So -- what does one do if one:
- is an artist;
- loves Christmas;
- loves bunnies?
A Christmas Bunny 14" x 11" / 36cm x 28cm |
www.SouthwestSpaces.com
www.MarkJunge.com
A blog about the adventures and misadventures of a desert landscape artist who happens to like bunnies, complete with their cotton tales...er, tails!
A Christmas Bunny 14" x 11" / 36cm x 28cm |
Autumn Nymph 20" x 16" / 51cm x 41cm |
In the Catskills 11" x 14 '/ 28cm x 36cm acrylic/panel |
The Mystical Redwoods 18" x 24" / 46cm x 61cm |
31 December 2016, midnight -- if I don't get overwhelming sales of paintings by then, at one femtosecond into 2017, I'm done with the art business. DONE!!!
Mt. San Jacinto from Morongo Valley 60" x 48" |
Animals of Morongo Valley |
The POWER of ART OVER ARGUMENTby Paul HarveyA nation might have died. Finland was so worried about menacing anarchists and so depressed over the death of Alexander Second that the nation might have rolled over and been Run over by the Russians.But when the Finns felt their smallest weakest and poorest composer Jean Sibelius wrote something called “Finlandia” – An Orchestral piece that rallied the Finns long lost patriotic fervor, and they resisted the Russification of their land and lived happily ever after.The Power of art over argument.Nobody could have persuaded a generation of Americans to produce a baby boom – Yet Shirley Temple movies made every American want to have one.Military enlistments were lagging for our air force until, almost overnight, a movie called “Top Gun” had recruits standing in line.The power of art over argument.Human history goes in circles. Majorities become fat and lazy ultimately to be overwhelmed by lean hungry minorities.And the elevation of the downtrodden never relies on logic; it is instead facilitated by the persistent persuasion of gifted penmen.British sweatshops for children existed only until Dickens wrote about them.American slaves were slaves only until Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote about them.Oh, yes, Lincoln himself credited her with having started the Civil War.The power of art over argument.More persuasive than any orator is the artist who can reduce complex considerations to a political cartoon.Animal rights activists bemoan the difficulty of making most people relate to animals.
Yet once upon a time a cartoonist named Walt Disney created an animal character named “Bambi” and in one year deer-hunting nose-dived from a $5.7 million business – to one million.The power of art over argument.Statutes mandating more humane treatment of draft-horses were initiated by a book: “Black Beauty”My generation’s first introduction to the man-animal kinship was through the books of Albert Payson Terhune about his collies.The priority of all humanitarians should be the alleviation of suffering.Public relations people – however gifted and properly motivated – have been frustrated in the human field.Most every argument they advance got them denounced or derided. Logical argument on behalf of suffering animals has been met, at best, with only lukewarm success.You want to convince the unconvinced, don’t call to arms call to “art.” Disney, Albert Payson Terhune, James Herriot -- who’s next?Artists are time proved experts at transplanting hearts into the heartless.These are the greatest resource of all of us who would make mankind.
“Geez, that’s weird!” he said, pausing briefly, then turning away into the art fair’s forest of canvases, tinkling windchimes and seashell animals. The April sun gently warmed the barely-clothed bodies meandering down the narrow pathways.
“Really different. By far the best work in the show.” I looked up. The man, perhaps in his sixties, smiled, nodded and continued on his way.
A breeze softly lifted a lock of her long, reddish-brown hair as her mouth and eyes opened into perfect circles. “A surrealist! How neat!” She gazed at my paintings in wonder. “I’d love to buy one. Will you be here next week?”
“Probably,” I said.
She smiled. “Great! I’ll probably see you then.” I knew I would never see her again.
The flow of people seemed to stop momentarily, so I ambled over to my neighbor. “They never buy here. They only look,” he commented with the air of wisdom that comes only with long, hard years of experience.
“I think you’re right,” I answered. “I’ve gotten lots of nice comments, but you can’t pay the bills with nice comments.” He agreed.
An older couple appeared and looked at my paintings. I quickly turned, but they left before I could take a step. An older, bearded intellectual type stopped, thoughtfully puffed on his pipe, and spoke slowly.
“A Rod Serling of the brush” he said, continuing with a discourse on the meaning of my work. He told me things about my artwork that even I didn’t know. I couldn’t resist.
“Wanna buy it?”
“No, no,” he laughed as he walked away.