Tag: arts

Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Bird Formation

If yesterday is a measure, darkness will bring little to no relief from the monsoonal heatwave oppressing Southern California. Muggy air cooled down to 23 degrees Celsius (74 F) outdoors overnight but to 29 C (84 F) in our apartment—first instance since we moved here such imbalance occurred. As I write, outside and inside temps are in near (sorrowful) equilibrium: 31.6 C (89 F) and 32.7 C (91 F), respectively.

Looking for some additional activity, early evening, I walked about parts of San Diego neighborhoods University Heights and North Park. The Featured Image and companion come from the latter—along The Boulevard approaching Texas Street. As I passed by this tree, something hanging on the bark caught my attention. Can you see why?

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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You Are Nobody

Yesterday, after photographing the bicycle traffic light, I continued along University Avenue in San Diego’s Hillcrest neighborhood before stopping to wonder at the mural that is the Featured Image and companion. The first hugs cross-street Sixth and the second is along the main throughway.

Is this who we are after two years of masking during the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 crisis? Faceless? So stripped of humanity to be utterly featureless, without even eyes? Whatever the artist’s intent, I see an overt—not even hidden—message: You are nobody. In a society where even gender is disputed, maybe no identity is the only rendition to depict.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Your Art is Garbage

Honestly, if not for the storytelling value, you would not be looking at the homage to narcissism that is the Featured Image. While walking in the San Diego neighborhood of University Heights on Sept. 6, 2021, my wife spotted something in the middle of the intersection at Georgia and Meade. She fetched what turned out to be a mounted print laying face down on the asphalt. Somewhat shocked by the strangeness of the find, she set the abandoned art against a utility poll, pulled out iPhone XS, and snapped a photo. Vitals: f/1.8, ISO 25, 1/530 sec, 26mm; 6:13 p.m. PDT.

I find the thing to be rather repulsive. Near as I can understand from standard web searching, the print is “Armed Forces” from the Hat Series by Chinese painter Yue Minjun. His works depict himself—so, yeah, he is each of the seven smiling weirdos that you see. There’s something oh-so unsettling and insanely appropriate about his style at a time when social media and smartphones propagate narcissists like mold in the damp walls of a leaky house.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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CLAWS Dig In

We follow up my neighborhood’s lone Trump-Pence 2020 sign with something even more surprising: Black flag that is the Featured Image, which I captured using iPhone XS on August 16. Vitals: f/2.4, ISO 16, 1/1229 sec, 52mm (film equivalent); 11:51 a.m. PDT. The tabby nicknamed Ranger from my “Cats of University Heights” series lives in the same residence.

Have feline families formed a coalition against racism? Nope. It’s the meeting of art, entrepreneurism, and opportunity. “CLAWS is not a group or organization, it’s my idea/message/statement/artwork/design”, creator Ryan Patterson explains on his Cat Magic Punks page. “If you love cats and are against white supremacy, you’re part of it!”

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Flickr a Day 18: Painted

Student Satya Vrat Shukla should seriously consider just how good are his “outtakes”, which is how he describes this remarkable photograph. The colors and bokeh—painter and background—rivet my eyes.

“This is one of my really good friends, Ethi, who is an amazing painter”, Satya says. “She basically oil-painted this within a couple of minutes while I pestered her to ‘paint something good'”. Pester. I found the pic searching Flickr for the word—like yesterday’s selection, which shares something else: Camera choice. Satya shot with Canon EOS 550D and classic 50mm lens (f/1.8). Gotta love them Primes! 

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Society by Joe Wilcox
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No Direction Forward

I recorded the PBS special on Bob Dylan, “No Direction Home” and finished the first part last night. The film left me with a sense of loss about the state of American culture.

Dylan started making music at a time of counterculture poetry and song, the Greenwich Village crowd, that still had some lifeblood even through the early 1980s. My question: Where is the interest in arts for arts sake today? I recognize this isn’t exactly a new problem. The term counterculture is explanation enough for a longstanding problem. 

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