Digging through the archives

  I've done a number of sketches of my son since he was born up until he was about six.  These are a few of the early examples.  Much of them are still in storage yet I don't want to just leave them there. I've also included a sketch in one of my books of Senator Kennedy not long after he died.  I was writing about him while waiting in line at his wake at the J.F.K. library. I've always admired his strength in service to others and it's something I keep in mind as I get  older and think about my place and my son's in the world.

  I just recently started to revisit my sketchbooks from when I had went to Egypt and Italy several years ago and .  Does art matter if it's just sitting on a shelf collecting dust ?  I have so many great memories of taking notes, sketching and later celebrating my homecoming with my son at Chuck E Cheese.  I just recently got another copy of Writing About Art because I can write what I'm thinking during the process but giving it an  historical context with a lot of symbolism is difficult. And it feels fake at times.

  Obama's birth certificate and why I'm American. I did this as a response to the fake scandal by Republicans if the president was a real American. Even though the video of Bush being informed about Hurricane Katrina and later doing nothing about it was far worse. I had to include my " Americanism" of graduating into middle school  in the early 80's. With Chris Cornwall, Shawn Mackey, and Steven Bell.  I'm getting more and more into collage as a way of making a statement and creating work. I've spent the last couple of years focusing on the relationship between image and text as a way to make collages with significant meaning.

Of course years ago in creating my Obama Stampede of the One Percent  pieces I knew there were going to be further examples of police brutality thinks to the increase in militarization of forces across the country. And African Americans will continue to be the victims and the canaries in the cave of our democracy.

The President is almost helpless to stoop the stampede of the one percent as economics and police brutality are used to reinforce their control and corruption. In 2016 1% of the population will control 99% of the country's wealth. We have truly begun to turn into a fascist oligarch. Corporate controlled. I doubt the founding fathers would be proud.  Of course seeing free African Americans vote, buy property and intermarry with whites would probably affect them negatively as well.  Obama is the last firewall against something truly sinister happening to the government and the country.  In some ways he's complicit. ( Wiretaps, etc.)  It's upsetting yet creatively it inspires me to revisit Goya's work and Sue Coe's.  Next summer I'm making the trip to Mexico City to visit the murals and see what influences they had on African American artists like Charles White and others.