Revolutionary Art

Thanks for Looking

2011-04-19T14:59:00.003-05:00

This blog is no longer actively updated. Please visit Leitworks.com and Offworldgraphics.net for my active websites. I also have an active group art website called Antiwar Artists and an artists blog to go along with that. Please check them out. A lot of work has gone into them, (versus this poor little site, which I completely forgot about this last year.)

Those sites also contain all the links to where I sell my artwork and display it online. One example is the small watercolor seen here (not necessarily representative of what will be there, but it's one thing that will be available).

I'll soon be putting together a store of small things on eBay. Check out the links above for more information on that.

Surely you Jest

2009-08-17T23:29:00.004-05:00

It's been a long time since I posted here. It's about time I got back in business. I have not, sad to say, been doing much painting, but rather messing around with online things, podcasting, graphic arts, fractals, designing things, and doing all sorts of other things. But I have also been collecting some cool artwork. Here is one just for starters. I hope to have many more soon and to jumpstart this blog again. My work, hopefully, to follow soon.

It is Rembrandt as The Joker. So much more artistic and harmless than that badly done picture featuring our President.

Oxfam -- Climate Change on Canvas

2008-11-25T14:24:00.003-06:00

CLIMATE CHANGE ON CANVAS

Oxfam America is proud to participate in an exciting project bringing together artists and activists from around the world, each doing their part to illustrate how climate change is affecting poor communities right now.

After requesting proposals from several up-and-coming artists from around the country, Oxfam America commissioned “the painting activist” Ashley Cecil of Louisville, Kentucky to put her ideas about climate change on canvas. Her painting will be shipped to Oxfam International's exhibition at the next UN Conference of Parties (COP) meeting, which takes place this December 1-12 in Poznan, Poland. Cecil's work will be displayed alongside similar works of art created by internationally renowned professionals as well as unknown community artists from around the globe–from Malawi to the Solomon Islands, from Spain to India. The exhibition serves as a powerful reminder of the growing, global movement around climate change and poverty.

Oxfam America has also received artwork from college students in Minneapolis, Bangkok, and Chicago, which will also go on display in Poznan.

Tulum 2007

2007-11-24T07:30:00.001-06:00

A little trip to Tulum, Mexico, in November 2007

Working on the New Place

2007-09-15T11:03:00.000-05:00

I have finally started construction of my new art site and I don't see any reason to wait until it's done to put the address here at least:

Revolutionaryart.org

It's far from done and I'm still struggling with the best plugins to use for the gallery pictures, but things are there. I mean, I wouldn't send you to a blank website!

Daniel Gonzalez Muniz

2007-04-01T23:39:00.000-05:00

Recently selected as an administrator's favorite on Flickr. This is called "1st world murder" o "Africa" on flickr. You can see more of his work, and it's amazing! here on his flickr page. Much of his work is social commentary, some is political, some defies categorization.
Check it out.
My photos are there too but no artwork yet.

Interplanetary

2007-03-01T23:39:00.000-06:00

Doug Minkler does printable graphics and socially conscious artwork and graphics. This is his statement from his website:

"Corporations want artists to glorify their wars, their products & their philosophies. I make posters for my own preservation, that is, planetary preservation. My prints are inspired not by rugged individualism, but by the collective humor, defiance, & lust for life exhibited by those on the margins."

He's done some very nice things and it's definitely artwork I can relate to.

Interesting Enough to Note . . .

2007-02-08T08:46:00.002-06:00

SLART Tracks Art of Second Life:
With over 2.8 million registered users, the online world of Second Life is attracting its share of media attention. Now Richard Minsky,
an artist and the founder of the Center for Book Arts, has started a
magazine dedicated to Second Life's burgeoning art marketplace. Named Slart
(for "Second Life Art"), the publication will trace the development of
the virtual trade, where works â ranging from the graf-influenced
abstractions of Filthy Fluno to the now defunct, sculpture-creating magic wand of StarAx Statosky
can sell for nearly six figures in Lindens (the currency of Second
Life, where 250 Lindens=$1). Because Second Life users have copyrights
over their virtual creations, real money is exchanged between simulated
hands. The IBM Corporation is rumored to be building a collection of
virtual artwork, while Jen Bekman Gallery and George Eastman House have already set up virtual exhibitions.
Go to original story "

And here is SLART
Pictured: A Painting of Judith by Artemetia Gentileschi

Abu Ghraib Paintings

2006-12-11T01:06:00.000-06:00

The artwork of Fernando Botera, which you can see more of here.
My initial reactions to this show were not good. I thought the men were too fat, too white, stiffly posed, obviously done from small photos, anatomically incorrect, etc. Then I thought, what the hell, it's the point of it. If paintings have a good point, I'm willing to forgive almost anything. I still don't understand why they are all so obese, but at least he has a recognizable style and something to say, although I'm not sure exactly what it is. Torture makes you fat? If I had done these they would have looked like they were suffering more, but I like that he did this and got wide exposure for it. All in all the paintings seem a little removed to me.

If you are an artist who does "revolutionary art" send me some pics and I don't mind sharing them here at all. There are too few websites devoted to political and cultural art and I want to build a good one, and I don't mind sharing it with other artists. Stay tuned.

Quarry Park, St. Cloud

2006-09-17T05:30:00.000-05:00

These are not art pictures, obviously. They are two photos I took yesterday when I was at Quarry Park in St. Cloud, a county park that is now a nature preserve but used to be a quarry mine for granite. I walked about 8 miles through granite quarries and trees and swamps and took these two pictures along the way (and about 100 others). The bottom picture is a giant saw blade with my peace arm (tm) sticking out of the center.

Also . . . . I'm going to link my other blog from here because it's way more important than this one. Citizen Against Lies

Dubya Caesar

2006-06-18T07:19:00.000-05:00

I have really been neglecting this blog lately. I think in the future I'll devote it to political art instead of just things that are my favorites. That was too broad a concept anyway! Here is something interesting from a visitor to my favorite art gallery in the state, the MIA:

George Bush Art
Minneapolis Inst. of the Arts had a gallery open for political art. [I saw it, - it was deliciously brutal.] Many of the images shown here represent posters on display until election day 2004. I did not make the posters. Most are anti-Bush. As I add more you will see some of the (few) pro- George Bush ones. I have a few photos of other political activity mixed in with the posters. George W. Bush, George Bush, Dubya.

[UPDATE: FEB 9, 2006]. I am pleased to see the support of the PBase community to allow these "cartoons", some of which I admit are in poor taste, to be prominently displayed on this site. The PBase community represents the world community well with its support of freedom of expression.

I posted the first 16 of these images more than 1 year ago, before the last presidential election. I don't know why they suddenly appeared at the top of the popular galleries, but I am pleased about it. Not for my artistic expression as a photographer (the art is the work of others; I took snapshots of it), but for the freedom of expression these images represent."

Mean Karl

2006-04-24T08:05:00.000-05:00

Karl Rove, you're so mean

Your head looks like a kidney bean

Nasty and stubborn as a goat

It's nearly time to Swift Boat

Dubya

2006-04-17T05:30:00.000-05:00

This is my first political pencil/charcoal drawing in a long time. I want to do one every week, but now I have to do Evey from "V for Vendetta" first thanks to inspiration from H.A. Calles. Stay tuned.

Rummy Juggling Skellies

2006-04-17T05:21:00.000-05:00

The artwork of Robbie Conal!
A San Francisco dweller, too.

Firefly Parody

2006-04-08T05:11:00.000-05:00

The best one I've seen... and I've seen plenty.

Note to Self/Art by Josh Ferrin

2006-03-07T07:25:00.000-06:00

Don't lose this guy's link! What I want to know is: Equipment? Software? Scanner? It's not that I like his cartoons so much, (they're cute enough) but I like his sketched faces. I also want to know his technique. I also used to draw in church, back when I was forced to go, and no one seemed to mind, but I bet they would have if they had seen the sketches. For some reason, church sketches were never flattering to people.

Jaguar/Tikal

2006-03-01T01:07:00.000-06:00

This is my completely off-scale jaguar. Notice the tiny people at his feet. Hardly even a snack. He was painted on a separate piece of paper, cut out and glued on an existing picture of the Jaguar Temple that I did months ago from one of my own photos.

The Virtual Museum of Political Art

2006-02-24T02:17:00.001-06:00

I love this stuff. Most of it, anyway. It's not flattering to anyone, so I wonder what he does with it all. I'd hang it up.

Action Jackson

2006-02-24T02:00:00.000-06:00

Jackson Pollock, 1941, Untitled. Yeah, he drew, too. Most painters start out drawing realistically, and then graduate to more of a style which is often still realist but also often abstract, impressionistic, surrealist, cubist, expressive, illustrative, whatever. Something "other" than realistic. Luckily most painters, if they are meant to, grow out of that "paint only what you see" BS dogma of art school. It took me YEARS to get over that! I'd rather use my imagination than waste my eyes in the role of a camera. I have a camera for that.

Anyway, 32 new Pollock pictures were found in an attic last month and recently declared "authentic" after being declared unauthentic, initially. Apparently Pollack had an intuitive, innate sense of the order of nature and his seemingly random splatters and blobs were actually mathematically-patterned fractals. (Sounds like vodoo to me. Must we always make dead artists so mythological and super-powered?) Whether or not he realized what he was doing is another matter entirely. He always did insist his paintings were no accident. And aaaccording to the experts who studied the newfound paintings, no one but Pollock could pull off a Pollock. These new paintings lack the famous fractal patterns due to an assumed experimental phase he was going through, (aha) but other clues point to the fact that they are indeed his. I include his drawing here because everyone has seen his abstract splatter paintings, and I like this.

Thomas Hart Benton

2006-02-24T01:52:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite American Artists, but it sure is hard to find anything beautiful of his online. (in full color) I guess I've seen all my favorite things of his in books. He has impossible perspectives and everything is so flowy it's enough to give you vertigo. He was one of the mural painters during the Depression, but I like him because his work borders on surrealism. He was also a very good sculptor and printer maker (lithographs) and I just found this out, which is why this entry even exists: he was a huge influence on Jackson Pollock! Pictured:
The Ballad of the Jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley,
Oil and tempra on canvas,
107.3 x 135.2 cm.

We Paid For This!

2006-02-06T00:49:00.000-06:00

This was a formally commissioned portrait. That means us taxpayers paid for this! Outrageous! Besides the audacity of positioning him along with the great presidents at Mount Rushmore, the artist made him look WAY too good.

People Bears

2006-02-02T05:13:00.000-06:00

A sample of my art show. No it's not a sharp picture; I'll have to take all my photos over when it comes down. You should see my jaguar.

Cover the Kids' Eyes

2006-01-15T01:58:00.000-06:00

These two were both sold.

Slow Art

2006-01-15T01:49:00.000-06:00

From SlowArt.com. This guy likes Gumby a LOT. He's in a lot of his paintings. You can see Gumby in the background on this one.

What is this Place?

2006-01-12T07:39:00.000-06:00

Just a place for me to put artwork I like. I always seem to lose my bookmarks, so if I keep some sites here I can see examples of the links as well as know they are backed up somewhere.

And also, just because there isn't enough art in the world or on blogs. Like this by Belizean artist Carolyn Carr. It's called "Xunantunich". That's an ancient Mayan city in the country of Belize very close to San Ignacio, or about 7 miles from the western border with Guatemala.

Guavara on Art

2006-01-12T07:10:00.000-06:00

Che Guavara on Art

"The superstructure [of capitalism] demands a kind of art that the artist has to be educated in. Rebels are subdued by the machine, and only exceptional talents [I read this phrase as in ironic quotes] may create their own work. The rest become shamefaced hirelings or are crushed… Meaningless anguish or vulgar amusement thus become convenient safety valves for human anxiety. The idea of using art as a weapon of protest is combated."

But he also points to the blinders of earlier socialist revolutions-in-process, where "an exaggerated dogmatism" has tried to address the question of culture, demanding "the formally exact representation of nature" in art, followed by "a mechanical representation of the social reality they wanted to show: the ideal society, almost without conflicts or contradictions, that they sought to create."

Che struggles here with the dialectic of art as simultaneously embodiment and shaper of consciousness, rooted in past forms and materials even as it gestures toward a still unachieved reality. What is to be the freedom of the artist in the new Cuba? It can be difficult, living under present conditions, to conceive of how a freedom expanded to all, to each and every person, might expand, not limit, the freedom of the imaginative artist, and the very possibilities of art. Difficult for those who are already artists--even as, outraged, we are forced to market ourselves piecemeal and struggle for what Marx called "disposable time"[Grundrisse, p. 708]--to see the "invisible cage" within which we work, Difficult, too, perhaps, for the navigators of a new society to apprehend the peculiar, but not exceptional, labor of the artist."

Richard Holder

2006-01-12T05:43:00.000-06:00

Photographer

Surrealism Beginnings

2006-01-12T04:30:00.000-06:00

The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.

- Nikola Tesla

"The Song of Love" By Georgio de Chirico - 1914

This is the painting that René Magritte saw as a child and inspired him to turn to surrealism and be a surrealist painter as an adult.

Liberation

2005-12-25T05:58:00.000-06:00

. . . Via Death.

Africa

2005-12-22T01:45:00.001-06:00

If the U.S. is so interested in "liberating" people . . . why have we ignored Africa for so many years?

Weird War Posters

2005-11-20T06:30:00.000-06:00

What does this even mean?

WWII Full of Naked Men

2005-11-20T06:21:00.000-06:00

Yowza, these guys have some nice muscle definition. But bathing was really tops on their minds?

Brave Little Girl

2005-11-17T03:17:00.000-06:00

2004 - Version #7 - Collateral Damage 2

Volunteer

2005-10-11T02:00:00.000-05:00

Test of the emergency art broadcast system. This is only a test.

x1

2005-04-21T19:38:00.000-05:00