Big Government Has Destroyed The Arts

Artsy people are always whining that no one *supports the arts*...

And they are always panhandling government for subsidies....because, you know, no one will ever paint, draw, write, sing or create anything in the absence of taxpayer funding!

It's total bull$hit of course - akin to saying that *no one will educate poor people*, *no one will perform acts of charity*, "no one will develop alternative energies*,....if the government doesn't do it.

Now if you are a starving artist, bent on your own work....what would be the obvious side-job to help pay your bills???

Yes. It would be TEACHING kids.

But those jobs don't exist for a couple of reasons.

1 - kids learn art in the course of their school curriculum.

2 - parents believe that this *education* actually takes place.

Allow me to explain.

Parents who educate their own, especially those who feel artistically ignorant, are always on the prowl for art classes, resources, and TEACHERS for their children. I speak from personal experience here too.

Now imagine if these 80 million children WERE NOT fraudulently *taught art* in school, and imagine if their parents took the lead in educating them...

Do y'all realize how many art teaching jobs would suddenly become available for these long-haired, coffee-pouring, couch-crashing, starving artists???

Alright I have to include this funny painting of a *starving artist* I just found:

Sunday Cartoon

Some of you might be into this - music and animation similar to Pink Floyd's The Wall:

You can read more about it (whatever it is!) - here.

Artful Video

Yet Another Homeschool *Genius*

This one's an artist:

Akiane Kramarik is a young prodigy from Sandpoint, Idaho, who has been drawing and painting lifelike artwork since she was 4. Akiane (pronounced ah-KEE-ah-nah) says she first met God when she was 3. And now she's hoping to use her amazing gift to help feed needy children around the world.

When young Akiane's special gift was discovered, not much time passed before the humble 10-year-old was featured on Oprah, CNN, and other national media programs. Akiane began working in pastels when she was 5, and completed her first painting at 7. The self-portrait she painted sold for $10,000.

"It wasn't just art that was happening. Simultaneous with art was a spiritual awakening," says Akiane's mother, Forelli Kramarik. "It all began to happen when she started to share her dreams and visions. "Prior to that time, Forelli had been raised as an unbeliever, in an atheistic family from Lithuania. "And my husband was a former Catholic and did not share in the family beliefs. We didn't pray together, there was no discussion about God, and we didn't go to church. Then all of a sudden, Akiane was starting to talk about God."

Forelli's young daughter was homeschooled, she had no babysitters, and the family watched no television."We were with the kids all the time, and so these words from Akiane about God didn't come from the outside—we knew that. But there suddenly were intense conversations about God's love, His place [in our lives], and she would describe everything in detail."

Did y'all catch that?

HOMESCHOOLED, NO BABYSITTERS, and NO COLOR TV - just like I've been preaching for quite some time.

In order to reach anywhere near their human potential, children need to be around complete-sentence-wielding, working adults (not other juveniles!), they need solitude, and they need the brain exercise that naturally occurs from the absence of passive media consumption.

As my wife and I marvel at our off-the-charts homeschooled Prince occasionally one of us, though usually my wife, suggests that perhaps he's just a *genius*.

BUT I keep reminding her, and others, that there is no doubt that he's mostly a *product* of deliberate work and a manufactured environment.

See also:

Homeschooling - Enabling Concentrated Study

Off-The-Chart-Homeschooling.

Modern PRACTICAL Art

Excuse the over-sized image. It's cool though, right?

Ever wonder exactly how artists create images like that?

Well I had never really before, but it seems that my 4.76 year old Princess is turning out to be quite the little artist. And with no real expertise in that department between her parents (or family) I'm researching how best to nurture this interest.

She takes an art class one day per week which is VERY GOOD - except that it's $35 per class!

For that rate I may as well look to hire a private instructor or figure out out to co-op a class with a few other budding, serious artists.

But I'm also trying be a little farsighted here.

What do you think will be more important in the future - painting with acrylics or computer graphic design? What do you think will open more doors from a career standpoint - a deft touch with pastels or aptitude for digital photography, photoshopping, and Adobe Creative software?

Yeah, the latter is freakin' expensive ($400+) so I'm not about to buy that for my daughter anytime soon.

So in the meantime I'm Googling, researching, and keeping my eyes open for low cost, high-tech approaches to further her artistry. If you have any ideas, feel free to help me out!

That pic atop....you can see a rough snapshot of its development here.

However it was done, that's the type of skill I'd like my daughter to be working toward.

Absolutely Everything Online?

It just dawned on me that I have to channel MOST of my experimental homeschool art lessons over to the computer.

The future, and probably present, of art is all digital: flash animations, digital photography, photoshopping, movie-making, and whatnot.

I'm not fluent in these subjects, at all. So I need to do some work for myself as well - especially if I ever hope to produce any marketable content.

New York has everything. Only one town over in Great Neck I found a school that offers classes - for youngsters grade 2 and up! - in precisely what I am interested in: flash animation, video game design, and whatnot.

The only problem is, they work out to a pricey $60 per hour. So scrap the idea of outsourcing this subject. I'd rather buy the software and plow through the tutorials on my own. How hard can the introductory stuff be anyway?

And yeah, that is my work pictured above! I guess for starters I'll have my kids, particularly my art-enthused daughter (age 4.16), mess around with the Microsoft Paint program.  We see how that works out and then proceed from there.

See also - Art From My Butt.

Finally, Cool Modern Art!

Don't dare to miss this amazing Video Clip...first read it properly...

This video shows the winner of "Ukraine’s Got Talent", Kseniya Simonova, 24, drawing a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table showing how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during World War II. Her talent, which admittedly is a strange one, is mesmeric to watch.

The images, projected onto a large screen, moved many in the audience to tears and she won the top prize of about £75,000.

She begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting holding hands on a bench under a starry sky, but then warplanes appear and the happy scene is obliterated.

It is replaced by a woman’s face crying, but then a baby arrives and the woman smiles again. Once again war returns and Miss Simonova throws the sand into chaos from which a young woman’s face appears.

She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, before the image turns into a monument to an Unknown Soldier.

This outdoor scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is looking out on the monument from within a house.

In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man standing outside, with his hands pressed against the glass, saying goodbye.

The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine, resulted in one in four of the population being killed with eight to 11 million deaths out of a population of 42 million.

Kseniya Simonova says:

"I find it difficult enough to create art using paper and pencils or paintbrushes, but using sand and fingers is beyond me. The art, especially when the war is used as the subject matter, even brings some audience members to tears. And there’s surely no bigger compliment."



My kids, whom I'm trying to imbue with a love of art, will love that. I just emailed it to them.

So, what's with all this Ukraine stuff, eh?

See also - From Ukraine With Dollars.

Much thanks to the Private Caller clan for this one.

Greg Mankiw, Finally Right!

If Greg can confess partial embarrassment to admitting that he's been listening to *Lady Gaga*...

Then I'm going to confess substantial embarrassment in agreeing with him!

I too cannot get that song Bad Romance out of my head.

Though I will not, ABSOLUTELY NOT watch the freakshow video on YouTube. It has to blare in the background.

What is that Lady Gaga anyway?

Some sort of transgendered, undescended-testicle hermaphrodite or something?

Whatever. I am most certainly not going to watch her it in such a fleshy video.

It is a darn shame that we have to patronize and listen to these un-Ladylike singers. The lyrics are complete trash and they're horrible idols for our precious children. BUT they do make the best music.

Simply put, all the money is in trash, so it attracts the most talented singers, song-writers, producers, etc.

The relationship is sort of a reversal from the time of Papal Rome.



Back then, all these inverted, pagan artists were adorning churches and glorifying God with their art. They did it because they had to - as the Church paid the best!

The Bounty Of Solitude

The day after Christmas, at the last minute I decided to take the train from my MIL's house on Long Island into Manhattan - as I excitedly do whenever I get the chance.

Only this time, it wasn't one of my customary 10-hour eating and drinking binges.

No instead I went by myself, even deliberately bookless on the 46 minute train ride. I spent the travel time doing what I always do on this most scenic commute - inhaling the natural beauty of Long Island, of the Sound, and the unnatural beauty of Flushing Meadow, Shea Stadium Citi Field Taxpayer Field, Queens' homes near the tracks, etc.; I generally like to ruminate upon the dizzying variety of New York's economy; and I always, ALWAYS, spend this fascinating ride arguing with myself on whether or not we should move back to the energized NY area. In fact, recently the argument has been getting pretty intense - though this isn't the post for that discussion.

I got off at Penn Station with my umbrella and started walking. I went north through Times Square - and then cut over to Radio City. You see, there's a falafel/gyro truck there that's out-of-this-world. I delightfully consumed my lunch there in the cold drizzle amidst a bevy of very aggressive pigeons.

I found cover, whipped out my Droid phone and googled for the nearest subway station. But then I changed my mind and decided to hoof it all the way up to my destination on 82nd St - the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This was a bit of a self-conscious risk for me, walking so much knowing that I'd be on my feet for hours as well at the marble-floored Museum, given the limitations of my broken back.

Now I hadn't been to the Met since I was maybe 11 or so. My aunt and uncle from Brooklyn used to take us there where I'd be bored and exhausted out of my puerile mind. In fact I probably haven't been to a museum OF ANY KIND since I was in government middle school. I was SO SCARRED from those tortuous experiences that curiosity never had a chance at getting me back to one.

Obviously, I've changed a lot over the past 2 decades; notably I've become a real buff history buff. Halfway through reading Will Durant's tomes, the wheels started spinning in my head and I became very interested in *the arts*. I came to see what I should have been taught way back when - that painting, architecture, sculpture, etc., indeed WERE HISTORY; prior generations didn't have the visual delights of television and photography that we take for granted. The lumpen masses (and potentates) looked to art for inspiration and entertainment. I realized that for me to ignore the portraits, murals, and handcrafts of yore, that would be analogous to future historians trying to study present-day without considering our television shows, movies, YouTube, etc.

Alright enough on my personal intellectual journey. I fully blame *government schools* for turning me against the fine arts - just as others can rightfully blame schools for turning them off math, creativity, or any number of other tragically mishandled subjects.

I must have just beat the crowd at the Museum, because after wandering in the exhibits for a few hours, the lobby had become a complete zoo. The coat-checks were full and a security guard told me that this was *about as busy as it can get*. My solitary chi was then interrupted by a buddy who called at the last minute and wanted to meet up for drink on the West Side.

Like a clueless tourist, I figured that I could just *cut straight across* the park. Apparently the paths aren't so perpendicular. I got disoriented and almost completely lost in the middle before finding my bearings. It was pouring now and the only person I came across was some dude with a huge $9,000 camera or something focused up on the sky - or so I thought. He was actually photographing a large bird high atop a tree. I inquired as to what kind of bird it was, twice in fact before the grumpy invert lisped that it was a *hawk*. Whatever. Guy is probably trying to land some cool pic, blow it up, and sell it to some other loft-decorating invert in Manhattan for $1,000 or so.

Though my shoes and pant legs were now soaked, it was awesome to walk through and see the park completely deserted for the first time. Just as I find empty rainy golf courses sublime....I bet if I lived in NYC I'd also run to Central Park everytime the weather got dicey enough to scare off the riff raff.

The pics here, and above, are from my $200(!) camera, it of 2004 vintage:



When I finally did meet up with my buddy, he promptly tried to break my stones, "You went to the Museum all day....what, are you turning into some metrosexual or something?"

First of all, that's not what a metrosexual is. Secondly, he was wearing a beret or something!

See what I mean about him *interrupting my solitary chi*?

But it had been a fabulous, relaxing, and intellectually stimulating day.

Fantasies do, or at least SHOULD, evolve over time. No longer do I think about the Boston Celtics winning it all, making a jillion dollars, shooting 8 under par, or that recurring pair of ample-bosomed Asian girls anymore when I close my eyes. Nowadays I'm quite content with a slice of alone time and a mouthwatering gyro - all the better if they can be had in a fascinating place like Manhattan.

I've never really needed an iPod, a book, or a social companion. It'd be impossible for me to ever bore myself. I'm just far too fascinating!

See also - Observations From a NYC Pop-In.

Art From My Butt

Click that image to enlarge.

That was today's *drawing* session.

I've decided to incorporate sketching into our daily homeschool regimen - even though I myself can barely churn out legible handwriting!

The 5.00 year old Prince has already learned his shapes in those Kumon geometry books, so I figure a little side-door reinforcement can only help.

My son's assignment was to draw each of the figures on the list; and he did so with rapt enthusiasm and only a modicum of coaching. Almost everything now seems fun and easy after the torturous long division of decimals!

"You want to draw SpongeBob?"

"Well we're going to first have to sketch a square, and then two parallelograms attached to it..."

Though first, we had to learn how to draw parallel lines, congruent line segments, etc.

I'm no artist by any stretch. But I do remember from my youth, that there were a few things that I could sketch a bit. And those few things were what I drew over and over again as no doubt a mask for my incompetence.

After contemplating art a bit recently, I've come to see its importance as a PARTICIPATORY endeavor. Any big mouthed Moron can stare at a picture and wax provoked...just like any fat slob can second guess a play-call on his television - but that doesn't make him an athlete!

One thing that appeals to me about these *lessons* is that teaching kids to draw is progressive - not at all unlike going from the alphabet to composition or from finger counting to combinations and permutations. They really just need to learn the building blocks, practice a bit, and accept nudges from sagacious adults.

So how to go about getting my brood climbing the art learning curve?

Outsourcing?....that's inefficient AND expensive.

Which would only leave insourcing, to the aforementioned art-tarded parent(s).

I submit that educators have only a small chance of imbuing a child with enthusiasm for a subject that they themselves don't manifestly love.

In other words, how could I ever convince my kids of the importance of art if they have never witnessed Dad wielding chalk on a blank slate?

So I've made a point to sit down with them, and their crayons, and get about teaching AND learning.



Don't laugh at, well, probably my first sketch in the past 20 years.

My kids thought it was awesome....wicked awesome!

There are a ton of resources out there that, obviously, I will have to tap down the road.

And who knows, maybe I'll discover that there really was a flamboyant little artist in me - one that was suppressed by inferior methods of instruction?

For Taylor's New Apartment?

Last week, in my ongoing journey to broaden my horizons....I attended an art gallery opening.

There I saw featured the following pieces:







And you know what, the guy standing in front of them looked suspiciously like the guy in them!

And it was.

Apparently the artist plasters himself in all of his work. Narcissism? Or original, cool shtick?

No idea.

Another trivial tidbit....the guy professes to NOT BE an invert.

Sure.

I'm left wondering who on Earth would pay thousands of dollars for these self-portraits? Who could possibly want to stare at his LYING mug all day long?

Again, I admit I know zilch of this *art world*.