Sonia Sotomayer and The Blue Pomegranate Art Gallery

There is something unseemly to me about Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions grilling
Hispanic Supreme Court Justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor. This white southern
male Republican Senator's politically trumped up "concern" about Sotomayor's "prejudices" turns history upside down.

Is this happening because we have come so far; or because we have come so little?

I have used the phrase "growing share of a shrinking market" to describe the Republican Party's collapse. Jeff Sessions is emblematic of that, it seems to me. His early oppositon to the NAACP and ACLU and prosecution of civil rights workers frame his early legal career in Alabama. His jokes there about the Ku Klux Klan have fallen pretty flat over time - he said they didn't seem so bad until he found out they smoked marijuana.

He has found himself on the wrong side of history and now sits in a Senate Hearing Room confronting what must be the worst nightmares of his youth - a Hispanic woman candidate for the Supreme Court of the United States of America.

Some snapshots tell a story. To me, this is one.

Ironically, Senator Sessions fought against the Senate's 60 vote rule when his party was in the majority. He thought 51 votes was all that should be necessary to end a filibuster of Judgeship nominations. I wonder if he has switched positions on that issue?

Anyway, just an observation from the sidelines.

Regards,
Bud C



ps. I'm pleased that I'll have a few pieces of my art at The Blue Pomegranate Art Gallery at 65th and Maple for a while. Stop on by and check out the wonderful art at the Gallery .

The hopes for democracy in Iran live on spite of the brutal crackdown on dissent, but the tactics of the dissidents appears to be changing. The image of the young girl killed by assassination will live on and will be an iconic image of the oppression of the population by the right wing fundamentalist theocracy that currently rules in Iran. I have been trying to use a pun I thought of about chadors, those veils that women choose or are sometimes forced to wear by the religious police in Iran and other Muslim countries. "The chador of your smile." How Iranic. Neda was a lovely young girl. According to one of Martin Luther King's speeches, "The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice...." For a credible discussion of tactics see: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/30/dabashi.us.iran/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

I've been studying Raoul Dufy's art; he was a French fauvist painter whose free brush work and muted pastel colors appeal to me. I've done a couple of paintings in the last week in his style.

And I also attended the Nebraska State High School Rodeo championship on Thursday in Hastings, Ne. A nephew of my Elizabeth was in the top of the rankings and should qualify for the Nationals in New Mexico. I watched steer roping, and goat tying, and "cutting" with its subtle nuances, and bronco riding. The only event I think I could do would be the bucking bronco riding. Like many of the young boys in the event, I could be bucked on a horse easily. I might not get up quite so quickly, if at all, but I could surely be thrown off in quick fashion.

And Michael Jackson's death appears to be more important to the media than the events in Iran or Iraq. Live coverage of a helicopter flying to the LA coroner filled quite a chunk of air time. He was a child star, who lived a troubled life, was accused and acquitted of child molestation, but lived with an evident attraction to young boys, lived in incredible luxury while sinking further and further in debt, and died young of an apparent heart attack. That he should get so much news coverage and attention says something about our culture.

So, there you go. Neda, the young symbol of Iran's quest for a democratic election process, assassinated by Iranian secret police it appears, gets bumped off the news by Michael Jackson. We all too often have strange priorities and values. But I suspect, the media's attention will wane regarding Jackson and Iran's autocratic government will do something else provocative and repressive and will capture the news cycle for a while. Or North Korea. Or something in Afghanistan.

At any rate, here's a couple of Dufy-esque floral pictures.

Bud

The trouble with being a housepainter and a golfer is that when it rains, you can't do either. So here I am today. But I did have some time to do a new painting. It's a study of a couple of other artists' work I admire: Matisse and Tony Curtis. Yes, Tony Curtis - the actor. You know Spartacus, Operation Petticoat, Houdini. He's a wonderful artist as well. I've combined motifs from a number of their works and combined them in this piece.

Regards, Bud C

Memorial Day 2009 Ain't Gonna Study War No More

We all have loved ones who have served in the military or know someone whose child/nephew/niece are serving somewhere. These kids don't make policy, they love their country, and they follow orders and do the best they can to perform their duties.

So I'm sending out a painting I did 3 years ago. This painting was in memory of our soldiers killed in Iraq. At the time the number of Americans killed was 2322. The number is now around 4500, more or less. The casualties in Afghanistan continue to rise now as well, and we appear to be focusing on the Taliban and Al Quaeda again.

Reasons against the war in Iraq were clearly enunciated by people wiser than me years ago -- perhaps a "truth" commission of some sort will emerge from the wreckage to sort out the fabrications and misjudgments. But at the time, I thought it was premature at the very least to attack Iraq and that we should have focused on Al Quaeda and the Taliban, who were the ones who attacked us on that Sept. 11.

But I also remember that our war against Iraq lasted about three weeks.

What followed was a sectarian civil war incited by Al Quaeda which rushed into Iraq seeing the opportunity of the power vacuum we created with our grossly incompetent and disastrous post war ideological fecklessness, with our soldiers caught in the various crossfires. Al Quaeda wasn't there when we started, but they arrived in large numbers shortly thereafter. The war in Iraq was a golden opportunity for Al Quaeda, and they seized it with all their jihadist nihlistic passion.

They've now been pushed out of Iraq for the most part into Afghanistan and Pakistan -- which is where we appear to be moving our war effort next.

My dad served in the Navy in WWII, and he died just over a year ago now. There are fewer and fewer WWII Veterans as the years go by. He had two brothers, both gone now, who served in the Navy as well. One was at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 and survived by the dumb luck of being in the right place at the right time.

So God be with our troops around the world wherever they are and let's pray for wisdom for our leaders.

Regards on this Memorial Day 2009,
Bud
www.artbycassiday.com


Sister Rosetta Tharpe singing "Ain't gonna study War no More."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOmRm0-acJw

Cinco de Mayo

According to my exhaustive research, (which included an on-line encyclopedia which shall remain nameless), Cinco de Mayo is a "regional" holiday in Mexico which we make a big deal about here. The holiday commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín. France was unhappy that Mexico was not paying off its debt, so France decided to invade and conquer Mexico, which they eventually did. Emperor Maximillian of Mexico, installed by the French, "served" about five years, but was executed by Mexican President Benito Juarez soon after the French were persuaded to leave. So Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! Any inferences about foreign powers installing governments overseas is strictly coincidental.

Here's a painting I did a couple of years ago titled, believe it or not , Cinco de Mayo.

Regards,
Bud
www.artbycassiday.com

ps. I am now available for painting and/or tile work...........


www.artbycassiday.com

When all else fails, I always say, paint a flower!' - Cassiday

'I'm not going down in history, I'm going down now!' - Cassiday

"Although a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, it's still a f****** long walk." - Cassiday

'Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun.' Picasso

'Use enough dynamite there, Butch?' - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

'Three out of four people make up 75% of the world's population.' Jeremy

'An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one. ' - Albert Camus

"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them." --Joseph Brodsky

'In Theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice, they're not.' -
Yogi Berra

'Always live in the ugliest house on the street - then you don't have to look at
it.' David Hockney

“Hey, hey, hey — don't be mean. No need to be mean. 'Cause, remember: no matter where you go... there you are.’”-The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension!"

A Meditation on Easter

I have painted 12 banners for my church sanctuary which are now hanging high above from the rafters. I painted both sides, so there are 24 images - each one is 3' x 8'. These banners are an exploration of my thoughts and feelings about our celebration of Easter.

What it’s all about, this death and resurrection thing? What really happened anyway? What is the significance of this Easter day? Unlike Christmas, December 25 each year, Easter is a moveable celebration. Easter is observed on the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the day of the vernal equinox. This can occur between March 22 and April 25. Complex negotiations over many centuries arrived at this rather odd compromise. So we’ve got this “moveable feast.”

Is the story of the Resurrection true? Is it Truth? I don’t know. I’m an artist, not a theologian. I think that many Biblical stories tell truths without being true. A friend said that Winston Baldwin once told a girl who asked if a story was true, “Honey, that story’s so true, that even if it’s not true, it’s true.” That works for me. Heresy? In some circles for sure. But whenever I hear that Jesus died for our sins, I think that it is more accurate to say that Jesus died because of the sins of his contemporaries. I don’t believe Jesus committed crucifixion suicide. He was put to death deliberately The politics of the day, and pride, arrogance, bigotry, hatred, and jealousy killed Jesus. I think that’s true.

That Easter is a moveable celebration appeals to me somehow. It moves around like the spirit can move around. And it needs to move around. Somebody kills Jesus everyday somewhere, it seems to me –genocide in Darfur or Kosovo, or innocents in the Holocaust or Guernica or New York City or Dresden, a landmine in Afghanistan or Africa, or an explosion in a town market in Iraq or the Holy Land, or a suicide bomber, or killing sprees with automatic weapons, or where a child is abused or hungry. “Broken-ness” kills Jesus. And Jesus lives and moves wherever goodness and kindness and caring prevail. I think that’s Truth.

So we are fortunate that Easter is a “moveable feast”– we desperately need the redemptive power of this celebration to move around. There are far too many places and times where this “moveable feast” is needed.

One of my favorite songs is Leonard Cohen’s, “Hallelujah.” He says the following about his song:

"This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled but there are moments when we can transcend …and reconcile and embrace the whole mess and that's what I mean by 'Hallelujah'. That regardless of what the impossibility of the situation is, there is a moment when you open your mouth and you throw open your arms and you embrace the thing and you just say 'Hallelujah! Blessed is the name.' And you can't reconcile it in any other way except in that position of total surrender, total affirmation.”

So my color blasts, dancing figures, doves and flowers, Hallelujahs, Jesus on the Cross, and other abstracted offerings are a way to celebrate this day and this “affirmation,” as are the beautiful music we hear and joyous songs we sing and words of wisdom that come our way as we attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable.

I will celebrate the death and life of Easter and hope the miracles will move from place to place, time to time, and person to person. I want these images to be part of the celebration of the contradictions of the rational and the miraculous, of the implications of metaphors and metaphysics, and of the contemplations of the true and the Truth, and I will “embrace the thing” with surrender and affirmation. The Easter story is so true, that even if it’s not true, it’s true. Hallelujah!

Bud Cassiday

Requiem for a Toaster

My toaster quit working a couple of days ago. Whatever the mechanism that clicks when you push the slide lever down didn't click and stop at the bottom. The heating element wires, therefore, didn't engage. I could have lived with holding it down manually while the heating element did its thing, but even that doesn't work.

It wasn't an old toaster, like toasters should be. It was a relatively new toaster -- maybe two years I've had it. It replaced a toaster I had had for maybe 25 years. Toaster should live long lives and be productive and provide satisfaction beyond measure to their masters.

A toaster should last 25 years -- if not longer. Toasting bread caramelizes the sugars and starches and gives bread that little extra sweetness and crunchiness we like. According to an internet Toaster History site, "Infrared radiation is the key to making toast. Direct heating of bread to at least 310 degrees Fahrenheit triggers what food chemists call the Maillard reaction, in which sugars and amino acids in the bread react to form numerous flavorful compounds responsible for the change in the bread’s taste, color, and aroma. The Maillard reaction also reduces the bread’s water content by about two-thirds, making the toast crunchy." With a bit of peanut butter and some home made pear jelly, man, is that good.

You've got to eat it while it's still warm though, so the race from the toaster to the peanut butter, and then to the home made pear jelly requires steadfastness of purpose, quick reflexes, and a coordinated plan: pour the cold milk ahead of time, have a small plate ready, open the peanut butter and jelly jars, and set the knife astride the open peanut butter jar, and then, and only then, put the bread in the slots of the toaster, and depress the lever.

Do not be distracted. And I might add, even if the phone rings, stay focused on your efforts. Do not answer the door. Focus. And be ready. The toaster in question had an overactive thyroid or something because it tended to fling the toast with some velocity so that if you were attentive and your reflexes were still sharp, you could catch the toast in mid air. If not, then it would sometimes be flung completely out of the toaster and land on my kitchen counter.

Once the toast is ejected, with deft strokes, the thin layer of peanut butter goes down, and the spoon sized globs of pear jelly are applied and then gently crushed and distributed without disturbing the now melting layer of peanut butter.

Whether one slice of bread or two, the race is now on. Grabbing the milk in one and and rushing to my favorite easy chair, my leather Barca Lounger, I anticipate that first bite and that cold splash of milk that follows.

Oh, man, is that good.

But, alas, the toaster no longer functions. We've sent men to the moon, and vehicles to every planet, the sun, and even out of the solar system - Voyager continues on its way how many decades now......

We've built computer storage devices we can now measure in the terraquads.

Nanobots will someday clean our arteries and repair damage in our hearts, and
lungs, and who knows what else.

But my toaster is kaput.


Bud