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

In Search of the New, Pushing Traditional Boundaries of Art

Transgressions of Form, david eubank 2007

 

• Digital Imagery has become the new medium of creation for many artists including myself.

The possibilities are endless and exciting. From photography, digital collage, film and video, images have becoming more sophisticated and are part of the visual language of our time.

Artists of all genres are experimenting, looking for ways to transform digital technology into the New. New images, new techniques and new audiences are changing how we see the world. The new digital world is still young. Technology has opened international borders, communication and ideas like no other technology before it.

• Social networks for artists have brought us together on a global scale.

New images ideas and conversations with friends crossover all of the boundaries of space and time.  

Artists networks like “Arts for Arts Sake”, http://artsforartssake.ning.com and “Art Review”, http://www.artreview.com/index.php are the new cafes where artists can socialize and share ideas. Both networks are free and offer opportunities for all artists to share in the experience. Here as an artist, you can show your latest work to your peers instantly. You can join discussions on a plethora of topics about art. You can build your own artists page or online gallery. In addition, these servers automatically help you with placement, marketing on the web at Google and other search engines.

For me the new technology has expanded my friendships my audience and my creative opportunities. Like here at http://wordpress.com where you are reading this Blog. You can sign up for free, write your own blog here, and begin sharing your creative ideas and your work with the world.

•  http://www.youtube.com enables artists and filmmakers along with an amazing assortment of everybody else in the world an opportunity to show your work and communicate.

This presidential election season here in the Untied States experienced the impact and importance of “You Tube” as voters directly communicated with candidates in a variety of formats. The citizen shared the national and international stage and the importance of the impact was immediate and provocative and was a major influence in the election.

In the early days of digital art, webpage and game designers dominated the field.

• But a few pioneering fine artists emerged like Deena des Rioux “Robotic Portraiture”   http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2001/02/08/28068.html

Deena began experimenting with digital college in the late 1980’s using Photoshop she has created a new way of seeing and working with her digital prints that pushed the traditional boundaries of art in a new direction. She replaces the brush with the mouse and expands her ideas as she explores a new medium.

• Tim Holmes a sculptor has expanded his work to film on the internet at Blue Universe.com.  http://www.blueuniverse.com/thsculptures/films/film2.html

Holmes creates moving sculpture using film. His audience has expanded to the internet and artists social networks.

In Body Psalms words take on new dimensions of expression that appear in no other medium. Words become moving sculpture as they unfold stretch, recombine and morph into other words and images… Tim Holmes

Today the tools of technology can allow artist like Deena des Rioux and Tim Holmes to explore new methods of creating art, that were before limited or unavailable.

• Rinpa Eshidan a Tokyo based artist group has taken preformance art and painting in a new direction in the modern media environment of You Tube and the World Wide Web. http://www.rinpaeshidan.jp

The group has just release a new DVD of their work.

• ARTOCRACY https://artocracy.org

founded by Megan Murphy is a digital marketplace for original art. The online gallery offers artists working in digital formats as well as others the opportunity to sell their work through an on line medium. Artocracy sells art similar to the way music is now being sold by downloading from the internet. The gallery offers inexpensive original art that the buyer can download and print at home. The artist authorizes the reproduction of the prints and the buyer gets an original artwork. The buyer also gets to participate in the making of the art.

• My introduction to the digital world was a need to produce catalogs for exhibitions.

Soon I was using Photoshop and a publishing program. Photoshop quickly became my dark room. Even back in the 4.0 days of Adobe the power to create images was incredible. As a photographer, my only issue then was camera technology had not caught up with the software. To get a good image still required a film-based system. But today that is all history.

• As a painter, I was looking for something new, that is when I began to experiment with design software.

I wanted a way to draw that was fast and changeable. I wanted to make or invent images. What I discovered from trial and error was a mysterious set of images that intrigues me to my artistic core. I still I am not sure what I see in these images, but as an artist I intuitively know that something is there, that these images call too me. I began using the images for painting taking them to yet another level another transition. Then I looked at the images as prints, photographs and found that they offered another medium. Soon I was making digital prints. I really did not know how I felt about the process. It is mechanical, it requires a machine and for me the computer became like a camera and the dark room only far more diverse.  

• My work, Transgressions of Form is a group of digitally manipulated images of the human form that explore the transitional states of the process of their invention.

I wanted to find a new way to generate images, a method that interrupted my preconceived ideas about the figure. At the same time, I wanted to create images that moved me, stimulated my feelings, and my desires about the human form. I began to experiment with a Panorama Maker program that was bundled with printer software and Photoshop. My Idea was to stitch images together not to make a panorama but to make or invent new images from familiar, expected forms. I tried many different kinds of images and found that the nude human figure worked, while other images did not. Starting with various images of the figure, I manipulated them in Photoshop. The simplicity of the human form allowed for the creation of complex images that did not contain too much visual information so as not to overwhelm the limits of the program and the image. As the program reads all digital information in the image and this can result in too much visual detail. The human figure because of its smooth surface and varied positions is less complex digitally and at the same time contains complex variations created by movement that are natural to the figure itself. This is what intrigues me about Tim Holmes movies of Moving Sculpture.

Taking combinations of manipulated images, I load them into the program and transform them into new images. I would describe the process as random, by chance like using a slot machine. Images of chance that often do not result in successful expectations. Other times the result is an abstraction that stimulates the visual senses of memory about the human form that perhaps recalls hidden, repressed or forgotten memories of human desires of the flesh. Images, about the secrecy and beauty of our own personal experience and our expectations of intimacy with the human figure.

 I also want to note the influence that Deena Des Rioux had on my initial investigations into digital imagery. She brought her work to Montana and her “Robotic Portraiture” exhibit opened a new vision for me of what was possible. Having curated the exhibit I was fortunate enough to spend a great deal of time looking at her images in the museum where I worked. The possibilities were there right in front of me. And so I took my meager skills at the time and began to learn and work.

 For me this is still new after several years. My interest in Photography is rekindled, as are my interests in painting. Now digital printmaking will be a medium of choice even if I have arrived at this point by chance.

 I am excited about the future of this New World of Art.

Transgression #20 david eubank 2008

 

See more of my digital images at:

http://artsforartssake.ning.com/profile/davideubank

 https://www.artocracy.org/?1&page=/store/m-29-david-eubank.aspx

 

 

 

 

Filed under: Art, Art News, Art Prints, How to, How to survive as a Working Artists, Media, Movies, News, On Art, Painting, Photography, Uncategorized , david eubank art, Digital Art, digital print making, figure art, How to make digital art, New Art, You Tube

Did the Art Bubble Burst ?

• Or did it just float away.

The recession has arrived in the once unlimited high priced art market of just a few months ago. Art’s too expensive said Damien Hirst after his painting of four skulls that was estimated to sell for around 3 million dollars in New York this November did not sell. The work “Beautiful Artemis Thor Neptune Odin Delusional Sapphic Inspirational Hypnosis Painting had No Buyer.

But don’t despair Hirst is estimated to be worth 200 million pounds, so he will be just fine.

Damien Hirst with Friend

Who Is Damien Hirst? http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/hirst_damien.html

• But those who have invested in high priced art recently while the market seemed to be a safe haven for their money may not come out of this Depression unscathed.

Hirst says in a philosophical way that this is what Artists really want.

• “People who bought things are not going to sell them that day. That is what an artists wants, for people to hang the works on their wall”. As an artist, you don’t stop making art because people are not buying”, said Hirst.

If you are a working Artist then you must see the humor in this current art market situation. If you are a buyer enjoy your gutted cow, on your wall.

• First if you are a working Artist, Recession is a way of life, Recession is ever present in your career.

Most of us are not Damien Hirst’s. Most of us just struggle to keep working and yeah we make art even if no body is buying. And yeah we all hope that someone will come along and appreciate all of our hard work and ideas and buy our art to hang on their walls.

• But art has become an investment for many buyers, art is not an aesthetic thing for them.

Art is a commodity, goods for investment and exchange. And with the recent decline in the financial markets it was hoped to be a safe haven for their money.

• But that idea, that kind of thinking about art left most of us out in the cold begging for paint so we could go on making art even if no one was buying. At least we have the skills to make signs,
  
• “Will Make Art for food”…!

Perhaps those art investors will trade for signs that say, “Will work for a Hirst or Picasso”. But where will they stand with their signs, at Wal-Mart or Sotheby’s?

• Now I don’t want you to think I am trashing Damien Hirst, I really am not.

I’d take 3 million for a painting in a heart beat. Hirst is a remarkable Artist and Art Marketing Genius, no doubt about it!

• The Collectors and Dealers are part of the “Art Market”, a market that is driven by it’s own forces.

Sometimes by forces that are brutal and sinister.

• Adolf and the boys murdered thousands of Collectors and Art Dealers for their art collections during WWII. But this is just a foot note in how sinister the art market can be to make a point.

Read about the PBS documentary, “The Rape of Europe”, great art in the grip of the Nazis. The program airs or aired respectively Monday November 24 th on PBS.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/movies/2008426931_tvrapeofeuropa24.html

• So back to you and me as working artists.

How do we deal with this art market. Most of us are asked to pay to show our work by galleries, museums, art shows. We are expected to do all the work and then pay to exhibit our work. We even are expected to pay fees just to get someone to look at our work.

• These fees are part of the SUBMISSION applications for art shows.

And yes I am as guilty as any other curator who has produced art shows or art fair and art auctions. When I worked in the museum field we asked artists to pay fees to look at their work, to pay for shipping and framing and we expected to take our cut if the work sold. But it did bother me as an artist and I did except it as a curator who wanted to produce a show, and raise money for a fund raising art fair. Frankly as a Non-Profit art organization we needed the money to keep operating. And so I could as a curator justify my behavior.

• After all it is how the market works, isn’t it.

It is SUBMISSION to the market forces. I can tell you that it is a part of the market that weighs heavy on the minds of many curators and art directors in non-profit gallery’s and museum’s around the country. But they have to keep their organizations going, so they continue to do what works, for themselves.

• But who’s at fault?

Someone came up with the ideas to charge these fees and we artists agreed to the pay them. And so the rest of the story is history.

• And how much money have you made as an artist paying to show your work, did you gain the respect; notary you had hoped for?

Did your career advance or did you just buy another line on a resume; so you could pay to show your artwork in another show that you paid to show in?

• Recently I was solicited by a gallery that wanted to represent me.

I won’t name the gallery or state, but I will tell you about the offer, which I thought about and investigated seriously.

The gallery charges a yearly fee of $800 dollars, Then an exhibition fee of $1200, Then a Framing Fee if needed, estimated at my price for 20 paintings at about 4750. dollars. I would pay shipping to and from the gallery. Most of my work is large and I estimate shipping and crating to be in the $5000. dollar range. Then add insurance another $1000. and the total cost to get a show $12,750. dollars. And then they want a meager 30% commission on all sales.

• Not a bad deal really, is it.

So if I sold say all 20 paintings, yeah right; I could gross $50,000. less $12,750 for costs leaves $37,250 which is what I would pay commission on which is $11,175.dollars. That would leave $26,075 which then if I take material and labor $8. dollars and hour off, $12,550, that leaves $13,525 profit, not bad. The only problem is I have to invest $12,750. up front and I would have to sell all 20 paintings.

• But why would a for profit gallery be expected to take the chance on me without any financial risk on my part?

Business is business after all and this is where Damien Hirst excels. He makes that investment, he takes those risks and he has been fortunate up to now and I think he will continue to be successful.

• As an artist I may be fooling my self about the time I or you put into your work so the Minimum wage may be a fantasy. And my sales may not be as strong as say Hirst’s. And then there is the reality that if I invest $12, 750. dollars into a show I might just need that sign, only mine will say,

“Won’t Lie I Need a BEER”.

You read this far and thought I had the answer, sorry dudes I don’t but would appreciate yours.

• But back to Hirst, he says he is willing to sell for less because the Big Bubble floated out of the auction house.

So what is his next idea, it is a different market and a different market tactic. He is looking to capture the middle and the lower end with volume.

• He has opened a store “ Other Criteria”, 36 Bond Street, London, England and on line.

https://www.othercriteria.com/index2.php

Hirst offers goodies from $30 pounds to well thousands. You can buy prints, Photographs, Tee shirts and sculpture. Marketing to the masses.

But to be sure many of the items are affordable for most budgets and are worth looking at if you want a Authorized Damien Hirst. He also carries the work of other artists in the shop. I like the Tee Shirt, MENTAL on the front and HEALTH on the back by Rachel Howard, in red of course.

I don’t care much for the FLASH gallery it loads to slow.

You can get a poster of the Diamond Encrusted Skull that was produced for the show “Beyond Belief” at White Cube designed by Hirst for 30 pounds among others. And you can get Prints like “All You Need is LOVE LOVE LOVE” Silk Screened, thats the heart with butterflies for 9500 pounds. Really not a bad price when you consider Hirst fetched I think around 6 million for one of the original paintings.

• Yes the Recession has arrived and Damien Hirst like us is ready to chip away at the market bit by bit to make ends meet.

But then you and I have been here in this depressed bubble for well, EVER.

So what worked for Hirst, how did he succeed, what did he do or realize that we all missed? Some people say, well Hirst does not do his own work he has an Art Factory. True so did Tiffany and hundreds of other artists throughout history, didn’t they. Even Di Vinci got his start in an Art Factory, only it was called something else because factory’s hadn’t been invented yet. So as for Hirst that was a good idea, volume has rewards.

But is that why we make art, is that why we should make art.

• Hirst and his mass production and marketing and his work is ART, I think.

The Hirst phenomena is art itself. A reflection of the society that we have become. Raw and open Hirst’s work slaps us and the collector in the face, but we didn’t notice because it is what we are. We have become Gutted Cows or perhaps Sheep. We follow the trend. We Consume and Consume. Damien just brings it all home and it is gobbled up like the Thanksgiving Turkey. And we come back for seconds. Does this make him bad, no it just makes him smart.

• So I ask.

What could I do with that 12,750 dollar investment, what could you do, What could 10 of us together do with that money. We are all going to spend some amount of money over the next year and if that money were pooled together what could emerge?

• How many artists do you know that are trying to make a living or want to make a living.

How many $25 dollar fees and shipping costs will you spend this coming year to show your work. 10 times the investment I talked about for that proposed gallery show is &127,500 dollars.

• Could you and your friends start your own version of an Art Factory, Gallery.

For that kind of investment you could hire a sales assistant to staff the operation while you produce art.

• You will spend the money any way and you know you will.

We have all SUBMITTED to the system as it is today. But we have a chance to change that system if we choose too. Damien Hirst used the existing system to his benefit very successfully, now he perhaps sees the next evolution.

• Imagine if collectors started buying original art to live with, Imagine if your neighbors became those collectors, people who want art for it’s “Artistic Life Quality” value above it’s market worth, “Art For Art’s Sake”.

• Wait that could be arts market value? “Quality of Life”.

The possibilities are limited only by our imagination by our submission to what is the system.

Now if your a gallery owner who wants to give me a show because you have faith you can sell my work, because you have buyers that you feel will buy my work and you are willing to earn your 50% commission then call me, or write me or email me. And we will talk and perhaps reach an mutual agreement to both our benefits. Oh just kidding I got a check book.

• But this article is for you the working, living artist, who needs to make a living and a living wage.

But going it alone is hard and often unrewarding. Think about collaboration, talk to other artists you know.

We have been taught not to sell our work, not to collaborate to be individuals. To be teachers, it’s a job that has a pay check. Just ask a university art professor, who just invested $100,000 dollars into their education. Who works a job so they can be an artist as you and I do at what ever pays the bills.

But we do need each other and each other’s talent and ideas to succeed. And if the current system works for you keep on keeping on.

For the rest of you and for me, “What’s New, What is New, What Can Be New, Changed or Perhaps Recycled. ( History ? ) Arts and Crafts movement?

Recycle Ideas, Renew, Reuse. Maybe that’s a Green statement. It could be green in your pocket?

• I know an Art Dealer who only represents deceased artists. They don’t talk back or have new ideas or opinions or make new work. I am not ready to sign with him either.

Related Stories/Links

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/arts-too-expensive-says-hirst-worth-163200m-1021669.html

Is investing in Art a Safe Haven for Your Money, “Is Art the New Gold”? by david eubank October 2008

http://davideubank.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/is-investing-in-art-a-safe-haven-for-your-money-is-art-the-new-gold-2/

Do the Arts Need a National Bailout?

http://davideubank.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/do-the-arts-need-a-national-bailout/

Filed under: Art, Art Marketing, Art News, How to, How to survive as a Working Artists, Investing, Movies, News, On Art, nazi loot , Art Ideas, being an artist, damien hirst, How to survive as a Working Artists, Investing in Art, Mental Health for Artists, nazi loot

How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Philosophical Cinema

 

After my last post I went down stairs from my studio and turned on the Turner Classic Movie Channel. Some how the Gods of the universe must be telling me something because the 1964 movie Dr. Strangelove was on. I have to say it is one of my favorite movies of all time. Directed by Stanley Kubrick it stars Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove, Merkin Muffley and Mandrake. Sellers plays three characters in the movie that is punctuated by metaphor after metaphor. The film is a black comedy that portrays doomsday at the height of Cold War politics. Things have gone very wrong inside the Strategic Air Command. General Jack D. Ripper played by Sterling Hayden goes mad and orders his bombers to attack the Soviet Union. Mandrake played by Sellers is Ripper’s English Officer Aid that try s to reason with Ripper and engages him in a profound philosophical discussion about the dangers of nuclear war. Sellers also plays the president who attempts to manage an insane War Room in an attempt to avoid Doomsday. George C. Scott is the General in Charge, Scott is wonderful, he isn’t the least worried about Doomsday. Dr Strangelove also played by Sellers is a mad scientist who has invented the weapons of mass destruction and is consumed by the science. His other personality is one of reason while his dark evil side literally fights with his good moral side. Slim Pickens plays Major T.J. “King Kong” a B-52 Bomber pilot trained to carry out his mission at any cost.

Major T.J. King Kong, Slim Pickens riding the Bomb in Dr. Strangelove

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxrWz9XVvls&NR=1 But unknown to all of them the Russians have invented a Doomsday machine that is unstoppable. This is one movie that is worth watching. Like many old films they are lost in the caverns of film archives. I have added several links that review the film and also a Youtube preview. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8dUqlxm3_o&feature=related

 

Dr Strangelove Movie Review http://www.filmsite.org/drst.html

On the Beach filmed in 1959 starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins and was directed by Stanley Kramer is on of the most profound dramas about Doomsday you will ever watch. After a nuclear war most of the world has died from radiation exposure. Peck is a submarine commander that finds the last survivors on earth in Australia where they wait for the radioactive death to come as radiation circles the earth. The drama unfolds as the survivors try to cope with the end result of world gone insane. This film gets into the dirty reality of nuclear war from a human perspective. This is another must watch film that again was on Turner Classic Movies just the other day.

 

Fred Astaire sums it all up in this Youtube clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGm4yCov7nE&feature=related

 

Review Summary by Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although there’d been “doomsday dramas” before it, Stanley Kramer’s On the Beach was considered the first “important” entry in this genre when originally released in 1959. Based on the novel by Nevil Shute, the film is set in the future (1964) when virtually all life on earth has been exterminated by the radioactive residue of a nuclear holocaust. Only Australia has been spared, but it’s only a matter of time before everyone Down Under also succumbs to radiation poisoning. With only a short time left on earth, the Australian population reacts in different ways: some go on a nonstop binge of revelry, while others eagerly consume the suicide pills being issued by the government. When the possibility arises that rains have washed the atmosphere clean in the Northern hemisphere, a submarine commander (Gregory Peck) and his men head to San Diego, where faint radio signals have been emanating. The movie’s all-star cast includes: Peck as the stalwart sub captain, Ava Gardner as his emotionally disturbed lover, Fred Astaire as a guilt-wracked nuclear scientist, and Anthony Perkins and Donna Anderson as the “just starting out in life” married couple. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The power of Art can shape the future as well as explain the events of the past. Perhaps it is time that we creative people begin to search for ideas, images and answers that will transform this global civilization into a world of hope. We all know the dangers and yet we chose to ignore the reality of the danger. Climate Change, War, Energy, Food are the threats. What should we do as individuals as Nations to ensure that “We” survive as One World. Or do we allow our fears to over come us, do we shrink away from the challenge and only look at our selfish needs. I think we are at the edge of great change, global change. How will we handle that change will be tomorrows history.

Filed under: Art, Environment, Media, Movies, Nuclear War, On Art, Photography, Politics, The Bomb, Uncategorized , Doomsday, Dr. Strangelove, Peace, Turner Classic Movies, War