L'ATELIER
ROBERT COANE
- THE CARAMEL AWARD -
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Fall
2004
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LORAINE a.k.a. MURRAY POSTELL www.murraysportraits.com
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"If
it's not political, it's not Art." - Diego Rivera |
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The
above is a self-portrait I did in 1990, at the height
of the "culture wars' that ensued at
the end of King Ronald's reign. It depicts an artist bound and gagged in front
of a blank canvas.
It's about censorship and, on the background, I pasted all the news articles
published during 1989
reporting on cases of censorship in the arts. You'd think things would
have changed by now and they have.
They
have come full cycle.
"The
cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should therefore
be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated." – William Ellery Channing |
Now the war is
a "real war", a blood and guts kinda war. Thus, the rhetoric goes,
we must watch
what we say lest we give comfort to the enemy and demoralize our troops.
Dissent = Treason. Dissent must be squashed.
"Once
a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of
opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." - Harry S. Truman |
But it's not just
a matter of government secrecy, embedded journalists, forbidden pictures
and smear campaigns. A continuum of panic is created and fostered and
we are encouraged to look at all with distrust.
“The
state has, in order to control us, introduced division into our thinking, so that we come to distrust others and look to the state for protection!” - Butler Shaffer |
So we have those
who should be supportive being antagonistic. Artists, so mistrusted and derided
by government and the powers that be, are not exempt from this folly. Consider
the following e-mail
from one Lorraine Postell who apparently calls herself Murray Postell, perhaps
after her husband but,
who knows? I can't figure it out.... All I know is that the work on Murray's
website, www.murraysportraits.com,
is the same as is attributed to Lorraine elsewhere on the 'net.
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That being neither
here nor there and each being left to his / her identity crisis, I get a reply
from Lorraine Postell
in response to one of my own to those artists affiliated with my site, family,
students and friends (we had
mutual links, 'Murray' and I, but I didn't at first make the connection).
As follows:
ME
-
'LORRAINE'
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Loved the
"have a nice day" bit.
Did she mean ...
wait for the "SPIN"? I'm dizzy to
the point of collapse.
"All
those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought
to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it." – Alexis de Tocqueville |
Am
I not as political as the next man? Does being an artist preclude me from
political life?
Would she deny me the right to independent thought and opinion?
"A
nation's artists and musicians have a particular place in its social
and political life." - Bruce Springsteen |
So
would this administration's cadre, the most
censorious mob since the inquisitioners of the House Un american Activities
Committee in the 50's.
Do we forget that one of our freedom loving Attorney General's first decrees
was to clothe the
NAKED statues of Justice at his department?
That shallow, that vacuous, that inane.
"A
state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny." – Alexander Solzhenitsyn |
Ah,
but portraitist Murray / Lorraine / he / she / whatever it may be paints pictures
of
JE-E-E-ESUS and DUBYA.
Not to mention that, as stated in his / her / its published resumé,
a "partial list" of "Recipients
of Murray's work" includes:
"Carol Channing, Diana Ross, Frank Sinatra,
Paul Anka, Steve Garvey, Mathew Saad Mohammed,
Barry Manilow, Tom Sullivan (newspaper columnist), Mickey Mantle, Ron Dugay,
Herschel Walker (the first million dollar sports figure), and many more...."
Talk
about chutzpah! How carefully worded! These people all have been "recipients"
of Murray's works.
Pretense! Clients they certainly are not. Giveaways masquerading as commissions?
The truth be, she never expected a reply to her smarmy little note but reply
I did.
Her reply to my reply?
"I respectfully ask you to please delete me from
your mailing list.
Thank you, Lorraine Postell"
Now she can't take the heat. No more "have
a nice day". Now it's "I respectfully
ask".
I welcome debate while people like her / him (and all of the Bushy mindset)
won't. They can't.
They cannot go beyond their posturing and mantras. As I write, our most misspoken
Commander-in-chief retreats to his Crawford domain to get his "soundbites"
down
for the first presidential debate of the season. This is what passes for "DEBATE"
in Bushworld.
Robert Hughes put it plainly enough in CULTURE OF COMPLAINT, "Ronald
Reagan left us all
a little bit 'stupiddier' than we were" and now we've got George
W. Bush.
"We
can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." - Plato |
I often quote from Francis Bacon:
"People seem to be offended by facts, or what used to be called truth."
Oh no, they MIGHT just change their minds!
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So,
to
Lorraine / Murray / he / she / it / them Postell...
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"Nor wonder how I lost my wits;
Oh! Celia, Celia, Celia shits!"
- Jonathan Swift
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atelier-rc.com
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