My Story with Archbishop Tutu

I was crestfallen to hear of the death of Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa (SA). He had been one of the architects of the movement against the Nazi-like apartheid government that kept blacks and "colored" people (5 classes of race division) cruelly subjugated. And he was my friend. I ended up doing a number of projects with him.

In 1987 one of my sculptures, "I Shot an Angel by Mistake", was to be awarded to Tutu at a global gathering of the United Methodist Church in Louisville, KY. I was asked to make the presentation to him. It just so happens that my political satire group, The Montana Logging and Ballet Co. (MLBC) was also performing at the same event, so they of course wanted to sing at the presentation. When we did so we made a great connection with Tutu (who was so moved by the sculpture he wanted to take it with him on the plane!) The next day as he passed by us on the way to give his speech he said he wanted to have us sing for him at some event. 

This was during the worst of the apartheid violence, when the white SA government was slaughtering protesters and torturing political prisoners. All of us were doing what we could to support the anti-apartheid movement. So we arranged for Tutu to come to Washington D.C. for a small fundraiser. There we performed a concert and he spoke. I remember the VIPs there––senators and a presidential candidate–– had to wait for Tutu to greet and thank all the help before he greeted anyone else in the room!

The MLBC went on then to invite Tutu to come to Helena, MT to do another fundraiser in 1990. Again we performed and he spoke, in his unforgettable combination of fiery rhetoric and humor, and we raised almost a million dollars in cash and scholarships for black South Africans.

Tutu wrote the liner notes for our first album, Take the Barriers Down, (Listen to the song.) the and I went on to do more sculpture projects with him. After the fall of the apartheid regime and the election of the great leader Nelson Mandela, he invited my manager Bob FitzGerald and I to SA to help raise money for a peace center outside the Cape Town prison where Mandela was a political prisoner for 27 years. There we stayed with Tutu's secretary, got a private tour of the island prison, and I got permission from the new government to use stone the prisoners quarried for sculpture bases!

I ended up creating the bronze "Welcome Home" for that center (installed a year later) and also creating a bronze for Cape Town's bid for the 2004 Olympics. That would have been a great party to celebrate SA's relatively peaceful conversion to democracy, but it was not to be. After the 2004 Olympics were awarded to Athens for a few days my Olympic sculptures ("Olympic Africa") were embroiled in a front-page controversy as the Cape Town businesses that funded the bid scrambled to recoup some of the money they'd spent and so tried to seize my bronzes. I told the press that I'd given the sculptures to Tutu's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (I hadn't until that moment!) and they were saved.

Despite the success in SA the new leaders were embroiled in the sad corruption that has plagued the nation since, which Tutu's secretary has struggled to counter as Tutu aged and suffered health issues. But she did tell me that Tutu, when he went to his private chapel during the worst years of apartheid to do his daily devotions, lit a candle before my bronze, The Rumble of Release. For me this is the greatest compliment I've ever received! Tutu, a tiny man, will always be a monument.

Who's Exploiting Whom?

As a figurative sculptor I've spent much of my life turning over the questions of exploitation in viewing the body. As a male artist, when I depict a female body, how much of my response is authentic and how much a matter of our cultural socialization we refer to as the "male gaze"? What am I to do if the model that shows up is pretty close to the idea body type that our patriarchal culture prefers? If I depict what I see there are going to be those who feel the model is objectified, whereas if the model is overweight or old or misshapen, not so much. What does a non-exploitive depiction look like? Often the answers seem to reveal more about the speaker than resolving the situation. So here's my take:

Yes, the patriarchy objectifies women (as well as most of nature!) That's horrid and we should work against it. But Nature is also what created our bodies and it's quite clear that for a human, another human body is the most beautiful thing there is! All the more so with young, healthy women. I suspect that's because each of us was born of a body that looks like that; so that body becomes unconsciously the image of The Divine (She who created and sustains us.) I can certainly see how anyone who's been objectified rails against another's suffering the same. But this does not negate my own experience. I see in the woman both a sexual animal and an "object" of beauty. Does that mean I'm objectifying her? I'm aware how women artists can depict the female body sexually (VERY common in women artists!) without accusations of objectification. That doesn't so much mean they're free from that fault, but that that's OK in the patriarchy. 

We cannot see beauty without delighting in our experience of it. The same happens to me with sexual arousal. Yet I too bristle at images of sexy women that hints at nothing beyond. I delight in my experience. If you enjoy a good meal are you objectifying your food? A sunset? These are the tough questions.

In the end there's no winning this argument, there's only learning. When I hear the conversation come up it becomes clear (since everyone has a dog in this fight) that the best answers are always going to be subjective. So please do respond to an image, but then listen to yourself... What do you learn?

Our Toxic Entitlement Society

Forgive me, for I have sinned. 

I've grown up cherishing the ideals of the American Dream of hard work and self-reliance. I thought if I worked hard and relied largely on myself I was due a comfortable living. Was there some part of the dream I forgot about that included others? After all I'm generous and give 10% of my income to those slackers that don't work as hard as I do. If the world fills with slackers is that my fault?  

Is it my responsibility that everyone wants the expensive apartments in the city? I don't hate people that are different from me, but why don't they then form their own gated communities? I don't mind if they want to live nearby as long as they don't inconvenience me. I'm no bigot. I pay for police to protect us all from fear. Others needn't worry as long as they follow the law and don't make us fearful. Is it so hard not to scare people?

I have good taste, always recycle and appreciate artesian water. By buying water from a pristine part of the country I'm supporting jobs for those locals. I'm sure their own drinking water is fine, and if not they have stores closeby. In fact I create jobs by employing thousands who simply don't have my skills. It's my taxes that pay for their schools and health care! Well, yes, I avoid taxes mostly, but that's simply playing wisely by the rules. And yes, my lobbyists are successful, but I only support those policies that are popular. Obviously, because they always pass.

So of course I'm furious with those homeless that crowd my entrance! Where is the compassion of their families? Why don't they take care of their own like I do? Sure my nephew is one, but there are institutions for his kind. I love him but if he wants to live on the street, hey that's the true freedom of living in the US!

Frankly we'd all be happier if people would stop messing up the parks I pay so much to keep clean and private, what with their fires and noise and all those stinking corpses. Yes, forgive my optimism.

Oh, and please forgive them also, bless their little hearts. For they know not what they do!

Lying Flat for Humanity

"I see a system that, even if it bounces back to “normal,” I have no interest in
rejoining, a system that is beginning to come undone." 

So says a NYT reporter who is dropping out of the capitalist work world to honor their own humanity, like much of the youth of the far east. Capitalism has produced a world that turns humans into machines to grind money into wealth (for a worker's "superiors"). We were not made for this. I see a high salary as correlating almost exactly to the dehumanization of work. So indoctrinated are we that we almost can't conceive of a work life that fills us with joy. Every so often we hear in an interview "I can't believe I get paid to do this!" What a shame that such a statement is remarkable. That should describe all of our lives.

How many millions of us trudge along like slaves, compelled to work at dead-end jobs that drain our energy and add nothing to our well-being? And all this for a paycheck so unlivable that in not a single US county can a minimum wage worker afford a two-bedroom rental! The only reason for a minimum wage law at all is apparently to keep capitalists from imposing outright slavery.

We don't have to live like this, and young people all over the world are catching on! Is it any wonder businesses can't find workers in this climate? More young people are seeing how awful our civilization is to humans and other living things and now they are refusing to participate.

I learned the phrase "downwardly mobile" from a rich friend who was trying to downsize––against his class tradition–– to a reasonably sized apartment. Some 20 years ago I was inspired to do the same. When I could not succeed in the capitalist world without compromising my principles I decided to intentionally make less money every year. It has worked. For the past 15 years I've lived well below the poverty line and never been happier! I consume very little, ride my bike everywhere, and do my own work for joy rather than money. I even try to think of ways of avoiding making money because it is not needed. I largely make gifts of my work. This is the erotic life.

"For as we begin to recognize our deepest feelings, we begin to give up, of necessity, being satisfied with suffering and self-negation, and with the numbness which so often seems like their only alternative in our society."

Audre Lorde spoke in 1978 about refusing to work in a system that is inherently anti-human. Is it any wonder businesses can't find workers who refuse to work under inhuman conditions?

My Forrest Gumpy LIfe: Meeting the Most Important Man

Here's a funny story. This weekend the guy who broke down outside my studio happened to be the most important man in the world!

I was just settling down with my art partner, Garret Garrels, for a visit about the next phase of our project. We'd settled inside the pair of double doors that open out onto the street from the 2nd floor when we heard a terrible noise outside and saw a truck grind to a halt. It was hauling a boat trailer, which had come unhitched after hitting a bump. 

We went out to see if we could help and the driver turned out to be "the most important man in the world"! 

Or so he was called by the press last year when our former Governor Steve Bullock was running for the senate. As a blue governor of a red state (and a presidential candidate) he was running for the senate. And if he won he would flip the senate and put an end to the Trump reign. (Remember how dire that felt?) His mother-in-law also happens to live on the corner, which is where he was headed with his boat. So Garret and I dragged out a jack and helped him get the trailer back on the truck and sent him off with our blessing and a Random Gifts of Art book.  He knows me from the Montana Logging and Ballet Co., but was very gracious and thankful for our help. How many people can brag about getting that from the most important man in the world? I just love Montana!

A Most Amazing Rare Sighting!

This morning I saw the most incredible thing! I was out for a power walk near the capital, heading south. I turn to the east and saw in the sky a string of lights in a streak that I immediately thought was a bright meteor trail. But when it did not vanish I stopped in my tracks and stared unbelieving. Here was a string of about 15 or 20 lights, like a string of pearls, apparently unmoving.

 

I stared in astonishment for a long time, thinking, 'could this be a string of lights hanging from a tree? Something trailed by a plane?' I realized after several long moments that I had my phone with me and though the sky was pitch black I pulled it out and tried to take some photos. I managed to get several photos, trying to zoom in. I couldn't even tell if I was even pointing at the right part of the sky, so I put the phone away. (Turns out I got 6 time stamped over 16 seconds*). After about a minute I began walking to try to find a better vantage point. "This can't be real! How am I being fooled? What IS this?"

 

It was only after a couple of minutes that I realized the lights were in fact falling and fading at the same time. By the time the lights faded out I was speculating that this must have been the trail of a meteor that left a string of glowing bits that then floated down slowly. The only thing I can imagine is that they were both large enough to stay white hot for a minute or more and so incredibly far away and falling so slowly as to appear stationery. 

 

I have never heard of such a long meteor trail! I am still flummoxed, just reporting what I saw. If anyone has any insights, please let me know.

 

In the following image I placed atop the original photo #5 the sequence of the fall, numbered in sequence. (Incidentally, the house lights that appear on the right edge are in the governor's mansion!) I have alerted an astronomer I know. I'm eager to hear how many others saw this! The longest meteor I've ever heard about is the big one that blew up over Russia a few years ago. I kick myself for not being more attentive! How long had that string been hanging in the sky before I looked?

 

* The time stamps were from 4:22:00 to 4:22:16 AM, MST. One of the 7 photos was wild and got nothing but black sky, so is not included. The others have been enhanced and cropped to show the string as comparably as possible. Some are in better focus than others. I had walked about 40 yards from the first to the last, so you can see the streak appearing to move sideways in relation to the trees, as well as descending in the sky.

 

I've tried to arrange the photos in different ways to track the event, all of which are enhanced to a great degree to bring out the contrast, but of course kept copies of the originals.  The length of the streak was slightly less than that of my fist held at arm's length, which I think is about 8˙.

 

UPDATE--     I heard from an astronomer friend that Elon Musk has sent a bunch of satellite strings up into orbit that sometimes look like this. This could be the explanation. Check this link out.

 

We Are Exiles. So Where's HOME?

For a Wind to Watch, steel by Tim Holmes

My dear friend Crystal asked me to elaborate on a concept I shared with her that we are a people exiled away from home. So, of course, she asked, where's home? 

First of all for me it refers to values carefully constructed over centuries, values we've abandoned. Like politeness, civility, refinement, taste. We grew up in a system that seems absolutely normal to us, like a fish unaware of its watery world, but I find our environment laced with a sickly smell. Look for instance at the very recent tolerance of swearing or lying in public life. When I was a kid I might get my mouth washed out with soap if I used a bad word. I’ve grown up valuing the dignity of proper language, whereas now crass language floods the media. Nor do we respect others enough to honor the with the truth if we can benefit from a lie. What happened to the motivation toward dignity? We don't realize the severity of that loss.

 

We participate in a constant decline in the qualities of civilization that our ancestors painstakingly constructed over centuries, building away from the squalor of primitive brutality. Politeness is but an example. I am much more worried about the demise of the core religious values which formed the roots of every civilization in history. Now for the first time in this secular-based society, we've substituted our core community values with capitalism, devoid of any ethic north of self-interest. We've lost an uplifting ethic! Is it any wonder that individuals have become so incredibly selfish and have lost a sense of the value of their community or nation!?

 

Generally we live very tiny lives, circling wee personal problems, oblivious to the greater movements around us. I wonder how many people spend their lives conforming to what they believe is expected of them, never venturing a dream beyond those our ancestors knew of starting a family, or a business or perhaps writing a little book. Who dreams of a new kind of life; a new version of relating; a new structure of community; a new dream beyond simply making money and relaxing on the beach every summer? John Quincy Adams said

“I am a warrior, so that my son may be a merchant, so that his son may be a poet.”

Now we all get to be poets, but not yet––our favorite show is on! Perhaps all of us are not called to be dreamers and visionaries, but shouldn’t the vision of the society aspire to more? The founders of this nation pursued a grand idea that has turned into a transformational civilization called democracy. How did a bunch of pioneers escaping from feudalism, scraping a living out of the wilderness, come up with such a grand scheme? Furthermore, they carried it into reality! AND WE INHERITED THEIR GREAT NATION! I imagine them looking down at us with perplexity––if not horror––that our imaginations are so tiny, our dreams so pathetic!

 

Humans have a in-built compunction to transform into a whole new kind of creature. We are the marvelous results of many such transformations throughout history! (Inventing language, taming nature, harnessing energy, cooperating to leave the planet!) But how many of us feel this transformation now as a life goal? The tech explosion, having solved most of the life-threatening difficulties that hampered thousands of generations of our ancestors, should have launched us all into fabulous realms of existence undreamed of before. Instead we use it to drown ourselves in more work to make more money to spend on...vacuous entertainments. No wonder so many say, "is that all there is?"

I long for a planet that uses its technology not to grind nature into money but to nurture our imaginations, to foster vibrant relationships, to astonish each other with new art, music and ideas; that cares for all creatures, beautifies the world, enriches the lives of all. That was the world I was born into; lying at my mother's breast, that great loving, nurturing mother who provides everything I need while gently encouraging my growth. That feels like home!

Free Speech for the Internet Age

Have you been worried about free speech as much as I have?

How do you value and encourage free expression when there's a terrible tendency among some, like President Trump, to flood public space with crap? There's an important dialog going on about this that I feel demands our attention. We need to re-tool the First Amendment for the internet age, resisting censorship, while being able to effect sensible curation so we only waste our time when we decide to!

My idea is that any post made to public space on the internet with information about its content, somewhat like we are familiar with in movie ratings; not a limit but a flag about content. In an age of mass surveillance this is a scary prospect, but I believe there's a way to address both issues safely, preserving dignity and privacy.

Here is where AI––which terrifies me in general for its inhuman intelligence––can be very useful. Here's exactly where you want a referee that HAS NO HEART! For details I've outlined the idea in my umbrella idea for a Democratic Globe (a system for global citizenship to augment our national one). If you have a better idea or can think of how this one can be improved, please comment or contact me! The universe is yet unfinished...

Trump is a Symptom

We are reared in a culture bent on easy solutions to complex problems.

"My Official Presidential Portrait", by Tim Holmes

We feel an ache and immediately want to swallow a palliative. We're confronted with a horrible leader like Trump––who incites a riot against the government–– and want to do the same. But like a disease, Trump is merely a symptom of a deeper problem. We cannot cure ourselves by minimizing the symptoms. We will never recover from our horrible disease without digging down and addressing the root of the problem. 

As Isabel Wilkerson points out in her marvelous book Caste, our great nation was founded on the principles of equality but constructed on those of caste. Unfortunately racism has been overlaid on top of that problem, making us believe that if we address racism the problem will be solved. But as horrid as racism is, the issue is yet deeper than that. We must cure ourselves of the temptation to believe in any separation of the worthy from the unworthy, of the "chosen" from the rest. In a true democracy based on equality, all participants are worthy. Yet we've never yet lived the truth that all are created equal.

This is where democracy becomes difficult for all of us! I myself would love to think of the under-educated as unworthy, or the violence-oriented, or gun rights activists, or pro lifers who advocate for the death penalty (while of course I am worthy!) It is always difficult to stand up for the rights of those with whom we vehemently disagree. But if we are to exorcise the demon in our midst we have to embrace that fundamental idea. That is democracy at work; never quite palatable and the worst form of government yet... except––as Churchill reminds us–– for all the others!

Do We Really Recognize Intelligence?

 

It never ceases to amaze me that the more we discover about 

intelligence it's always in the same direction: it's deeper and more complex than we ever thought. Are we really so dim? 

We're starting to recognize, like in this magnificent article,  that forests are an incredibly interconnected network of plants that support each other. E.O. Wilson, like many biologists, affirms that "competition" (in our simplistic understanding of that term) is not nearly the force that cooperation forms in the story of evolution. 

 

I think we will also discover that socially the same holds true, that no person is separate, no matter how much we attribute our successes to our own volition. We can see that competing auto dealers benefit from clustering together. There are plenty of examples of the opposite of conventional thinking being true about evolution: it is not every creature in competition, but we are all part of a hugely interconnected web that rises or falls together. GAIA is a perfect example of this. As Nature thrives, all her creatures shall as well. As she suffers, so do we all.

I really believe we will eventually "prove" scientifically that actually the Buddhists are right, we are One!  The separateness that we experience as individuals is just an illusion, an attitude that we westerners have adopted to justify colonizing the world for our selfish benefit.

 

I once designed a planetary life system as an assignment in an astrophysics class that takes cooperation to the next level. In this world different life forms survive in opposing chemical worlds, but still depend on each other for survival, like each of us and our gut biome depend on each other to survive.  I made a short video about a planetary intelligence that's kind of a trip. Here is the detailed version. I hope we figure this out before our sustainability coupon expires!

Unity by Fury: Perfect Medicine for Healing

Our nation has taken a great fall. Yes, the US has always been imperfect but this moment is new. We had our chance to reject the hateful, criminal Trump brand. But we did not. We had our chance to say "This is not America" and we blew it. 

It appears that humans aren't evolved to live peaceably in a globalized world. We have to design a system that will allow for species survival AND individual flourishing. Our planet is imperiled and if we can't calm down and work together we're all going down on the same ship.

What's needed is two distinct paths forward: one to vent our steam and another to address how we're going to rescue our species from the abyss. Both are important, but we confuse them at our peril! Much as this divide resembles the political one, it's different in a fundamental way. We all share fury, but it solves no problems. If humans are going to survive the suicide our progenitors set us up for, we HAVE to discuss ideas for survival! We can't allow that vital work to be poisoned by our rage.

I plead for a clear separation––not of the red and blue worlds––but of righteous anger from creative cooperation!  We need to find some way for everyone to rage and spew in a safe way. All of our lives have been upheaved and our natural response is rage and fear. So let's please address that! We all hurt! I NEED to yell and scream and shout how alarmed and scared I am and blame everyone but myself. But that vitriol should be taken in the proper context: as healing a wound rather than suggesting a future! I truly understand the emotion behind calling for someone's head. Screaming such a thing not only feels great, it's actually good for you! It expresses the emotion that, unexpressed, clouds good thinking. Taken literally it's a fall into the stone age.

If I were king of the world (Zuckerberg) I would construct an algorithm to shift any social media message of vitriol into a separate stream intended for the sole purpose of letting off steam. I'd love a platform where I could shout obscenities in an arena we all agree should never be taken literally. Its value is for the steam discharge itself, not the words. Raging out our fury or wailing our grief is actually caring for our wound. It promotes healing of a real hurt. But we have to recognize that that's a very different thing from working for a better future. Actually if both me and my enemy can support each other's rage as a healing discharge and take it in the context of restoring mental health prior to thinking, we are suddenly on the same side! Now we're talkin'!

Humanity is in serious danger of extinction. And we already have the capacity to rescue ourselves! To do so we need real creative ideas; huge, strange ideas. We should be having community discussions all over the world about how to prevent our coming environmental speciecide we seem hell-bent on completing. The critical piece is separation of maintaining good mental hygiene from acting in the world! I scream, you scream, let's call it innocent medicine. But then let's put our shoulders to the work ahead!

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Why Not "F*ck the Polite"?

I've watched in trepidation as our sense of shared public decency has tanked over the years. From what was once proper behavior we've fallen off the cliff of decency that seems to have no end. NYT columnist David Brooks writes quite eloquently about the political effect of this tendency. 

As a political liberal, when it comes to decency I am a staunch conservative! There is real value in a society that maintains a modicum of decency in public discourse. It not only implies a shared understanding that although we may disagree, we respect each other's basic dignity. It also upholds a sense that the other is worthy of their humanity. Drop that and we become little more than a gang of brawling baboons.

We chuckle at our good fortune that we don't live in the Edwardian era when decorum was so tightly corseted it drowned individual expression. Since then swearing, for example, which was once only heard in all-male environs–– like war–– has leaked into living rooms, into radical art and finally now floods public media. The f-word that I had my mouth washed out with soap for using in the house when I was a kid, is now used by my school-age niece daily among her friends without thought. The word not only thus lost its power, but when it's used around me I feel the whole of humanity is slightly degraded, as if we really don't deserve a more refined culture, let alone being capable of recognising or valuing it.

I worry about the implications of the loss of shared respect that politeness implies. It took centuries to develop a sense of refinement, separating high culture from mere savage jungle life; but any idiot can demolish a cathedral! When that distinction no longer applies, what separates us from savagery? More worrying still, without the uplift of a common culture that urges each of us toward our higher nature, previously provided by religious and moral education, what force can replace that? And without such a force where is the 'bottom' Brooks speaks of? Are we not then just reduced to fighting like baboons?

Trump as a National Symptom

When the news program 60 Minutes aired an interview with Trump that he walked out of, it made me wonder how I would interview him. I really feel he is best approached not as a human being (he's too underdeveloped, like an 18-month-old baby in a 74-year-old body!), but rather as a SYMBOL of the national shadow. He cannot be spoken to in a normal way (watch Leslie Stahl or any other reporter try to get him to answer a serious question!) Having little understanding of the meaning behind questions he encounters, he slips into one of two modes; he either praises himself or tries to defend himself. That's it. This is what a baby does.

The trouble is, when we see that in an adult (who gets away with it) many people see not a regression to immature behavior but a kind of raw heroism. We recognize that WE haven't been able to get away with that since we were baby dictators ourselves. He is attractive precisely because we want to be that selfish! Which of us doesn't secretly want to be a dictator, making constant demands, wailing when anything goes wrong, making a mess everywhere we go knowing someone else will clean it up?

So, recognizing that it is some wounded child deep inside us that elected such a person, my interview questions be something like:

• It must really hurt not to be universally loved. Do you wish more people liked you? 
• It must really hurt when other people get more attention than you. Do you wish you could punish people who upset you?
• Do you feel like you don't get the rewards you deserve?
• Do you wish that nobody could tell you what to do? 
• If you really believe you're so great, why not compete fairly with others?
  
• Would you rather live a life rich in meaning, or one rich in success? 

I think about answering those questions myself, too, as a citizen of the nation that elected this figure. We have to acknowledge that there's some deep part of us that wants to be the baby. Once we're aware of that maybe it's easier to recognize that there's even greater value to growing up, taking charge and accepting with humility that others are just as important as we are. Please keep this in mind and then GO VOTE!

GOP Convention 2020, by the Montana Logging and Ballet Co.

Is it true the Montana Logging and Ballet Co. had a role in designing the GOP 2020 Convention? Here is clear evidence. That is if you still believe in evidence... 

Can't bring yourself to watch the Republican convention? Here is a summary of what you would have seen, if they take our advice.

 

Direct link to video

 

To register a complaint, visit us on Facebook: 

 https://www.facebook.com/MontanaLoggingandBalletCo/

We All Have a Fever

Like you, I was horrified by the killing of an unarmed, handcuffed, docile black man at the hands of brutal police last week in Minneapolis. The resulting riots are not hard to understand. When the pressure increases, something is going to explode. By clamping down on that expression of anger, as the law-and-order advocate would, the tension's only driven deeper. For those among us we've stripped of a social voice, a riot is the only voice they have. We best be listening!

But I was seized with fresh horror on seeing a video of a CNN news crew covering the protests in Minneapolis, reporting from the location they were told to occupy by the police. Suddenly a wad of state police surrounded them and while the (black) reporter asks how they can be helpful, with no reply, he's handcuffed, led off and arrested, followed by the rest of the crew. This stuns me on a new level.

This reveals a terrible truth about the US: we are a culture of violence, steeped in the mythology of using violence to achieve our own ends. No matter how poorly the police were trained, all those officers are citizens and should know that the free press is a constitutionally-protected pillar of a democracy. Each of them must have been trained at home to respect anyone who's followed your directions and asks nicely when you change your mind. Yet given the power of violence that all police are handed, that "trumped" all their other training and upbringing. In other words, if you are given permission to use violence, we stop thinking. I assume all these officers are not sociopaths, but give a uniform they all fell in line as such.

Our society is deeply wounded. Only a return to our 'original' values (those enshrined in the constitution, even though we've never as yet followed them) will save us from self-destruction. This is serious!

Who Are We, After All?

Riots are erupting around the country after yet another black man was killed by one who has committed to "protect and serve". Rioters are inflamed with anger after years of living under this false promise without consequence across the country. The dark shadow of slavery still falls across the land. This is a fever that we must shake if we're to survive. And all of us suffer under a president who responds by calling out the military and saying, "When the looting starts, the shooting starts",  exposing the blatant materialism of our national religion that values property above lives.

 

We have a terrifying image to face––that of our own visage in the mirror! What kind of people are we? We have sunk to the lowest point of our history just at the moment when we have achieved so many glorious successes! Let's not be distracted by the entertaining antics of the clown in the White House. The fact that he's risen to become our leader tells us something chilling about ourselves. The dream of a better society that Obama represented was beautiful and hopeful, but it stirred the terrible racist devil that is our shadow. And now we must deal with it.

Finally, we can see that shadow that's been hidden for decades and centuries under the layers of civility and civic pride, now raw and exposed before us. We have the chance to repent, to grieve our shortcomings and work together to implement the beautiful ideas laid out in the US constitution; the great gifts of civilized comforts that our forefathers and mothers fought to achieve for our sakes, laid out like a banquet before us. What have we done with those gifts? Have we created a better world? Would they be proud? Or have we merely retreated into our separate cells to drown ourselves in self stimulation––like addicts––without purpose, without vision, without community?

It is up to us to declare if this is the people we are after all––after all this history, after all their sacrifices––is this really who we are?

Future Culture

Although I'm no longer in the "art world" I have been working on developing ideas for a culture that survives the coming crises. IF we survive as a species it will be because we pivoted quickly to a civilization that is not self-destructive.

So I will share with you some of the ideas I've been working on:

Purpose:  We are creative, social creatures and are fundamentally denied life in a civilization that forces us to spend our time grinding nature into money. I envision a future where people spend a majority of their time on relationships, creative enterprise, enjoying nature and discussing ideas. (The kinds of things we dream of doing in retirement!) Our hi-tech society can support that kind of life if we live more simply. I long for a civilization that values human beings over the economy, interchange over business, art and ideas over domination and subjugation of nature.

Travel:  I envision a future where very few people travel from one place to another as if there was no distance in between, but rather, (through an integrated rail-sail system) experience those places. A full human life includes both productive activity and leisure. There is no reason (other than making money is quickly as possible by ignoring human aliveness) not to live both at once. Immediate business can be done remotely. When travel is necessary, we could travel to a distant location while enjoying the countryside, meeting other travelers and natives of the regions we traverse.

Hotels:  Hotels were designed in the 19th century to give travelers the sense of what living like the other half was like: having a staff to look after one. But we need a new vision for this century of what travel is about. I envision a future where hotels are few but most people live in B&B-style home environments, where travelers meet each other in our great variety, giving each a chance to hear the stories of those who travel along side us, Canterbury-Tales-style.

Institutions:  I envision a future with re-tooled institutions, like:

Community Universities, where––beyond training individuals to be curious and inquisitive but giving them no tools for action–– any creative person or group with an idea could access a university-like system of workshops, departments, experts, labs, etc. where any useful or beautiful idea produced within a community could be brought to life and shared. This would encourage not only ideas that make money but those that enhance human flourishing.

Churches, designed not to promote one single path to finding the divine, but to nurture the searching individual in their quest for wisdom through any and all traditions, allowing the individual to find their own preferred path. Church buildings could reflect contemplative spaces geared toward meaningful community rituals, group spiritual events, etc. without dogma or coercion. All are searching for something.

Hospitals for the Healthy -hospitals where any person could go, not primarily for a medical emergency, but to address any need the person may feel, such as loneliness, ennui, angst, listlessness, in short any condition where a person feels they could use some guidance, help, training or encouragement. We all need help at times.

We all could help thinking about how to move forward. What do you think we can improve?

Does This Dress Make My Theology Look Fat?

There's a wonderful documentary on PBS about a creationist museum in Kentucky based on a view that the Genesis account of creation is literal history. I learned a lot just looking at how a truncated worldview can be hammered into a whole universe that seems logical on the surface. The technology and the mountains of money behind this museum are very impressive, but all in service of an ideology that I find curious at best. I find I'm filling with questions listening to the young earth proponents explain their beliefs. Obviously they're scrambling to uphold a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation, where it would be much easier, much cheaper, and involve much less mental gymnastics to simply enlarge their thinking. For some reason this they find beyond their imaginative capabilities.

I'm very intrigued with the PhD's that the museum employs to give detailed scientific explanations to uphold their ideology. But I can't imagine that if these "Doctors" were still in school that any of their ideas would get a passing grade as real science. But even more frustrating is their bizarre, inexplicable theology. I find I keep coming back to examine their amoral and ludicrous God. If God really punished the wicked, for instance, why does it only happened once in history? What kind of silly God would wipe out evil prehistoric humans but then when something like the Holocaust happens says, "well, boys will be boys!" ??  Here is one downfall of the idea that has haunted all of Christian history that God only really loves the righteous. It's a thought all people like to have when they think of themselves as the "good" people in the room, a transparent hope that illuminates the believer much more then they realize. I find in it an attempt to cling desperately to the Old Testament view of righteousness––that the good will be saved and the sinful forever punished––that was specifically refuted by Jesus. Such self-destructive theology (for instance that "all are sinners, yet God forgives, but then not really, only if you, well... follow whatever elaborate justification I can think of... give me a minute here...") These people seem to ignore Jesus' admonition that we all sin (including himself) and are all forgiven by a universally loving God. That's the only Christian theology that hangs together. It's terrifically ironic to me that such people who reject the New Testament and Jesus message of a Loving God call themselves "Christians". If they're going to follow the Old Testament, why don't they call themselves Jews? Or Yahwehists? That's ok, too, you know.

The hope here seems to be in a god that will rescue only the righteous. (That always refers to the speaker and never those who disagree.) I really get that; it would be a wonderful thing if evil people suffered and good people inherited the earth. But not only is that inconsistent with history, it's Jesus himself who refuted that to the rather dim religious authorities of his time. (News flash: religious idiots are not a recent invention!) Whenever I'm confronted with this twisted theology I can't help thinking, "this poor person really needs to get a bigger God, but they simply cannot imagine it!". In fact they end up living in a kind of hell that Jesus was sent to rescue us from! It's almost as if they patently refuse the salvation that is promised them by their own savior.

So then I start thinking about the mentality behind these failures of imagination. Such people seem incapable of using their whole brains. For instance I'm dying to ask them if they believe there's poetry in the Bible. They'd of course say yes since the Bible is crammed full of Psalms and lamentations and––for heaven sake–– The Song of Solomon––which is a glorious sexual romp (I have yet to hear a fundamentalist Christian tell me that's not a metaphor!) So I'm dying to ask: if the Bible is full of poetry how do you know went to take a passage metaphorically? I assume that when they read that Jesus said," I am the door", they don't expect to see him sporting hinges. Obviously the Bible is full of metaphors. Poetry is perhaps the most beautiful language for telling the truth. So at what point do they fall off the poetry wagon and insist that the Bible is literally true? (That brings up all those internal self-contradictions, but that's a whole other story!)

I happen to find the book of Genesis a beautiful, scientific description of creation. But only if you read it as poetry. The wonderful recent book illuminates how deeply scientifically accurate the Genesis story is––down to such details as the timing of the eye's evolution––but only if you have poetry among the tools used to unpack it. Without that tool you don't get a better description, only the bizarre, unimaginative, tragically empty description arrived at by the Creationists. I'm angry that they're so powerful they seem to control a lot of American textbooks and can blow their money on impressive but foolish museums. But beyond that, it really makes me sad that so many have not evolved a better imagination.  God help us all!

That is, unless God is about to wipe us out for being so incredibly stupid!

The Sculptural Poetry of "Body Psalms"

As a lifelong figurative sculptor I became intensely interested in the threats to the human body that I see around us. One of those is the commodification of the flesh in capitalist culture, where the body– like a coal seam–is mined for its energy, largely the sexual kind (mostly images of young women used to sell products). But there are plenty of other questionable motivations to go around, all of them reducing the wonder of the beautiful and mysterious human body to a kind of factory-farmed meat for sale.
I wanted to reaffirm the sacred quality of the human body to try to counter this base hustling of the flesh surrounding us every day in advertising. It was this concern that prompted me to launch a huge exploration into film, (pretty radical for a sculptor!) So in 1996 I began constructing a whole new arena of my art. I called it Body Psalms, a series of short films in which I paint lines of mystical texts from various traditions on the skin of my friends and family. As my models move, this beautiful mystical idea unfolds across their bodies like a kind of sculptural poetry. The result I've found was not only a new art form, but the results were captivating and quite stunning! But I wasn't prepared for what happened next.

When I tried to share this work, which I find utterly positive, beautiful and life-affirming, I encountered a surprisingly heavy resistance, a consequence of what I feel is America's "Puritan-porn culture". I've told the story in my TED talk, The Erotic Crisis, but in short, finding places that would show the films was nigh impossible. I'm still trying, but I'm running out of energy. 

After producing about 20 finished films, only a few of which have ever been screened in public, I've grown tired of this Sisyphean task. Each film took about a year to complete all told, cost me a great deal, produced almost nothing and, though I taught some classes and used the material in my own presentations, the project's netted a grand total of $1500. That's a very expensive venture, even for the art business! The films will have to speak to another age, I'm afraid.
I'm not likely producing new films, but I have the material and to see it go to waste hurts too much. So it is that I am opening up my extensive archives of footage and distributing some of the parts of the many unfinished films and snippets of the gorgeous work my dedicated army of friends has contributed over the years. So over the past months I've quietly released short snippets of unfinished films (the less controversial stuff) just so they get to breathe the air. If anyone would like more depth than what is on my web, please contact me. Bless you; and please cherish bodies!

Can a Businessman be a Christian?

"Welcome Home", bronze by Tim Holmes

I don't see how a Christian can be in business without giving up their faith. Those values systems are mutually exclusive. If you're a business person you can also be a Christian on the weekend, but no one can serve two masters.

Say you own a food store. The first person to steal an apple throws your whole soul into a contest between your career and your faith. Of course what we do in our culture is you call the police and arrest the guy because of our social contract which says that stealing or not paying your bill is illegal. So, leaning on the law, you can force collection or send the guy to jail without any hesitation, though clearly you did not feed the hungry.

In fact, this scenario comes perilously close to what the Mafia does if a guy doesn't pay a protection fee: take the guy's kneecaps off! Nowhere in our One Nation Under God, in whose currency we claim to trust, is there a Christian asterisk for the penal code: *except in cases of hardship, sickness or nakedness.

So if Christianity is not intended for the business world, for what alternative world is it intended? Some Sunday school planet filled with people already screened for purity? (This is exactly what some organized religions try to create inside their walls!) In the end is your faith really anything more than a lovely idea, a slogan on a Hallmark card? 

 

Love your God with all your might and your neighbor as yourself.

Let not the right hand know what the left hand is doing.

Feed my sheep.

 

The Christian call is bloody serious! Am I missing something? We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves, which means taking up a cross (that's an instument of torture, not a pretty piece of jewelry.) It's very clear! Either admit your faith is reduced to common courtesy, or abandon business as usual and become a Christian!

What Is a Gift?

Sketch from "Random Gifts of Art"

Every time I pass some person standing on the street with a sign I give them money. It's a habit that sometimes bites me in the ass, but not how you'd think. I don't ask what it's for (though I often try to get them to tell me a story, like the young man who was a gulf war pilot––think if it: a man who flies fighter planes, begging for money on the street!!) I'm quite sure that just as some use the money for food others use it to buy drugs; that's people for ya! But it's not for me to decide; it's mine to respond to the human being before me.

I'm regularly accused of being made a pansy by shysters. I'm accused of only pretending to be generous while secretly just making myself feel good. I confess on both accounts. What is a gift anyway? Who's to say?

I have a friend whom I know from personal experience is a very competent and caring doctor. I recently heard from a therapist who says she has clients that say he's a pawn, easily manipulated into proscribing drugs. But there are others who swear that were it not for him they would be condemned to a life of chronic pain. The difference between those two rests entirely on the character of the person involved. Is the doctor healing or enabling? Who's to say?

In the end any gift can be reversed by a naysayer. Yes, the world is full of both thieves and worthy recipients. Both are the humans we encounter daily, not knowing the one from the other. Jesus tells us do not judge; if someone steals your coat give him your shirt is well. You can call a Christian like myself a fool and a pansy. And if that makes you feel good that makes two of us! So is that a gift, or no?

I recently gave a woman a wad of money that I thought might save her life. This morning a friend tells me, "She's probably going to use it to kill herself." Yes, perhaps. But if it buys her one more day, was that worth it? If I was  purely manipulated and it simply makes me feel like a better person, was that worth it? Who's to say? Does generosity really exist or are we all just pansies trying to make ourselves feel worthy? Who's to say? That's people for ya!

My Brush with Eternity: China Peace

Coretta Scott King is awarded a cast of "China Peace" by Chinese Info Cent.

It's been 30 years since the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing in June, 1989, when the Chinese military attacked and slaughtered perhaps thousands of peaceful pro-democracy protesters. A group of those who escaped joined Chinese students who were studying in the US at the time and formed an organization in Boston called the China Information Center. Their purpose was to try to get the word back into Chinese people about the events, since the Chinese government, humiliated by the successes of the democracy movement, was covering up the massacre.

They called me a week later to ask me to help them raise money by creating an artwork to commemorate the tragedy. The money that was raised by the sale of the resulting sculpture was then used to fund a drive to subvert the government censors and get the truth to the Chinese people. It was done by taking a narrative of the event, complete with photos of the massacre, and faxing it to random numbers throughout China. Over the next weeks the real news of the event spontaneously erupted from fax machines all over China, a phenomenon the Chinese government was powerless to stop! On Wikipedia this is listed as the "first FAX revolution in history."

The Chinese government's attempt to kill the grass-roots democracy movement (not just students but a wide swath ofthe population) only works for the short term. We have all watched with amazement as China's economy has exploded. Much of the reason for this sudden turn away from communist economic models is due to the leadership's need to ease the danger of a broad longing for freedom. Their choice is brilliant: by diverting attention away from human rights toward personal consumption afforded by new capitalist opportunities, the masses are placated. For a time. (I got to illustrate the cover of a book which asks, Will China Democratize?)

I feel incredibly honored to have been able to participate in such an earth-shaking milestone in Chinese history. May we all be vigilant for decoys to real human freedoms!

My "China Peace" bronze was featured on this book on Chinese democracy in 2012.

My Forrest Gumpy Life: THIS is What I Mean!

With Leslie Stahl and Sen. Max Baucus

How is it that one person ends up in so many remarkable encounters? I've met so many marvelous people, many of whom you've heard of. My first real art show in 1978 yielded one modest sale: to Edward Albee the famous American playwright! What are the chances? Once Leslie Stahl, from 60 Minutes came to a sculpture show of mine which happened to be in her neighborhood. I've played Frisbee with one of our great classical guitarists, Julian Bream. Another fabulous guitarist of the 70's, Sandy Nassan, used to play for our family in the living room, tuning his guitar against the dial tone on our phone. I once had dinner with the widow of famous psychologist Rollo May. In fact she let me borrow the stamp of his signature that she used to gift people his books after his death. So I had Rollo May sign my journal in several places!

Rosa Parks, civil rights giant

I've met some really pivotal people of our time, like Archbishop Desmond Tutu (more about him later), pianist Van Cliburn (when I was 8), comedian Buddy Hackett (who did tricks for us in the swimming pool), NYC Ballet principle dancer Gelsey Kirkland (who said I had beautiful legs!), cleaning out Joan Baez's house (yes, I have some stuff), getting photographed with Jane Goodall, having a conversation with Andrew Weber and Tim Rice about JC Superstar, not to mention a bunch of political leaders like Joe Biden, Ted Kennedy, George McGovern (friend of my folks') and many others. Much of that was in conjunction with some art event, but often it was a chance meeting, like parking in Glacier Park and emerging next to Dustin Hoffman, one of my favorite actors, or standing at the bottom of the Ski Jump at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics 2002, when star jumper Simon Amman roared up after his gold metal jump and borrowed my pen to sign autographs.

Soviet diplomat Yuri Dubinin.

If I were writing a society column all these names would be no big deal, but how does this happen to a skinny sculptor way off in Montana? I've been so blessed with remarkable encounters that going back through my files I find many that even I've forgotten about! Like finding a record of 1960's protest singer Melvina Reynolds screeching out her fecund melodies on our hearth. I'd even forgotten that my high school rock band featured for a bit a guitarist who later became well known in jazz, Vernon Black, not to mention our keyboardist my good friend Bob Packwood, who later toured with Canada's biggest band, Blue Rodeo.

Biden, Hollins and Montana Logging & Ballet Co.

Then there were the times I shared a stage with people like Joan Rivers, Mark Russell, Arlo Guthrie, Judy Collins,  Andrew Parrot, Garrison Keillor, Joe Biden... and I'm sure others I can't just yet recall. But what a lark! How do these things happen? Do other people have encounters like these? What gives?

The Expanding Space Between Us

We live in an amazing expanding universe! Will it be our end?

We are lucky enough to live at a time when the possibilities for one human are growing by bounds and leaps. Instant communication is an example. Thirty years ago when I found it nearly impossible to call St. Petersburg, Russia to set up my exhibition there, as only 22 phone lines existed and a call was very expensive. Now world-wide communications are free, instant and ubiquitous. So we should be in good contact with all our dear friends wherever they are!.. Right?

No really. Do you notice this as well; that with instant free communication your interactions have grown shorter and more frantic? Or is it just me? I receive texts and emails every day that are only a couple of lines (often about how busy that person is), or sometimes just a word or two. (  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  ) Have we really become so important that we can't keep in good contact with each other any more?

I get the sense that an expansion of the possibilities for interacting with people anywhere is matched by an enlargement of the space between us, vision of the expanding universe; every galaxy moving away from every other. Time was that I often met with friends for dinner or a long conversation in a cafe. Now it seems everyone is too busy for that. I once delighted in exchanging long, handwritten and illustrated letters with friends. I've got many of those precious letters saved. But would I save an email about how busy my friend is? Where would I put it?

It could be just me and my tendency to sink into a quiet life enriched with good books and fine art in my little hut. But I wonder if this isn't a feature of the age. I wonder what relationships will look like in another generation. Will we somehow have learned to be in better contact, or will we just drift further apart as we become inundated with digital entertainments? You tell me. Take your time. I'm listening...