Sometimes one stumbles upon a website or blog that is funny, fascinating or otherwise intriguing. Here's one of those: xkcd.com
Any website that on it's first page has this warning is a-ok with me:
Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).
I’m always amazed at Denver’s Art Scene. We’ve got so many art openings of fabulous artists that I can’t get to all of them. We’ve now got at least 5 different art districts (I’m not sure if the art galleries in LoDo are their own district or not). Folks, Denver is movin’ and shakin’ the art world.
One of the recent additions to our Art Scene is a new, online (so far!) art magazine, 1/1 Mag, Denver’s Art Magazine. Two smart young men, Raymundo Munoz and Jarred De Palo, are the owners, writers and curators. They came to my opening at Walker Fine Art last Friday while making the art opening rounds. I am and was honored that they came to see my work in person. This isn't a quid pro quo but I'm gonna recommend that you take a look at their magazine at http://1of1magazine.com/. I guarantee that you’ll be impressed both by the magazine and by Denver’s Art Scene.
You say you want a revolution
Well you know
We all want to change the world
I found a recent article in The Economist, a UK magazine, heartbreaking. In 1988, the US was the best place in the world to be born. However, since 1988, we’ve sunk in the Economist ratings down to a tie for 16th. http://www.economist.com/news/21566430-where-be-born-2013-lottery-life
Sixteenth.
No longer would or could Warren Buffet say that anything good that happened to him could be traced back to the fact that he was born in the right country, the United States, at the right time (1930). Well, HE, multi-billionaire that he is, could say that but the rest of us? Not so much. Our quality of life, at least for us in the middle class, is shrinking.
Congress is gridlocked and clearly on the take for the revolving door from Congress to million dollar corporate salaries swings super fast these days. See, e.g., Eric Cantor’s election loss to reemployment. Our infant mortality figures are a disgrace. Our police no longer patrol a beat but instead drive tanks through our cities. We no longer agree that upon a certain level of personal rights. Indeed the right to control our very bodies without government interference, which right has been the law of the land for a generation, is under assault. Racism runs rampant in our society despite the gains of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. All one has to do is look to Ferguson, Missouri and to the bile directed at our President, who holds the highest office in the land.
Our health care system is so very privatized that the amount and quality of care that one gets depends on the amount of money one has. 25 million children in our country are “food insecure”. 51 million school hours were lost due to poor dental health. We can’t even agree as a country on minimum wages or clean air or the environment.
We’re a mess. Frankly, I’m amazed that we were 16th on the list.
What on earth has happened to us and how do we fix us?
I’m thinkin’ revolution “cause I DO want to change the world.
On her twitter feed, Alyson Stanfield (http://www.artbizcoach.com/) just posted a New York Times article on the found art of thank you notes. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/fashion/the-found-art-of-thank-you-notes.html?smid=tw-share I've gotta tell ya, I love thank you notes. I love sending them, in large part because they are such a surprise to the recipient. I truly, madly, deeply love receiving them because I know that someone liked me, thought enough of me, appreciated the gift I provided to them or appreciated what I did for them enough to take the time to write a note, address the envelope and slap a stamp on it. THAT'S gratitude.
Let's bring back the art of thank you notes. They are, truly, a gift.
