Thursday, February 13, 2014

Virgin Snow Covered White Rose

Winter surprised one November morning up on the Roszadomb in Budapest.


Descending into freshly fallen snow – earlier than expected
I rush past a rose bush layered lush, a brighter white

Flakes falling damp like dew, grasping
holly leaves hanging heavy off amber stems

Flakes so delicate and wanting no rejection
piling on petals resilient and full of might

Virgin snow covered white rose.

A shutter snaps capturing this white rose wanting
life beyond lapels, vases and fragrant gardens

Long a symbol of innocence and an untarnished world
taking on new life during revolt

Hoping for intervention, nothing divine transpires beyond
unfulfilled promises of support­ that doom defiance

Virgin snow covered white rose.

Bare hands assembled so many barricades erected
holding out gallantly only to be

Crushed bloody red by rolling tanks while sewing seeds
of future revolts behind a rusting iron curtain

Twelve years later in a Prague Spring
twelve years from a shipyard  in Gdansk

Virgin snow covered white rose.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Somewhere My Love


Looking out my dining room window, winter has taken over.

Two benches sit idle near our blown-shut path leading to a frozen-over Lake Michigan. Knee deep in wind-packed snow, a foot and a half on top, the benches offer no refuge.

Rounded-white effigies occupy the black, wrought iron chairs on our patio. No respite, again, for winter has settled in.

Winter can make for lonesome days in January that have sometimes made me quip, “Doctor Zhivago visits here often,” when summer visitors ask me, “How’s winter in Leland?”

Today’s solitude makes me think of that scene in Doctor Zhivago where he and his femme fatale arrive by horse-drawn sleigh at a dacha – encased outside and in by a glaze of ice and snow.

Somewhere My Love,” Lara’s theme from the film sings in my ear.

Thankfully, Valentine’s Day falls in mid February and the rose is the flower of choice. Roses have a cultivated mystique, ancient symbols of love and beauty, remembrance and passion. Each rose has a magnificence that transcends its physical uniqueness, deep fragrance, and short life as a cut flower. The color of a rose has significance, too.

Red stirs romance and passion.
Pink… grace, elegance and refinement.
White holds out for happiness.
Blue... try mystery and intrigue.
Purple longs for love at first sight.
Orange shouts out enthusiasm.
Yellow conveys joy and friendship in today’s western world, although it has historically meant joy, wisdom and power in Eastern cultures, and has long symbolized jealousy and dying love in Europe.

Come next week, pose daily with a rose when you knock on your door.

Don’t wait for Dr. Zhivago to come singing “Somewhere my love.”



Thursday, January 30, 2014

Three Old Facebook Posts


Last July, when my wife and our two daughters were off in Missouri for a family reunion, I wrote three Facebook posts. Here they are.


Looming First Iris

Come late June early each morning
as the sun rises to greet the flowers
of our terraced garden out front
we rise and anticipate the first Iris bloom.

As the Iris patch turns soft purple
Brenda will rise early to paint.
A Horticulturalist’s Visit

Late Sunday afternoon a horticulturalist visited our gallery.

“The color pulled me in,” she said. “That large canvas depicting a look-in on your garden has Hollyhocks. Was it painted some time in late summer?” she asked.

Garden Outback
http://www.brendajclark.com/paintingf14.htm

After our visitor had toured the gallery and seen Brenda’s several Poppies and Iris paintings, she noted how these flowers bloom about the same time in June.

When I described the two beds of these flowers at home, the visitor proudly acknowledged her college degree and profession, and spoke at length about Brenda’s two Iris paintings: Looming First Iris I and Looming First Iris II. (The first is acrylic on arches paper, the second acrylic on wood block.)

Our visiting horticulturalist seemed to like both, stating fondly how she came to love the Iris  as a flower when studying Van Gogh’s still life paintings of them.

She liked the paper piece for the way Brenda’s Iris seemed to be the sole being in its universe and engulfed by lush green foliage.

The wood block’s rich contrast of a bright yellow background and green stems surrounding the Iris, and the swirling brush strokes with Impasto edges, fascinated this horticulturalist.

Myself, for summer 2013, I like Brenda’s painting, Poppies ‘n Iris and Me, inside a wood shadow box.

Patron and former art professor, Ray Betts, noted that Brenda’s work some times achieves a “stained-glass effect.” I guess he’s right; the shapes of the flowers, their stems and leaves, do project this effect. 

Lyrical Realists
http://www.brendajclark.com/news8.htm

“Why guess,” perhaps I should say. An evening like tonight is a fine time for a visit to the gallery, or for sipping a glass of wine while checking out Brenda’s work online.


Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

I've changed my mind.

Again.

The evening of my last post - A Horticulturalist's Visit - my favorite flower painting for the summer was Poppies 'n Iris and Me.

I guess it's my fine art whim, being at the gallery almost daily.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes.

This morning, I am choosing Poppies at the Wellhead.

It' almost like a still-life painting. A findly woven tapestry with it's disappearing space, and hints of Catmint and Chives amidst so many Poppy blooms.

A sole plant that my father and mother gave to Brenda and me for our anniversary during our first June in Leland.

You want to put this painting in a vase, and water it.

Does anyone have a really large vase that I can borrow?

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Winter On My Palette


Post Note: The post that follows was written for the Facebook page of our fine art business, the Brenda J. Clark Gallery. It was then picked up and posted by MyNorth.com. Here is the link:

Up in Michigan during winter.

Snow.

Pure white. Fluffy and soft. Virgin. Where no man should tread.

A wonderlust for snow and the loving pact that Mother Nature and Ol' Man Winter have struck. Looking out at winter up in Michigan, snow symbolizes it. Our minds always interprets it as white.

Winter's snow up in Michigan also makes for painting outdoors. Just ask Expressionist painter, Brenda J. Clark. She paints winter's white differently.

Fishtown in Winter

I remember that blurry, snow-swirling day above Fishtown. Brenda was determined to be out in it, painting. So I hauled an old palette crate down to the guard rail along side of Lake Street, padded it with a couple of moving blankets, and then backed my SUV up to the crate and lifted up the back door.
Inside, she sat. Shivering. Frothy steam poured from her mouth as she drank hot cocoa and absorbed the melting marshmallows. Out she went to paint, and in Chicken Big ran to our gallery. I checked back with her every half hour, bringing something hot to drink. She painted all day.

But the snow _- it was not exactly white. The circle road around the harbor parking lot moved in iridescent pinks and yellows. Fishtown's buildings glowed red violet.

The following morning, Brenda had a head cold, but the snow swirled round in round in swirling pinks and yellows.

http://www.brendajclark.com/painting18.htm

Blue Winter Breaking

Snow can be blue, too. Scientifically, it turns blue when packed together and deep enough. The red light waves are absorbed and only the blue waves escape to reflect that color back in to our eyes.
On that warming March day on Leland Estates Drive overlooking the Manitous Islands, the huge snow base of two feet plus had begun to melt. It began to compact. Brenda's palette for the snow that day reveals just such a blue hue. She didn't study the electromagnetic spectrum before going out to paint that day, but came as close to realism as her Expressionistic mode (unknowingly) took her.
Blue Winter Breaking could also be a summer scene, suggesting the sun's bright light bouncing off a sandy ridge above Lake Michigan. But it was a perfect winter day melting toward spring.
Panning the Manitou Islands in March

This cold day should'be turned anyone's hands a raw pink; instead these hues showed up in Brenda's painting mid way up North Beach from the deck of a summer resident.

Maybe Mother Nature scolded Ol' Man Winter for such cold that day, causing him dismay, only to see the color spectrum revert to a monochromatic pink.

We usually think of pink as hot, flush with emotion. Pure love. Pink roses. Pink flamingos. From now on, think pink drifts of snow on North Beach.

http://www.brendajclark.com/painting98.htm

Blissfully White at North Beach

By contrast, when Brenda painted Blissfully White North Beach, she recalled fondly, "I could've gotten a tan on the beach that day."

It was a bright winter day glowing from the sun's rays and it warmed up Brenda's color preference.
The high level of reflectivity made North Beach glow in yellows. The sunlight bounced off of snow-covered sands and back into the air. Frank Zappa and his Huskies were no where to be found.

http://www.brendajclark.com/painting97.htm

Blue snow. Pink snow. White Snow. Yellow Snow.

Snow is a kaleidescope for Brenda J. Clark in winter.


Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Elitist Hypocrite



What would William Safire, the award-winning columnist for the New York Times, have written about the term "elitist hypocrite" used in the recent National Rifle Association Stand and Fight ad  that criticized President Barack Obama's position on putting armed guards in schools?

Safire wrote a weekly column called On Language that analyzed the usage of contemporary language, including unusual phrases. Following his approach, let's look at the meaning of these words  - "elitist" and "hypocrite." What do these words mean by themselves as particular parts of speech, together as a phrase, and in the context of our nation's political debate about gun control and violence?

Dictionary.com defines an elitist in adjective form as "(of a person or class of persons) considered superior by others or by themselves, as in intellect, talent, power, wealth, or position in society."

The same source provides two definitions for the noun, hypocrite. With President Obama being an elected public official and public figure, let's use the definition: "a person who feigns some desirable or publicly approved attitude, especially one whose private life, opinions, or statements belie his or her public statements."

"Elitist" finds part of its roots in old French, meaning selection or choice, while in Middle English, the word "elitist" became a "chosen person."

A "hypocrite" in the Greek language refers to an actor - "one who pretends to be what he is not."

In the phrase itself, the adjective, elitist, complements the noun, hypocrite. It suggests that this person is the worst of all hypocrites.

Political Context

The NRA ad declares that Obama is an "elitist hypocrite" because he questions the effectiveness of having armed guards in all public schools, while his daughters have them at their private school.

In reality, the guards at the Obama girls' private school are secret agents, and they are responsible for protecting these girls for national security reasons. Our country has an obligation to protect its president and his family so that the president can fulfill the duties of his office without fearing daily for the security of his daughters.

Here's what Obama did say about armed guards at schools: "I am skeptical that the only answer is putting more guns in schools," Mr. Obama said during a recent interview on the NBC News program Meet the Press. "And I think the vast majority of the American people are skeptical that that somehow is going to solve our problem."

Representative Leadership

The national problem of gun violence requires solutions that the majority of Americans support and can accept. President Obama has asked Congress to pass four measures:

1) Require background checks on all gun sales.
2) Restore a ban on "military-style assault weapons."
3) Ban gun magazines with capacities of more than 10 rounds.
4) Toughen penalties on people who sell guns to those who can't have them.

Meanwhile, NRA leadership has been pushing for armed guards in all schools, while positioning the NRA and its membership against Obama's four proposals.

Just as members of Congress and our President are elected and have a responsibility to represent their constituents' beliefs on a particular issue, so does the NRA leadership. A look at two polls reveals that the NRA leadership is not considering its members' beliefs on gun control. Rather, it is acting contrary to the desires of a majority of its members.

Those Polls

A May 2012 poll commissioned by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and conducted by Republican pollster Frank Luntz reveals strong support for gun control among NRA members. The poll found that 74 percent, or 3 of every 4 NRA members, agree "criminal background checks should be required before selling a gun to a potential buyer."

A New York Times/CBS News poll conducted earlier this January found even higher support for background checks being required for all gun purchases (whether from a licensed dealer or via an unlicensed private individual and including those at gun shows). Of NRA members who were respondents to this survey, 85 percent indicated that they favor background checks on all gun purchases. This compared to 9 in 10 Americans who support background checks, whether they had a gun in their household or not.

Looking at Obama's measure to ban gun magazines with capacities of more than 10 rounds, the same New York Times/CBS News poll found that 6 in 10 respondents supported a ban on high-capacity magazines. Of those respondents living in households with guns, the majority supported a high-capacity magazine ban.

Elitist Hypocrites, Please Stand Up

As these polls indicate, NRA members want stricter background checks on all gun purchases, and a majority of gun owners support banning high-capacity magazines.

Very clearly a majority of NRA members (and Americans) support two of Obama's gun control proposals. Yet the NRA is advocating against its NRA members in these two regards.

Applying the definition of "elitist," the NRA leadership considers itself above the membership it represents. NRA leadership considers its opinion and knowledge as superior to the beliefs of its NRA members. The NRA's leadership is not listening to and respecting NRA members' viewpoints on key gun control measures.

Put in the context of the word "hypocrite" - the NRA leadership is pretending to be something that it is not: the NRA membership.

It is the NRA leadership that is acting in an "elitist" fashion and like a "hypocrite." The "elitist hypocrite" is not President Barack Obama, but in the persons of NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre and President David Keene.



Tuesday, January 15, 2013

The Man in Black


Suttons Bay, Michigan.

Waiting at the deli counter for my Pastrami on Rye, a new customer appeared.

He was a man in black with an open carry. Deadpan face and serious, he wasn't wearing a police or security guard uniform.

As this man in black stepped up, I stepped aside. As I moved quietly to the other end of the counter, the four deli workers' actions slowed to a stop, and dead silence took over. All casual conversation stopped. Fear seemed to seal our lips. This man in black wielding his open carry was controlling the entire situation. A chilling effect had set in.

For us, the clear and present danger test had been met. Why was this man in black "shouting 'fire' in a crowded theater?" ... His open carry was shouting out "beware of me. He was disrupting the civil environment and putting public safety at risk.

Why was this civilian wearing an open carry in a quaint, peaceful little town with its own local sheriff? In a county where the county sheriff's office and jail are less than five miles away? And where many people don't lock the doors of their homes at night?

The man in black's Second Amendment right to bear arms was trampling on the First Amendment rights to freedom of expression for the deli workers and myself. Gone was our casual conversation, and the confidence and security associated with friendly dialogue. The minority right of the man in back had suppressed the liberties of the majority.

Later, I pondered why I had not slipped away to the front of the store and manager's office to express my dismay and feeling of helplessness about this open carry? Why hadn't I shown some vigilance by requesting of the manager that this man in black leave the store, or at least exit the store to put his handgun in his car before returning to the deli counter?

Later, I also wondered in how many other places across America that another man in black was imposing his minority right on a majority of law abiding citizens?

Majority Rule and Minority Rights

A goal of our Founding Fathers in writing the U.S. Constitution and its amendments was to ensure the rights and liberties of all citizens. Our Founders strived for a proper balance between majority rule and minority rights, aiming to prevent the majority's will from dictating a forced solution for a particular matter of public policy.

Our Founding Fathers realized that decision making on a public issue might not yield the 'right' answer, but one that was "satisfactory" to all. The minority would have their say just like the majority. It was expected that individual citizens would sometimes be a part of the majority and sometimes in the minority. There would need to be sacrifices and compromise for the common good and in the public interest.

What Comes First

What came first, the right to bear arms or the right to freedom of speech and peaceably assemble?

If the presence of a person carrying a gun acts to suppress the free speech of a majority of people in a given situation, then hasn't the balance of liberties defined in our Constitution been jeopardized?

If a minority of Americans carry a concealed weapon or have an open carry, and the presence of such weapons alters the environment of our public places by heightening the prospects of violence, then aren't the rights of the majority being undermined? Haven't civil liberties been suppressed or removed?

When the Second Amendment supercedes the First Amendment right to free speech or freedom of assembly, then hasn't the Fourteenth Amendment been violated? All Americans have equal protection in public places, not just those carrying guns.

Let's look at the make up of America using our first and second amendments. The First Amendment represents the rights of all Americans, while gun ownership, including carrying a concealed weapon or open carry, represents a minority.

The Numbers Speak

According to the U.S. Census Bureau and last census, there are 312 million Americans living in 115 million households in the United States. This represents an average of 2.7 people per household.

Of America's 115 million households, 32 percent or 36.8 million households own firearms. This means that just under 100 million Americans live in a home where there are firearms.

Of the 310 million firearms in America , 20 percent of gun owners possess 65 percent of these guns. In other words, a very small minority own two-thirds of all firearms.

Quite simply, gun owners represent a minority in America's democracy. More specifically, the 36.8 million households that possess firearms, the 99 million people living in those households, and the 20 percent of gun owners who possess almost two-thirds of America's firearms do not represent a majority of Americans.

Biden Commission

As the Biden Commission on gun violence gets ready to announce its recommendations, one of its goals must be to address the current imbalance between the excessive power and force of gun owners as a minority over the majority of Americans who do not own firearms.

The Biden Commission must formulate a satisfactory, comprehensive set of measures that embodies the U.S. Constitution's principle of majority rules and minority rights. The commission's recommendations must make accountability by gun owners the driving force for these measures. 

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Rite of Passage

Rite of Passage



Green City, Missouri – Just after noon my father-in-law rode out on his big machine  to cut their football-field-of a-front-lawn.  I cut the smaller back yard with their self-propelled walking mower.

It must have been contagious. Before we finished two hours later, freshly mown grass with bright green ‘cut’ lines was the norm in the neighborhood. The neighbor across Pfeiffer Street to our left was riding and cutting on her John Deere; her neighbor rode his Cub. Not to be out done, the Mayor rode hard to catch up and contour his pasture-of-a-lawn to our right.

Each spring folks in this rural northeast Missouri town take to their lawn mowers. Grooming their lawn – “keeping it pretty” –  is a matter of pride and self-expression, a ritual. It’s part of their rite of passage in spring.

Grooming one’s lawn is an integral part of Green City’s community spirit. This simple task is taken seriously. It is a civic responsibility – a matter of allegiance to the community’s wellbeing. It is tantamount to the oath taken by an elected government official to bear responsibility for the welfare of his constituents.

Come spring in Missouri, tight bunches of petit magenta-pink flowers on Red Bud trees and creamy white flowers of the Wild Plum and Dogwood glow with radiance. Spring’s clean, light air casts their colors iridescent against a barren farmland cleansed by winter’s pure white snow. You can see through the patches of color along roadsides, in fields and yards to view the past. Spring is about transparency.

Spring offers us transformation with its longer days and warmer temperatures.  It gives us more comfort, spawns new hope, and drives our psyche to feel refreshed. Spring’s transformation confers on us an inner strength to be patient not only with ourselves but others, too.  It says, afford others their dignity by being fair.

 The rain and plow in spring turn the barren into plenty and provide for us. Spring stirs clusters of new life.  It says, “See through the changes at hand. See them through.”

Spring in Syria

Walking behind the self-propelled mower, I wondered about spring in Syria? How have the traditions of spring in the Syrian culture been affected by Bashar al-Assad and his army as they rain down shells and kill innocent children, women and men in their attempt to squash the yearlong uprising?

How do parents in Syria cope with the uncertainty of daily living and its routine? There must be constant anguish about sending their children off to attend school every morning, five days a week in a violent, unsafe war environment. Have their children been able to wander home and play intermittently in the streets along the way home?

Parents need stability in society to send their children out into the world. Children need structured learning on a regular basis at school. They long for the choice to interact freely with each other as a part of growing up. These aspects of childhood surely play out as ritual in springtime; rather, they did.

Have these same Syrian families been able to work along side of each other in sprucing up their shared courtyards – cleaning its walls and customary fountain, pruning its citrus trees and grapevines, planting flowers while letting the children play?

Families need to interact, too. Their pride looks for ways to be exhibited behind the closed doors of courtyards where life happens in a private way. What about the traditional lunch of chicken kebab, lamb kibbe, tabbouleh, hummus and flatbread? Hmmm….

How many of these same families, neighborhoods and communities have had their regular marketplace or “souk” days interrupted and even stopped by indiscriminate bombing and attack from the Syrian army?  

The souk is a thread in the social fabric of Syrian culture. It is the commercial place where people earn their livelihoods and others buy food, drink and staple goods for their nourishment and homes. Haggling at market over a woven rug, bartering over food prices, and debating local politics make the souk a vital part of daily living in Syria. Come springtime these marketplaces come alive again as the sun drenches vendors’ stalls and people mingle with a new energy.

And what about those weekly and even daily visits to places of worship? The quiet and calm right to practice religion in a sanctuary has also been interrupted. People fear going out at all.

What has happened to the expectations of the Syrian people trying to exercise freedoms associated with a march toward democracy?  They’ve been threatened and intimidated, jailed and tortured, even stamped out permanently in 9,000 cases and counting.

His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan described the Arab Spring as “a call for dignity, justice and freedom,” noting “there’s no going back on the legitimate aspirations of the people to have a larger say in the way their societies are organized.” Syrians, like other peoples of the Arab Spring, are saying let us determine and shape our rites of passage not only in spring, but every season throughout every year.

Getting Back Spring’s Transformation

United Nations and Arab League special envoy, Koffi Annan hopes he has succeeded in getting Assad to agree to a six-point peace plan. A cease fire began today, and seems to be holding. But it will be tested tomorrow - Friday - when Syrians congregate for prayer at mosques. Heavy weapons remain in city squares such as Homs. Snipers rest on rooftops. Troops are still present, too, and at the ready. Annan's peace plan was one more necessary step in an international process that will eventually isolate and remove Assad. Of the six points in Annan’s peace plan for Syria, two demanded transformation this spring:

Mr. Assad, end the violence and accept “an inclusive Syrian-led political process to address the legitimate aspirations and concerns of the Syrian people.”

Mr. Assad, fulfill your commitment to “respect freedom of association and the right to demonstrate peacefully as legally guaranteed in Syria.”

Upon assuming power after his father’s death and during his first address as Syria’s new leader in July 1999, Assad proclaimed his Damascus Spring for change and a more pluralistic, civil society. It began to happen. Access to the outside world via the technology of the internet, satellite dishes, and mobile phones occurred. Foreign newspapers and publications showed up at newsstands, and open criticism of the government was reported in local Syrian media. Then Assad suddenly reversed course a year later and began jailing people who opposed his rule.

Last spring, Assad struck back again to prevent the Arab Spring from establishing a foothold.

As one Middle East expert noted, feelings of grief, anger and helplessness in the Syrian people grew out of Assad’s repression. Yet the Syrian people could not be held down any longer. They transformed these downtrodden feelings into compassion and solidarity, and rose up. The fear was gone. There was a choice of flight or fight, and the majority of the Syrian people have chosen the latter.

The UN and international community must not allow Assad to continue his assault on Syrians’ rite of passage to democracy.

See It Through

Spring is pure and its rights must be respected, not only in America, but in Syria, too.  A Greater Syria in spirit requires the building of a civil society complete with human rights and opportunities to establish individual rites of passage. Syrians want civil rights as well as political rights. They long for equal access to economic opportunity.

What will next spring bring for the people of Syria?