Hand-build clay sculpture, Fire Dreaming, by Tammy Vitale of Tam’s Originals
As promised here is a round up of goodies I’ve found around and about over the past week.
I was going to start with an article on motorcycle art; however the link is 4 hand-written lines long and I can’t get it to work. So I’ll just post a quote and you can see if you can find it at TheStar.com, a Canadian paper. The article is titled: Flames, Flowers, Skulls or Chintz . The artist, Brad Francis says: "Working on bikes is much more challenging than my movie work, even though it’s on a small scale," Francis says. "This is a fussy medium, and you’re working with very specific drying and curing times." We have two Harleys. They’re pretty straight forward with no custom work; but as a "biker-chick" my whole life, I have always been fascinated by the art and the time it takes to do it. I’d like to do that to my old van, right now, just for a fun project (like I need another one, but hey…)
In line with yesterdays referred post on my myspace blog, on What Women Want, here’s an article snip draft by Cynthia Peters on Znet re Kindship:
"What is a family? A family is a collection of people committed to each other’s growth, development, safety, nurturance, happiness, etc. in a way that is fair, affirming of the individual as well as the family unit, supportive, and tolerant.
"Perhaps in a better world, with things like solidarity, justice, tolerance, participation, and liberty running rampant, the family as we know it will simply wither away. Who needs a "haven in a heartless world" if the world is not heartless at all? Who needs the protective bonds of family intimacy if the workplace, the culture, the political sphere are not constantly assaulting your humanity? Who says there is even anything necessarily positive about family intimacy when it seems so often to be a cloak for family dysfunction. At best, some might argue, parents create families in desperate attempts to somehow meet their own unmet needs for love and connection. At worst, parents’ approach to children as pawns in their emotional game leads to wholesale oppression of young people, including physical and emotional abuse. Today’s political and social structures give few rights to children, protecting them only from the most egregious forms of abuse, and doing that poorly.
"Why have families at all if there is so much danger of them acting as sealed breeding grounds for unhealthy relationships and possibly even extreme oppression?"
That should be good somewhere for a heated discussion.
Further to my post on Mother’s Day’s original crator, Julia Ward Howe, against war. I reported the Civil War, but Laurie of Hoopla Trader’s (thanks, Laurie!) sent me a card which says that it was the Franco-Prussion war that was the immediate stimulus and which contained the actual proclamation (which is a prose poem and I will present it as only prose):
"Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears!
"Say firmly: ‘We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.’
"From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, ‘Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice!’ Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
"As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each learning after her own time the sacred impress…
"In the name of woman hood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interest of peace."
Wow. When was the last time you heard anything like that associated with today’s Mother’s Day celebrations?!!!!
The card notes: Despite her many accomplishments and work for justice, she is most often remembered today as author of the lyrics to The Battle Humn of the Republic." Listen to the lyrics of the song in your head in light of the above proclamation.
Finally, I am afraid I am becoming a blog geek. I say this because I’m at the point where I’m starting to be able to "see" things more broadly than a novice. This is the same thing as a community-based organizer when I can read the local paper and know all the background stuff going on that isn’t reported. Here’s why I feel this way: I just ordered Andy Wibbels book "Blog Wild!: A Guide for Small Business Blogging." And find it to be a duplicate (in more concise form) of the book I ordered from The BlogSquad gals on setting up a typepad account. I will return it because I don’t need it; however, it only cost $19.95 compared to the BlogSquad’s book cost of $65 (and a recent post said the price was going to $95. But they include hand-holding in the cost, so you can email them with questions should you need to. I did once, but haven’t much needed it since. Typepad is very good about quickly answering emailed questions). To those thinking about starting, Andy’s book is the better investment.
There’s more, but I’ll save that for later.
Thought for the day: "…..art itself, the creative power that moves through us, healing and transforming those who encounter it….the reception of our work by ourselves as well as others is none of our business. Our job is to do it. We work, and the work works through us….As artists, we are intended to be conduits for inspiration…." Julia Cameron, Walking in this World: The Practical Art of Creativity
note: sorry for the format spacing between paragraphs. Cable is dicey this morning and rather than erase this whole blog I’m leaving it like it is as efforts don’t seem to be working well to change it.
