voinovich and violence

The Raising Cain paintings are starting to come together. I've been working on them for almost a month now and have twenty or so started. I've just posted photos of them as they are now click here to check them out (you'll have to scroll down).

I'm discovering as I get further into this project that try as I might to give violence it's fair shake, I seem to be continually confronted with the conviction that there is really never a productive use for the thing. We have world leaders who seem to take it for granted that violent action is a legitimate strategy and that success can be achieved by responding to violence with greater violence. They honestly seem to believe that violence will achieve desired results (and ludicrously, even peace). I've searched and searched and failed to find instances when that has really been the case. There have always been other options visible to those able to see through the propaganda.

The current situation in Lebanon (not to mention Iraq and afghanistan of course) serves as a prime example for how violence simply adds to and exacerbates the problem. This seems so monumentally obvious that I'm dumbstruck by the insistence of national leaders and decision-makers to continue falling into this same delusion over and over despite millennia of examples to the contrary.

In addition to this, a train of thought that I keep returning to is that we are infected by a paradigm level belief in the existence of evil. This taken-for-granted premise to our actions allows us to categorize our adversaries as "evil" which serves to afford us the seemingly legitimate option of ignoring their point of view. at the root of violence is misunderstanding and a lack of empathy, which is of course fostered by our belief that evil exists and is guiding the actions of others - others who of course view us in a reflective way. Remember that rather than look for a reason behind terrorist attacks, our leaders chose to simply label the terrorists as "evil-doers" and respond in kind. The "evil-doers" in return toss around phrases like "the great satan" and our politicians are surprised that the violence continues to escalate "despite our nation's best efforts" as george voinovich stated the other day. how can this man really view the actions of the untied states during the past five years as "best efforts"? and how can he miss the fact that our actions are the cause, not the solution? I'm more convinced than ever that evil simply does not exist... confusion, ignorance, misunderstanding, yes - but evil? no.

Violence does however exists in our society - not to the extent relative to non-violence that it would seem it does if we simply watch the news and read the paper, but nevertheless to a greater extent than it needs to. Violence is never necessary and is always correctible - but not with more violence - only through listening, understanding and agreement. examples of diplomacy being used to counter violence are the British negotiating with the IRA and the Spanish with ETA, as pointed out by Brian Michael Jenkins, a terrorism expert at the Rand Corp. in Arlington, Virginia and reported by Howard LaFranchi of The Christian Science Monitor the other day.

And yet condi rice isn't even going to talk with hizbollah leaders during her "diplomatic" trip.

In the meantime, there really are other issues of greater importance and urgency facing us than violence, but none so readily correctible by a shift in viewpoint... maybe the next group of paintings though should try to examine our environmental crisis, world hunger and poverty, or our educational system... we'll see.

zoo with monica and celeste

the paintings have been kickin' my ass a bit this week, I'm tryin' to narrow the focus of the theme, realizing that simply doing a series exploring violence is a bit too broad a topic. I've spent a fair amount of time researching and organizing with the intent of developing some sort of clarification - but it's been hard work... or maybe not hard, so much as slow going. I'd much rather just jump into the painting, but without a defined goal, I find myself a little aimless with the work. on the other hand, the several canvasses that I have been working on are coming together nicely and i'm pleased with the results (I'll link to them from here when I get them up on the website), but for my own peace of mind, I need to figure out where I'm going with them before I get too much further along.

today was a welcome and much needed break from the work. went to breakfast at frisch's big boy with monica and celeste and from there went to the zoo. here are some photos.

northside parade

Tuesday, July 4th

got up and painted, first thing this morning. went downstairs around noon to watch the parade. bruce, Jason and the rest were down on the street. the crowd was gathering. I’d brought my camera and so I wandered around a bit looking for things to shoot, but pretty quickly wound back up in front of the bakery and settled in at a good spot where I could unobstructedly see the action.

the parade was great. it’s a long way from the semana santa processions in Antigua, this was definitely a usa style parade. I remember people in Guatemala asking me if we had parades in the US, I tried to describe july 4th parades and I remember not having a lot of luck explaining them – I even tried to describe the macy’s thanksgiving parade, but that was even harder… but I tried.

The thing about a good ol' american 4th of july parade is that it gives everybody in a community a chance to publicly voice their minds and proclaim a cause or belief that is important to them. the northside parade today seemed to have representatives from all aspects of this neighborhood, and watching it gave me a feeling of closeness to this place and helped me feel like I understand the people who live here a little more now than I did yesterday.

sometimes I feel like Cincinnati is even more foreign to me than Guatemala was, but it’s an oddly familiar kind of foreignness… a sort of deja vuish you-can-never-go-home-again kind of alienation. monica’s been my tourguide to the suburbs, and bruce has been taking care of me as the good friend he is… but I do feel like a fish out of water, or a foreign correspondent that, try as he might, just doesn’t quite get the local culture. at least I’m more adept at the language here than I was in guatemala.

The parade was fun and I met a few more of bruce’s friends, and everybody here is awfully nice and welcoming to me. I’ve spent the afternoon painting my pictures, and prepping these photos – I’ll put some of them below. I’m pretty happy with my new camera, and glad I had a chance to practice with it today... and the paintings are coming along, although it's always a little rough going at first, you know... I'll figure it all out though - never fear!

fireworks are exploding outside as I write this, maybe I’ll go watch!