Jack + Jackie at Sea - Visualmyth - JFK - Art and Politics - Glimpses
"I really don't know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it is because in addition to the fact that the sea changes and the light changes, and ships change, it is because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it we are going back from whence we came. JFK, 1962, Newport, RI.“In a democratic society, we have a special responsibility to the arts, for art is the great Democrat, calling forth creative genius from every sector of society, disregarding race, or religion, or wealth, or color. The mere accumulation of wealth and power is available to the dictator and the democrat alike. What freedom alone can bring is the liberation of the human mind and spirit, which finds its greatest flowering in the free society. Thus in our fulfillment of these responsibilities towards the arts, lie our unique achievement as a free society.” JFK. Nov.29, 1962.
Glimpses of JFK "First time I saw him, candidate Kennedy, in front of the Alamo on a sunny hot day, urgency and challenge in his voice. The same accent as one of the nuns at my heels, the sound could snap you alert with it's lyrical shrill.
Three years later, now as a veteran of the nuclear war bullfight, an admirer of wit and women, Pablo Casals on cello, the potential moon hero, again in Alamo city, his last full day on the planet.
I saw him in the morning around 11am, as he rode by in the top down, I said to myself,"his face is so red" and that was the last glimpse of him, from my viewpoint.
Then came the next day, standing in ROTC formation as an 8th grader, seeing the coach, with a transistor radio to his ear, walking quickly to the field where we manuvered the Friday flourish.
Said I to my eyes, "President Kennedy is dead".
Swashbuckle blown from the blasted into greener pastures, bouncing off the west coast of Ireland into eternity.
Then the coach announced the news to the 'troops" and we dispersed to the chapel and then to the TV. The sounds of "Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine" and the sobs of tears mixed with the broadcast sounds, it felt like spiritual anarchy.
Words are still transmitted with urgency, challenging us to see, with reckless lucidity, our precarious position as the fodder of nuclear weapons. Transmitted with pictures altered by a ten year old in the Alamo crowd. Prouder of him as he speaks." PB. 1990.
I became an artist in 1979 after spending three years as a commercial fisherman in Alaska where I fished for King Crab, shrimp, halibut and salmon on the North Pacific and on the Bering Sea. It was an amazing experience; inspired by sleep deprivation and the urge to survive I began to draw and paint. Prior to fishing I considered myself a writer, soaking up experiences, writing prose, poetry and short stories. I also spent 3 years as a herdsman on dairy farms in Vermont and in Washington state, my thinking at the time was that if I learned to fish and farm I would be a true Irishman, and I would always be able to get a job.
So I experienced the "ancient/primal" occupations. I have exhibited my work in galleries in the US and Europe. In 1991 I had the good fortune of being the first American artist to have an exhibit in East Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in Kulturhaus Treptow. My current goal is to write as much as I paint, combine unseen elements - create a big circle for the wind to blow through, causing sound. "There's plenty where plenty comes from."
email:visualmyth@gmail.com
