a shared letter to a friend: about genuine revolution

(from addair)

The following is a letter to a friend about the prospect of stirring up a rebellion.  I thought I’d share it with you all as an opportunity to get more feedback:

 

to start out very generally, i’ve been increasingly aware of the preciousness and brevity of life. and though i’m wracked with conflicts about larger purposes and the apparent hopelessness of history. i dont see any sense in letting that fool me into inertia.

i say all that to say that i’m very ready and determined but still open and often unsure about the specifics.

a painting exploring the matter

 

 

since so much of what i feel dissatisfied with and often enraged about deals with intangible attitudes and in the realm culture, i feel like the only way to affect authentic and durable change will be by empowering people to change at a homegrown level. i hope that government policies will swiftly follow, but i think we have to win in our collective mindscape to make any real progress. i feel like if people are justly informed and then empowered to be fully human and restored (or at least made aware of) their rights to pursue actual liberty, change would occur.

i know thats a really wide-scope view of the problem. which leads to the question, “what is the problem?”

in my opinion, they are (i know you’re well-educated on these issues, so i’m just keeping it to bulletin points, but of course its more complex than a list):

1. detachment from and disregard for our environment

2. consumer culture and our economic structure

3. disregard for social justice (especially issues of class and us foreign policy)

painting detail

 

 

i didn’t outline all of the implications of each because i’m assuming you understand and that we are, for the most part, on the same page. but let me know if i need to clarify any of my thoughts.

as part of stirring up a culture revolution, i’d like to emphasize the interconnectedness of these issues and the extent to which they influence our lives.

currently, i’m thinking on what i can do to challenge and change the parts of the status quo that are unjust and unsustainable (outside of my personal choices). i’m almost embarrassed to say that my idea, so far, is as simple as gathering people.

i’m hoping that this will only be a beginning and is not meant to be the entire goal result, but i think what we need most right now is for people to be informed and empowered to take direct action.

obviously, there are lots of avenues to do this. but as i’ve pondered my own role in this shift its evolving as art happenings of a sort.

so, im thinking i want to start working on a series of paintings addressing the above (i know i need to make it more concrete but i’m not quite there yet). have levon work on a collection of songs. have some speakers, interactive installations, and some collaboration and/or involvement with some groups or individuals that are already working toward similar goals.

painting detail 2

 

 

the aim would be to inform, empower, and provide avenues for action. i’m ready to take our culture and my life on my own terms and i want to encourage those that are already working toward that and to free those trapped in readymade identities and lifestyles.

is this making sense? i know it’s not the entire solution, but i think mobilizing warm bodies is the start.

 

about the pursuit of a yearning. music by levon

(from addair)

 

experiments

(Levon)

If you read our newsletter yesterday you know that we’ve made some changes in living arrangements.  Our little beach house with our brother and sister was a perfect summer fit, but along with the cold came the feeling that it was going to get cramped.  Okay, it was cramped.  We moved two doors down to the closest motel where now we live a pampered resort life for a weekly rate in cash that would make anyone consider a winter visit to the beach.  It’s nice to have our utilities and furnishings under one bill.  Even HBO and wi fi.  Unfortunately the weekly rate doesn’t include any room service or clean towels.  This morning I asked for more single serving coffee packs and was told, “no, the weekly rate doesn’t include anything extra like that.”

I said, “okay, just checking.”

“It doesn’t hurt to ask,” she replied.

??? Anyway.

It is interesting to note that entire segments of society float about hotels in their off seasons to capture this phenomenon of relatively inexpensive living.  Every hotel on the beach is advertising $200 per week; the nice ones are $39 per night.  We have interesting neighbors, as do all the other 50 hotels within 4 miles of here.

This peculiar style of living has provoked another experiment.  Not wasting food.  We have been involved in trying to start a local Food Not Bombs chapter in Virginia Beach.  Norfolk has a successful one as do many cities, and the idea is to enact in a peaceful protest by having a meal together that would have been wasted or discarded.  The protest is against war, poverty and destruction of the environment.  (www.foodnotbombs.net)

ashley's flier

Dumpster diving is the term for collecting discarded things from their owners and may also be referred to as curb shopping, urban foraging, or aggressive recycling.  There are levels of diving, such as telling a store manager that you would like to systematically collect the nightly throwaways.  However to avoid messy conflicts or spending time with such policies, most establishments make the easiest policy which is “sorry, we can’t.”

The second level of diving is to find an insider who will let you take it.  At Starbucks I was such an assistant without my even knowing of the concept. On the Upper East Side of Manhattan I had a regular nightly few that took our countless coffee cakes, fruit trays, drinks to be poured out and sandwiches “made fresh daily.”  (The sandwiches had marked expirations for about three days but had to be discarded to advertise as “daily.”)  Where is the sense?  I took home all I wanted.  Of course I understand the scale of which Starbucks and its similiars operate, and how much expense would be involved in properly disposing of the food.  On one hand, yes they should spend that expense, but on the other, they knowingly turn their heads to this midlevel dumpster diving at every location I’ve encountered.  Okay…

The third type of dumpster diving is pretty blatant.  I don’t dumpster dive literally for food.  For living room furniture: guilty.  But not food.

Soup kitchens have been my nightly trip this week at 6:00.  I have served at plenty of these in my life and think that is important to do so.  But never have I walked in on the other side of the line and waited for my table to be called.  First, they turn the lights off to silence the room.  Then when the volunteers names are called, we clap for them.  I can’t help but wonder how much better it would feel if we all ate together instead of reaffirming lines that exist between us.  After all, this is not a hand out; it is a resourceful means of sharing what was almost turned away.  There is no shame in that.  If Harris Teeter had a cookout out front in the parking lot every night at 6:00, it would be differently attended.

Let me be clear that there is no experimenting when it comes to interacting or considering myself in contrast to the souls I sit with.  I am perceptive, yes, but I’m there to eat.  I don’t pretend to be the same or any different. We all have a circumstance that’s a little complicated to explain, on both sides of the serving line.  Just wanted to get that said.

I’m pretty excited about the gig in Norfolk on Saturday.  Ashley won third place in the Spirit show two weeks ago and got a gift card for the same place I’ll be playing.  We’re on our way to scout it out.

working for work

(from Levon)

I wish I could always put my best energy where I want it.  Back when I held the idea that I could do one thing on the side of another, I had this problem. Now that life is a runonsentence of chaotic motion in all directions, I have still have this problem.  Maybe it’s a matter of prioritizing and organization.  Survival can be a convincing priority.

Hopefully we find work to be something more than our 40 hours gone in exchange for 128 to be acceptable.  Work is often an identity to be and then not be.  Some attempt for just one identity, and aim their energy to assuming that identity.  I long for work to reflect its value more accurately.  I long for working one job to be enough.

 

my shared warehouse studio

There will be days, and long strings of those days, where we show up and hang on while we kick with both feet.  Countless daily activities will one day be recalled as maybe one or two things that got done, because we afforded ourselves to do them.  Maybe we’ll be closer to our work emerging as we aspire.  We work to work.  Or we work at working, need work to make work, deal with work to love work: these things I tell myself as I push a machine across grass or wash 300 wedding cake plates.  I’m joyfully (more or less) getting closer to work feeling like work, and less like an expense of energy to leave me as a left-over tupperware box of casserole.

last one standing

pictures i like: halloween

when the world is sky-refreshing

(from addair)

I had to move out of my studio space yesterday as the owner is selling the building.  And so this morning, I kept it basic with a pencil and my journal.  It was actually refreshing to just sit outside and sketch instead.

got the chance to do some simple studies of found objects

Yesterday, after my fury of indignation at the established “art world” (whatever that means), I decided to withdraw my applications to some juried exhibits which frees me up to pursue other goals.  I’m ready to strengthen my DIY ethic.

some sketches from photographs

 

We’re pretty well in transition mode now which is limiting in a sense but allows space for evaluation.  I’m thinking about having some art show/happening/events outside of the gallery scene .

more found objects. i've been collecting acorns lately.

A sort of direct action in art.  I’m excited by the possibilities.

 

and we’ll play a new game

(from addair)

Today I’m feeling underestimated and underappreciated.  I say this not to inspire pity.  Please, don’t pity me.  Rather, I’m saying to that emotion, “Thank you for the alert, I’ve taken notice.  Now will you kindly leave so that I can go about growing”.

Though it isn’t pleasant to feel this way, it is a good warning signal.  I feel this way because I got out my measuring cup and let them measure my brain (recall the Andrew Bird song).  This was my first mistake.  My second was to use a state-issued cup; I forgot that “it is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”(Jiddu Krishnamurt)

I get frustrated that market demand and broken infrastructure drives so much of our output and the way we spend our time.  This morning I was thinking about the limitations of artists and feeling angry and then I remembered that we don’t have to use their measuring cups.  A human life is too precious to be squandered on meeting the arbitrary standards of a society.

this is a picture of me and my mom when she came to visit in new york. today is her birthday (happy birthday, mom). she taught and teaches me that there's no such thing as being too idealistic

 

 

We need to make art (I’m using this term in its broadest sense), even if no one recognizes it as valuable.  Even if no one buys it, ever.  We need to do this and to fight for this right with all the fervor of a revolution.  Our greatest energy should be allowed to move toward making meaning,  to work for justice, and enjoy the fruit of being.

At this point, most people pat me on the head, “Okay, little idealist bunny.  You’ll grow up and see that there are bills to pay.”  And there are.   There are too many, and that is problem.  We have created a system that rejects simplicity and the freedom that entails for a tangle of commerce.  We’ve created it, but we don’t control it; and now we are trapped.

a painting on the matter. this one is a reflection back to new york. i think it was there that many of these thoughts were solidified.

 

 

But only  if we play by its rules.   And this is why we can’t wait for society to deem us artists.  We must claim our legitimacy to make art with our first energy whether or not the larger society agrees to its value.

Be grassroots, do direct action, and when you feel underappreciated– break your measuring cup and make a mosaic out the shards.

sustainability

(from addair)

painting and film by me.  music by levon walker.

aesthetics for change

(from addair)

I love the way architecture can reflect the story of a place.  And even contribute to the writing of it.

i think we'd be healthier if our design had closer ties to its local environment

“sprouting infrastructure”, which also explores the possibility of better design, placed at last night’s show.  Thanks, jurors.  If you didn’t get to make it out last night, you can see the painting and some thoughts at altdaily.com

(above image inspired by a photograph in the latest issue of Readymade)

dictionary pages, sea creatures, and the unknown

(from addair)

The themes for tonight’s show are transcendence, fullness, and connection.  I’m really grateful that it isn’t religion, though with a name like Spirit, the connection will undoubtedly be made.

I think it’s healthy to reexamine pretty well everything periodically, and so I make myself read all sorts of things.  This morning I read Reason in Exile by Sam Harris.  He argues that all religions (even in moderate doses) are potential sources of irrationality and brutality.  And I suppose he has history on his side.  But he also writes that, “There is no denying that most of us have spiritual needs that a mere understanding of our world, scientific or otherwise, will never fulfill.  There is clearly a sacred dimension to our existence and coming to terms with it could well be the highest purpose of human life.”  I like that, from his perspective, these opinions are not in conflict with one another.

a painting exploring these thoughts

For this morning, I have no further comment.  But I’m looking forward to getting out of my own head on the subject.  Spirit : Illuminate the Intangible/View the Invisible, tonight at 7pm.