New Years resolution

I'm one of those people who make a resolution every year! I tend to get inspired by inane Readers Digest stories about some movie star who came up from nothing and built an empire through sheer determination and will power. Or the section in the front of a daily planner that has spaces for "Your Goals". I take these things way too seriously and begin scheming some elaborate and complicated plan that will allow me to quit my day job! Well, this year is no different...the plan is: draw every day, blog, paint, sell! Wish me luck!

Nero's Guests

Was listening to a very interesting talk by Indian journalist P. Sainath yesterday. He ended his talk with a reference to two historic events:
Queen Victoria's party and
Nero's party. In short he makes a call for all artists and intellectuals to refuse to take part in the destructive policies of governments and corporations which are presently destroying the last largest population of small farmers in the world in India. Farmer suicides are happening at a rate of one every 8 minutes, which essentially amounts to a form of genocide. He goes on to say that it would be cheaper and more efficient just to bomb the Indian countryside. At Nero's party attended by the smartest and most brilliant artists and thinkers of the day, they used the fat from criminals who were burned at the stake to illuminate the festivities. Let's not allow ourselves to be like Nero's guests.

Where is DaDa when we most need it?

I recently chanced upon a comprehensive volume about Da Da while waiting for Vicky to get off work at the library. I guess I never really realized how that movement was a direct result of the insanity of World War I. Shows how little I know. This book is the companion to the exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art that I apparently missed! The book is exhaustive and in-depth as only a major museum production should be. By the time I finish it I'll be an authority on the subject. So far it's got me thinking, wondering and inspired...the DaDaists found a common ground that was the horror and insanity of war and created art that was so self critical and creative that it could easily produce film, sculpture and painting while at the same time negating its own existence with a flippant yet clear honesty. It was political art and high brow art all in one. In our role as arm chair warmongers we fear controvesy as if it could destroy our precious cocoon. Why aren't we creating a movement today within contemporary art that lashes out at the horror of our vast military industrial complexes, that supplies and feeds conflicts across the globe? Where are the DaDaists?