Elitist Artist Marina Abramovic and Postmodernism’s Diabolical Agenda

Definitely Not a Satanist:

Marina Abramovic

 

“I’m only interested in an art which can change the ideology of society….”

-Marina Abramovic

 

Part of what I want this blog to do is highlight certain notable figures of the commercialized contemporary art world to a new audience.

I’d like to help educate all those good people who, up until now, have been uninterested, alienated, or even hostile to the efforts of today’s educated creative classes and their deep-pocketed supporters. From what I see, this potential audience of the disengaged is practically everyone in entire world.

What I want this newly attentive audience to appreciate is how correct they were to reject this garbage all along. This involves exposing the corruption festering away in the greedy and debased hearts of the institutions who have forced these toxins on an unwilling culture.

I also like to talk about inspirational figures and exciting new paths I see developing, but that’s for another post. I do see this as a time of renewal and opportunities. The future will be what we make of it, and I see a gathering of forces that ultimately will change the course of civilization. It’s part of what artists do; on an archetypal level we get the news before others, and help spread the word. Big changes are coming.

But the first step of recovery is to admit we have a problem, and the art world is a serious problem indeed.

Postmodernism rejects the combination of disciplined skills and inherent talent that made traditional art such a powerful human achievement. Postmodernism believes reality is shaped by manipulation and control of communications. It’s a form of magical thinking by the elites. They think they can break the endless chains of cause and effect, action and consequences, by stubbornly insisting on getting their way, always.

Marina Abramovic wanted to be an artist. In the 1970s she decided to become an artist not by making art, but by being a “performance artist.” This is when an artiste enacts some kind of public display, usually without the talent, coherence, or skills the traditional performing arts require.

Abramovic’s shtick was stupid rituals: playing with knives,  cavorting around flaming pentagrams, and publicly undergoing drug intoxications. Many later pieces feature feats of endurance, sort of like the one-time trend of flag-pole sitting, but with the added cache of pretentiousness and snobbery. Her risky yet pointless acts took her far in in the debased art world. She made good connections in the years since.

How good? How about right to the pinnacles of political power?

Wikileaked  2015 “Spirit Cooking” Invite for the Podesta Brothers 

 

That’s right, this celebrity artist was intertwined with the super-creepos Tony Podesta, and Hillary Clinton handler John “Skippy” Podesta. Tony Podesta’s “art collection” in particular is such a combination of unwitting confession and blatant horror show, I’ve never been able to finish the piece I started writing describing it.

The referenced “spirit cooking” seems to refer to an earlier piece by Abramovic which features a litany of nasty behaviors. The website Artsy was quick to explain away how any concerns raised over such ideas passing as art in the ruling class must be due to alt-right-nutsy-tinfoil-hatter-hater-fascists:

The email, which referenced Abramović’s 1996 performance piece Spirit Cooking, set off a false conspiracy theory concocted by the alt-right. It grossly misrepresented the email, distorted Abramović’s work, and drew the unsupported conclusion that Abramović, the brothers Podesta, and even Hillary Clinton were in cahoots as Satan-worshipping occultists…

It seems innocent enough: a dinner prepared by a controversial but influential artist whose work has been honored by prominent institutions the world over with large-scale exhibitions, honorary degrees, and more. (Her 2010 mid-career retrospective at MoMA, “The Artist is Present,” was one of the most popular shows the museum has ever mounted.) But members of the alt-right community decided to focus on selective facts about the performance, and in turn make massive “logical” (if that word even applies) jumps…

The ensuing bogus conclusions were inspired in large part by fairly buried documentation of a previously rather unknown 1996 Abramović performance and book of the same name. Unknown, not because Abramović had anything to hide, but because, in the grand scheme of her daring oeuvre, it wasn’t the strongest or by any means the most shocking piece she created. In it, a bespectacled, calm Abramović wrote absurdist phrases that resemble discombobulated, dark self-help mantras on the walls of an entire gallery in pigs blood.

Several of the phrases read:

“Fresh morning urine. Sprinkle over nightmare dreams.”

“With a sharp knife, cut deeply into the middle finger of your left hand. Eat the pain.”

“Mix fresh breast milk with fresh sperm milk. Drink on earthquake nights.”

“Sitting on a copper chair. Comb your hair with a clear quartz crystal brush, until your memory is released.”

Yes, the phrases resemble incantations or recipes for storybook potions. And true, they make little sense. But that’s precisely Abramović’s point. Across her career, she’s tapped into and simultaneously questioned the influence of ritual and religion, highlighting both their potency and, occasionally, their absurdity. Spirit Cooking isn’t a ritual meant to conjure spirits or worship devils—it’s a comment on humanity’s reliance on ritual to organize and legitimize our lives and contain our bodies.

John Podesta Overlaid On Spirit Cooking Instructions

Did He Eat the Pain? 

There’s more upper crust shenanigans Abramovic has been  mixed up in, like the entirely-not-Satanic-at-all mock cannibalism soiree at the Los Angeles Museum of Modern Art in 2011. Punk icon Debbie Harry assisted in butchering a life-size cake replica of herself to serve the A List guests.

Say it Ain’t So Blondie:

Marina Abromovic and Debbie Harry Stab It With their Steely Knives 

Doubts about Abramovic’s infernal intentions have cost her. She has stated despite her denials of serving Lucifer, she fears some nut will do her harm. She even lost a gig with another super-rich creepo, Bill Gates. Microsoft had to pull an ad for her “mixed reality” holographic projection due to her controversial reputation. What a loss. Who wouldn’t want to strap secretive technology onto your head to summon a sinister crone into your presence? It’s like a variation of the plot of Halloween III.

I would never presume to judge the state of someone’s soul. The nature of Abramovic’s beliefs are between her and the Lord. I too am familiar with the often dark places the pursuit of art can lead. It’s something of an occupational hazard for creatives.

However, I can speak plainly on Postmodernism, the destructive deconstructive philosophy had enables cultural institutional support for absurdities and abuses like Abramovic’s body of work. In my 2018 book, Remodern America: How the Renewal of the Arts Will Change the Course of Western Civilization, I wrote of the revolting relativism which drives the Postmodern ideology:

Where the Modern age formed a mandate to question everything, the Postmodern age demanded we accept anything. At least that’s what the rhetoric advertises. Like most Postmodern assertions, the claims of impartiality do not stand up to scrutiny; it’s just more camouflage for self-serving attitudes.

The expansion of Western civilization had been nurtured by belief in objective standards, which originated from an underlying order. Whether this order was divine or merely natural was debated, but the acceptance of universal laws was pretty universal. Objectivity meant comprehending reality, which existed beyond our personal preferences. We held these truths to be self-evident.

Postmodernists understand such objective standards are an obstacle to their desire for unaccountable power. Where Modernist skepticism was believed to be a tool to gain deeper understanding, Postmodernists project the notion that all the questioning and differing conclusions means there are no underlying truths.

To the Postmodernist, the cosmos is subjective. There is no reality to know, no morality, no way to gauge effective behavior; there are only opinions. These opinions aren’t even our own, but are determined by whichever group identity we subscribe to. We have no individual responsibility. It’s impossible to judge the quality of anything.

To the Postmodernist, because feelings exist, there can be no such thing as facts.

For people who claim it’s impossible to judge anything, Postmodernists are very judgmental. No culture is better than another, they propose, unless it’s the traditions and accomplishments of Western civilization. The West, which has given rise to the most prosperous and liberated societies in world history, is automatically bad, and needs to be destroyed.

Here the mask comes off. It’s those same old Cultural Marxists at work, lusting after the social control the freedoms of the West denies them.

Postmodernism is a ridiculous conceit. It cannot make anything new, it only creates pale imitations of the achievements of the past. It could only be embraced by pampered people who’ve never really experienced the uncompromising roughness of life. And even then, while advancing this phony philosophy, the Postmodernists have to overlook the glaring hypocrisy of their own behavior versus their words. They are seething with cognitive dissonance.

I have no problem in saying Postmodernism is evil. It’s whole purpose is to switch off the Enlightenment, so the New Aristocracy of the Well Connected can rule over a new dark age. Fortunately, the new force of Remodernism is rising as the spirit of the reconstruction we greatly need.

As far as Marina Abramovic goes, I’ll be praying for her-and for us all, as we endure the chaotic death throes of Postmodernism.

Marina Abramovic

Why Would Anyone Think She Was a Satanist? 

 

*************

I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

Countering a Culture Programmed by Traitorous Hacks

On the Turning Away

Richard Bledsoe “Fugue” acrylic on canvas 20″ x 16″ 

 

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except the endless present in which the party is always right.”

-George Orwell, 1984

art

That quote, and many others from the same seminal work, are frequently cited on the internet these days. Orwell’s prophetic concepts are being enacted in real time right now, all around us. It’s frustrating because it’s all so contrived, and choreographed; nevertheless, actual damage is being done.

But the great unmaking is not a new phenomenon. The long-planned destruction of Western Civilization has been going on for decades, hidden in plain sight. The corrosion was gradually implemented by the imitation of improvements, so-called updates and upgrades enacted under the camouflage of compassion, done in the sacred name of “progress.”

Across our nation, the sleeper cells have been activated. The Democrat Party is openly fomenting crime and treason. The Republican shtick of acting like feckless nincompoops has been exposed as just another aspect of the racketeering. The GOPe isn’t really the Stupid Party; they are in on the plot, and are knowingly betraying us.

What the last few months have proven is that the elites intend to progress us right back into feudalism. The portion of the general population allowed to survive will be the cowering serfs under the New Aristocracy of the Well Connected.

Who gets to be part of these new overlords? To be part of the ruling establishment, you don’t need to actually be competent, or effective, or creative; you just need to conform to the dogmas, assertively and ostentatiously. That’s where their conceits begin to break down.

Postmodernism is the default globalist position. This rancid philosophical disguise for Marxism denies truth, dismantles rationality, and seeks to create unaccountable power for its acolytes. Virtue signaling and parroting work great for navigating the intricacies of the Postmodern hierarchies. However, outside their invented ecosystem, reality is a ruthless judge of the results the drones of the hive mind produce.

The undermining of our heritage, growth, and potentials didn’t start with the toppling of statues. In my 2018 book, Remodern America: How the Renewal of the Arts Will Change the Course of Western Civilization, I discussed how the establishment drained the vitality out of the culture, to preserve their own privileged status:

Postmodernists often raid from the past and the efforts of actual craftsmen in order to cobble together their disjointed offerings. The elitists presumed an aristocratic privilege to loot and pillage. They justified the misuse by asserting they were doing it ironically, which leads to questioning, and just what is art anyway, blah blah blah.

But now a more insidious tactic has taken form. The Postmodernists want to keep us frozen in this cultural moment, where they call the shots. This involves stifling new developments. They are still stealing like crazy, but are fencing their booty in such a way they are pushing sentimental buttons, not ironic ones. It’s a warmer, cuddlier version of the con.

The clearest cultural examples of this can be seen coming out of Hollywood. The film industry has been devoured by remakes, reimaginings, sequels, prequels, and self-referential “universe” combines. We’ve even had to invent a new term for awkward hybrids of remake and sequel: the requel.

Instead of displaying actual creativity, movies are just hoping to remind the audience of something that was once creative. The 2015 production Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a prime example. I’ve already discussed how George Lucas exposed himself as a haughty Postmodern technocrat in the terrible prequels he released. Those pictures might have made big box office coasting on the reputation of the original Star Wars trilogy, but the money-men were alarmed by the poor quality of the product. The studios don’t really care about quality, but they needed to keep the brand name viable, and they didn’t trust the mind that brought us Jar Jar Binks. To save the franchise, Star Wars was purchased from Lucas and farmed out to hired studio hands.

I enjoyed The Force Awakens as a superficial popcorn movie. But I noticed it was constructed out of self-conscious references and obvious rehashes of elements from the original Star Wars. It was like a washed up band with a couple of its elderly members still on board, playing alongside politically correct diversity hires. They trotted out the golden oldies from decades before. Hey, remember this one— Luke’s Jedi training drone? And so on and so on.

The film and its subsequent followups are full of shout outs like that. It is distracting to keep seeing oblique references to earlier, better movies. Not only that, but these updated versions ruin the legacy of the classic previous films with the addition of nasty, muddled Postmodern philosophizing. These artless attempts to reprogram the archetypes are off-putting, and add another layer of disgraceful failure to the projects.

(Note that I wrote this before the franchise killer The Last Jedi shat upon us all. I won’t be watching The Rise of Skywalker, because it’s pointless at this point. )

Ah, those were the good old days, when the elites were still feeding us soma to keep us passive and distracted. No more lulling for us. Now we are getting the boot to the face, good and hard.  The intimidation, destruction and violence were lurking behind the pleasure dome ambiance all along. It’s the Leftist way.

As our current establishment is seemingly committed to descending from cultural stagnation into outright collapse, what can be done?

Enduring changes start in the arts, because real art gives tangible form to ideas. Art translates concepts into action and influence.

I will continue to use the liberty I have to express my visions. I will encourage art that understands life is a beautiful gift, full of both individual and shared significance.

I’m finding inspiration from outside of the arts, and looking to transmute convictions into communications. For years I’ve been following the persecution prosecution of General Michael Flynn.  To me, this man is potentially the linchpin for undoing the globalist scheme. The Deep State puppet judge is still stalling, but it seems like the conclusion of Flynn’s show trial may be coming.

This impression was reinforced when Flynn recently released a remarkable editorial, “If We Don’t Act, 2% of the People Are About To Control the Other 98%.” In it, Flynn offers encouragement:

Don’t fret. Through smart, positive actions of resolute citizen-patriots, we can prevail. Always keep in mind that our enemy (these dark forces) invariably have difficulties of which we are ignorant.

For most Americans, these forces appear to be strong. I sense they are desperate. I also sense that only a slight push on our part is all that is required to defeat these forces. How should that push come?

Flynn goes on to recommend prayer and support for our beleaguered law enforcement, vital advice. But even more so, he calls on all lovers of freedom to take action. Now. While we still can.

I’m a painter, not a pastor, policeman or a politician. But I get the message. I can do my part of making that slight push, through art. To provide an alternative to the institutional dreck being forced on us. Break the monopoly, and break this evil spell.

I became involved with the international arts movement Remodernism over 10 years ago. Finally I saw people speaking out against Postmodern decay, and providing an alternative.

It was so much more fun to counter the silliness, when the art market was presenting obscenely priced obscenities and folly. Now the art world, like every other aspect of life under our credentialed-but-ignorant elites, is merely another part of the totalitarian combine. Grim and incompetent leftwing propaganda has assimilated the art world.

Our current cultural institutions are run by toadies and apparatchiks, not creatives. They can’t compete in an open exchange of artistic efforts and ideas, because all their training and inclinations consist of spreading ideology, not art. And let me tell you, despite the irrelevance which elitist malfeasance has forced onto art, it remains a potent force of humanity, currently being underutilized.

Real art provides society the inspiration to live up to ideals, the encouragement to think and feel deeply, the yearning to harmonize with truth and beauty. Real art can tear the wheels off the dehumanizing, corrupt juggernaut that was stealthily constructed to crush us all.

The unexpected tenacity of American citizens has rattled the insiders. They’ve had to make their move too soon, before their battlefield was fully operational. Exposed, they are weakened.

As I share in Remodern America:

We need an art for this era, and we won’t get that by mimicking the outer appearances of works from long ago. Remodernism does not imitate what came before. We find in ourselves the same divine essence of love and excitement which has inspired masterpieces throughout history. We do our own work.

As Modernism showed us, genuine art both reflects and shapes the time of its creation. Remodernism is about capturing the spirit of this age in personalized expressions. The Postmodern institutions are working hard to suppress this cultural evolution. They are desperate to maintain their social monopoly, and the stakes are even higher than the art world. The longstanding globalist plot is in real jeopardy.

 

Renew the arts, and renew the civilization. Where we go one, we go all. Envision the opportunities of a Remodern America, represented by art of the people, by the people, and for the people.

 

*************

I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

 

Update: Welcome Instapundit readers! Please visit other articles for more commentary on the state of the arts. 

The Postmodern War on America

Is It Really Better to Rule in Hell? 

Richard Bledsoe “Tank” oil on wood panel 30″ x 36″ 

When I was a teen I read some of Ian Fleming’s James Bond books. The last book of the series Fleming created, not really completed at the time of his death in 1964, was The Man with the Golden Gun. Considered a weak finale for the legendary spy, the plot had Agent 007 travelling to Jamaica to disrupt an attempted alliance between the Mafia and the expansionist forces of international Communism.

Bond missed the real target here. He should have gone to Chicago.

The crime syndicate dominated Windy City was fertile ground for the plot of world conquest. The Mob was already in the business of brutality, deception, and despotism, the same means Leftists use to achieve their goals. It was a natural partnership. Through the bait and switch tactics of “community organizing,” Frankfurt School corruption of education, and the nurturing of toxic radicals like Saul Alinsky, Bill Ayers, and Barack Obama, the Illinois spawned alliance of Marxist Crime has now long marched its way into being the political system of Globalism.

It’s not called what it is, of course. Leftists lie and distort; it’s necessary to hide their evil intentions. We’ve come to call this mass cultural subversion Postmodernism. And what we’ve been going through in 2020 is the push to bring Postmodernism to its final solution: the destruction of Western Civilization. Postmodern partisans seek to switch off the Enlightenment, in order to rule over a new Dark Age.

When I started writing this piece just a few short weeks ago, I had plenty to say about how the wacky woo hoo virus hysteria exposed massive corruption and Chinese influence in our traitorous elitists. Arbitrary and needless shutdowns devoured American prosperity, coincidentally right when a new trade agreement undercut Chinese market manipulations, and a tectonic scale spy scandal started emerging regarding the Obama administration and all their cronies.

China’s rigid totalitarian system is the desired outcome of the majority of the world’s administrative classes. They won’t admit this, but look at their actions, instead of listening to their empty words.

Events overtook the essay I was preparing. So now we have divisive race riots being inflamed, on top of the Overblown Outbreak. This is just a continuation of the same war, a new battlefield of the thoroughly planned and prepared Postmodern assault on the United States. It’s being facilitated across our culture by a massive betrayal by the New Aristocracy of the Well Connected, our own countrymen. As they’ve demanded society mask up to pretend to prevent disease, and to facilitate looting, our betters have been unmasked as the deeply embedded enemies within.

This is Postmodern War for the 21st century. It’s not fought openly with bombs and soldiers. It’s combat waged by other means, with biological agents, economics, propaganda, data manipulation, sabotage. President John F. Kennedy warned what was coming in a 1961 speech:

“For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence — on infiltration instead of invasion — on subversion instead of elections — on intimidation instead of free choice — on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day.

“It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly-knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. Its preparations are concealed not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed”.

Speaking out on these schemes is probably what got JFK killed. The plans continued to advance in all the decades since. We are living through the harvest of the wind which was sown.

How to describe the present moment? Some say it’s a civil war. This time instead of being divided along roughly geographic lines, we are in opposed camps of status: The rich and gentry class have been co-opted into being the enemies of liberty and order. They are all-too-willing accomplices for authoritarianism, as they have been indoctrinated into the Postmodern philosophy for generations now.  Conformity is mandatory for advancement in society; elitists don’t mind though, because in the looming tyranny, they assume they will get to be the tyrants.

We can plainly see the strategy of the Postmodern establishment. In areas under blue dominion, the governing class has ruthlessly oppressed normality, while at the same time stepping back from their duty to prevent chaos and crime, actively encouraging destruction. The goal of these domestic enemy combatants seems to be to collapse stability in the areas they control, and drag the entire country down with them.

Others talk about China’s Cultural Revolution. The dynamics are sure the same, with vicious mobs of no-nothings incited into targeting opponents of the Cause. The moral panics being whipped up let the current stealthy controllers remain discretely in control.

We have something though that the poor oppressed Chinese populace did not have: a choice. We have a clear alternative to the Leftist monolith which has been so carefully constructed for a century or more. An enduring American Nationalism exists, despite all the media, government, academic, and corporate efforts to deny or suppress it.

A new energy has been rising around the world, and the United States is a natural environment for it’s expression. Remodernism is taking the place of failing Postmodernism. Because Postmodernists are losing. They never intended to have to come out into the open like this, and make a stand for their lack of any principles apart from their own lust for power. It’s ugly right now, because they are like wounded beasts, dragged from their safe spaces, the plan for gradual covert conquest thwarted. Exposed, they know they can be smashed.

I knew there would be troubles ahead when I wrote my 2018 book, Remodern America: How the Renewal of the Arts Will Change the Course of Western Civilization. Little did I know though what forms the transition would take. I wrote:

Instead of the Postmodern takeover of the institutions leading to the conversion of the population, we’ve wound up with an establishment fundamentally at odds with the greater populace.  In America the citizens are the real leaders. We are not willing to surrender our birthright of freedom. The current crop of elitist manager-types need to be reminded of this.

Us against them was not the traditional way in the USA. However, recognizing we are now at war with an infection that will kill the host if not extinguished, it’s going to have to be that way for a while.

It will not be easy. Our country’s domestic enemies implemented their schemes virtually unopposed. Now, after decades of absorbing slow but steady sabotage, the sleeping giant America is stirring.

Remodernism is the wake-up call.

Some call what we are experiencing a Cold Civil War. Let us pray it remains cool. Parasitic Postmodernism will be destroyed, but it will not go quietly. I look to President Abraham Lincoln as an example for the Remodern Reconstruction to come.

Our first Civil War took place in the 1860s, when Democrats resorted to rebellion and violence in an attempt to maintain their political power. It’s estimated over 600,000 died to resolve that conflict.

Once the Union was victorious, Lincoln planned to bring former adversaries back together into a unified national identity. Sadly, he was murdered before he could implement his vision, and the defeated Democrats kept their radical racial injustice in place for another 100 years. They are still playing that race card; it’s an easy tool to use to divide and conquer.

America does not need to waste another century like this. We must heed the better angels of our nature.

The course of a civilization follows where its art leads it. Before the Marxists started working their sorcery on society as a whole, they corrupted the arts first. The coming Remodern renewal first started in the arts as well, in England in 1999.

It may seem art is minor compared to the turmoil of current events. That is only because the true power of art has been stolen from our culture. Art is a mighty weapon that the Leftists made sure they took over before they launched their war. We can take it back, and we have already begun.

Renew the arts, and renew the civilization.

*************

I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

 

Update: Welcome Instapundit readers! Please visit other articles for more commentary on the state of the arts. 

 

This Plague Psychodrama is Peak Postmodernism. Its Retreat Will Lead to Remodern Renewal.

Surviving Beyond Our Time Inside the Beast

“In the Belly” Richard Bledsoe acrylic on canvas 30″ x 40″

art

A virus is ravaging the world. I don’t mean the one hyped in every headline, referred to by whichever accountability-dodging misnomer  we’re supposed to call it this week. That affliction is the ultimate in Chinese take out-as in take out global stability and prosperity.

This other virus is one that sickens the soul. It’s been a raging pandemic for at least 50 years. The institutions we once relied on for societal preservation and advancement were converted into hosts for this ailment long ago, and spread its maladies amongst us all. It also was created by Communists. The disease is Postmodernism, and the current assaults on civilization being done in the name of safety has exposed the festering disorder that is the Postmodern ethos.

A core Postmodern idea is that language shapes reality, and by controlling language the ruling establishment can reshape the universe. This hubris has brought us all to catastrophe.

Postmodernism is the operational system of global elitists. Following the precepts of Postmodernism acts as a surrogate for competence and accomplishment for the New Aristocracy of the Well Connected.  It’s a structure designed not for efficiency, but to filter out any threats to the entitlements of the current governing class.

The establishment status quo had been under assault like never before. I will even go so far to say they were losing. Populist uprisings around the world were gaining traction. We were questioning why such incompetent, selfish hypocrites were in charge, demanding respect they never earned, producing terrible results over and over again.

The Postmodern elites had no valid answer. It was all starting to slip away from them. So they went kamikaze. They determined it was better for them to crash civilization rather than lose the power and prestige they’d seized in the corrupt Postmodern hierarchy. They took advantage of a virus which was potentially a little more dangerous than the usual flu (unleashed on purpose or on accident, who can say?), and created the mother of all false flag operations, the Woo Hoo Floo Hysteria.

In my 2018 book, Remodern America: How the Renewal of the Arts Will Change the Course of Western Civilization, I identified 5 factors of how Postmodernism enslaves humans, in their physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and essential capacities. The list I have there is easily adopted to the PSYOP we are living through.

Understanding the Corona Virus Response Through the 5 Factors of Postmodernism 

1. The Physical: The Embezzled Object

Postmodernism doesn’t create, it steals. It doesn’t encourage growth, it stifles and limits. The Hysteria stole the idea of quarantine (physically isolating the sick) and perverted it to mean locking up everyone. We are all expected to cower in our safe spaces, and let the world rot.

2. The Intellectual: Revolting Relativism

Postmodernists understand objective standards are an obstacle to their desire for unaccountable power. They believe there is no such thing as truth, just whatever it takes at that moment to get their way. So through the Hysteria we’ve been constantly lied to, by the government, the media, academia. A disease that is only a real threat to the elderly or already ill has been recast as an extinction level event.

We are supposed to overlook that the casualty numbers are being inflated by those who may have the virus, but died from other grave preexisting conditions. We are not supposed to understand the sadly high death counts were boosted by Democrat governors ordering sick people into the vulnerable populations of nursing homes, and banning potentially helpful drugs. Still, as facts disprove the wild claims, the Postmodern managerial class just change the subject and move the goalposts, never acknowledging how incredibly wrong they’ve been every step of the way.

3. The Emotional: Unscrupulous Affectation

We are all supposed to act like we are living through a combination of The Stand and the zombie apocalypse. And yet, even though your local businesses are shut down, churches are shuttered in violation of our constitutional rights, and restaurant closures are wrecking the food supply chains, it’s just dandy to go to Walmart and Home Depot. The cognitive dissonance, it burns.

4. The Spiritual: Craven Conformity

It’s become easy to see who’s eager to signal their virtue of following the destructive, fraudulent Postmodern World Order; it’s those useless face masks. There’s some extra cringe on both ends of the spectrum: those who wear them, but crumpled up under their noses or chins, or the dumb asses I see driving by, alone in their cars, face masks in place. The face mask is the 2020 version of the pussy hat, and makes just about as much sense.

5. The Essence: Power

This is what it’s all about, in the end. The power of the establishment to be arbitrary. Vindictive. Asinine. They will force you to submit, and they will punish you for daring to live your life apart from their micromanaging dominance.

ART

Ironically, the Postmodern shutdown could to lead to a great reopening-a new way of life freed from the clutches of the controlling technocrats who’ve ruled us. It’s been my prediction for a long time, although I never would have guessed it would have taken this form.

I’m just a guy who likes to make art. I wanted to share my ideas about art and and how it relates to life, so I started a blog, and wrote a book. The vital human experience of art is beyond anything as tainted as politics. But because of the Postmodern corruption that holds sway over us all, I must communicate on that ideological level, as a citizen. These days, my art could be considered political by not being political.

But art showed me what was coming. It’s like Andrew Breitbart said: “”Politics is downstream from culture.” He was reiterating the wisdom of the 18th century visionary artist William Blake: “Empire follows art, and not vice versa…”

Remodernism is a governing philosophy rising to take the place of the dying dinosaur Postmodernism. These vicious death throes of Postmodernism happening now are only delaying its inevitable collapse.

Remodernism was first codified in 2000 by two English artists, Billy Childish and Charles Thomson. Even though it addresses art, it applies to the cultural zeitgeist as a whole, worldwide. Its time has come. As I state in my book, Remodern America:

 

Billy Childish and Charles Thomson called Remodernism a mandate for a spiritual renaissance in the arts. The manifestation of this renewal is connectivity: using art as a means of connecting with ourselves, each other, and the divine, in a meaningful way. Far from the fragmentation of the Modernists, and the divisiveness of the Postmodernists, Remodernism is the pursuit of unity.

Kinship usually means family connections. Remodernism knows what real religions know: all people are family, and every individual is equally worthy of caring and respect. Like a family, we each have our own interests and talents. Remodernist artists see creative expression as their way to know themselves, to bond with others, and to learn more about life…

The spirit of kinship inspires concern for the well-being of others. Being drawn outside the limitations of our own self-interest allows us to operate in the most effective state anyone can achieve: love…

It’s a mistake to think of love as an emotion. Even though it stirs our deepest feelings, love is more than those feelings. Love is the principle that guides existence. It’s behaving with wisdom. Love instructs that life is a gift and we are all one, so we need to act accordingly.

Modernists were so fixated on what was changing they forgot about what endures. The Postmodernists were too selfish to respond to the promptings of love. This willful lack of love undermined Western civilization, but the lack of love is also what doomed those efforts to redefine humanity. Without the foundation of love, all other factors collapse.

Remodernism invests love back into the culture. Not the phony leftist hippie sloganeering about love that the Baby Boom generation indulged in, but the genuine article. Remodernism sees art as a conduit for shareable moments of beauty, enjoyment, comprehension, and truth. Assembling these elements together approaches a state of grace, which is the ultimate expression of the love bestowed on us by our Creator. We are called to follow His example.

The grace of love is that timeless, indescribable element found in all great artworks, from across all times and all cultures. That element still is accessible today, despite the failure of the establishment art world to provide it.

Graceful love, so long neglected by our arts institutions, is what gives Remodern art the power to bring everyone together. The engagement, curiosity, enthusiasm and kinship Remodernism delivers all originate in love. With this love, Remodernism makes art into an integrated, holistic experience again.

Remodernism is accessible to anyone who aspires to use art to inspire. It even extends to the deluded Postmodernist fools who sought to control us. They need to rejoin with humanity, and to learn their rightful place: standing along with the rest of us, side by side. Love is forgiving.

Remodernism resolves the confusions and heals the breaches imposed on society during Modernism and Postmodernism. It is the triumphant renewal of Western values. After years of destruction, the reconstruction will take extensive efforts, but it will be spectacular.

 

*************

I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. 

My wife Michele Bledsoe has written her own inspirational book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life.

Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

UPDATE:  Welcome Instapundit readers! Please visit other articles for more commentary on the state of the arts. 

STUDIO: A New Painting in Progress, Part 5, Completion: In the Belly

Richard Bledsoe “In the Belly” acrylic on canvas 30″ x 40″ 

I have completed my latest large scale piece-large for me being in this case 30″ x 40″. In my first post, I showed the first crude underpainting. In the second post, I started making additional drawing decisions. In the third post, I started bringing out suggestions of the original vision-the whale not just as an animal, but as a gilded cage of chaos. In the fourth post, I shared how the processes of an intuitive artist can go awry.

But now the painting is complete. It’s often said a painting is never really done, and that’s true. There’s no end to the possibilities and potentials in the magical worlds we create by the means of a liquid medium smeared onto a flat surface. But the trick is recognizing when the art has become what it needs to be, and respecting it for what it is.

My wife, artist Michele Bledsoe, and I have a method for comprehending completion. In a work in progress, our eyes are drawn to fragments of the image, the parts that need fixing. It’s hard to see the painting as a whole while there are omissions or shortcomings still to address.

As errors are refined, other bits with flaws and weaknesses are exposed. The adjustments go on, until finally, as we near the end, we start to see the whole image again, intact.

In my book, Remodern America: How the Renewal of the Arts Will Change the Course of Western Civilization,  I describe integrity as one of the elements of looking at art with 5 Eyes (or “I”s):

The Physical: Integrity

In the physical sense, integrity means being complete. The art
is independently expressive in and of itself, all of its elements
working together to create a unified whole. When a work
achieves the level of art, it radiates a visceral presence that
can be felt by anyone, no explanation or education required.

It was a joy to work on this vision, and bring it into a form which can be shared. The story of Jonah describes a man who tried to dodge his responsibilities, and wound up being swallowed by a great fish-temporarily. How often have I lived this pattern! I put my experience into this painting.

I have already begun my next large scale painting project. Watch this space for future updates!

Previous articles:

STUDIO: A New Painting in Progress, Part 1: In the Belly

STUDIO: A New Painting in Progress, Part 2: In the Belly

STUDIO: A New Painting in Progress, Part 3: In the Belly

STUDIO: A New Painting in Progress, Part 4: In the Belly (Not All Accidents Are Happy Ones)

 

************

I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

Viral Hysteria Exposes how Postmodernism has Trained Us to Tolerate Tyranny

\

What Exactly Are We Being Collected Into?

Richard Bledsoe “The Collective” acrylic on canvas 30″ x 30″ 

I’m grateful to Jordan Peterson. He’s raised awareness of the real viral infection which is destroying civilization: Postmodernism.

In a way I was fortunate to be in art school in the early 1990s. Enduring changes start in the arts, and college art programs of the time were among the academic breeding grounds for this toxic ethos. I was exposed to Postmodernism by name, and experienced firsthand all its contradictions, absurdities, and abuses, played out in the form of art. Little did I understand at the time what made for some really bad and ridiculous art would come to be the organizing ideology for the globalist New World Order.

Not Sensational: Postmodern Art from the 1990s

art

I’ve written before on how elitists push this ideology because it makes an effective tool of oppression. To be Postmodern is to be relativistic, cynical, narcissistic, and conformist. We see the results of decades of Postmodern indoctrination in a sizable part of the population, who are swallowing without question the wildly inflated and inaccurate models and expectations pushed by the Postmodern apparatchiks embedded in our government, media, corporate and academic institutions,

As I watch some of my fellow citizens wandering about, the latest designer masks bunched up under their noses, valiantly trying to virtue signal they are down with the latest versions of the continually shifting diktats being hurled at us, I worry about another disease: a sickness of the soul. There’s a lot of that going around these days, thanks to the effective elitist  PSYOPs that saturate our society.

In my book, Remodern America: How the Renewal of the Arts Will Change the Course of Western Civilization, I analyze how Postmodernism corrupts:

The Spiritual: Craven Conformity

 “So, in the interests of survival, they trained themselves to be agreeing machines instead of thinking machines. All their minds had to do was to discover what other people were thinking, and then they thought that, too.”

—Kurt Vonnegut, American Writer (1922-2007)

 Postmodernists are parasitic. They are so other-directed, they can’t lead an independent existence.

Postmodernists rely on a mob mentality to support and reinforce their irrational ideas and behaviors. As their intellects cling to group identification instead of independent thought, and their stunted emotions merely mirror groupthink expectations, Postmodernists are primed to sell their souls to fit in. They deny there is any such thing as a soul anyway, so it’s easy to give it up.

The price doesn’t even need to be high. Postmodernism is a poverty-stricken ideology, so its practitioners have meager expectations. Most will never live the jet-setting lifestyle of their globalist masters. These influencers don’t have to operate within the perimeters they inflict on others. Postmodernists strive for the opportunity to bask in the reflected glory of their controllers.

As Postmodernists are in thrall to the limiting collectivist fantasies of Marxism, it makes them anxious followers. They want to be in with the in-crowd, part of what they are assured is the inevitable winning side of history. It is the dream of every progressive to join the most favored status clique, where their ilk gets to call the shots. This conceit plays into the leftist assumption that in the utopia to come, some animals will be more equal than others, as Orwell predicted. They acknowledge no God that created all men equal.

Leftwing rhetoric of fairness for all is just hype designed to deceive. Once triumphant, the radicals will punish their enemies and reward their friends, just like Postmodernist President Barack Obama urged them to do. Postmodern minions want to make sure they are in good with these brutal inquisitors. Postmodernists will commit acts of senselessness and violence when top-down social pressure is applied.

The Postmodernists have stolen the forms of religion to serve their aims. Original sin is now race, or carbon footprints. Indulgences can be purchased by reciting the catechisms of social justice. To prove loyalty to the cause, the SJWs eagerly throw blasphemers into the fire. Since they don’t know history, Postmodernists don’t see the predictable Marxist pattern that today’s obedient flock will be tomorrow’s barbeque.

The spiritual life of Postmodernism has been misdirected from transcendental and enduring values to ponderous politics. Nothing is sacred. There is no sense of continuity; only the needs of the moment matter. Where there should be a human spirit engaged with the eternal choice between good and evil, Postmodernists substitute slavish devotion to those who reduce morality to dominance.

Some new sins have been added to Progressive dogma. Apparently not wanting to destroy our prosperity based on calculated lies is a bad thing. Also, not cooperating with the new totalitarian overlords that are popping up all around us is very bad manners. But what I see here isn’t a final consolidation of their power. What I see is a desperate kamikaze style assault on a culture which is rejecting them.

There won’t be a “new normal,” at least not on the terms demanded by our New Aristocracy of the Well Connected. There will be “normal,” enhanced by the knowledge that all those who claimed to be our betters, aren’t. They’ve tried to camouflage their greed and incompetence with a deceptive mentality dedicated to destruction rather than creation.

Postmodernism is beyond dead. The woo hoo floo exposes Postmodern rigor mortis; all it can do is restrict and decay. But we who live will grow beyond the reach of this expired ethos. The Remodern Era has already begun.

 

***********

I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

 

Update: Welcome Instapundit readers! Please visit other articles for more commentary on the state of the arts. 

BOOKS: “Painting, Passion and the Art of Life” by Michele Bledsoe

 

 

Painting, Passion and the Art of Life

by Michele Bledsoe

 

“As artists, we are explorers.

Every blank canvas is the beginning of a new journey.”

-Michele Bledsoe

 

My wife Michele Bledsoe recently completed her first non-fiction book, Painting, Passion and the Art of Life. This collection of inspirational essays on painting and drawing contain universal messages on work, love, and what truly matters in our engagement with the world.

I love Michele with all my heart, but that does not cloud my artistic judgment or integrity.  I am glad to say what Michele has accomplished in her book is an insightful and moving presentation of the wisdom she has gathered through a lifetime of creative work.

Michele’s writing style is succinct. She is able to capture the essence of her observations using just a few brief phrases. Her meditations approach psalms or parables, she is so able to articulate the significance she has found in her experiences.  It all comes down to understanding that creativity is a gift from God, a means of communion and connection. She shows art can be a most humane form of human activity, meant to be a tool for growth and service. This warmth is demonstrated through a number of touching personal stories, gently relaying the positive meanings which can be found even as we go through times of struggle and sadness.

Painting, Passion and the Art of Life is a little book with a big message, but it also has Michele’s sense of humor and whimsy. These aspects come out clearly in her illustrations in the book, a collection of the strange beings which appear as she dreams over her sketchbooks.

This book is an important contribution to the rising philosophy of Remodernism. Remodernism is the return of art as a revelation. Michele has shared herself here, offering up unfiltered the essence of who she is, and what she has learned. It’s a joyful, uplifting read.

Painting, Passion and the Art of Life gives creative people of all ages the motivation and enthusiasm to cultivate their gifts, share their talents, and recognize their place in the fellowship of life.

“Remodernism is the latest iteration of the American character: ordinary people working as explorers and inventors, optimistic, self-reliant and productive. The Remodernist artist formulates expressions of personal liberty in pursuit of higher meaning and significance. Remodernism is the pursuit of excellence.”

-Richard Bledsoe, Remodern America 

 

***********

I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

After the Hysteria Dies, What Rough Beast Slouches Towards Bethlehem To Be Born? The Answer Might Surprise You.

Its Hour Come Round at Last:

Richard Bledsoe “The Calendar” acrylic on canvas 30” x 40”

They say great minds think alike.

When I saw the Ace of Spades HQ recently referenced a certain poem by William Butler Yeats as a pithy headline, I recognized we were surfing the same wave of zeitgeist. “The Second Coming” has haunted me for decades, and it’s hard not to recognize its relevance as we navigate the uncharted waters of the Woo Han Hoopla Hysteria.  (FYI I know that place name is misspelled. It’s an attempt to circumvent the censorious Silicon Curtain filters. You know they’re doing it).

The Second Coming by WB Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

.

WB Yeats was a Modernist not afraid of mysticism. He wrote this poem 100 years ago, but like all profound works of art, it’s always timely. Ever since Yeats penned those ominous lines, world events have continued to suggest new identities for his monstrous harbinger.

We’ve been under the crushing dominion of one particular evil riddling sphinx for a long time now: the PSYOP tyranny of Postmodernism. For decades, global elitists have gone all in on a society-wide Cultural Marxist system of deceit and manipulation as a means to gather unaccountable power.

These indoctrinated idiots either really believe reality must conform to their word games and enforced opinions, or they know it’s a scam, but expect us to submit to it. We are supposed to not believe our lying eyes, and follow the thought leaders.

Going along with them is what has brought us to this catastrophe.

I believe what we are going through now-a wildly overblown reaction to a suspiciously timed outbreak- is because, after an uninterrupted winning streak for decades, the establishment is losing. This mother of all false flag operations is their desperate means of self-defense.

False flag does not mean this is a hoax. There is a potentially deadly virus out there. Where the false flag comes in is the highly coordinated Deep State over-reaction from governments, the media, academia, and global corporations. Instead of practical measures appropriate to a risky form of the flu, the lockdown freakout inflicted on us seems designed to quash another pandemic which has been growing for years: the populist uprisings against the corrupt and incompetent Postmodern New World Order.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this sudden-and yet-strangely-choreographed meltdown was pre-planned, and was scheduled to occur during a Hillary Clinton presidency. What an opportunity it would have been for that hag and her Chinese partners-in-crime to oversee the permanent dismantling of our constitutional republic! It’s bad enough, even with President Trump doing his best to work around, through, and over all the traitors embedded in our institutions. When Trump talks about an invisible enemy, he’s not just talking about a virus.

But here’s a twist. What if the rough beast slouching our way this time is not the latest oppressor, but is the terrifying prospect of actual freedom?

I foresaw what was coming in my book, Remodern America: How the Renewal of the Arts Will Change the Course of Western Civilization:

What is the spirit of this age?

History will recognize this as the era the general population of the United States realized the governing class and its connections, far from acting as responsible public servants, had mutated into an elitist ruling class. These elitists decided amongst themselves, due to their superior intellects, credentials, and social status, they deserved to control how everybody else lived their lives. This mission of conquest was camouflaged with egalitarian rhetoric.

In exchange for the burden of managing their inferiors, this New Class exempted themselves from the expectations they imposed on others. Those underlings who supported the ascendancy of these would-be rulers received some special considerations as well, a semiprivileged status—but their greatest reward was to bask in the reflected glory of their masters.

The elitists had a plan, and it almost worked. Over decades, the institutions that sustained American culture have been infiltrated, their missions transformed.

Government, media, education, the arts—the occupying elitists within dedicated all resources towards undermining sustaining Western values, all to better serve the consolidation of unaccountable power. They used their influence over the various means of cultural communication and expression to exert pressure at all levels of society to embrace collectivist goals, distorting the concept of equality.

As part of these maneuvers, art was pushed into a crisis of relevance. Elitist malfeasance has marginalized the visual arts in popular culture. In doing so, the New Aristocracy of the Well-Connected block access to powerful resources. They deny our society the inspiration to live up to ideals, the encouragement to think and feel deeply, the yearning to harmonize with truth and beauty. As a result, the mass audience has turned away.

People instinctually reject the superficial and nihilistic contemporary art championed by an imperious would-be ruling class. We currently call this covert corrosion inflicted on the foundations of Western civilization the Postmodern era.

A small sect usurped disproportionate power over the course of the entire nation. Now the terrible results of the corrupted establishment’s agenda are clear. Under their reign we are less prosperous, less safe, less free.

The elitists ran out of credibility and resources before their work was complete. Now, we, the people, must make sure they run out of time as well. The dominion of these deceitful despots must be demolished throughout the culture, on all fronts. Around the globe challenges are rising against the longstanding world order. The story of the 21st century will be the dismantling of centralized power.

As always, this course of history was prophesied by artists—those who are intuitively aware of the path unfolding ahead. Their works become maps so that others may find the way. The new directives emerging in our culture must be acknowledged. Enduring changes start in the arts.

The entrenched interests are desperate to deny this uprising, but denial won’t stop us. The parasitic Postmodern era is finished, but it won’t go quietly. The vast project of reconstruction will commence as we dislodge the failed status quo.

What is the spirit of this age?

This is an era of joyous insurgency and new beginnings.

Welcome to Remodern America.

Postmodernism started off by redefining art into anti-art. It’s now spread. Like a virus, Postmodernism converted every institution it infested into a factory for producing more of the Postmodern disease. Postmodernism makes every worthy cause betray its rightful mission. Remodernism is the correction of this treachery.

Remodernism as a movement was first codified in 1999 by two English artists, Charles Thomson and Billy Childish. Remodernism is the return of wisdom as a governing philosophy. It respects the general audience, and their capacities to have profound experiences.

Remodernists understand art is for everyone. We can all be stirred by beauty, moved by emotional expressions, and gratified by the experience of truth. Western civilization used to understand how art provided those uplifting states, and with Remodernism, it will do it again.

When we come out of this manufactured crisis, there will be a mighty reckoning to do. It’s been very clarifying.

Remodernism is the cure for the Postmodern disease which practically ended us all.

***********

I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

STUDIO: A New Painting in Progress, Part 4: In the Belly (Not All Accidents Are Happy Ones)

Work in Progress: In the Belly 

 

I am currently at work on my latest large scale piece-large for me being in this case 30″ x 40″. In my first post, I showed the first crude underpainting. In the second post, I started making additional drawing decisions. In the third post, I started bringing out suggestions of the original vision-the whale not just as an animal, but as a gilded cage of chaos.

The painting is coming along well (see above). But working as an intuitive artist, obstacles arise which could not be foreseen. I am presented an image in my mind; they come to me in a flash, complete. It becomes my task to translate that vision into a form that can be shared, filtered through my individual artistic personality. I paint my works directly onto the canvas, without preparatory drawings, all the better to take advantage of sudden discoveries and inspirations.

However, in art as in life, there are problems that come along with the opportunities.

Pablo Picasso, that human kaleidoscope, explained something like the dilemma I recently faced in my painting, when he talked about a visit he made to his Cubist colleague, Georges Braque.

 

“I remember one evening I arrived at Braque’s studio. He was working on a large oval still life with a package of tobacco, a pipe, and all the usual paraphernalia of Cubism. I looked at it, drew back and said, ‘My poor friend, this is dreadful. I see a squirrel in your canvas.’ Braque said, ‘That’s not possible.’ I said, ‘Yes, I know, it’s paranoiac vision, but it so happens that I see a squirrel. That canvas is made to be a painting, not an optical illusion. Since people need to see something in it, you want them to see a package of tobacco, a pipe, and the other things you’re putting in. But for God’s sake, get rid of that squirrel.’

Braque stepped back a few feet and looked carefully and sure enough, he too saw the squirrel, because that kind of paranoiac vision is extremely communicable. Day after day Braque fought that squirrel. He changed the structure, the light, the composition, but the squirrel always came back, because once it was in our minds it was almost impossible to get it out. However different the forms became, the squirrel somehow always managed to return. Finally, after eight or ten days, Braque was able to turn the trick and the canvas again became a package of tobacco, a pipe, a deck of cards, and above all a Cubist painting.”

 

He Was Only 5’3″

Braque and Picasso Get Squirrelly 

So, in the process of trying to evoke a painting experience, something unbidden had worked its way onto Braque’s canvas. Or maybe Picasso was just messing with him. I wouldn’t put it past him.

But recently I had a similar misstep while working on In the Belly.

My wife, artist Michele Bledsoe, and I were working in the studio. She noticed I suddenly started raving and muttering at my painting; lost as I was in the moment, I didn’t even realize I was talking out loud.

What was the problem? While I was trying to render where my whale’s fin attached to his body, I was horrified to see an equally horrified emoji had appeared on my canvas (outlined in red, below).

Is There An Emoji For The Scream of a Lost Soul? 

This could not stand. Mumbling about “wiping that look off your face,” I attacked the problem area with more marks and shading.

When I stepped back, I saw that I had succeeded…succeeded in giving the unwanted face eyebrows and a hat.

Facing the Problem

Needless to say, I had to cover over this whole area, and start again. It happens with the methods I use. As I state in my book, Remodern America: How the Renewal of the Arts Will Change the Course of Western Civilization:

“I vanish while my paintings get applied to the canvas. I have the continuous experience of stepping back from the work to see it, and it’s like I’m stepping out of a trance. I’m constantly surprised by what I see has appeared on the painting, because I have no memory of doing it. Turning myself over to this receptive state allows something beyond my own capacities to take over. My best achievements are works done through me, rather than by me.”

The point of this post is, although I have the upmost respect for The Muse, sometimes she’s got a strange sense of humor. I’ve learned to laugh, enjoy the message, and move on.

 

Previous articles:

STUDIO: A New Painting in Progress, Part 1: In the Belly

STUDIO: A New Painting in Progress, Part 2: In the Belly

STUDIO: A New Painting in Progress, Part 3: In the Belly

 

***********

I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!

HUNTER BIDEN IS TRYING TO CASH IN ON THE REDEMPTIVE POWER OF ART

Hunter Biden Discovers Another Meaning for the Word “Blow” 

“In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.”

-Hunter Thompson

If the quote above were more recent, the maniacal journalist Hunter Thompson could have been describing another Hunter: Hunter Biden, the hapless offspring of the infamous political hack and dolt, Joe Biden.

Younger Biden and his dad are players in the combination criminal enterprise and psy-op gambit that is our current New Aristocracy of the Well Connected. As such, they are supposed to be above any consequences for their various idiocies and misdeeds. But Hunter Biden has been such a visibly public mess he has earned some critical scrutiny. From dating his recently deceased brother’s widow, to being booted from the Navy for cocaine use while daddy was Vice-President; from acting as bagman for traitorous international bribery schemes, to impregnating Arkansas strippers; Hunter exposes blatant corruption right in the inner circle of those who would rule over us as our superiors.

I do not expect the obviously senile Joe Biden will be President, or even the Democrat nominee. He’s a place holder, keeping the position open for She Who Must Not Be Named Yet Because No Way She Has the Stamina to Campaign. Rhymes with “Pillory Swinton.” But the stink of scandal must be lifted from around the pretend front runner. Buried under the media’s histrionic Wuhan Virus narrative was the recent news Hunter has settled with his stripper baby mama for an undisclosed sum, which also left his dubious finances undisclosed. But how else can the handlers flip the script for the dim son who keeps getting caught?

They’ve come up with a novel scheme. Suddenly, via the New York Times, we find the out the ne’er-do-well coke fueled lecher and money launderer…is actually a sensitive artist.

Hey, it’s worked for some other political boogeymen, from George W. Bush, to Winston Churchill. Showing an engagement with art softened the cultural perspective on these divisive characters. So the spin is being spun for the Hunter Biden redemption story arc. He already scooped up a trophy wife after a week long relationship-see, womanizing bad boy no more! But trying to shoehorn Hunter into the role of formerly-troubled creative is going to take a lot more work.

The Gray Lady gushes in the nauseatingly titled There’s a New Artist in Town. The Name Is Biden:

 “As an undiscovered artist, he is better situated than most: living in a rented, 2,000-square-foot house in the Hollywood Hills off Mulholland Drive, with a Porsche Panamera in the driveway, plenty of natural light and a pool house he has transformed into an art studio.”

What is his art? It seems to be mainly blowing ink around into abstractions that might suggest nature imagery. This is a project I literally did in elementary school art classes, but without any press coverage involved. Calling yourself an abstract artist removes any expectation there needs to be talent or skill displayed in the finished products.

 

Hunter Biden’s “Art” 

Honestly, Hunter Biden comes from such an institutionally fraudulent machine, I question if he even made these weak efforts himself. Are we supposed to believe he was honing his artistic skills between drug fueled orgies and collecting kickbacks? Are these works just props, the studio just a set, made to give the appearance of a changed man? I wouldn’t put it past them.

Or is the art world just an extension of the same cons he’s used to? Graft, influence peddling, tax evasion, insider deals, market manipulation-yep, that’s the contemporary art market all right. And then there’s this: one of Hunter’s “art-world connections:”

Biden’s Art World Hookup: The Name Says It All

 

As reported in Artnet News:

“For a period in 2018, Biden could be seen stopping by art openings and parties on the Lower East Side, and attended a runway show for the hip downtown fashion brand Lou Dallas. Sources said that many of his art-world connections came through his relationship with Zoe Kestan, the lingerie entrepreneur who is better known by her Instagram handle @weed_slut_420.”

So we are supposed to accept that Hunter Biden has left his sordid past behind and embraced the rarefied existence of an artist. We should overlook that under elitist mismanagement, the alienating and irrelevant visual arts institutions are just another venue for corruption, financial games, and the abuse of power. This stuff is so clumsy and obvious these days. Either the establishment just doesn’t care enough to do convincing hoaxes any more, or they are too dumb to pull them off effectively. It could be both!

As I state in my book, Remodern America: How the Renewal of the Arts Will Change the Course of Western Civilization:

 

“Hierarchy is a natural phenomenon. It exists for all forms of life. Humanity is unique in that we form our power structures based on thought instead of the more typical biological imperative of brute force. We’ve used our minds to make ourselves the acting masters of the world. We’ve created systems that sustain vast populations.

“However, our comfortable dominance introduces a potentially dangerous flaw. Our hard won heritage of civilization has created an environment where the apex positions in society no longer have to be earned. Status is bestowed for any number of arbitrary reasons: family ancestry, inherited money, sociopathic determination, political expediency, effective networking, or boutique servicing. This means those who wind up at the top might not really belong there at all. In America, there’s no better example of this absurdity than our current crop of politically educated bicoastal elitists.

“It’s why the establishment types put so much emphasis on credentials, instead of real world achievements. It’s why so many of them spend vast amounts of money on useless college degrees. The collection of resume-polishers is endowed with vast prestige. “Failing up” is a common establishment phenomenon; botch your current role, and get moved to the next rung up the ladder. The inner party takes care of its own.

“While many professions require rigorous training, that’s not true of many forms of our current establishment’s closed system of accreditation. What establishment-approved credentials often do is certify membership in the club. Those who have successfully navigated the filtering system proved they can play the reindeer games of the elitists. They will hold the correct opinions, support the same views, and signal the same virtues as the rest of the special tribe.

“Sadly, our elites have shown themselves to be far from truly advanced. Their actions expose them as defective characters, propped up in positions far beyond their capacities. Of course these pretenders embraced the fog of Postmodernism as a means to cover up their fundamental incompetence.”

 

Getting a serious write up in in the Times for juvenile art stylings is quite a credential polisher. But no amount of unearned accolades can create a legitimate artistic experience.

 

Say Cheese: Hunter Biden

*************

I don’t fundraise off of my blog. I don’t ask for Patreon or Paypal donations. If you’d like to support the Remodern mission, buy a book. Or a painting. Please send any inquiries to info@remodernamerica.com. Thank you!