Life really Does get in the Way

OK, yes, it has been a while since I have posted to this blog. For the couple of you who read it I am sorry.
I would like to start looking around me again and post my thoughts, critiques, and photographic ideas that this crazy world inspires.

In some way I hope that by doing so it will help me cope with my life and also raise a few questions or two with you.

So much has happened in the last 18 months that it will take me a while to catch up.
The one thing photographically I do want to mention first and foremost is that the Red Chair Project will continue!

I need about 40 more volunteers to pose for this project. For more information please click on the link and drop me a line. I am looking for adults over the age of 30 of ALL races and both men and women. Please check it out and volunteer!

Thanks all for now, and I will be back!

An Atheist's Christmas

As I write this blog, my wife is down backing, Christmas carols are playing and I am thinking that Christmas is a wonderful time of year, even for someone who doesn't believe in god.

People seem a bit more friendly and tolerant.

Buying gifts for friends and relatives.

Helping out charities who they normally forget the rest of the year. It seems this season brings out the best in everyone, well almost everyone.

We need to remember that the season is about people being good to one another. Being thankful for what we have and the people in our lives that bring it joy and meaning.

In the spirit of charity and giving, you would hope that tolerance would be among the virtues that people would practice this time of year. But unfortunately, this is also the recruiting season for a lot of churches. It does take a lot of money to keep the lights lit in those large houses of worship.

What if instead of filling those collection plates for the church, it all gets donated to the poor in this country? Just a thought, in the spirit of giving.

Being a good person is not a religious attribute, it is a human one. One that we all should try to be.

So whether you believe in god, are Jewish, Christian, Agnostic or Atheist, the important think to remember is to be good to one another, not just at the end of December, but the entire year.

Pink October

So, first off let me apologize for it being so long since I have posted anything.

My new corporate job has really zapped the creativity out of me but every day driving to work I see and hear more and more things that just really bother me.

Being October, the country seems to focus some of it's attention on breast cancer. Yes, it's Breast Cancer Awareness month.
What does that really mean?
It means retailer, who for 11 months out of the year, don't really care about being aware that the estimate for 2011 was that there will be 230,480 (female); 2,140 (male) new cases of breast cancer and 39,520 (female); 450 (male) deaths.

But all around us we see pink. Home Depot and Lowes have pink tools and pink vacuums.
Car dealerships have pink blow up ribbon balloons in their windows and even grocery stores are saying "fill your cart for a cure."

How can they commercialize such an awful disease?

Giant food stores are saying they are donating to "breast cancer research" for certain items you buy. How much are the donating? Who are they donating to?

Brighton jewelry is doing the same thing, buy this and we'll donate. But none of them are saying to whom they are donating.
At least Subway says they are donating to the local chapters of the American Cancer Society.

But come on, car dealers? They are just trying to tug at some heart string so they can move cars before the new year model comes in.

I think this is disgusting and am actually avoiding companies who have no history of caring about the cause except for the month of October.

There are many companies, New Balance shoes, Energizer, and Bank of America, just to name a few. Have committed to support the fight against breast cancer 12 months out of the year, not just one.

So before you buy the bag of potato chips with the pink ribbon on it, do a little research and find out more about who the are and how thy plan on donating.

You want to donate to the cause, don't buy a product, send a check to the Susan G. Komen foundation, or your local chapter to the American Cancer Society.

Unsettle, not really

I have been wanting to write this blog post for a few weeks now but have been a tad busy with life. But I am glad I waited. Sometimes I'll read or see something and react so quickly that I'll review what I wrote and not always think I got it right.
Now, being a few weeks from the exhibition my thoughts haven't changed.

Unsettled: Photography and Politics in Contemporary Art is now showing at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

I was very exhcited to actually be able to see this exhibition and that it was being sown in Philadelphia.
This is what got me excited:

Unsettled: Photography and Politics in Contemporary Art presents work by nine artists who used photography to address some of the most controversial political and social issues of the late 1970s through the early 1990s, including feminism, racism, the AIDS crisis, and gay activism. Looking at a diverse range of pictorial strategies, and at works that are by turns confrontational and contemplative, Unsettled examines the historical reasons why many artists made provocative photo-based works in the 1980s, and invites viewers to consider why some of this art still causes controversy, twenty or thirty years after it was made.

So with that, you know I had to go. A few weeks ago my wife and I eagerly went to view this exhibition. The only high point to this exhibition was I had the opportunity again, to see a Robert Mapplethorpe photograph up close and personal. As for the rest of the exhibition it was, safe.

They had a advisory before you walked in warning you of images that might elicit strong reaction from the viewers... yawn.

Don't get me wrong, the work was interesting. With work by Nan Goldin, Peter Hujar, Robert Mapplethorpe, Andres Serrano, Lorna Simpson, and Carrie Mae Weems, they had the opportunity to really show the pulse of the country and the art world during the time period.
But, alas, it was safe. They chose images from these artists that were not shocking or thought provoking. They did what the Philadelphia Museum always does, they coped out.

The art circles in Philadelphia are so conservative that even the museum is afraid to really show what they want. At least I want to think they want to. This exhibition could not have been what they actually wanted to show. At least I hope not.

Wit all that said, you show view trhe exhibition which is at the Perelman Building across the street from the main museum. I would be very interested to hear your views on this subject.

Anyone of you who has seem my work knows I do not shy away from controversy and maybe this has made me skew my views.

So visit and support the museum and let me know your thoughts.

Image above:
Untitled (We are your circumstantial evidence)
Barbara Kruger, American
1983
Gelatin silver prints

Working for the man

First off, let me apologize to anyone who reads my blog about my long absence.  Since my exhibition last fall things got a bit quiet and not many pieces of artwork have been selling. So what is an artist to do? Sell himself out for a pay check and benefits!

Yes, that is right, I am now a full time, in-house photographer for a catalog company. I should items for the company website and monthly catalog. The work keeps me busy and shooting but not artistically fulfilled.

I am looking forward to finally getting in a groove at work so I can shoot on the weekends and create more images that I hope will entice, inspire and make the view think.

It is interesting how things have changed since I have actually been in the corporate world.

• Business Casual has nothing to do with business attire.
• People don't ask questions face to face, it's all by email. Even if the sender is sitting right behind you and you can hear them type the email
• The massive amounts of approvals just to get a $25 cord ordered
• Yards and Yards of red tape
• Cubical workers all with their individual iPods
• 40 hour work week, yea if I only work till Thursday!

At least I get to hide in a photo studio for most of the day.

Besides that and the age gap with me and the rest of the creative team, I like the company and don't mind the work. It's the creative stifling that I am still trying to find an outlet for.

Any suggestions?

Politics after the Midterm elections

I was going to write this blog entry yesterday but I wanted to sit on it a bit and think about what really happened on Tuesday.

Two years ago, the country made an historic vote and elected Barack Obama president of the United States.

With his election came sweeping changes in both the House and the Senate.

Promises of reforms, new health care initiatives, ending the war and a better way of life was the platform the Democrats campaigned on and were elected becasue of.

Two years later, we see that the Democrats got soft and weak.
We are still in this god awful war, health care reform was watered down so much that it really doesn't mean anything, and the bail outs, which I felt were necessary, weren't being regulated enough so the companies who received them just put more cash in their pockets.

So of course, this midterm election saw great changes. It saw a Republican party so fired up that they were like a steam roller and it also saw the birth of many grass roots groups that picked up the conservative mantel.

The Democratic party was unjustly vilified for all the problems our country now faces, but they broke their promises just like every politician does. And they payed the price.

For the next two years our government will basically be in a stalemate with nothing moving forward and getting accomplished. Worse, yet, my fear is that this impotent Democratic party might just cave to the conservative right. They seem to have no passion about being in elective office.

As an artist, my concern is always how conservative our country is becoming and the effect it has on any artist that is the least bit edgy. Also, there is always the desperate funding needed to keep the arts alive in the United States.

The NEA had a $175 million budget in 1991. But during the recent Bush administration there was a major budget reductions with the annual funding dipped below $100 million. The one good thing President Obama did was to sign into law a bill increasing the budget of National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities by $12.5 million each, to $167.5 million each.

The NEA still isn't were it was with funding back in 1991 and with the new conservatives in office I doubt that it will get any higher than it is right now.

Cuts in museums, music and dance companies are sure to follow.

My gripe with the conservative right has always been that they do not see how vitally important the arts are to a society.

They will continue with their tax cuts to the riches 1% of Americans, continue promoting a conservative "Christian" agenda and they will leave the majority of American's struggling to find work, struggling to pay our inflated share of taxes and will destroy the progress the Obama administration has made in backing the one thing that in tough times people turn to, the arts.

I shot this photograph during the last term of George W. Bush as I read the news about more censorship to artists. The title is "Liberties revoked" and it seems that it is unfortunately relevant again.

Intolerance in the US

First let me start of by saying to those readers who are expecting more posts about art and photography that I will be getting back on that track soon, but there are a few things I really need to get off my chest.

In recent months I have seen a growing intolerance in this country about anything that people feel is different or not what they would do.


The definition of intolerance is:

lack of toleration
unwillingness or refusal to tolerate or respect contrary opinions or beliefs persons of different races or backgrounds,etc.

Synonyms include prejudice and bigotry.

Our US Constitution states:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Our country was founded on our refusal to be persecuted unjustly by the British, yet now, in 2010, our country has gotten more intolerant of different cultures, sexual preferences and of anything that puts us out or is different.

The recent news is full of intolerance. The Islamic Mosque that is being ridiculed for being too close to ground zero. Or the suicide of a young college student because his roommate thought it would be funny to expose his sexuality to the world.

In fact even last weekend while I was a crew member of the 3-Day walk for a cure, a few people were verbally abusive while they had to wait for the walkers to cross a street. What they had to do was so much more important than these walkers and their conviction to finding a cure for breast cancer.

What has happened to the compassion in this country?

All Muslims are being grouped and hated becasue of a small radical faction. They should be free to worship wherever they want. Do we start protesting all the Catholic churches because of Timothy McVeigh's bombing in Oklahoma city?

An 18 year old Rutgers University student, Tyler Clement commits suicide because he was ridiculed by his roommate and secretly filmed and then that film was posted on the internet for the world to see. If he had been with another woman there would not have been an issue but becasue his roommate was intolerant to his sexual preference he thought it fun to film him, invading his privacy and causing Tyler to take his own life.

This is the United States of America, a country that says we all have the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Well, as long as everyone around you agrees with your pursuits.

But then again, look at who we having running for office. For example, look at the current senate race in Delaware, we have Christine O'Donnell, a evangelical activist, who has characterized homosexuality as a psychological disorder and campaigned against masturbation calling it equivalent to cheating on your spouse.

She has the right to her opinion and to run for office. This is a "free" country. Let's just hope the voters in Delaware are smart enough to NOT vote her in. But be ware Delaware, she is a witch you know.

John Lennon said it right in 1968, all we need is love.

For those who know me, you know that I can be extremely cynical and not the touchy feely type, but with the current trend of this country I think we all need a little bit of love and compassion for those around us.

So lets all try to be a bit more tolerant. To hold the door for an elderly person who happens to be moving a little slower than you are. To let that car merge in the lane in front of you. To respect the sexual and religious conviction of others even if it is contrary to our own.

In the words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?"