Thoughts on Fall 2021 Introduction to the Visual Arts

On this beautiful Thursday, I am grading my students final papers and projects. I am impressed by their thoughtful and creative projects and words. My students give me hope for the future. I continue to be humbled by what an honor it is to be a teacher. Teaching is so different now that I have become a talking head, but I still believe in the transformative power of education and specifically art education.

I spend much of my time sitting at a table, looking out the window at my garden and butterflies, listening to the birds, and working on my laptop. Life is never what you imagined it would be, but it can be beautiful. I am going to take a break from grading now and go check on the monarch and gulf fritillary caterpillars. Love and light my friends.

Thoughts at 50

Dear Friends,

I woke up this morning with the song “Black Boys on Mopeds” by Sinead O’Conner going through my head. Sadly the song is as relevant as it was the day I first heard it 30 years ago. Today on my birthday, I am trying to understand what happened yesterday in Washington D.C. I trying to make sense of why white people can do whatever they want in my country and folks of color are beaten and killed for just trying to live.

2021 has to be the year that we face uncomfortable truths. This is the year that we have to talk about racism, that we have to talk about poverty, that we have to talk about children that are hungry? Why do rich people get tax credits for their yachts and poor folks can’t deduct their bus fair? Why do poor folks go to jail and people, like the #notmypresidentman, break laws with no repercussions? Why is my city, Baton Rouge, more than 50% people of color and yet more than 90% of the wealth belongs to white people. Why are Rich countries getting all the vaccines and the poor countries are left to suffer. Why can Americas billionaires end world hunger, still be very, very rich, and yet don’t? Why the hell is there a picture of a slave owner on the dollar bill?

We should not be okay with the answers to these questions.. We need to feel so uncomfortable that we have no choice but to change. Children die of hunger in our world everyday. Hold that statement to your heart and live with it, we have no choice but to change. To quote a good man, enough is enough, is enough.

I realize that I must start with myself.

Are we ready?

Love and light and happiness to all my friends,

Christopher

Sinead O’Connor “Black Boys on Mopeds”

Margaret Thatcher on TV

Shocked by the deaths that took place in Beijing

It seems strange that she should be offended

The same orders are given by her

I've said this before now

You said I was childish and you'll say it now

Remember what I told you

If they hated me they will hate you

England's not the mythical land of Madame George and roses

It's the home of police who kill black boys on mopeds

And I love my boy and that's why I'm leaving

I don't want him to be aware that there's

Any such thing as grieving

Young mother down at Smithfield

Five a.m., looking for food for her kids

In her arms she holds three cold babies

And the first word that they learned was please

These are dangerous days

To say what you feel is to dig your own grave

Remember what I told you

If you were of the world they would love you

England's not the mythical land of Madame George and roses

It's the home of police who kill blacks boys on mopeds

And I love my boy and that's why I'm leaving

I don't want him to be aware that there's

Any such thing as grieving

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDuVzDM3C7A

Sitting in a blue room, drinking black coffee

So it is day ten of our self Quarantine at Casa Rosemary, in the neighborhood where the sidewalk ends.

All is well, no one has a fever and we have plenty of food and wine and medicine and all sorts of important stuff. The dogs and the cats are very happy with having humans around all the time. I am enjoying walking and working in the garden everyday. I am currently obsessed with pollinator insects and trying to identify all the ones in our yard and that I see on my walks.

Dan still goes and works at the Meadow sometimes, but he’s alone there in the middle of a field, so quarantine is maintained?!?

Everyday was too much life and working and school and running, running, running and then it ended and one by one everything shut down and now we are on day ten. I needed the break, I think the whole planet did, why did it have to get so horrible and tragic for us to slow down? But I am learning to fill my days and try to put the existential dread in the back of my mind.

I made Pretzels for the first time in years, they were delicious.

We are turning the front yard into a meadow with native wildflowers and putting in a vegetable garden. Yesterday I put in a 10’ x 4’ bed with radishes, lettuces, and arugula. I put one of my gnomes to guard it, but I don’t think they bother the squirrels… #Radishes #Lettuce #Arugula #Gnome #gartenzwerg

Goodbye lawn.

Love and light my friends,

Christopher

Monday, October 20, 2008 *Wind, water, light on a Tuesday no less

Walk by this place everyday. One of the little surreal industrial landscapes that dot the landscape of the Bywater. Sometimes when the wind is right and we have had rain it is one of the more beautiful places I see. The water has three different textures and life is Panoramic.