git er done

random dude from hunting magazine, pen, 10 min

Saturday Life Drawing 10/25/08

pen, 5 min

pen, 10 min

pen, 30 min

pen, 30 min

More life drawing. Thanks for coming by.

sketch

pencil sketch

Jeez I suck. Oh well, just trying to get back to a drawing a day.

Saturday Life Drawing is Back

Dave, 5 min, colored pencil

Dave, 10 min, colored pencil

Dave, 45 min-ish, watercolor and ink

Thanks to Wes for getting the free Saturday life drawing sessions going again. There was a really good turnout. These drawings are pretty bad...this is the first life drawing session I've been to in over 2 years I think...maybe more. The model, Dave, was a great model, is regularly proportioned, and presumably doesn't get blown by methed out Republicans like the last one.

The Libertarian Myth

I have long felt quite alone among my friends in my skepticism of Libertarianism. It seems that many well intentioned, reasonably intelligent and independent people approach Libertarianism due to a regard for civil liberties and freedoms, only to get sucked into a world of ultra right-wing capitalism and selfishness of the highest order. It is a bizarre phenomenon. Most of the self described 'Libertarians' that I know are independent minded people. Often otherwise generally non-political, though sometimes they are very political. Rural folks concerned about gun rights. Motorcycle enthusiasts that don't want to be told that they have to wear a helmet. People that are disgruntled with the fewer and fewer places in which they can smoke cigarettes. These people are much more concerned about personal freedoms than they are free markets. Most of them could care less about unions and welfare one way or the other. Until, that is, they inevitably encounter some form of institutionalized Libertarianism, such as the Reason Foundation, Reason Magazine, or a "Libertarian" AM radio talk show- all of which are universally founded and funded by right wing capitalist Republicans. These institutions use a most twisted logic to form some very questionable connections. A young man who was once angry over the fact that he can't light fireworks in his back yard now focuses his anger on a single mother that receives food stamps to help feed her young children. To him, these are symptoms of the same problem- government controlling his private life as it sees fit. "Big Mother." Another bizarre connection: one of the most popular Libertarian websites is privatization.org. This is a truly strange development. What does Libertarianism- the supposed defense of personal liberties, have to do with privatization- the cause of huge, bureaucratic impersonal corporations? It seems that right wing capitalists have subverted the cause of folks interested in liberty exactly the same way that they have subverted religion- twisting it into a pretzel logic that inevitably bends back around to defend the market, the wealthy, the powerful, and little else. They have been so successful at this that they have managed to convince these folks that one of their sworn enemies should be the ACLU- an organization that has done a great deal to defend personal liberties and the constitution, which is it's stated purpose.

I believe that combating the 'Libertarian Myth' is going to be a very important issue in the future for people that care about civil liberties AND social justice. True Libertarianism is a good cause, but we must shed light on the fact that the Libertarian movement has been hijacked in this country. At this point it is not much more than ultra-right-wing ultra-capitalism which mainly favors the fiscal "liberties" of the wealthy and those with ambitions to become wealthy. Go to any American Libertarian website and you will see reams and reams of articles dedicated to right wing financial causes- privatization of schools ("choice"), NAFTA, the absurd notion of fixing health care with MORE privatization (how much more privatized/screwed can our system get? these guys can't get enough of getting ripped off by huge corporations), crusades against public transportation, crusades against environmentalists ( "Policymakers need to respect America's preference for cars" ...wtf?), building more privatized prisons and selling off public lands (damn those pesky National Parks, always getting all up in my personal liberties!).

Someone reading this list might ask...what the hell do these issues have to do with liberty? Sounds more like the old school conservative party line financial issue checklist to me. Some issues you won't see on these sites very often- criminal justice, death penalty, drug war, immigrant rights, prisoner's rights, gay rights, racial justice, reproductive freedom, rights of the poor and voting rights. These are all issues that fall directly under the umbrella of personal liberties, any way you slice it. However- it seems that "liberty" issues that don't effect the pocketbooks of rich white guys don't make it into the official American Libertarian dialog these days. Granted you do get the odd bitch and moan article mixed in to placate regular folks, but by and large, Libertarian literature in America at this time is centered around private industry, private property and other issues that all have a common thread- their backbone is the accumulation of wealth, not personal liberties.

So, to anyone that considers themselves a Libertarian, I'd like you to consider these questions:

• Does "liberty" as a concept have a business vs. government bias? What's the difference?


• Is it possible that government bureaucracies alone are guilty of imposing on personal liberties, while corporate bureaucracies are not?


• Are liberties and rights limited to those that have financial ambitions?


• Are 'liberty' and 'freedom' partisan issues?


• How many of the issues that brought you to Libertarianism have anything to do with economics.....?


• Is there anything weird about the fact that all contemporary Libertarian literature is funded by right wing capitalist Republicans?


• When was the last time you were sitting around, pondering the many ways in which government bureaucracy has infringed on your freedoms, and you came to the conclusion that the obvious solution is....more private prisons? Does this have anything to do with "liberty" whatsoever?


• Do these rich white guys really give a shit about the smoking ban in your town? Or, like so many aspects of American policy, is it all about the money?

Anyway, thanks for reading.

FOOTNOTE:

I think it's easy to see how someone could be interested in reasonable personal liberty issues like gun rights and seat belt laws, only to find themselves in a world of hard-right propaganda focused more or less solely on economic issues, only to come around one day and write something completely asinine like this.

Yeah...those Mountain Dew commercials are genuine masterpieces, one and all. I don't think I have to address the differences between the 'commercial art' of our day and the 'commercial art' of Shakespeare; not to mention the fact that Michelangelo, da Vinci and countless others created a plethora of state sponsored masterpieces. I think it's safe to say that between the Vatican (official name: "State of the Vatican City") and the Dukes of the Renaissance...the majority of great art masterpieces were probably state funded. The great amphitheaters of Greek drama are universally considered civic monuments. Personally, I don't think that artists should have to rely on the State, the Church, or Industry in order to create works of art, but rather should have the benefit of a system which allows them to attain the basic resources necessary to create art (a little bit of money and a fair amount of free time) without losing their humanity.

A slogan I found on one of the few websites online that is critical of Libertarianism:
Libertarianism: Preschool for hyperactive Republicans.

me and my oily mouth

mouth study, oil on linen, 8x10, work in progress

Q: Joey, wass this?
A: This is another anatomy study, a mouth, this time in oil.

Q: How come?
A: Well, a couple of weeks ago I started experimenting with oils, and I thought some anatomy studies would be good practice. This is my second attempt at painting with oils. Like, ever.

Q: Is it finished?
A: No. This is after two 30-60ish minute sittings. In the way that I've been working, you basically do a drawing with the paintbrush in the first sitting: laying out the forms and shadows in a mid-dark value. Then you let the paint set up- for a day, a week, whatever. Then with each additional setting you come back and lay in more detail, more values, etc. It's actually pretty nice, because you are more or less forced to take things one step at a time, and it's hard to make mistakes due to getting ahead of one's self (a big problem with me). I say "usually," meaning, based on my experience of doing it that way twice. Anyway, yeah, it's a work in progress.

Q: You crazy.
A: I must apologize for the poor picture quality. This is, obviously, a cell phone picture. And not a picture from a nice cell phone like Keeler's where you can watch porn educational videos in high definition, but my old cell phone that doesn't even have teledildonics a qwerty keyboard. I plan on buying a decent digital camera soon to better document stuff like this. Also, this is small enough that I can scan it, but I can't do that until I'm done and I let the paint dry for a few weeks. Check back soon for more updates.

Q: What are you doing in the meantime?
A: Other than working 45-50 hours a week?

Q: Uh, yeah.
Well, honestly...at the moment I'm trying to feel some kind of empathy for that yuppie guy that killed his family in California.

Q: Really?
Yeah. I mean, everyone knows that I can't stand yuppies, that I feel that they proudly represent everything that is standing in the way of peace and progress and happiness on earth. But still, I am determined to stand upon some base level of humanity, in order to feel the pain of this tragedy. It's easy to say that this man only got what was coming to him (by that I mean his personal financial issues, not his death). That anyone involved in rampant, material speculation should rationally expect the pendulum to swing the other way sometimes. That business, by nature, is a process in which one's great gains are only made possible through great losses elsewhere in the system. It would also be easy to point out that this man's future, after "losing everything," would certainly be no worse than the situation that I, my friends, family, and practically everyone I have ever known have been in their entire lives. I've never known the kind of wealth that this man took for granted- took as a matter of life and death apparently. However, he was a human being, breathing the same air that we breath, warmed by the same sun, driven by the same kind of anxieties and fears. I'm certain that when he was first smitten with young love, it probably felt pretty much the same as when such a thing happens to you or I. In that light, it is a bit more difficult to judge, and easier to feel empathy.

Q: Do you think that this 'yuppie' would have granted you these assumptions?
A: No.

Q: Why, then, do you come to these conclusions?
A: "I suppose it has something to do with being able to look oneself in the mirror." - Noam Chomsky