i know there's an answer
every 3rd thursday is the art walk in tacoma, which is our one night that t-town celebrates culture. during my daily incessant websearching for free cultural events in tacoma, i had found a website called Tacoma Then and Now a few weeks ago. a photographer named stephen cysewski went through downtown tacoma in 1979 and captured the gritty direness of the working class town. my family moved to puyallup in 1979 and my mom worked in hilltop at st. jo's hospital, and when you got off on the 15th st. exit, you bloody well knew that you were in tacoma. the word even sounded dirty back then, even tho it's a great word - it was the original name for mt. rainier by the indigenous folks.
anyway, this group is retracing the original photographer's steps capturing the burgeoning cultural renaissance that tacoma is trying to muster the nuts to experience. the photographs are very cool, but the idea is just great - i loved it that they're just doing it for themselves, even though the city council should prolly award them some marketing contract, 'cuz it's exactly what tacoma needs.
so i went to the rampart gallery to help them set up and meet gordon swetland. that was fun and while i was there, i met the rampart's owner, steve craig. i hadn't been at the gallery in years and i really dug their changes - they have some pretty amazing art there and all tacoman. gordon gave me a picture of his that is the logo for the 'flying boots cafe', which is a long-time eastside eatery - just for helping out, so it was a great day all around. the picture went up in the kitchen, it replaced the frank sinatra family photo, which has been a staple kitchen display for FAR too long and now it's retired.
sketch of the day: it's the first true draft of this idea. it's taken for months, 'cuz i didn't have a light table, which i now have. so i remember seeing the stencil girl blowing her brains out and the blood turns to butterflies. i've also seen it where the blood turns into hearts - it's becoming quite the popular tattoo, as well. but i wanted a personal twist on it - now this was a tattoo design for my right leg - it may very well be a painting i do later. if it turns into a painting, then it'll be in ron english style.
instead of butterflies or hearts, i wanted mine to gadflies. socrates was the original gadfly - the OG of social philosophers that questioned the belief system that dominated the times. he was referred to being like a gadfly in plato's writing and that always stuck with me. he was a gnat that the powerful elite couldn't silence, but what they found more infuriating is that they couldn't answer his questions. he would twist and turn their words around, questioning their intentions into circular logical statements that were the exact opposite of their original contention - haw haw!
so, all the other gents caricatured onto gadfly bodies are: rene descartes, max weber, bill hicks, noam chomsky, michel foucault, and r. buckminster fuller.
title: gadflies of our souls WIP
medium: black ink on comic book paper
song of the day: "i know there's an answer" by brian wilson backed up by the beach boys. brian wilson is a GE-nius and mike love can eat it. if you've never listened to pet sounds, then you're not living correctly. wake up, your life is passing you by - don't make me read wilhem reich's 'listen, little man' to you. seriously, pet sounds is one of the top 25 albums of all-time - all-fuckin'-time, that means a lot.