January 11, 2014 by IdealisticRebel

United States soldiers kill Afghan four-year-old

This is sad. The Afghan people need to be able to live in their country without violence.

This video says about itself:

10 Jan 2014
A four-year-old boy has been shot dead by US soldiers in Afghanistan. The troops opened fire on the toddler, after mistaking him for an enemy due to poor visibility. The latest incident comes amid the further straining of ties between the US and Afghanistan. For more on what awaits Afghanistan after foreign troops leave in 2014 we’re now joined by Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Williams, former commander of the Special Air Service.

By Bill Van Auken in the USA:

US troops kill Afghan four-year-old
11 January 2014
Afghan officials Friday condemned the killing of a four-year-old child by US Marines in the country’s southern Helmand province after he was reportedly mistaken for the “enemy.”
“We have called…for an absolute end to ISAF/NATO military operations on homes and villages in order to avoid such killings where innocent children or civilians are the victims

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January 11, 2014 by IdealisticRebel

November 30, 2013, Posting from Lara, my daughter who is teaching in Togo, West Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer

This is so great!

Footprints of Thoughts

3 months in Sagbiebou

It’s almost December 12th, which marks 6 months here in the wonderful, lizard-abundant Togo.

The past three months I’ve been in my new home, Sagbiebou. Sagbiebou is a small village in Northern Togo home to roughly 4,000 people. The village was founded around 15 years ago, so it is relatively new and, thus, quite diverse. The two main groups are the Gam-Gams and the Anufo; however, each day I hear a new language – be it Wobi or Ewe or any of the other 72 languages found in the country.

The initial month at post was difficult to say the least. The Peace Corps dropped me off at my doorstep with my mattress, stove, and bags…and I immediately lost all confidence whatsoever. My French was tragic and I had barely grasped any Anufo or Gam-Gam. Walking outside of my compound became my daily challenge; making friends…

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January 11, 2014 by IdealisticRebel

GOP ‘Obsessed’ with Abortion

Really? Jobs, budgets, immigrants. They are worrying about an act that is legal? Quite trying to controls women’s bodies. Peace, Barbara

Nel's New Day

Just because the U.S. Congress is not enacting much legislation doesn’t mean that state legislators aren’t working. The problem with the GOP-run states, however, is that they’re all working against women. During the past three years, state legislators in GOP-controlled states enacted 205 laws to restrict reproductive rights for women, more than the previous decade when states passed just 189 abortion restrictions.

The top year was 2011 with 93 anti-choice laws. Things looked a bit better for women in the next year with “only” 42 laws, but the number climbed to 70 in 2013. That increase came from just a few states that passed 26 of these bills: North Dakota, Texas, Arkansas, and North Carolina.

Almost half of the abortion restrictions enacted since 2011 fall into four categories: targeted restrictions on abortion providers (TRAP), limitations on insurance coverage of abortion, 20-week abortion bans, and restrictions for medication abortion. States have…

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January 11, 2014 by IdealisticRebel

Poetry and something new…

Some very nice poetry.

petitemagique

Hey everyone!

Like I was telling you yesterday, I am trying something new…

I love to write, I love to make photo’s and edit them, but I don’t like modeling that much because, well, I am not a model! Lol 🙂

So, I thought I could maybe combine my poetry with something else every once in a while.

Like I wrote in my post about Jullian’s blog earlier, I adore Anime/ Manga.

It’s an awesome form of art because you can capture an emotion with very few lines.

And I thought it would be cool to try it out myself! 🙂

So, this is my first anime drawing EVER and I combined it with a poem I wrote.

Before I edited with the poem, it was in color. But on second thought, I didn’t like the technique used, so I made it black and white.

I am very curious to hear…

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January 10, 2014 by IdealisticRebel

Sleigh Ride

This is a wonderful read!

A Hundred Years Ago

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Saturday, January 10, 1914: Got my first sleigh ride of the season last night. Most forgot what I did today.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma –

Wow, a sleigh ride! . . . Was it after the dance that you wrote about yesterday? . . .By the way, how was the dance?

Was it a moonlit night? Was the sleigh ride cold? Were there lots of blankets in the sleigh to keep you warm?

Who else went on the sleigh ride? . . . your sister Ruth? . . . .a cute guy you danced with? (Did you snuggle with him under the blankets? . . . Oh, never mind, I just remembered that you are my grandmother, and that’s probably an inappropriate question.) 🙂

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January 10, 2014 by IdealisticRebel

Feminism and Art

Judy Chicago The Dinner Party 1979.

Mixed media 48’x42’X3′.

Triangular table on white tile floor.

Photograph by Donald Woodman (2010)

From Prebles’ Artforms , Tenth Edition

Patrick Frank

published by Prentice Hall

In the late 1960’s, many women artists began to speak out against the misogyny that always blocked them in their careers. It has always been difficult for women to be taken seriously. Our patriarchal society has always looked at what was produced by women as less than. For women artists it has been difficult to have their work shown in galleries, in artists’ groups. Galleries have been and continue to be more willing to accept the art made by men than by women. This has long been a problem for women artists and women in general. If a woman is entering a jar of preserves or a pie in the county fair, fine. But real creation has been considered the product of men. Women in the 60’s were afraid to allow their art to reflect their problems producing artwork in the male dominated world.

In the early 70’s, feminist artists, in New York and California began to take action. They wanted the art world to be a more balanced world where their work wouldn’t languish in obscurity. Lucy Lippard, an art critic and feminist wrote, “The overwhelming fact remains that a woman’s experience in this society—social and biological—is simply not like that of a man. If art comes from the inside, as it must, then the art of men and women must be different, too.”

The work of some women artists is definitely influenced by their gender and their interests in feminist issues. The two groups worked differently. California feminists tended to work together in collaborations. They tended to make use of media that had been used traditionally in “craft work” and with women: ceramics and textiles. The upper photograph, The Dinner Party, was a collaboration of many women and a few feminist men. Judy Chicago organized this work over a period of five years.

“A large triangular table contains place settings for thirty-nine women who made important contributions to world history. They run a wide gamut, from Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut to Georgia O’Keefe. The names of 999 additional women of achievement are inscribed on ceramic tiles below the tables. Each place setting includes a hand-embroidered fabric runner and a porcelain plate designed in honor of that woman. Some of the plates are painted with flat designs, others have modeled and painted relief motifs, many are explicitly sexual, embellished with flower-like female genitalia.” (Description from Prebles’ Artforms)

New York feminists were more pointed in their protests. Some of them formed the group Women Artists in Revolution (WAR), which picketed museums. In response to dealers who were reluctant to exhibiting female artists, they formed their own collaborative gallery, Artists in Residence (AIR). Nancy Spero, a leader in feminist circles on the East Coast participated in both groups. Her work used uncommon media such as paper scrolls, stencils and printing to document subjects such as the torture and abuse of women.

The bottom photograph is of a work by Nancy Spero. It is called the Rebirth of Venus. Venus is the ancient goddess of love. And in this art piece the goddess is split open to reveal a woman sprinter who runs directly towards the viewer. The contrast is strong, women as love object releases a woman who is strong and a achiever.

Women still have to fight for recognition in the art world. Women still have to fight for everything including equality. But women will never give up and go back to being subjected quietly by society. We will never be quiet again.

Nancy Spero Rebirth of Venus detail 1984

Handprinting on paper. 12″ x 62′

Photograph David Reynalds

From Prebles’ Artforms , Tenth Edition

Patrick Frank

Published by Prentice Hall

January 9, 2014 by IdealisticRebel

To Find your Artistic Voice

Reblogging this one from last January, because I am not feeling all that well today.

The thing about creativity is that it is a gift that makes many of us artists Artistic life means we look at the world differently than some others do. We look at the same days in a week and we see very different experiences.Things just seem to feel, smell, look different to us. For writers, photographers, painters, designers, musicians and all other type of artists there is an extra special something. I don’t know anyone who can give it a name that fits all types of art, but it is as real as a sunrise or the North Star on a black, black night.

There is no greater glory than to work hard for what you love most. Even the seemingly ugly elements of nature are adorned with beauty. Be patient with those struggling to find their artistic voice.The artist who is frustrated and working hard doesn’t seem reasonable. If you find yourself in this place work on grace in your work.

As artists, we know that ultimately we will never fully understand all of the work we create. If we can’t understand it, there will be many who can tell in great detail what we were saying, but few of them even have a clue.

The more we use our artistic voice, the closer we become to artistic purity. What is pure for me as a painter or photographer may look like soot to someone else. But we know we have create purity. Even death cannot take it away from you. Don’t let obstacles interfere with your work. Raise your voice and let all of that purity out.

Bob Marley lived his life with love and freedom

Love is important here. It seems to belong to every aspect of living. Love yourself first and others that share your life…that are part of your world. This love is what conquers; that blankets your artistic voice. So love is like the right lens, mixing the right color, singing your best aria, writing your best, playing the best viola you can or playing the best guitar riff you can. Exercise love and you will uncover your voice.

Winter wonderland

My best thought on artistic voice is to communicate. And keep communicating until someone begins to hear and see you and your work. At the point of life where you can identify what you believe, then you will evolve with every note, click of the camera, brush stroke, pen stroke, or song that fills the air. As you evolve, your artistic voice becomes stronger and louder and more self-fulfilling. So love yourself, create all you can and bring all of that positive beauty and magic into this world. Each time you create, you help to get rid of some of the negativity in the world..

Sculpture on cruise ship. Photograph by Barbara Mattio and copyrighted 2013

January 9, 2014 by IdealisticRebel

Guest Author David “Davey” Robert Jones

This is a very good blog.

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

Davey R Jones

When I was a child, I almost lost my hearing. To this day I don’t fully grasp what I lost but I’m obsessed with sounds and I try to capture them and dissect them with my pen. In the process I became a writer. I’ve already written three poetry collections (A Manual on the Human Condition; Merika, Love Poems; and Songs for Ascent) that wrestle with my own attempt to understand myself, U.S. culture, and God respectively. Even more than that, each book struggles to capture the essence of sounds humans rely on to express themselves—not the vocabulary that we flaunt to distract from our vulnerabilities, but the words we whisper to our hearts like fathoming the waves to gauge the depths of the aching.

When I don’t write, I dabble with bonsai, perform ridiculous and life-threatening stunts to entertain my newborn son, practice my Spanish…

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