Last May I did a post about Erin Mcguire's work at the moment I found her blog and was spelled by her art. I went back and was enchanted again and as it's always hard to chose two in a good collection I decided for these because I love blue. At least there is a criterion not very orthodox but a criterion. But notice that the "action" is not in blue. The cat and the boy with a book in his hand as a shadow and the light that comes from inside is amazing.
I first watched it at Al Jazeera but they don't have the embed option. For the moment I keep hearing Narces Benoit, the eyewitness who taped on his cell-phone and put the smart card in his mouth, saying:
"They're gonna kill this man, Oh my God"/ "They're gonna kill this man."/ "Oh My God, He gotta be dead." "He's dead?" ..."He's dead... bro.' "They killed this man...Oh My God!"/... "he is dead."
Miami Beach police celebrating memorial day. The "nigga", that was the most important crime of all in this story: they are all "niggas", and we know that "niggas" are not citizens in the eyes of many people, who was killed with the immunity of the badge was Raymond Herisse. No trial, no "you have the right to remain in silence, the right to an attorney". This man was executed. Narces Benoit narration in his tape predicting and witnessing the murder shows that he is used to this kind of crime and he feels the pain for this murder and all the others that he has heard of. Why would he put the smart card in his mouth if he was confident in the scrupulousness of the policemen? These are the Americans cops? According to many comments at sites where the video is exposed yes, this is the way American cops behave in many states in America, the democratic America. This is an example:
"Police kill people with immunity in the US. It is sad but way too common in this country, Even though there is video evidence to prove those cops were out of their mind by shooting that many bullets into a suspects car nothing will happen to those cops. Look at the guy who executed Oscar Grant in Oakland for no reason other than he is a rabid, bloodthirsty murderer with a badge. He is already out of prison. And that guy is one of the few to actually get convicted even if it wasn't for murder. That's how "innocent until proven guilty" works in the "land of the free" Cops dump hundred of bullets into somebody they even have yet to apprehend and charge with a crime (for our protection, of course) and worry about it later. Police brutality is a serious problem everywhere and it only gets worse. Cops are tasing old people who get attitudes with them, little kids, shooting at minorities they think are suspicious. They are the ones who are out of control and now we are the ones who go to jail when we catch them committing crimes? NWA was right. F@#$ the police!""
We want justice, not executions. It's hard to be fair when the president of the country invades another nation and executes a terrorist. Yes, Osama was a terrorist but this is not how justice is done and being applauded and considered a hero for that is a bad example that induces authorities keep abusing their power. There is a lot to be changed also in about human rights in America.
"A tessellation or tiling of the plane is a pattern of plane figuresthat fills the plane with no overlaps and no gaps. One may also speak of tessellations of parts of the plane or of other surfaces. Generalizations to higher dimensions are also possible. Tessellations frequently appeared in the art of M. C. Escher, who was inspired by studying the Moorish use of symmetry in theAlhambra tiles during a visit in 1922. Tessellations are seen throughout art history, from ancient architecture to modern art.
In Latin, tessella is a small cubical piece of clay, stone or glass used to make mosaics.[1] The word "tessella" means "small square" (from "tessera", square, which in its turn is from the Greek word for "four"). It corresponds with the everyday term tilingwhich refers to applications of tessellations, often made of glazedclay."
M. C. Escher's work is so diverse and amazing that it is impossible to be indifferent when someone stumble upon one of his creations."He was fascinated by mathematics:
"By keenly confronting the enigmas that surround us, and by considering and analysing the observations that I have made, I ended up in the domain of mathematics, Although I am absolutely without training in the exact sciences, I often seem to have more in common with mathematicians than with my fellow artists."
This is a key to understand his source of imagination. Still these two printings, left created in 1950 and right 1959, are fascinating and capture our eyes because they make us dream.
"Quilling, the coiling and shaping of narrow paper strips to create a design, has been around for years — hundreds, in fact. During the Renaissance, nuns and monks would roll gold-gilded paper remnants trimmed during the bookmaking process, and use them to decorate religious objects as an alternative to costly gold filigree. Quilling later became a pastime of 18th and 19th century young ladies in England, who would decorate tea caddies and pieces of furniture with paper filigree. The practice crossed the Atlantic with colonists, who added quilling to candle sconces and trays as home decorations." by Ann Martin at her blog Craftzine.
"She dreamt of Love" project by the South African Lavanya Naido was presented to me via All Things Paper and I think it show how amazing quilling is. There are numerous amazing quilling works but I decided to share this one because it shows that it is not only a decorating art and it can even tell a story in a kind of 3D technique.
I cannot pretend I didn't see this video. We are being diagnosed and prescribed drugs by the pharmaceutical industry and not physicians. This is the reason for prescribing Gardasil:
$1,200 each injection
Promotional Price $3,000 (3 injections)
$1400 each injection
Promotional Price $3,000 (3 injections)
The deaths because of the vaccine are being covered by Merck, regulatory agencies, lawmakers and a bunch of people who make money making other people ill or giving them drugs that kill. If this is not considered a crime I don't know what crime is anymore. From World Net Daily:
""Anaphylactic shock," "foaming at mouth," "grand mal convulsion," "coma" and "now paralyzed" are a few of the startling descriptions included in a new federal report describing the complications from Merck & Co.'s Gardasil medication for sexually transmitted human papillomavirus – which has been proposed as mandatory for all schoolgirls.
The document was obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration byJudicial Watch,a Washington group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, and it has details of 10 deaths just since September.
The new documents also reveal a total of 8,864 Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System records, up from a total of 3,461 that had been reported in a document just last fall.
That, however, has not diverted the building campaign to have legislatures adopt mandatory vaccination plans.
Judicial Watch said one of the reports, VAERS ID: 310262-1 (D), had this to say:
"Information has been received…concerning a 20-year-old female with no medical history reported, who on 01-APR-2008 was vaccinated with a dose of Gardasil….The patient died four days after…patient sought unspecified medical attention. An autopsy was performed which ruled out suicide and anything suspicious."
"Given all the questions about Gardasil, the best public health policy would be to re-evaluate its safety and to prohibit its distribution to minors. In the least, governments should rethink any efforts to mandate or promote this vaccine for children,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
The organization's work uncovered reports of about one death each month since last fall, bringing the total death toll from the drug to at least 18 and as many as 20. There also were 140 "serious" reports of complications including about three dozen classified as life-threatening, 10 spontaneous abortions and half a dozen cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
The document reveals the case of an 18-year-old woman who got the Gardasil vaccine, was found unconscious that evening, and died. Another woman, age 19, got the drug and the next morning was found dead in her bed."
Update June, 30, 2011 I changed the video because it is no longer available so I changed this one because it's not from patients and the probability of being removed is lower. There are many patients' video at Youtube and you can link them from this one minute video that reports a girl who died hours after taking Gardasil in 2009. Although they say that they were going to do an "urgent investigation" nothing was done and more girls are taking this drug that has death as one of many side effects. But if lawmakers and all those who profit from the market of this vaccine are happy we are all happy, aren't we? After all we voted for them to take care of our health so it's fair that they are payed for their job. Sounds a little Kafka. They want to make Gardasil vaccination mandatory.
Right: Music and Literature, 1878, by William Barnett
Left: Still Life of Books, 1628, by Jan Davidsz de Heem
Although these two paintings are separated by two centuries they have a lot in common. The right one depicts books and some objects we cannot quickly recognize as being part of our lives and we have the feeling that everything that is on he table was put carefully at each place so that the painter could show his skills in painting realistically.
The left one has an atmosphere that someone is working at these place and can reappear at any moment making the scene part of quotidian life but we can feel that it was one of the painters intention. Jan Davidsz de Heem has many still lives where it is clear that objects were arranged. We can only hope that someone was there to clean them or the painter would not be able to see the texture of the metal, glass or the other materials accurately.
These are not photos, they are acrylic painting by by ~duytter . The wet effect of the right one is amazing. Why paintings that represent reality move us?
After 81 days in Chinese prison the artist and activist Ai Weiwei is back at this studio as the Reuter's picture shows. I knew Ai Weiwei because of videos, statements and interviews the British sculptor Anish Kapoor, that I like very much, did to denounce Ai Weiwei imprisonment. In one of them he rejects a British exhibition in China that would take place at Tienanmen Square as a protest for Ai Weiwei imprisonment. I loved Weiwei work immediately and felt ashamed I didn't know him yet. He has a great work and is a very bright man, a man of dignity and integrity. Still that is the way Chinese government treats one of it's most important artist because they cannot listen to any phrase that shows any kind of dissent. The most ridiculous example: this blog. After I published two posts this one and this the blog was blocked in China. What does this blog have of importance? What is written in these posts that is so offensive? The truth? Yes. Chinese people in general don't know about Tienanmen Square, 1989, when the Chinese government massacred young people in one of the most cowards ways.
Now with Lybia and Syria and others it is hard to rank who is the worst. But having these kind of massacres, I'm listening to the TV and they are reporting crackdowns. How to describe it? I changed the subject. But as Kapoor said in May, 10 for BBC about Ai Weiwei prison and he don't even know him personally:
"It's a month now that the poor man has been held without a voice, but not only that, his family doesn't know where he is," said Kapoor.
"This is not a situation that is acceptable in any circumstances.
Kapoor, left, has called on the art world to support Ai Weiwei
"It does bear witness to the barbarity of governments if they're that paranoid that they have to put away artists. It's a ridiculous situation."
Kapoor exhorted the artistic class and galleries and museums to be active in situations like that saying that museums, for instance could be closed for one day. I agree with Kapoor. Too much is happening and I don't see artists and those people who belong to the "cultural elite" doing what they used to do: say "NO". "This make us back to a Soviet-style time when the voice of artists... were seen as being dangerous." Kappor said. I remembered dictatorship times in South America when artists also "disappeared". This is unacceptable and we have to say it repeatedly: "NO!" NEVER AGAIN!"
Welcome back Ai Weiwei! We'll be watching Chinese government watching you.
"They (the sibyls) were women of ancient times supposed to have supernatural gifts of foretelling the future. They devoted themselves to solitude and meditation, and sometimes lived apart in caves or grottoes. Sometimes they were connected with temples, and delivered what were supposed to be the messages of the gods to the worshippers. These messages were called oracles, and were greatly revered by the people who consulted the gods.
Some of the sibyls' words of wisdom were committed to writing and passed down to following generations. Though they lived in heathen countries, the tradition ran that they prophesied the advent of Christ. There is a passage in one of Virgil's eclogues (the fourth) upon which the supposition is based. Early in the Christian era, when men were spreading the new faith, they made much of these sibylline prophecies to add weight to their teachings." (keep reading at the site).
About the Sibyl:
"The Delphic sibyl, or pythia, of Michelangelo's picture, has the splendid stature of an Amazon. Her head is draped with a sort of Greek turban, beneath which her hair escapes in flying curls. Her face and expression show her at once to be unlike an ordinary woman. She has the look of a startled fawn, which has suddenly heard the call of a distant voice. She turns her head in the attitude of one listening. She looks far away with eyes that see visions, but what those visions are none can guess. There are other pictures of the same sibyl carrying a crown of thorns, showing that she predicted the sufferings of Christ. Perhaps this is the meaning of the sorrowful expression in these wide eyes."
"Every day, thousands of people run from war, persecution and terror. Even one is too many. One family force to flee is too many. One child growing up in a camp is too many. One refugee without hope is too many."
Angelina Jolie - UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador
Today is World refugee day.
"Who are you?"
"I'm a refugee."
You no longer belong to humanity.
I just found a great woman Ashley Cecil that did the left watercolor for 2007 World Refugee Day. At her blog Painting with a cause she raises many issues about refugees and her art is engaged to human rights and politics. It makes me feel so happy that there are people doing what they can! We have to do even if a post remembering that today is the World day of Refugees a condition that is unacceptable.
I did a post about Darfur refugees in 2010. Nothing has changed. Refugees is not a permanent condition! How many people are refugees? How many are becoming?
Is The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees really doing a good work?
When medicine is corrupted and cares only about money and not the health of people and drugs that kill are on the market it becomes a criminal issue.
"(NEWSER) – Leonardo da Vinci's model for the Mona Lisa was smiling despite some serious health problems, according to an Italian pathologist applying his knowledge to Renaissance painting. Professor Vito Franco of the University of Palermo says a tumor on her hand and apparent buildups of fatty acids around her eyes show that the Mona Lisa had dangerously high levels of cholesterol, the Telegraph reports. The subjects for Botticelli's Portrait of a Youth and Parmigianino’s Madonna with Long Neck both appear to have suffered from the genetic disorder Marfan syndrome, according to Franco. The models weren't the only sick ones, Franco says: Michelangelo, as depicted in Raphael's The School of Athens, has swollen knees which "appear to indicate an excess of uric acid." This was probably the result of months spent painting the Sistine Chapel while living on only bread and water, the professor says."
Medicine is not only harming many people by prescribing powerful drugs whose risks overweight the benefits but now it is showing a ridiculous side and how far from science it is. How can it be that a physician diagnoses paintings? This is absurd. Diagnosing a person was once difficult but now in five minutes physicians not only diagnose but prescribe and the medicines are always described as having 'mild' side effects and surely will help you and heal you. Strangely enough the medicines prescribed are always among the most expensive. If you want to have an idea about what is happening with medicine read this review released by the English Parliament in 2005: "The Influence of the Pharmaceutical Industry". Some highlights: 2. The drugs are produced by a very large and successful industry. It employs 83,000 people directly and many more indirectly, and makes a huge contribution to the balance of trade each year. Overall, the industry represents the country’s third most profitable economic activity, after tourism and finance. It is of great importance to the UK economy; (emphasis mine) p.25
80. A major part of the work of medical communications agencies involves liaison with the lay media and a significant proportion of their activities may be directed towards building relationships with journalists. p. 27 (emphasis mine)
a) Drug company representatives. Approximately 8,000 drug company representatives operate in the UK and play an important role in information provision and many doctors cite them as one of the main sources of information on the use of new drugs.56 p.27/28 (emphasis mine)
"Increasingly, medication is now prescribed to reduce risk of future illness. Selling medication to treat risk factors rather than diseases is immensely profitable for the pharmaceutical industry: or example, statins (to lower cholesterol levels) are now the biggest selling prescription drugs in the world and are also now available over the counter." 220 p. 75 (emphasis mine) There are many people trying to raise awareness about how medicine is corrupted and the last concern of this industry, that has the help of regulatory agencies such as FDA and MHRA, politicians, physicians, WHO and medical organizations is people's health. Instead it is making people sick and killing (Vioxx case as one example). Iatrogenesis, illness caused by treatment, is the third cause of hospitalization in America. Health became a commodity that doesn't spare children. This is sad. The good news is that we don't need to go the physicians offices anymore. We will send them our pictures!
Sometimes taking the borders of the images creates a very interesting atmosphere and it is very easy to get rid of them. At the "edit html" add the code style="border:none;""display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" You must do it before writing or adding other images at the post otherwise you can lose the edition of the whole post. It took a while to figure out why I was not doing it correctly. You can find at this blog done by Peter Enviroment lots of answers for some Blogger problems. Have a great week!
Take a look at this search to see the blog awards created till now. I believe that one day there will a a blog award, these created by bloggers not the officials, museum since they are part of blogosphere culture.
Wow! That was so unexpected. Maznah at Cooking Varieties gave me these six awards. They are all so colorful and beautiful! I'm very happy and honored receiving them. This is the second time this week Maznah passed me an award. We all know that there are people who loves the awards and people who don't. I want to give these to those who like so I will search for blogs that have awards at their pages for it indicates that they like them. I'll try to do it today. I'm accepting indications, so please, if you want one of the awards or know a friend of yours who likes receiving these images created with the intention of uniting people tell me. I always ask myself who created the award. I have already a list but I want to publish them all together. Rules: 1. Accept the award, post it in your blog with the link of the person who has given you. 2. Pass it on to 15 bloggers to keep the ball rolling. 3. Let the nominated bloggers know about their award by leaving a comment on their recent post. Have a great Saturday!
Thank you all for inspiring me! Update: I have to delete one blog at the list because the blogger claims that as she is a journalist, she reports about Ballet, she doesn't want to be in this list and she claims that her "website" is no longer a blog because she got a domain and blogspot directs for her url. She already "received" a blog from Hella Heaven two years ago. I only feel sorry for journalists who don't have what as goal the "accountability" that Tim Sebastian talks about at the post below. So many great journalists doing a great work without receiving money! Some of them even refuses to put advertisements to be totally unbiased. I really thank all the pajamas media for the great work.
Kapoor, left, has called on the art world to support Ai Weiwei
