untitled, 16" x 16" 2012, encaustic medium on birch panel
untitled, 12" x 12", encaustic medium, oil pastel, graphite, black pigment on birch panel
untitled, 12" x 12", encaustic medium, oil pastel, graphite, black pigment on birch panel
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Sunday, September 30, 2012
recent small works ...
mediation (12" x 12" encaustic medium on birch panel, 2012)
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Placed at Gallery 310, Hannibal, MO
16" x 16" encaustic medium, oil pastels, 2012
16" x 16" encaustic medium, oil pastels, 2012
Monday, July 2, 2012
Some new work ...
untitled, 12" x 12" encaustic medium
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Recent commission ...
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Another recent work ...
"Serenity in Mayan Royal Blue" (32" x 32", encaustic medium and powdered graphite, 2012)
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
A repost from 2006 on gay "marriage"
In light of President Obama's recent statement in support of same-gender marriage, I thought it worthwhile to repost something I posted back in 2006:
What are called cultural issues by the mass
media — by which the media usually mean “guns, gays, and abortion” — are
intended to divert public attention from far more serious matters. “Guns, gays
and abortion” are false issues used by the media, and by those who use the
media for their own purposes, to avoid reality and the difficult.
It is easy to be against an abstract evil.
Abstract evils, decried in emotional or religious terms, are useful in dividing
public opinion for purposes of political advantage. What the self-avowed
defenders of family really seek is power and control. Gay “marriage” is a
particularly useful abstraction for the several varieties of theocrats and
their allies among affluent conservatives — many of whom seek to maintain a
status quo beneficial to them but often detrimental to families.
SOME years ago, The
Herald-Whig (Quincy, IL) printed on its Faith & Values Page a column written by Michael McManus.
McManus was working on the quite logical premise that churches had a
responsibility to reduce the divorce rate by adequately preparing their young
people for marriage. He visited Quincy to hold a small workshop at a local
church. A handful of ministers attended; many did not. The event was soon
forgotten.
“Gay rights” and “gay marriage” are
convenient scapegoats. Easy divorce, the abuse of wives and children (and
sometimes husbands), job and workplace demands that strain family life, poverty
that strains family structures, crass commercialization that demeans women,
salacious marketing that bolsters unhealthy attitudes about sex — these are
difficult and family un-friendly issues clergy could be dealing with. Some do.
But others prefer gay-bashing (or any of
other popular diversions ranging from flag-burning to liturgical purity)
because they are not only easy but safe. Guns, gays and abortion in the
abstract are safe because railing against them is unlikely to impact collection
plates by discomforting church members who may, in fact, be guilty of any
number of the real sins that damage families — the real concerns these clergy
could be talking about.
In point of fact:
• Homosexuality is neither a “choice” nor a
“lifestyle.” Current research, still inadequate, suggests a neurobiological
basis for sexual orientation. From Wikipedia: “Estradiol, and testosterone,
which is catalysed by the enzyme aromatase into dihydrotestosterone, act upon
androgen receptors in the brain to masculinise it. If there are few androgen
receptors (males with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome) or too much androgen
(females with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia) there can be physical and
psychological effects.[3]. It is likely that both male and female homosexuality
is a result of a variation in this process[4].”
• Whatever the Bible, the Koran or other
ancient religious texts do or do not say about homosexuality is irrelevant.
Human knowledge today is not what it was in the ancient world. Human knowledge
has advanced, despite the best efforts of an historic Western church desirous
of subservience and obedience rather than use of the brains God gave us. Human
knowledge about sexuality in all of its aspects is far different from what it
was 1,000, 2,000 or 3,000 years ago. (And if Christians must quote a biblical
text, let them quote Matthew
22:37-40, the "great commandments" passage.)
• Marriage, as the word is usually
understood, is a religious ritual. No church is obliged to marry anyone —
homosexual or heterosexual — it doesn’t want to marry. Thus, marriage needs no
governmental protection because no government can force a religious entity to
marry someone it doesn’t want to marry.
• What is called marriage is also, in
effect, a form of contract in civil law. (Otherwise, could atheists marry?)
Some gay couples may wish a religious ritual; some may not. But there is no
rational reason the civil law should not recognize the contractual commitment
that two men or two women make to each other — civil union, if you will. Such
committed couples should be able to enjoy the same rights and responsibilities
in law other committed couples enjoy with or without the benefit of religious
ritual.
• Perhaps four to eight percent of the
population is homosexual. No one really knows, except that the percentage is
now thought to be less than the Kinsey estimate of 10 percent in 1948. There
were 600,000 same-gender households that identified themselves as such in the
2000 census, or about 0.6 percent of the total adult population. Whatever the
percentage, the homosexual population is but a small fraction of our 300
million people.
• This small fraction of the population —
the “gay community" — is NOT the cause of a 40- to 50-percent divorce rate
(depending on the region of the country); is NOT the reason for an estimated
300,000 child prostitutes roaming the streets of major cities; is NOT the
reason local governments and social agencies find themselves obliged to deal
with domestic violence and child sexual abuse, homelessness and drug abuse, and
other aspects of family breakdown; is NOT responsible for pedophilia in the
Roman church (or anywhere else; most pedophiles are heterosexual); is NOT the
cause of an economic culture that imposes work and spending demands that are
damaging to family life — the list could go on.
IF THOSE who denigrate and
demean other human beings because of their sexual orientation were actually
interested in “saving the family” they would not be on the airwaves or on the
Web (or in print) spouting ignorance and hate. Rather, they would be hard at
work on changing those situations that actually endanger or harm families.
Ignorance and hate are easy. Doing something
real to support real families is difficult. Doing something real to support
real families requires time, intelligence — and real love.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Quoting ...
The goal of every culture is to decay through over-civilization; the factors of decadence, — luxury, skepticism, weariness and superstition, — are constant. The civilization of one epoch becomes the manure of the next.
— Cyril Connelly
Friday, April 6, 2012
A more recent work ...
"Landscape 1968" (32" x 16", oil pastels and encaustic medium on wood panel, 2012)
Friday, March 30, 2012
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