wall and coated it with primer.

In the morning is when things got interesting maybe even mind blowing. We began to plot out the positions for the painted stripes that would cover the floor and walls of the gallery. Buky working from the monitor directed me to the points in the gallery that would be our references. Wild lines radiating out from a central point running across the triangle and all over the gallery compressed the 3D space into 2D on the TV monitor. Even without the color applied, I could now see what was going to happen. We began painting the stripes of the color bar on the floors and walls. Hours later, a multi-colored square appeared on the TV monitor. After adjusting the light and the camera all the viewer could see on the TV monitor was a color bar. The gallery space though was a dynamic combination of sculptural form and color.

The viewer participated in the installation by walking through the gallery space while viewing himself or herself on the TV monitor. As the viewer walked through the gallery, they would appear to disappear behind the triangle wall and reappear as they walked past the wall. On the TV monitor, it looked like the viewer was walking through the color bars disappearing and reappearing through an invisible triangle shape.

What Buky did was define the three dimensional space by showing the abstraction of two-dimensional perspective that the camera sees and artists try to duplicate when they draw. What was so mind blowing is that the two-dimensional references now existed in real three-dimensional space? The viewer could now interact simultaneously between the two dimensions and see or experience the visual and perceptual abstractions that were taking place. Buky was explaining three-point perspective http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective_(graphical) in an interactive setting that was cutting edge and in real time. Buky would have blown Masaccio’s mind. Masaccio the renaissance painter is credited with the invention of scientific perspective or three-dimensional perspective. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaccio

Color Bars wasn’t the last time I assisted Buky. A year or so later I was President of the Student art League at the University of Akron. The Student Union wanted to fund an art exhibition. They wanted something current and innovative; they wanted something that would rock. I discussed the request with a professor of mine Don Harvey. He suggested I call Buky to see if he would do one of his installations in the Student union. Even though I had developed a good friendship with Buky during our time working together, I thought he would never agree to do an installation. We had no budget to speak of, just expenses and a very modest stipend, hardly worth a major artists time, in fact the money we had was hardly worth anybody’s time. But I called Buky anyway and he immediately said yes. He said he had a piece in mind and would call me with the details later.

Buky called and wanted to know if I could get some logs, I could. I had a little firewood business and had plenty of logs, but he wanted log rounds of different sizes and lengths. I can do that I told him. Buky showed up as planned and I showed up with a truck full of assorted logs. I got to haul all of the logs up to the second floor of the Student Union while Buky surveyed the space. Well that was my job I certainly wasn’t the brains and I was young. If I had, had any brains I would have gotten volunteers from the Student art League to carry all of those logs upstairs and then back down after the exhibit ended.

Buky explained what he was going to do, this time I had an idea of what he was talking about after working on the Color Bars installation.

He arranged the log rounds according to the random shapes and sizes. He explained that he was going to paint random yellow lines across the logs to create a divided rectangle on the TV monitor. A similar installation can be seen in this video narrated by John Hanhardt Whitney Film and Video Curator 1974-1996.

Watch Video Here: http://blog1.videoart.net/?m=200706

During the building of the installation, Buky pestered me to show him slides of my Senior Show. I was intimidated, I felt self-conscious about my work, after all, here was a Master who I respected and admired. What if he said my work was crap what would I do?

So after we finished work on the installation we went over to the school of art. I got my slides. Buky and I went into the art history projection room. I loaded my slides into the projector and reached the moment of truth. I clicked through the slides one by one; Buky was silent and studied each one intently. I thought, he thinks my work sucks but that wasn’t the case. He was genuinely interested in the work and wanted to know why and how I had made the decisions I had made creating the work.

I had built three zig zaging steel walls in the gallery and poured coke slag against the sides of each walls. The slag like little hillsides sloughed down the sides of the walls and spread across the floor. I used the coke slag a by-product of making steel as a natural element in the installation. As the slag sloughed down the sides of the wall, it created a natural path. As would dirt or rock as it sloughs off a hillside or riverbank. However, I had neat paths sweep up between the steel walls, paths where people could walk.

Buky asked me why I had created these neat paths. I told him that the gallery director was concerned that people might trip on the rock like slag, so I made the paths to put the director at ease.

Buky was silent for a moment; I could tell he was thinking about what he would next say. He was very intent and very direct, he said, “Don’t make excuses, make decisions and understand why you make them and take responsibility for those decisions. Never do that again, never let anyone force you to change your mind about your decisions or your art”.

His advice stuck and it was some of the best advice I was ever given. What Buky explained was that I had made what would have been a great artwork just good by allowing the director to influence my decision-making. The decision to create paths instead allowing the material to take its natural form altered my intent my idea my art.

Buky was a sincere friend a friend who will tell you the truth and stand by you he was a true mentor. That was the last time I saw him. He went back to New York and I went to Graduate School. He later returned to Israel and I moved west. I don’t think that Buky ever really received the credit he deserved for his pioneering work in video in America. He was truly a Master and he was a visual genius. Buky broke new uncharted ground in the visual arts with his work. He was a giant among his peers and has earned his place in history and he was a friend, I will miss him even more now that he has passed.

Visit Buky Schwartz website:  http://www.bukyschwartz.com/main.htm

Watch Videos of Buky Schwartz at work:  http://www.videoart.net/home/Artists/ArtistPage.cfm?Artist_ID=1431

Read more about buky’s life:

Video art pioneer passes away at 77 By Ellie Armon Azoulay

Sculptor and video artist Buky Schwartz passed away yesterday. He was 77. Schwartz was born in Jerusalem in 1932, studied at the Avni Institute in Tel Aviv, worked as an assistant to Itzhak Danziger and studied at Saint Martins College of Art in London with Anthony Caro. In 1965, Schwartz was among the founders of the local 10+ Group, along with sculptors Pinhas Eshet, Uri Lifshitz, Ika Braun and other artists, including Raffi Lavie and Ziona Shimshi. In 2007, the Tel Aviv Museum displayed a comprehensive exhibition on the vivacious group, which held scores of shows throughout the course of its activity. More…http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1112390.html

Filed under: Art, Art News, Journalism, Media, News, On Art, Photography, Video Art , Buky Schwartz, Video Art

Art and the” Man Made Continent of Trash”, a Photographer’s Fantastic Story.

• Art and the” Man Made Continent of Trash”, a Photographer’s Fantastic Story.

I was in Seattle visiting my son and his girl friend and while waiting to go out and take in the sites of Seattle while they ran errands I read about Photographer Chris Jordan’s Photographic series “Running the Numbers One” in the Seattle Sunday Magazine. Jordan uses images to create matrix designs based on the numbers of things. An image of two large breasts popped off the page in juxtaposition to a detailed image of Barbie Dolls arranged in patterns that make up the larger view of the breasts. Jordan used 32000 Barbie Dolls to depict the number of breast augmentations preformed each month in the United States. When I got back to Montana I looked up Jordan’s website and found another one of his Fantastic Number Stories,

• “Gyre” 2009 by Chris Jordan, an image of a Great Wave made out of 2.4 million pieces of plastic that represents the amount of plastic that enters the world’s oceans every hour.

The image, made from plastic debris collected from the Floating Continent of Trash in the Pacific Gyre, is part of, Running the Numbers II, Portraits of Global Mass Culture another photographic series by Chris Jordan.

http://www.chrisjordan.com/

• The Pacific Ocean Gyre contains a floating continent of Plastic debris estimated to be twice the size of the Texas.

I first read about the Gyre in a story about Captain Charles Moore who was on his way home from a sailing trip, from Hawaii to Los Angeles when he decided to cut across the area, little traveled by seaman on his way back to California.  Moore explains the Gyre as a Spiral that moves in a clockwise rotation created by ocean currents. The natural spiraling current traps debris and holds them in place. Moore estimates that plastic started showing up in the 1950s and has grown to an alarming size, thousands of miles across. The plastic floats submerged just below the surface of the water, undetectable from satellite images because of the reflection caused by the water.

• Garbage had historically broken down in the oceans until plastic came along.

Every year this new man made material increases its presence in the ocean and the Trash Continent in the Pacific Gyre grows. When I read the story, images of Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty flashed in my mind about how the twisting currents of the Gyre worked on this manmade continent of trash. As I read more about the Pacific Gyre the more captivating, its relationship to the idea of entropy and natural systems is to me. This continent of trash is an unforeseen result of human behavior at work in the natural system. Un-natural materials discarded in a thoughtless manner now have grown to unimaginable levels that are affecting the eco system and sea life.

This Man Made Structure, this Continent of Trash is not only an extension of Smithson’s ideas about entropy it is at the center of the Chris Jordan’s idea of Global Mass Culture. Jordan helps us put into perspective the volume Global Mass Production through his imagery.

• As an artist I am struggling with the concept of such a large structure whose mass rotates in a natural form, the spiral.
  

But by reflecting on whirlpools and eddy’s in the river where I live I can envision such a fantastic structure created by the forces of nature. The image of such things takes me back to the late 1970’s Robert Morris installations where he used cotton fibers to create seas of cotton waste from the textile industry with mirrors calculated to continuously, reflect the surface into an infinite image of volume and mass. Morris was part of a group of process artists. (Process artists were involved in issues attendant to the body, random occurrences, improvisation, and the liberating qualities of non-traditional materials such as wax, felt, and latex. Using these materials, they created eccentric forms in erratic or irregular arrangements produced by actions such as cutting, hanging, and dropping, or organic processes such as growth, condensation, freezing, or decomposition.) These ideas seemed radical in art, difficult to adjust our thinking too back in 1970s and 1980s. It clear now that the minimal and conceptual ideas of artists like Morris and Smithson is a reflection of the natural systems at work in our earth environment. Unintended or manufactured the only differences are intent; the results are mirror reflections of the outcomes, like Morris’s fiber and mirror installations and Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. Chris Jordan helps us to understand the Numbers by bringing perspective and Volume to the size of Global consumption.

• Out there off the coast of the Untied States in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is the result of a random occurrence of the accumulation of man made materials creating a New Continent of Floating Trash; a Floating, spiraling continent of Our Own Making; which will exist for an immeasurable measure of time.

Jordan’s Photographic images illustrate the fact that this new continent is sure to grow in mass and volume daily. It will grow unlike the Hawaiian Islands that Captain Charles Moore sailed home from, created by volcanic activity. Our New Continent will grow because of Human activity directly related to Global Mass Consumption without thoughtful contemplation of unintended results and because of our inability to understand the abstract ideas of volume and mass, our lack of understanding the numbers.

Links About:  The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch

Capt. Charles Moore Ted TV

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/capt_charles_moore_on_the_seas_of_plastic.html

Chris Jordan on his Photography Ted TV

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/chris_jordan_pictures_some_shocking_stats.html

Chris Jordan Website

http://www.chrisjordan.com/

Man Made Continent of Trash a Fantastic Story by David Eubank February 2008

http://davideubank.wordpress.com/man-made-continent-of-trash-a-fantastic-story/

Want to have some fun use Google Earth

http://earth.google.com/

Just type in “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch” and see the size of our new continent and where it is located.

Filed under: Art, Art News, Earth Sculpture, Environment, Journalism, On Art, Politics, Trash , Charles Moore, Chris Jordan, Continent of Plastic, Enviro, Great Pacfic Garbage Patch, Pacific Ocean, Plastic in the Ocean

A Controversy of Transformation and Shepard Fairey

OBEY I am not a Crook, digital montage by David Eubank

A very well written article by Steven Heller on the Art of Shepard Fairey and the controversy of the transformative factor in art and copyright law.

Long live Dada!

Shepard Fairey is not a Crook, by Steven Heller

!! READ THIS !!

Filed under: Art, Art Marketing, Art News, Art Prints, Culture Economey, Journalism, Media, News, On Art, Painting, Shepard Fairey, Uncategorized , Fairey, Shepard

An Art Adventure, Visiting the Archie Bray, Helena Montana

An Art Adventure, Visiting the Archie Bray

Walking the 26 acres through the ruins of the old brickyard that is home to the Archie Bray Foundation is a surreal experience, like that of Alice as she explored Wonderland.

My Alice on this trip was my youngest daughter Kate. Kate is an Art student at Flathead Valley Community College in Kalispell Montana.

Clay excites her, just ask her about the possibilities of making art with clay and be ready for a long conversation. Kate had just returned home after she cut her spring break trip to Seattle a day short. With a day to spare, I suggested we take a quick day trip down to the Archie Bray to see what was going on. The Archie Bray is located just outside Helena Montana, about a three-hour drive each way from Columbia Falls Montana give or take a few deer crossings on the Swan Highway. If you’re not from Montana, you have to realize a 6 hour round trip is a short drive in a very big state.

Established in 1951 by Brick Maker Archie Bray, “…for all who are sincerely interested in any branches of the ceramic arts, a fine place to work.” Archie Bray, Sr. 1951

Archie Bray Foundation Website: http://www.archiebray.org/

As you enter the grounds, you immediately know you are some place speacial. Spread across the landscape is remains of Artist Residents past and present. Sculptural installations inserted into the ruins of the old brickyard along with discarded pots and ceramic sculpture left behind as former Resident Artists left this special place to make their marks on the art world. Many former Resident Artists, noted in every who’s who list of the modern art world have transformed the modern arts and crafts movement into what it is today. Ideas and the freedom to explore new ideas and methods through the creative process is the magic of the Archie Bray, a rare and unique opportunity in today’s society.

To attempt to explain the presence of place that you as a visitor experience in words, as you explore the grounds, is a poor substitute to recreate the feeling and mood of the Bray. Mysterious marvels hide in every corner high and low.

Venturing into the old Brick kilns is something like entering old forgotten temples of the past. Walls of thick glaze attached to the interiors of the kilns run over the firebrick, with greens and yellows that peer out of the darkness glimmering in the shafts of sunlight beaming in from vent holes above. Mysterious machines and tools litter the grounds often becoming part of art installations.

Fantastic structures rise up out of the landscape and create a surreal experience foreign to the natural landscape.

The ruins of Wonderland stimulate the imagination and the inner child artist in all of us. Make no mistake; in this Wonderland, the future of ceramic art and craft is now being invented and transformed. The New the Next great ideas are taking shape, form and they will become part of the history, and the legacy of the Bray as it has been now for nearly six decades.

As Kate and I explored the Bray, we were having a lot of fun with our own invented scavenger hunt. We were looking for the Tops created by former Bray Artist Richard Swanson. http://www.richard.swanson.com/Multi.html Swanson’s Tops are everywhere throughout the landscape in the likely and the most unlikely places. We wondered, how did he get that one up there? This is the story of the Archie Bray, treasures around every corner and on every pinnacle.

For you the reader to truly understand and experience the Archie Bray you just have to go there. The Bray is just one of those magic places that hold a different and unique adventure for everyone.

Your trip to the Archie Bray will be punctuated with encounters with current Resident Artists working in and out of their studios. The New Resident Studios are open to visitors and give you the opportunity to meet and watch the artists work.

The Bray Art Gallery is host to current and past artists; their work is on display and for sale. If you want to get your hands dirty, you can take classes and attend art clay workshops throughout the year taught by the leading Artists in the field today.

As we left Kate had the Archie Bray summer clay workshop schedule in hand. This years summer workshop schedule offers the young artist an impressive choice of opportunities to learn from today’s masters in the field. Kate also picked up a product catalog from the Archie Bray Clay Business. The Clay Business sells, well clay and all the material and tools the artist needs. After years of the best of the best, the Clay business is an impressive resource, and they ship. Kate was very excited about the variety and colors of glazes stocked in the shop.

So if you live in Montana or are going to visit, make the Archie Bray a mandatory stop or day-trip on your schedule, you won’t be disappointed.

As Kate and I keenly watched for deer on our three-hour trip back home through the Swan, our lively conversation about the Archie Bray fueled ideas and our imaginations.

New Wood-fired Kiln aera

Check out the Archie Bray Foundation Website. http://www.archiebray.org/

Filed under: American Folk Art, Art, Art Marketing, Art News, How to survive as a Working Artists, Journalism, News, Uncategorized , Archie Bray Foundation, Artists Trips, Ceramic Art, Clay, Modern Craft, Montana Art, Montana Artists, Montana Vacations, Wonderland

Do the Arts Need a National Bailout?

Do the Arts Need a National Bailout?

Times are tough for the Arts in America. Even the 50 million dollars in stimulus money won’t help much as endowment funds nationwide are trashed. Robert Lynch, points out the 50 million in new money will do little to cover losses art organizations have suffered this year. Lynch uses San Francisco as an example, where art organizations have lost an estimated 40 million in state funding alone. The current loss of revenue in the arts nationwide will surely amount to billions of dollars.

Conversation with Robert Lynch, NewsHour post by Jeffery Brown

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2009/03/conversation-robert-lynch-president-americans-for-the-arts.html

Floyd Norris asks the question “What are art organization suppose to do”? He points out that many small organizations are devastated today and they have little financial power to offset their losses. He points out colleges are in the same boat. I would point out that the Big Art organizations are too.

In fact, I would suggest our largest art organizations may be in more trouble than our small ones. The big guys have big budgets and have suffered big losses. Big organizations also have the need and expense of large staffs. A small organization can in many instances reduce paid staff and maintain functional viability with a volunteer work force until the economy improves. Big organizations simply cannot or could not function without their professional staffs. Two very different worlds exist today where reality and needs are dramatically different as are fundamental funding realities. Many large museums spend more money on one exhibit or performance production than small organizations spend in their yearly operational budget expenditures. It may turn out that the weak market survives this crisis and in the end comes out much stronger.

The Money is Gone Now What by Floyd Norris NYT

“There was outrage earlier this year when Brandeis University announced plans to close its art museum and sell the paintings. The university’s endowment was devastated by bad investments.

What do people opposed to the sale of paintings think suddenly poor institutions should do? Close? Seek government bailouts? Should Brandeis close down a few academic departments, or cut back on scholarships, to keep its art?

Brandeis is hardly the only college whose endowment has contracted sharply. I suspect that when the final numbers are in — and colleges are not exactly rushing to disclose the sad details — it will turn out that colleges as a group did far worse than the stock market while the market was doing horribly”. Floyd Norris NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/business/20norris.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

The question remains “Do you sell off your assets to meet your budgetary needs”?

As Ford W. Bell says in his letter to the editor, to do so would violate the public trust.

Letter to the Editor from:

Ford W. Bell
President
American Association of Museums
Washington, March 23, 2009

“Allowing a museum to peddle its collection to cover operating debts would be like allowing a financial fiduciary, such as a bank, to raid assets held in trust to cover a hole in its own balance sheet”. Ford W. Bell

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/opinion/lweb31museums.html

The fact is the Banks essentially did exactly what Mr. Ford says museums should not do, they raided assets held in trust for their customers through a series of bad investments. Just ask your elderly parents who’s retirement accounts are now only worth a fraction of what they were a year ago. Just look at your IRA or just about any other secure investment account you have, even trust funds. The reality of the facts, the reality of the depth of this economic crisis is reflected in the figures. It is no different for the Arts.

This past Sunday I was trying to help my youngest daughter with her college economics homework, she is an art student taking an economics course. I would compare my help to a monkey trying to perform brain surgery with a stick. I was going compare the monkey with a paintbrush in hand creating a master work of art to myself as an artist. I quickly realized that the monkey may in fact be far more skilled than I; in the creation of masterpieces and probably would quickly develop a profitable market for his art. I am looking for a monkey all I have is two old dogs who sleep most of the day and won’t work.

We were looking at the Elasticity of markets, Supply and Demand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand

The example we were using was the farm market. In the example variables increased production while demand remained the same. When demand is lower than production increases in supply drive down profits, so even if you produce more at less expense you still make the same profit or less. Only when demand is higher than available production do profits rise, but even then given the variables over all income can remain flat. For example if a natural disaster creates a loss of production the increased demand raises prices but the loss of production balances the profits.

So it seems to me that if for example museums start to sell off assets, works of art the fire sale will drive value and profit down and in the long run everyone will lose. Just look at the Auto Companies or the housing market. Great deals will emerge from the flood of art into a depressed market but the flood will devastate value and profit. Perhaps Art Organizations can learn from the lessons of farming. Farmers often store their grain until markets become favorable.

Perhaps as bad as it will sound Museums and other Art Organization should temporarily close or reduce schedules until the viability of the market returns. They then would still have their assets. Many large organizations could use their collections or their talent in better or more efficient ways to reduce operating costs and maintain profits. Maybe they could find other ways to generate income from their collections and at the same time help smaller organizations present exhibits and performances that are more dynamic.

As an example, a big organization could loan artwork to a small organization. The two could share revenue generated by the exhibit as partners. Done creatively smaller organizations could increase the quality of their exhibits and stimulate increased attendance/audience. The big organization could create income from under utilized parts of their collection and increase audience and income. After all most big museums only exhibit small portions of their collections at any given time. Activity creates income for everybody.

I am sure Brandeis University could find another organization that would love to show artwork from their collection. They could also earn income from the loans of artwork even if the Rose Museum temporarily closed. They could possibly find more value in keeping their collection intact than they will earn by selling it off as a depreciated asset. Of course, they would have to figure out how to make a program work in a distressed market, but they are a university. Surely, someone on the university staff can figure out a smart (Creative) way to proceed forward and create a profitable program.

Maybe they could ask the folks over at the Museum Loan Network for advice; they have been working with large organizations for years, helping those organizations use their collections more effectively.

Museum Loan Network

http://dl.lib.brown.edu/mln/about.html

As an example: One organization reduces operational activities. They collaborate with an organization that is in better shape. They charge a reasonable fee to package and ship the exhibit. Then both organizations share revenue generated by exhibit. Movie companies have operated this way successfully for years. Your local movie theaters make profit from supportive activities, like popcorn and soft drink sales. Surely, the brainpower in the Arts can figure out supportive revenue programs combined with admission fees and memberships sales. Even the last two areas will produce profit when program quality and interest increase.

Small potatoes, well small potatoes can add up to big profits. Just look at what Matt Jones in Seattle has accomplished with his Mashed Potatoes program at Gasworks Gallery in Seattle. The Cooperative Gallery charges an admission fee paid for in potatoes or food for the food bank. They have raised millions of pounds of potatoes and other food supplies for the local food bank one potato at a time. http://www.mashedpotatoes.org/

Gasworks Gallery: http://gasworksgallery.com/

Matt Jones Delivers 50,000 pounds of potatoes You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=122fGSv4T8o

My advice to the Art Organizations of America is get creative and find sustainable solutions to your problems before you sell the cow for some magic beans.

Filed under: Art, Art Marketing, Art News, Culture Economey, How to survive as a Working Artists, Investing, Journalism, Media, Movies, News, Politics, Uncategorized , Art News, Art Organizations, Bail out, Bail Out for the Arts, Creative Art, Fundraising, Money for the Arts, Museum Management

Big Art Big Theft; The Lawrence B. Salander Indictment

Big Art Big Theft;

The Lawrence B. Salander Indictment

Lawrence B. Salander of O’Reilly Galleries LLC was arrested on a 100 count indictment. Below, is a news release from the New York District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau about the case?

The indictment outlines how Salander built one of the most powerful art empires on fraud and deceit while he lived life as large as any Wall Street mogul did. Salander’s built an empire built based on illusion and manipulation of those who trusted him. He has pled not guilty to all charges. I predict that if Salander goes to trial that it will be the first time the secret details of how the Big Art Market functions will come to light and we will all learn the truth behind closed doors.

Link to NYC District Attorney Website

http://manhattanda.org/whatsnew/press/2009-03-26.shtml

DISTRICT ATTORNEY – NEW YORK COUNTY

NEWS RELEASE
March 26, 2009

Contact: Alicia Maxey Greene
212-335-9400

Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announced today the arrest and 100-count indictment of former art gallery owner LAWRENCE B. SALANDER and the SALANDER-O’REILLY GALLERIES, LLC for stealing $88 million from investors, owners, and a bank.

The defendants, SALANDER, 59, and the SALANDER-O’REILLY GALLERIES, have been indicted on multiple charges of grand larceny, securities fraud, scheme to defraud, forgery, criminal possession of a forged instrument, falsifying business records, and perjury against SALANDER. The crimes charged in the indictment occurred between July 1994 and November 2007.

The investigation leading to today’s indictment revealed that SALANDER, the manager and co-owner of the SALANDER-O’REILLY GALLERIES, defrauded 26 victims resulting in the theft of millions of dollars. SALANDER stole from his victims in two primary ways: he sold artwork not owned by him and kept the money; and lured investment money in fraudulent investment opportunities.

Investors in this case are individuals or entities that paid cash in exchange for an ownership interest in a work of art. Investment deals were presented in two ways, as a pre-sale or speculative investment. In pre-sales, SALANDER represented to an investor that a work of art had already been sold to a buyer who needed time to pay. SALANDER told the investor that he could purchase a percentage of the work based on SALANDER’s actual cost and then share a corresponding percentage of the sales price when it was paid. For example: SALANDER would claim that he purchased a work of art for $500,000 and had a buyer who agreed to pay $1 million in the future. SALANDER offered the investor a 50 percent interest in the art work for $250,000 with the assurance that upon receipt of the purchase price the investor would receive his initial investment plus an additional $250,000 as profit. In a speculative investment, SALANDER offered an investor the opportunity to purchase a work of art with him at cost, and thereafter SALANDER would sell the artwork at a greatly increased value and they would split the profit.

The fraud in each investment opportunity occurred when SALANDER did not own the work of art he offered for investment in whole or in part, or he misrepresented the actual terms of the investment. The misrepresented terms included: inflation of the purported cost (cost fraud), the sale of greater than 100 percent interest in a single work (oversale), the fabrication of the existence of the pre-sale (ghost investment), failure to pay the return when the money came in on the purported investment, or the misrepresentation of the amount payable to the investor (fraudulent retention).

For example: Renaissance Art Investors, LLC (RAI) was one of the gallery’s largest investors. RAI paid SALANDER-O’REILLY GALLERIES $42 million at closing for approximately 328 Renaissance works of art.  As part of the deal, RAI, which was put together by the Schupak Group, a merchant bank owned by Donald Schupak and his son Andrew Schupak, simultaneously consigned the works back to SALANDER-O’REILLY GALLERIES to market and sell. The $42 million was paid based upon SALANDER’s representations of the deal. However, SALANDER misrepresented almost every aspect of this investment including the cost and source of the works sold. For example, SALANDER claimed to have purchased the majority of Renaissance artworks from private dealers and estates mostly throughout Europe, yet the investigation revealed that he actually purchased a large number of works of art from public auction houses throughout Europe and the United States. SALANDER also intentionally withheld from RAI the reporting of millions of dollars in sales of RAI artworks after the closing of the deal and failed to turn over the proceeds of the sale. To support his misrepresentations, SALANDER provided RAI with forged invoices, fraudulent cash disbursement entries, falsified internal documents reflecting source and cost data, and falsified monthly inventories.

Owners of art as used in this case are individuals or estates that own works of art and consign them to the gallery for sale, exhibition, or appraisal. Upon the sale of artworks at agreed upon prices, the owners were to receive the balance of the sale price minus the commission owed the gallery. The majority of the estates are the heirs of prominent 20th Century American artists, including the estates of Stuart Davis, Ralston Crawford, Elie Nadelman, Louis Kahn, Giorgio Cavallon, George McNeil, Suzy Frelinghuysen and George Morris. The thefts from this category of victims occurred pursuant to unauthorized transactions including: sales below owners’ authorized prices, sales of artwork not delivered for sale at the time of the transactions, the use of the artworks as investment vehicles for third parties, or the use of the artworks to satisfy debts owed to third parties. These transactions were completed without consent from, notice to, or payment to the owners.

For example: in the case of the Estate of Stuart Davis, SALANDER and the SALANDER-O’REILLY GALLERIES sold over 50 Stuart Davis works of art consigned by the estate. The evidence showed that a majority of those works were sold without authorization at significantly reduced prices and without notice and payment to the Davis estate, a theft totaling over $6.7 million.  Altogether, the SALANDER-O’REILLY GALLERIES failed to produce or pay for 96 Davis works of art consigned to the gallery by the estate after repeated demands for the return of all works.

The bank in this case is the Bank of America from which SALANDER applied for a personal loan for himself and his wife, Julie.  In support of his loan application, SALANDER offered certain artwork as security and provided documents to establish that his wife owned that artwork.  In fact, several pieces were never owned by LAWRENCE SALANDER nor Julie Salander, but were owned by other individuals, including John McEnroe and the Estate of Dr. Alexander Pearlman. After previous offerings of collateral were rejected, these false filings enabled SALANDER to obtain a $2 million loan.

The investigation further revealed that SALANDER used the stolen funds for two primary purposes: to finance his self-imposed mission to corner the market in Renaissance Art, and to support his extravagant lifestyle, which included travel by private jet within the United States and to Europe, a lavish party for his wife at the Frick Collection, and the purchase and maintenance of his Manhattan townhouse and 66-acre estate in Millbrook, Dutchess County, New York.

He co-founded SALANDER-O’REILLY GALLERIES in 1976. In 2005, the gallery moved from its original location on 79th Street to a five-story building located at 22 East 71st Street. He continued to control the daily business practices of the gallery until it closed in November 2007, pursuant to the filing of an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy case.

The indictment charges SALANDER with 14 counts and the SALANDER-O’REILLY GALLERIES with 13 counts of Grand Larceny in the First Degree, a class B Felony, which is punishable by up to 8⅓ to 25 years in prison; each defendant with 10  counts of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a class C felony, which is punishable by up to 5 to 15 years in prison; 3 counts of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, 5 counts of Forgery in the Second Degree, and 5 counts of Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree, all class D felonies, which are punishable by up to 2⅓ to 7 years in prison; 6 counts of Securities Fraud under the Martin Act (General Business Law §352-c(6)), 1 count of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, and 55 counts against SALANDER and 53 counts against the SALANDER-O’REILLY GALLERIES of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree, all class E felonies, which are punishable by up to 1⅓ to 4 years in prison. SALANDER was also charged with 1 count of Perjury in the First Degree, a class D felony, which is punishable by up to 2⅓ to 7 years in prison.

Mr. Morgenthau thanked Detective Mark Fishstein of the New York City Police Department Major Case Squad for his assistance in the investigation.

Deputy Bureau Chief Micki Shulman and Assistant District Attorney Tanya Apparicio of the Frauds Bureau presented the case to the grand jury under the supervision of Frauds Bureau Chief Michael Kitsis and Deputy Bureau Chief Jeannette Molina and Chief of the Investigations Division Patrick Dugan.  Investigators Jeremy Rosenberg,  Jack Patterson, Siobhan Berry and Reginald Barometre assisted in the investigation under the supervision of Chief Investigator Joseph Pennisi and Deputy Chief Terence Mulderrig.  Others involved in the investigation included Investigative Analyst Yiyang Wu, and Trial Preparation Assistants David Lamb and Daniel Biller of the Frauds Bureau, and Financial Investigator Jay Liang supervised by Frank Puma, Chief of the Financial Crimes Bureau. IT Analyst Selena Ley and her supervisor, IT Deputy Director Steven Moran, also assisted.

Defendant Information:

LAWRENCE SALANDER, 5/29/49
Deep Hollow Road
Millbrook, New York

SALANDER-O’REILLY GALLERIES, LLC
22 East 71st Street
New York, New York

Filed under: Art, Art Marketing, Art News, Culture Economey, Investing, Journalism, Media, News, On Art, Uncategorized , Art Collecting, Art Market News, Art Theft, Investing in Art, Lawrence B. Salander

Is this the Beginning of Another Cold War?

Wen Jiabao

The New cold War is Not with Russia and Not an Arms Race. This time the opponent or opponents will be the nations that reach long-term sustainability first. The opponent will be the nations that address their countries Energy, Education, Infrastructure and Healthcare.

 

 

 

This morning as I watched the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao speak at a Chinese National Press Conference aired on CSPAN I realized that the Cold War of the future is going to be about the very issues President Obama is trying to set as a national policy and the direction for the future. Premier Jiabao addressed what China needs to do to maintain its economic sustainability and how China plans to do it. He identified Healthcare Reform, Infrastructure, Education, Energy and Financial Responsibility with Appropriate Regulation, Oversight and above all Transparency. Premier Jiabao made it clear at least to me that the need to address all of these issues now and in the long term is the trump card for the rest of the century. If China or any other international power is going to be able to sustain their global presence in the future, they have to fix these problems to be competitive. I am sure Premier Jiabao is looking at the ambitious Obama plan and sees his country’s adversary in the race for a sustainable economic future. He who creates a sustainable system wins and all others will be out of the race if they fall too far behind.

 

Being competitive in the Global Market Place not only requires intuitive insight and smart business management it requires a vision of the playing field projected far out into the future. It seems to me that this is a difficult abstract idea for many of our political leaders. (I will use this to get an Art Dig in) Maybe those politicians should have had more exposure to the Arts. The Arts help teach Abstract Concepts.

 

At issue, here in America is the idea that we do not need to look forward into the future and address issues that are going to maintain a sustainable future as President Obama is suggesting. But that we need to only address the current crisis as the Presidents detractors suggest.

 

The question I am asking is this, if we do not address our long term sustainability now, if we wait to begin the reforms in Healthcare, Education, Energy and Infrastructure will we fall to far behind those who understand the competitive importance of such ideas.

 

If America fails to take on the tough challenge to create real sustainable competitiveness we will fast become the New Third World. The future is like a Freight Train rolling down a 6% grade and nothing is going to stop it from arriving at the bottom of the hill.

 

An Effective National Healthcare Program would give American business not a competitive edge but a level playing field. We are the only major industrial power on the planet that has failed to address National Healthcare. We are the only MIP that does not have National Healthcare. Just look at the legacy benefit structure of GM compared to Honda or Toyota. Don’t you want a healthcare system that will allow you access without the fear of bankruptcy. 

 

Energy, do I really have to say anything here. Our over use, inefficiency and dependence on foreign sources is a disaster. America failed to act three decades ago because the future was too far away to be concerned, well tomorrow then is here today.

 

Where would we be today if we had taken the steps forward President Carter wanted to take on energy, instead of taking the convenient political road the industrial corporate complex lead us down with the help from politicians?  What if we don’t take the road President Obama is proposing to us now, what will our children and grandchildren write about us? Will they be able to write?

 

Education Reform will create the intellectual capital to ensure a competitive edge. If America falls behind and our children cannot gain the intellectual skills necessary to address the future we are Doomed. Every child deserves by right an education. Our competitors understand this, just look at that rise of China, India and the Middle East. They all invested heavily in education of their populations over the last three decades. That is why they are at the forefront in Energy, Industrial Production and Technology. They educated their workforce.

 

National Infrastructure not only includes Bridges, Roads, Dams and Buildings it also includes a Healthcare System an Education System and Energy System along with an Agriculture System a strong sustainable Monetary System a viable Cultural System and a National Security System. I know I have left other important areas out of the statement, you fill in the blank.

 

All of these issues are interconnected and they all need to be addressed now.

 

Let’s look at National Security. I would make the argument that every area I have mentioned is a National Security issue and every area plays a major importance in our National Security.

 

You may think that National Security is about protecting us from known and unknown enemies, while this is true the statement does not define the word enemy. While we search out Terrorists, we failed to search out the Bacteria in Peanut Butter that killed many Americans and sickened many others. The result was not only devastating for the victims it was also the largest product recall in American History that caused untold financial losses to American Businesses as the Peanut Butter made its way throughout the American Food Chain in a time a economic crisis. Food Safety is National Security and Infrastructure.

 

My point is this; America has a very large and complex system that requires a complex infrastructure with oversight and forward planning. It is just too big for the quick fix that would make a lot of people and politicians happy. The truth is we need consistence, persistent holistic measures to address a sustainable future.

 

The problems we face today usurp Politics and require courageous sustainable leadership.

 

Now I am going to go make a PBJ for lunch, well maybe not.  

 

Turn Off FOX and Tune into CSPAN       

 

 

Chinese Premier Worried about Investments in U.S. Washington Post Article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/13/AR2009031300006.html

 

Filed under: Environment, Journalism, Media, Politics, Uncategorized , China, Cold War, Doom, Economy, Global Economy, Obama, Wen Jiabao

The Art of Propaganda and Tattoo Removal

Cutten the Pork

As the Senate labors to pass the 2009 Appropriations Bill, H.R 1105 the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 John McCain labors to derail spending for the federal government because of Pork Barrel Earmark Spending. This Bill Funds the Governments Budget for the rest of 2009 and has been in the legislation process for more than a year. The Congress couldn’t get their act together last year to pass the budget and enacted a continued resolution that runs out today. They did today get it together enough to continue the funding resolution until next week so the government could continue to operate.

 

 

http://appropriations.senate.gov

 

John McCain offered the Senate his top ten list on earmarks as evidence to support his failed amendment to continue level 2008 funding for the 2009 budget year. Well as many Senators pointed out, we are already half way through the 2009 budget year that runs from October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009. McCain was like the Rancher who tried to call the Ponies home after the coral gate was left open and they all ran off, only in his case the Ponies ran off last year. One earmark that he repeatedly pointed out was $200,000.00 for Tattoo Removal. Quickly the propaganda machine noticed his qua and Bill O’ Riley vomited that he hopes Angelina Jolie didn’t show up to get her Tat’s removed because she can afford to have that done on her own. And of course Sean Hannity jumped right in with his profound words of wisdom to pan the Tattoo removal program. Now all we need is Rush to lead us to the chosen land.

 

McCain’s Top 10

http://thedemocraticdaily.com/2009/02/27/earmarks-john-mccains-top-10except/

 

This wasteful Earmark was pork added to the bill by California Representative Howard Berman. http://www.house.gov/berman/index.shtml

 

The Earmark is $200.000 to purchase a Tattoo Removal Machine. To be used to remove Gang Tattoos and other types of Anti Social Tattoos that prevents people from moving on with their lives and becoming productive citizens. The program that would receive the funding removes these types of Tattoos free as part of a violence prevention program. The Providence Tattoo Removal Program helps former gang member’s reform and enables them to become employable and productive. Local Law enforcement praises the program for its success.

http://www.providence.org/losangeles/services/tattooremoval/default.htm

 

What is an Earmark? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earmark_(politics)

 

An Earmark Specifies that specifically identified funding must be spent on a specified program. This is how the congress has maintained power over the Executive branch of Government in regards to spending. That bridge you crossed on the way home might be an Earmark. This is how the Congress works and has worked for many years. Yes it controversial. On the other hand, it is how your representatives take action on your business. These Earmark programs are real programs and they provide real benefits to you the taxpayer in most circumstances. That is not to say there isn’t room for improvement or a better system. Like an open budget, that Obama just proposed.

 

Ok so I had the Flu this week and spent a lot of time watching CSPAN. So I watched this whole thing unfold as I lay on the couch whining or whimpering because I was sick.

 

However, what really pissed me off were John McCain’s top 10 and his remarks about the Tattoo Removal Earmark. Pork I hardly think so!

 

So now, here is the rest of the story.

 

Back in 1984, I went to work as a vocational instructor in a one of those wasteful spending programs in Tucson Arizona, John McCain’s district.  I worked with Juvenile offenders, gang prevention; in a program that provided vocational training, we had a print shop. Being an Artist, Printmaker, Photographer I taught kids the basic skills to design and print Tee Shirts, Bumper Stickers and Signs. But most importantly I taught them how to work, how to keep a job. We also offered these kid’s the opportunity to get a GED and many did. Many of our kids had Tattoos, Gang Tattoos. This was before Laser Tattoo removal had been invented and they were just stuck unable to move on. You see Gang Tats are specific to cultural geographic areas and if you live in a specific area, your Tats are a big sign hanging around your neck.

 

So one day in mid 1985 I went to a Dermatologist for a skin check, to get a mole removed. On my upper right arm was a Tattoo. It was a military Tat that I wasn’t real happy with so you can imagine how I felt when the Doctor asked me if I would like to get it removed for free. He told me that a Doctor from the Cleveland Clinic was coming to Tucson to train him in Laser Tattoo removal and that he needed people to volunteer to let him work on them. He told me he had been in Cleveland and practiced removing tattoos on Pigs whose skin is very much like human flesh. Well I was in, I agreed to let his experiment on me after all it worked out for the pigs. I always wondered what kind of Tats do pigs get anyway and where do they get them?

 

So to make a long story short I showed up at my appointment and became the second person in Tucson to have a Tattoo removed by Laser although as it worked out I think the Doctor used a Phaser. The Tattoo was gone and so was a significant portion of my arm, vaporized. Turns out the new machine was a little to hot not like today’s machines and instead of a bad Tattoo, I had a horrific scar after seven months of painful healing. The Doctor felt terrible and offered to attempt to reconstruct my upper arm, but I had had enough pain and opted to leave well enough alone. From there the Doctors perfected the Laser and treatment we have today, which works just fine in most cases.

 

Ten years later in 1995 I was again working with at risk youth in Tucson still John McCain’s district. The Gang problem had grown to epidemic proportions in ten years and every part of Tucson faced rising gang violence. As I was told over and over by the kids we worked with your either in a gang or your nothing. Kids are constantly recruited to join gangs in the neighborhood where they live they live in fear or join. Once you become a gang member there is no easy out. Gang tattoos are more like brands on cattle, the gang owns you period. Other gangs just see the Tats as identifiable targets and target you. Only your gang can protect you now, that is unless you leave and that is not allowed.

 

I remember a young man, about 18 years old who came to our program to get a job. His hands and face disfigured he told us a story about what happened to him. He quit his gang and so his old friends became enemies and kidnapped him. They took him out into the desert and removed his Gang Tats with a screwdriver, gouging away at his fingers, neck and face until the symbols were gone. Then they burnt him, ran over him with a car and left him for dead. The kid just wanted to finish school and get a job. Well he did. He was one of John McCain’s constituents.

 

But he never got any help from John “No Pork” McCain. After tens years working on the streets of Tucson, I can’t say many people in the Barrio have gotten much help from Big John. In his defense I have to admit that one of his aids in the Tucson Office was a great community asset, Lillian Lopez Grant did care about the people and tired her best to do the right thing for people who couldn’t change there own circumstances.

 

The fact is McCain is out of touch out of date. He has no idea what the people need and what is important for California or for that matter Arizona. That is why California elected their, own representatives. Yes John, Bill and Sean Tattoo removal is important and necessary for those people who are locked into the violence of gangs. They need help to move on and break the cycle of violence that has dominated their lives and the lives of generations of family members and the communities they live in. Don’t you all want these people to change to become productive citizens? 

 

There can be No change at the expense of political propaganda.

 

John, Bill and Sean count on the fact that you won’t seek out the real story the real truth. They rely on the political sound bites to enrage you to mislead you for their own political or entertainment ratings gain.  There is real power and real danger in the Art of Propaganda. You and I are the victims of false truths.

 

John held up H.R Bill 1105 and said look at the size of this bill over a thousand pages with over 9000 earmarks. Well frankly, it is big; it is a big Budget Bill for a very big country that has a big government that costs big money. Maybe John should have read the even bigger manager’s reports that accompanied the bill; maybe he would have learned something from their hard work to produce content to support the legislation. No John, never read the Bill or the Manager reports, he said so I watched him say it as part of the congressional record. It was just too big for him to understand. Well that’s why you guys hired the managers to oversee the complexity of the legislation.

 

More Frankly, John why didn’t you and your crew go to work to eliminate the Pork last year or for the six months you have had a continuing resolution? Why now at the end in the last minute is it now so important? The process the earmarks is the current system of congressional government at work John you have had nearly 30 years to fix it if you wanted too. You didn’t you haven’t so move forward.

The Old Ponies have all run off and they isn’t a cumin back, so lock the corral now before the New Ponies run off. If you don’t like earmarks then change the way congress appropriates funds. It seems to me that is what the President is trying to do with a fully transparent planned budget. We will see how that works out.

 

I hope the Provident Tattoo Removal program gets their new machine.

 

It is worth every Penny! 

 

Howard Berman if I were you I would post that Earmark prominently on my website for everybody to read, you should be proud you supported such an important program.

 

 

 

Filed under: Culture Economey, Ink, Investing, Journalism, Media, News, Politics, Tattoo, Tattooing, Uncategorized , Art of Propaganda, Barrel, Congress Spending, Earmarks, H.R.1105, John McCain, Pork, Senate, Tattoo Removal

1934: A new Deal for Artists.

Franz Kline 1910-1962

• 1934: A new Deal for Artists. A retrospective of American Art of the Depression.

 

The exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum showing now through January 3, 2010 is an example of what a government stimulus program can do not only for the arts but also for the country. The selected works tell the story of the Great Depression through the eyes of American artists of the time. President Franklin Roosevelt’s administration created the first government program to support the arts nationally. He and his administration understood how art could sustain the American spirit during a time of crisis and great hardship.

 

The program only lasted six months from December 1933 to June 1934. Artists were paid to depict “the American Scene”. Many public artworks were as we know them today site specific like percent for the art projects. Others were created throughout American in cities and in rural America. Artists not only had an opportunity to earn a living through the program during the depression they also were able to serve their country in a time of crisis.

 

You can see the exhibit on the web at http://americanart.si.edu/

 

One thing I noticed is that many of these artists went on after the program and had very successful and influential carriers like Franz Kline.

 

Once you are at the Smithsonian site, you can click on the link to see the Flash Program of the exhibit. I had trouble with the Flash version and you may have to adjust your computers program to view it if your security program blocks the application. I have included the link to the Non-Flash page that I found worked just fine.

 

Non Flash Link

http://americanart.si.edu/education/picturing_the_1930s/non-flash.html

 

Take a little time and look at what artists did during the last depression a time of crisis not unlike today’s financial crisis in America. It is clear to me as an Artist that the Art’s can sustain the human spirit in times of crisis and that Art can give us not only hope but purpose in our endeavors.

 

Enjoy the 1934: A new Deal for Artists Exhibit

 

http://americanart.si.edu/

 

http://americanart.si.edu/education/picturing_the_1930s/non-flash.html

 

 

 

Filed under: Art, Art Marketing, Art News, Culture Economey, How to survive as a Working Artists, Journalism, Media, On Art, Painting, Photography, Politics, Uncategorized , American Art, Art of the Depression, Depression, Franklin Roosevelt, Franz Kline, Obama Stimulas Plan, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Stimulas