MARY, MOTHER OF GOD

I am confused, is that a problem?

This ancient picture was recently discovered in catacombs beneath the Galilee Chapel of Tears. It is painted on tanned goat hide and painted with  pigment of  huckleberries. Professor Doctor Fulloshoot placed the time of its creation in the early thirteenth century.  He states that the realism of Baby God is unusual and amazing for that time period.  

Mary looks like she is resigned to caring for this cranky Baby God.  She is looking patiently out of the picture, saying,  "Can you believe this little tyke can make so much noise?"

 Poor little Baby God, crying at the top of his lungs.  I wonder why?  Is he pissed because, now he has to spend some time on the planet that he created.  Or maybe he is angry because he is in a human body?  He made the Earth, way back in the day.  You have to give him credit for making a wonderful globe.  He thought up some fantabulous critters,  like tigers and rolly polys.   He created awesome things like mountains, swamps, and beaches.   

He also created humans.  They say that God does not make mistakes,  but that is just  spin, a claim instigated by his publicist.  

Humans did not turn out so well.  They are almost totally irrational and self serving.  Their emotions run amok and cause them to act stupid. They are always trying to improve social organization but the race just continues to create chaotic communities.  In their petty, but deadly, never ending wars they destroy nature. They refuse to learn the ways of peace.   Rampant greed impedes learning cooperation.  You know, they just stomp on each other every day.  They kill each other like flies. The only thing that they do better than killing is reproducing, infecting the earth like fleas on a mangy dog.   

God realized that humans were deeply flawed.  His spinmeister released a statement blaming the hominid disaster on the female human. Her name was Eve, she was blamed for the whole fan hitting disaster.  The devil made her do it.  The mother of the human race fed Adam a bad meal, and women have been blamed for every hiccup since that time. Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and that is how they got so screwed up.  However,  I want to know, what was that tree doing there, in the first place?  The Garden of Eden, it was suppose to be a perfect garden, but it grew a tricky Cassandra tree. Isnt God the original source of human curiosity?  Didnt he know he made critters that want to taste everything?  It was blamed on the serpent.  So,  who is this serpent devil?  Why did he fall into evil?  I mean, if God is so almighty almighty why cant he keep these things under control

Spinmeister concocted a scheme to redeem the stupid race.  God should go to earth in a human body and make a grand gesture of sacrifice, to show them the right way.

God impregnated the pure Virgin Mary, then he was born to her.  So he was his own dad.  To avoid confusion his human incarnation is usually called Jesus. 

Baby God is crying because he realizes what a mess he has gotten himself into.  He is a human, for Gods sake!  Buffeted by hurricanes of emotions and desires.  He makes plans that go awry.  He doesnt even know where he came from, where he is going, and what he is suppose to do while he is here.   God's spinmeisters, AKA prophets, lay down a lot of rules but people are not very good at following rules.  Maybe they dont really believe in the rules,  maybe they suspect that the power freak humans, (Kings, politicians and Popes) are continuously concocting ways of controlling communities. 

So, Jesus was birthed and he grew up. Then he bummed around the Holy Land, talking to everyone that he could get to listen.  He was kind of like Socrates who also tried to teach people and was rewarded with a drink of poison.  Yea, the people killed Jesus.  They dont even know a good thing when they see it.

So, just in case you were wondering, that is why Baby God is screaming his head off.

WASABI

WASABI WITH POSIES

WASABI WISTFUL

WASABI

This Geisha like creature looks elegant and sweet, but her name tells you that she is also spicy.  Her dragon companion, declares,  "Dont mess with Wasabi."  A Photoshop painting which I may use as a draft or sketch for a painting on canvas. 

Madonna and Krishna, detail

Madonna and Krishna, detail

Recently completed painting.  Christian Mary with baby Hindu God Krishna.  For Mary's face I used Elizabeth Taylor for a reference.  For the background I used a NASA photo.  For Krishna I used a traditional Hindu picture.

Madonna and Krishna

 

Madonna and Krishna

I completed this painting today.  The background uses a NASA photo for reference.  What a cosmic image!  Literally and figuratively COSMIC.  Awe inspiring. The Hubble photographs show us the real meaning of awesome,  a word we carelessly throw around to describe well made scrambled eggs, or the latest trendy outfit.

  Here we have a Christian Mary image, holding the baby Hindu God Krishna.  This is a mash up of  cosmic references.  Mixing it up. Mashing and smashing our preconceptions of religion.

OK, I confess, I dont know what I am doing. I am confused.  I follow my muse.  I hope that she knows what she is doing. I hope that her mind is clear and sharp.  I hope that she can focus, because I go off on tangents, have trouble staying on target. 

I paint pictures, then, in order to get the px's "out there", must concoct some words describing the picture's intent. I try to formulate words to support the picture. 

The intent, the concept, is nebulous, ethereal, airy. Beyond words.

Mother and Child.  Sacred Madonna and precious baby.  Universal, persistent images. A theme used world wide from the beginning of time. A theme that speaks to our deepest psychological needs.

Our need for soothing, protective, all giving love. Our longing for a mirror that tells us that we are perfect. Deep down, this is what we all want.  Lotsa, lotsa LOVE. Attention feeding our self esteem until we feel perfect.

Off on a Raging Tangent

Some New Age patter tells us that, really, we are perfect, we just will not accept our perfection.

But, if we are honest with ourselves, we know that we are just as human crazy as our neighbors.  I look at my looney self, I see my disturbed friends, I watch emotional wrecks on TV.  What the frazzle is going on here?  

I see the economy, more people homeless.  New college grads, burdened with debt, unable to find jobs. I see the economy traumatized by greed.  I see corrupt leaders.  

I see endless war.  I dont understand why we are always at war. I dont get it. It disturbs me to be a citizen of such a war mongering nation.

 I see a world that is complicated beyond comprehension.

I see religion.  I see the Catholic church with mind boggling riches and priests that fuck little boys. I see the history of religion.  The Inquisition.  Ghastly torture.

 I see endless wars fought over different religions,  each side with God on their side.  I see church ladies who think that they are righteous and snub teenagers who cant find a their way.  

I see people who think that they are perfect and better.  People who will not examine their own real souls. People who maintain self righteousness through self ignorance.

I see ministers, preaching rules that do not help people find a good life.  Preaching belief systems that just do not apply. 

I see nature attacking humans,  how many tornadoes?

I see a world so crazy with mass psychosis that we are unable to define "sane and healthy".

(What IS the good life?) 

I see all this shuff,  but I want to be happy, so most of the time I practice denial. I just ignore the bad , and go about my small, sweet life.

"I see trees of green, red roses too

I see them bloom, for me and you,

and I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

 I see sky of blue and clouds of white

the bright blessed day and sacred night

And I think to myself, what a wonderful world."

Louis Armstrong

Mother Mary Comforts Me

MOTHER MARY COMFORTS ME

This is a mixed media painting on canvas. The title comes from the Beatles song.

Monkey Cowboy

Monkey Cowboy

Show down in the French Quarter. Lucky Dog is about to get a free ride to Boot Hill.


I Am Confused, is that a Problem?

I have been using the question, "I am confused, is that a problem?" as a personal 'catch phrase' when I meander and twine with the internet.

Before I read a certain book, I didnt really know what the phrase meant, because I was, you know, confused.

The saying does express something that I feel about life, art and personal philosophy. I do not intend for the phrase to have a negative interpretation. It sounds negative, but I saw it as somehow positive.

Confusion is generally seen as a state of mind to be avoided at all cost. Even delusions are preferable to confusion. When we dont understand things, we invent explanations. NOT KNOWING is usually experienced as an uncomfortable state of mind.

In the movie, "Empire of the Sun", a doctor yells at the protagonist, "Stop thinking so much. You think too much." Eureka. Hmm, is that my problem? Maybe, I think too much.

I thought, Maybe, I will read some philosophy, maybe that will help with the confusion.

Soon, the book, "A Parliament of Minds", came my way. I bought it for twenty five cents at the Franklinton Public Library. They sell donated books, when there is no more room for books on the shelves. I love coincidences.

Printed in 2000, by the State University of New York Press, it is a book of relatively current philosophical thinking.

So I read it. And now I will quote from it.

This statement comes from David Rothenberg, associate professor of philosophy at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Philosophy doesn't make you settled, you know. In that sense it's different than meditation; it makes you more and more confused and through that confusion you can be much more alive and sort of wonder about the world. You know, wonder is the best thing philosophy has to offer. You have to wonder about this amazing planet, this amazing place where we are, and not get bored and not think there are too easy answers. Just keep asking, keep exploring.

Rothenberg expressed what I had sensed in my muddled, thinking brain. The concept has been there, in my cranium vault, it took Rothenberg to give me the words.

I had thought and thought, going in circles, back tracking, jumping forward, interweaving and tangling, untangling, and retangling.

Eventually, I arrived at an acceptance, even a celebration, of not knowing. I embraced mystery.

John Wayne Moses

John Wayne Moses
The Persistence of Worship Art Series

Through the ages humankind has venerated deities, celebrities, and rulers. There are historical streams of worshipful entities who display similar characteristics. The characteristics stay the same, but the entities change. I have been working on a series that explores the persistence of character streams that people worship.

After doing a Bacchus image of decadence. And painting images of Mary, representing compassion. And a Venus Sex Goddess image. Something was missing. I had done all "soft" libertarian images. My cosmogony needed balance.

I thought to balance things with this John Wayne, Moses, Sky God image. A disciplinarian would add needed weight to this art series. All that yin needed some yang. This image stream of masculine rulers, goes all the way back through Zeus to the Etruscan Sky God, Tinia. I associate this worship stream with rules, law and discipline.

Moses handed down the law. John Wayne was an alpha 'good guy' character who tromped the 'bad guys'. I associate Sky Gods with authoritarianism. Rule breakers are punished.

I will refrain from writing about how my father experiences relate to this subject. OK, I will just say, that Daddy Dearest liked John Wayne. Also, Father handed down strict law and meted out lots of punishment.

But, hey, you guys, you alpha males, hey! A few laws and some bit of discipline go a long way. You guys are control freaks. Hey! loosen up! Lets dont have any more rules and laws than are necessary for keeping people from hurting each other.

Apologies to Michelangelo for borrowing his Moses statue. I hope that he is not turning over in his grave, when he sees what I did with his beautiful art.

Silver Creek Garden Notes

It is getting warm to hot here. Temperatures in the 80's. The amaryllis that Lois gave me is blooming, red with creamy stripes. I take as much time as I can outside while the weather is beautiful. Mornings are perfect, in the 70's. I have a new raised vegetable bed with good soil that I have planted. Bunching onions, edge the bed. If you manage bunching onions well, you never have to buy them, or even plant them again. They are very low maintenance. Also planted peppers, tomatoes, rosemary, thyme, basil and parsley. The bed is only about 48 sq ft. I plant everything on top of each other. Most of the property here floods once or twice a year. In addition most of the property is shady with forest. There isnt much room for a sunny bed.

I am planting a hydrangea bush by the porch steps. So exciting. The blooms are stunning fresh and obtain a special fragile, faded look when dried.

Happy Spring,

Peace, Love and Art,

Janet