ART

There is a coffee house in Charlottesville where they feature local art on their walls. When I was there for a long weekend I discovered a guy named Mike Clark whose paintings were displayed so, every morning I would stop there and have a coffee and look at his work. They really weren't paintings but rather bas-relief images. That means he takes a photograph and then cuts part out of it to make a stencil. He puts the stencil on a panel and then uses drywall joint compound to fill in the stencil. It's really a unique medium, but here's what I liked the most about Mikes art; he chooses old junk and trash as the subject for his pictures. This is what he says on his website,

"In my paintings, I seek to capture the beauty in things that are marginal,abandoned, ruined. To me, traces of forgotten industries, such as old buildings, smokestacks, street signs, and pre-modern machinery, are inherently striking and physical, markers to the overlooked realities of daily life." -Mike Clark

I found it interesting because people usually associate art with the beautiful, I mean like nature or a woman, things that are already beautiful. In a way, if you think about it, it's kind of like cheating. Anyone with a little talent can reproduce the natural beauty of a flower or a landscape or a woman holding a baby. It takes considerable effort to release the hidden beauty from that which we have discarded. Mike has effectively redeemed that which has been marginalized by society.

So, when we look for beauty in our contextual lives perhaps we should look deeper. Transfixed by this conundrum, a seeming paradox; the ugly becomes lovely, I inquired about the art but, alas, it was quite beyond my means.

Closed System

My friend, the Asian Imports Attorney, once said that the system of human rights is a closed system. Meaning, I can’t ratchet up my liberties without ratcheting down someone else’s. An interesting concept, I think it applies not just to human rights but to many aspects of life.

As an ugly American I have been raised to think that I have to right to acquire comfort in life by working hard. We teach this concept to our children and it is the hallmark of a functional society that it produces what we call “productive members” of that society; people who have jobs, pay taxes vote and report for jury duty. In an open system as long as you follow the rules you can consume as much liberty as you choose and have nothing but a positive effect on the world. Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness.

Nothing wrong with that. But what if we look at things differently. What if there wasn't an infinite supply of goodwill, comfort and happiness in the world. If it is a "closed system" then nothing is added or taken away, nothing is created or destroyed. Things are merely moved around. What if in order for me to be rich someone else has to be poor. What if in order for me to be right you have to be wrong. For me to be beautiful you must be ugly, for me to be comfortable you have to be tortured, for me to be happy you have to be hopeless, for me to feel safe and secure you have to be scared shitless.

I recently received an email containing this quote, “…the government cannot give anything to anyone -- that they have not first taken away from someone else.” This is, of course, true and not isolated to governmental affairs. Think about it the other way round also. It is impossible for the US to increase the standard of living of the countries around us unless we are willing to lower our standard of living. We just need to figure out if that is worth doing.


Now think locally. Can I increase the importance of a child or a neighbor or a coworker without decreasing my own self-importance?

Now if I examine myself and my culture and compare my existence to the existence of most I find that if this closed system theory is not true then it eerily describes what is true.