Painting: I Read The News Today

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I painted this sometime in mid 90's judging by some references in the painting. It is about three by four feet . . .which is about as large as I ever work.

/jack
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Painting: Karl Marx, Improved

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This is a painting I did over the top of an old silk poster of Karl Marx from the Soviet Union. This silk was some of the coolest stuff I have ever painted on.

Seven Year Art Project, Part 3 - Painting: Amusement Only

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This is one of the eight non-portrait canvases from this project. Aside from the acrylic paint, pen, ink, and Sharpie, it incorporates

my favorite number
hobo signs
a barking dolphin
a piece of Ripley's believe it or not
a symbol alleged to be from a UFO's logo
a clip from a newspaper about duct tape over a sensor causing a jet crash
pieces of a dollar bill
a Herman Melville postage stamp
a free drink card from Microsoft
my luggage tag from my last trip to Tucson
a boneless sticker
a chunk of a marine hatband
a piece of cloth with Chinese characters
a Mexican lottery card
an amusement only sign from a pinball machine
two postage stamps from The Republic of San Marino.
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LBJ In A Characteristic Pose

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This is from the first person perspective. LBJ is giving you The Johnson Treatment.
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You Are Here! All This Is That!

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Earth as seen from Mars. This is us, pals! You can download a high resolution version of this image.

This is the first photo of the Earth from the surface of another planet (Mars). We've had moon photos, of course, but that's a snap. The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit took this photo.

The image is a mosaic of images taken by the rover's navigation camera showing a broad view of the sky, and an image taken by the rover's panoramic camera of Earth. The contrast in the camera image was increased to make Earth easier to see. We're just a pale little flare of light in the far far distance. The arrow points to Earth.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Texas A&M

Seven Year Art Project, Part 2

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More info on the seven year art project... This is part of the west wall in my office...about 18 canvases are visible here.
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Seven Year Art Project

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I have finished around 150 of these canvases over the last seven years. I started buying these 24" x 24" muslin cloths by the dozens from Archie Mcphee's years ago. Manufactured by various institutions for the blind--Maryland Workshop for the Blind and Mississippi Industries, they were intended to be instrument tray covers or something like that. I use them for paintings, mixed media assemblages, gift wrapping, but mainly for portraits. The cloths have been folded in a warehouse for decades, and the folds are pretty permanent. You can iron them out eventually. You can wash them, but then they lose all that sizing that keeps them stiff enough to draw on with pen and ink or Sharpies [tm]. So, the folds have become a part of, and defined this series of drawings.

The cloth is divided into 16 six inch squares. Each square contains one portrait, although I have six canvases that have six portraits in each square (or, 96 per canvas). I have done a few double ones, with two drawings in each square, and I have done a few abstract ones, still using the built in squares.

Hanging on the wall, in my office at work, are 123 of these canvases (I have 20 or so more folded up in a stack), and I have probably given away 20 or so over the years...
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Running Mates: Senators Lyndon Johnson And JFK

click to enlarge - I've been on some kind of LBJ jag the last few days...

I don't where or when this photo was taken. . .It feels like the campaign trail in the fall of 1960 (although it could be any time between July 1960 and November 1963). There aren't any microphones, so it must be before or after a speech or rally.

What is Senator Johnson saying--to the crowd?, to a person in the crowd? I'd like to know even more what Senator Jack Kennedy is saying and thinking. Between his concerned look and his arm reaching out for Lyndon's shoulder, I think he wanted to throw a muzzle on LBJ.
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Poem: James Wright

Forming a blessing on those trembling lips,
He dropped to his knees and sang out
As free as a bee and as drunk as Li-Po.
With no brush or quill, he made words
For the wind and lived to regret nothing.

At night, he summoned the old shades,
Their nods a gallery of applause
And leveled bony guiltfingers, history's dare:
The thing itself justifies the shuffle.
Hung over the void on a bouncing limb,
He watched Norwegian rats nibble the roots,
Edging the tree further into the dark.
He knew, as well as you, that the branch would break.
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The Johnson Treatment, Part 5: Senator Richard Russell (Dem., Georgia) Undergoes The Treatment

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Senator Richard Russell was a powerful 30+ year veteran in the Senate. He was the king of the senate--what Lyndon would later become.

He helped LBJ learn the ropes when he was a freshman Senator. That didn't get him off the hook from The Johnson Treatment.
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Happy Mother's Day, Mothers

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The Johnson Treatment, Part 4: President Johnson Gives The Treatment To Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas

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Even though he was a friend, Abe Fortas, newly nominated justice of the Supreme Court, gets a taste of The Johnson Treatment in 1965.
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