When worlds collide. Legendary performer Patti Smith shares how she got to examine the sketchbook of visionary artist William Blake. She encountered the original manuscript of the poem, “The Tyger.” She composed a moving, reverent hymn to accompany the verses.
Art is a form of spiritual communication. This performance was a wonderful discovery which resonated with me, both as an artist and a retired punk.
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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 abook. Or a painting.
Jackie Gleason And Salvador Dali Show off the Cover Art for “ Lonesome Echo“
I always paint to music. It sets the tone for the art being made. So it makes sense musicians would turn to artists to add a visual enhancement to their records.
Key quote from the article:
“The following – far from exhaustive list – gathers record sleeves by twentieth century artists, sometimes as artistic statements in their own rights and sometimes simply as a paying gig. Some follow the general style of the work the artist in question is known for, and others depart from that style (or styles) in interesting ways.”
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 abook. Or a painting.
My favorite painter Philip Guston caused great controversy when he broke with art world dogma to be true to his own vision. In this touching article written by his daughter, she describes how he handled the fallout.
Key quote from the article:”Recalling the Marlborough opening in a 1980 interview, my father said:‘But there were some who understood. When Bill de Kooning saw the show, he said he liked it very much. You know, everybody thought those paintings were about the hooded figures, and the bad conditions in America, and so on, and that was part of it—every artist hopes to give his own interpretation of the world—but they were about something else, too. When de Kooning saw the show, after embracing me, and congratulating me, he said: ‘You know, Philip, what your real subject is? It’s freedom!’’’
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 abook. Or a painting.
The Left Goes to the Devil: Satanism is the New Black
Despite the ongoing pandemic psyop and hysteria which requires us to cover our faces, this is actually the era of the Great Unmasking. Our Postmodern credentialed classes have been exposed; their corruption, hypocrisy, and ulterior motives are on full display. Now as their monopoly on power and mass communications are being challenged as never before, many elites are openly siding with a cause they feel is the source of their authority. They want to redefine Satanism as the hip philosophy for the Twenty-first century.
Looking at the oppression, suffering, and destruction the Left has caused whenever they gain control, it’s not like it’s any secret they are a force for evil. Hillary Clinton’s mentor, Saul Alinksy, was an early adopter of this establishment trend. On his dedication page for Rules for Radicals, his 1971 destruction of Western Civilization how-to book, Alinsky wrote:
“Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins —or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.”
Better to rule in Hell, right Saul? What a shame he seemed to gloss over another quote on the very same page:
“Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul….”
– Thomas Paine
Paine identifies it: to be a devil is to be miserable. So why go there? Best I can figure it, what is happening here is people who are already miserable are drawn to Leftist activism. It gives them license to try to make others as unhappy as they are.
Something is happening in the culture though, very much against the plans and preferences of the SJWs. Their monolithic totalitarians schemes are fading, as people actually dare to disagree with progressive priorities. So the hacktivists are reacting with all the stability and foresight that is always the hallmark of the Left: They are calling on Satan to save them. Numerous news stories have demonstrated the subsequent apparatchik acknowledgement of allegiance with the powers of darkness.
Hyperallergenic is an online “arts” magazine, which like most of the culture industries these days, performs a bait-and-switch, and presents Marxist proselytizing in place of creativity. In September 2020, they vomited out this little thinkpiece like Linda Blair spewed pea soup: The Story Behind a Misunderstood Satanic Monument:
“Satanic Panic” never really ended; it just fell out of fashion in mainstream media. With the rise of QAnon in Trump’s America, however, Satanism has received renewed interest across the conservative media spectrum. When the Black Lives Matter protests started bringing down Confederate memorials in June, far-right publications and organizations like The Washington Times and Turning Point USA called for the destruction of the Satanic Temple’s bronze statue of Baphomet, its patron deity with the head of a goat and angel wings.
These attempted takedowns betray long-held Republican beliefs in freedom of religion and respect of private property, leading Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves to denounce their legal and spiritual corruption. In an open letter posted on his Patreon, Greaves critiqued the false equivalence between Confederate monuments and the Baphomet statue, arguing that Satanists pose no real threat to religious freedom, and that Baphomet does not even currently stand on public property. (The statue is currently housed in the Temple’s headquarters in Salem, Massachusetts.)
“You can really learn about people’s cultural baggage by seeing how they react to the Baphomet monument,” Greaves told Hyperallergic. “It’s interesting to think this debate could merely be about what’s offensive to some type of individual, and that there is nothing qualitatively different about the Baphomet statue — which is openly symbolic of pluralism, diversity, and nonbinary identity.” (The Satanic Temple does not believe in the existence of Satan, nor does it worship the occult.)
Oh it’s a misunderstanding. A “temple” featuring a grotesque idol of a patron deity isn’t occult or religious, you rubes. Nor should it be compared to the real evil: historical tributes to Democrats who caused a civil war to trying to preserve their entitlement to own other human beings. No, you see, Satan is the good guy in Postmodern globalism. As the article continues:
Greaves and sculptor Mark Porter intentionally designed its calm and stoic facial expression to reflect the Temple’s non-violent mission and political status.
“People do not automatically think of Satanism as this murderous force anymore,” Greaves said. “There has been a perceptual shift in which people are able to embrace images that may have previously seemed untouchable and blasphemous. As much as this is a religious and cultural movement, it is also an art movement, and it all ties together.”
Much like the GOP’s fear-mongering around socialism, this new wave of Satanic Panic is a form of projection. What many Christians really fear is opposition to their notions of religious dominance, in both theory and practice. The Satanic Temple’s core principles include peaceful protest, adherence to science, body autonomy, and empathy toward all living beings. Many of its local chapters perform rituals from a non-superstitious, non-supernatural perspective while actively serving and beautifying their communities. They lead cleanup efforts for parks and beaches, hold sock and clothing drives for homeless communities, and distribute menstrual hygiene products for those without access. The Baphomet statue is the embodiment of this new paradigm, representing the only organization of its kind to gain political leverage in recent history.
Conservative reactionaries have always needed a scapegoat to blame for vice and deviance, and the Baphomet monument fills that role. In reality, though, Satanists are helping to debunk pseudoscience and organize against a theocratic status quo. It is no wonder, therefore, that far-right internet trolls want to portray Satanists as cannibals working for the deep state. Grieves views Baphomet as an entry point into the Temple’s efforts to mitigate religious racism and combat white supremacy throughout the country.(emphasis mine)
Please. The only theocratic status quo with any clout these days is the Authoritarian State as Religion, the creed of progressives everywhere.
Hillary Clinton herself, a woman of wealth and taste, recently signaled in a sly artistic reference she still is following in her mentor’s footsteps. Whether you want to assign the mentorship to Alinsky, or cut out the middleman and go right to the source, is up to you.
The Devil is in the Details
Clinton appeared in her new podcast with her laptop oh so casually propped up on a stack of books. Sharp eyed observers identified one on the props: Erotics, a book of sculptures by artist Lucio Bubacco.
A Little Light Reading for Madam Not-President?
Google Books gushes:
“Lucio Bubacco’s works in glass are unparalleled examples of extraordinary Venetian flame technique – A witty play with the borders of kitsch, and biblical and carnevalesque iconography…Most of the subjects of Lucio Bubacco’s (b. 1957) glass art are provocative and polarizing; at the same time they are sensual and beguiling. In a kind of erotic ‘trance dance’ – Mephistophelian and frequently riotous – nightmarish fabulous creatures and mythological phantasms virtually undulate about each other…Full of wit and irony he thus explores the limits of kitsch without overstepping them. Follow him into a world of carnavalesque orgies, crystalline incubi and erotic fantasies in glass!”
Here is one of the tamer images:
Bubacco: Crystalline Incubi
Everything about Hillary Clinton is calculated, and she doubtless has a team of people facilitating all of her PR efforts. If that book was displayed, you can be sure it was deliberate.
I am a 40-something attorney and mother who lives in a quiet neighborhood with a yard and a garage full of scooters and soccer balls. I am not the type of person who would normally consider becoming a Satanist, but these are not normal times…
Our democracy has become so fragile that the loss of one of the last guardians of common sense and decency in government less than two months before a pivotal election has put our civil and reproductive rights in danger like never before. And, so, I have turned to Satanism.
Members of the Satanic Temple do not believe in the supernatural or superstition. In the same way that some Unitarians and some Jews do not believe in God, Satanic Temple members do not worship Satan and most are atheists. They are not affiliated in any way with the Church of Satan. Instead, the Satanic Temple uses the devil as a symbol of rebellion.
Just like other faiths, the Satanic Temple has a code that their members believe in deeply and use to guide their lives. These Seven Fundamental Tenets include that “one should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason,” that “the struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions,” and that “one’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.”
Reading through the Seven Tenets, I was struck by how closely they aligned with the unwritten code I had used to try to guide my own life for several years. I realized, happily, that these were my people and that I had been a Satanist for several years without even knowing it. When Justice Ginsburg’s death suddenly made combating the threats to reproductive rights and a government free from religious interference more urgent, I knew it was time to join them and support their conceptual and legal battles.
It’s hard to know in this sorry tale where the mental illness ends and the evil begins.
Conceptual battles are turning into real ones, thanks to these diabolical agitators. Research uncovered that the media-connected thug Jeremiah Elliot, the Denver assassin of a Trump supporter, also has ties to Satan flaunting activities.
These people are toying with something dangerous. Whether they believe in the supernatural or not, they are engaging in the worst impulses of humanity: hatred, selfishness, self-deception, manipulative lies, and reckless pride. Nothing positive can result in this cultivation of the demonic.
There’s nothing new about turning to evil to try and get your own way. That story goes all the way back to Adam and Eve, and dictates much of human history. The contemporary form of this affliction has the extra nasty twist of being insufferably smug about it, too.
“Despite the vast economic opportunities that improved the situation for much of the population, there were serious issues relating to the sudden upheaval of the social order. Customary roles and lifestyles were obliterated by the transformations. Poverty and exploitation continued, and even increased in the swelling city populations.
“But humankind, arrogant with increased power, imagined the same kind of empirical approach that reshaped the natural world could work equally as well on the human heart.
“The efficiency of the mechanistic view, once applied across all fields of human endeavor, seemed to promise human life and society must be perfectible. In the Nineteenth century, there was faith that the same kind of progress industrial science achieved could be applied to society. New interpretative social sciences and theories tried to match the accomplishments of technology.
“Modern age optimism assumed while religion and tradition had failed to create a worldly paradise, logic would prevail. The intellect would be humanity’s new savior, and pragmatic philosophy would make heaven on earth.
“The overreach and false equivalence at the heart of this assumption has caused cataclysmic consequences ever since. To think human existence can be operated like an orderly, regimented machine, or to even believe that this is a desirable thing, remains the dehumanizing legacy of the materialistic concepts that gained traction in the 1800s.
“For example, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto in 1848. Since that time, an estimated 100 million people have been massacred in the name of their historically necessary “perfected” society.
“It seems all those ordinary lives were just not perfectible enough. The miraculous material progress the Modern age gave us did not make us better people. Instead, it gave us new justifications for evil behavior.
“The corruption and downfall of good intentions is the inevitable consequence of trying to live without God.”
Our elites have chosen to exercise their self-serving demons, and they aren’t even pretending about it any longer. Our culture needs an exorcism.
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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 abook. Or a painting.
Winston Churchill’s masterful summary of the totalitarian blockade around captive cultures as an Iron Curtain has received a Twenty-first century revision.
Thanks to Big Tech, the repressive dynamic being enforced now is a Silicon Curtain. It’s no longer limited to Eastern Europe. We have a worldwide will to power attempting to throttle the greatest source of information and communication in history: the internet. Early innovators grew into citadels of monopoly. Being smart with computers gave these would-be overlords conceits of their own omnipotence. Look at that nasty Bill Gates, eager to inject the world’s population with his own special blend of God knows what, in a response to a manufactured Scamdemic he sure seemed to be planning for. With a creepy scheme like that, Gates is one volcano headquarters away from being a James Bond villain-and who knows? He may have one already.
Big Tech has partnered with authoritarian regimes to beta test techniques of tyranny they have every intent of inflicting upon us all. Have no trust in these trusts, which are sorely in need of busting.
But in the meantime, freedom still manages to break through the controls. Officially condemned Wrongthink can still be found online, if you know where to look. That’s why I was so glad to rediscover Day by Day, a daily political webcomic by Chris Muir.
I used to follow Day by Day in my early days of internet political obsessing in the early 2000s. It was the glory days of the Blogosphere, before so much of online engagement was squashed into filtered social media silos. The strip was featured on various sites I compulsively visited. DBD’s combination of sharp, insightful commentary and expressive drawing was very compelling.
Day by Day in 2008
Through the years, as my browsing habits changed, I lost touch with comic. But when I recently rediscovered it, I observed it had undergone an upgrade. The Alinsky-style weapons of satire and sarcasm directed at leftist tropes was as powerful as ever, but the art was richer, more elaborate.
Muir has great skill at figurative work, especially when depicting lovely ladies. As Muir’s dialogues are often set in intimate domestic situations, he frequently draws his characters nude. Any criticism directed at him for celebrating the female form, coming from cultural thought leaders who promote Cardi B, is rank hypocrisy. To me, Muir’s frank depictions prove his commitment to honestly sharing his free expressions. The salty politics are leavened with some sweet beauty.
“Remodernism acknowledges artists as individuals responsible for their own actions. Artists have the duty to honestly express the spirit of the age filtered through their unique perspective and skills. Remodern artists use their art to show the enduring triumph of the human spirit over any negative circumstances.
“We must overcome the Postmodern efforts to censor and subvert the culture by suppressing free expression. We don’t need anyone’s approval or permission to create.”
I recently conducted an email interview with Chris Muir, discussing the past, present and future of his creative endeavors.
Question: How did you begin Day by Day? How is it going currently?
Chris Muir: In 1996, I became frustrated at the bias I saw in media-all media. I always had a thing for American history, and to see how warped the presentation of it was in ‘News’ and comics-like Doonesbury and many other syndicated toons-I thought ‘I can do better than this’, and set out to do so. I did practice toons from 1996 to 2002 (unreleased) to see if I could do this as a night job (my day job for 30 years was as an Industrial Design consultant). I also did a single panel/day non-political strip for FL Today called ‘Altered States’ as additional practice to ensure I could meet a daily deadline.
Q:Your draftsmanship is part of what keeps Day by Day so interesting. What’s your artistic background?
CM: I’m self taught, much practice at Photoshop and Illustrator inasmuch as I did renderings of designs for various clients over the years-boats, electronic products, etc. This set me up well for the inevitable time when comics would be all digital.
I was one of the first to do an all digital comic strip, and being versed in Production techniques, I was able to do it all with one person-me! Today there are hundreds of cartoonists and artists who are all digital (Like Deviant Art), though I chose this method primarily because my day job took 80% of my time, and I had to be fast and accurate, as daily strips must be daily without fail. One has to get on readers’ short list of daily reads, especially now (unlike back in 2002 when I launched) because of thousands of content choices. One must become a habit for that reader(s) for they are your income(and shared values).
Q:Were there any notable influences on your art or content?
CM: Richard Corben, Vargas, Milton Caniff, Dean Yeagle, Wallace Wood, Gil Evgren, Bruce Timm.
Q; What’s been your most controversial strip?
CM: I had Hillary in blackface, pandering to the black vote, back in 2003? That was notable back then, but in today’s political climate, Americans don’t debate much with the Left as they have truly gone off the reservation.
Q: When did the censorship begin? Were you surprised, or did you see it coming? How have you been censored?
CM: First Facebook, then Google, around…10 years ago, I think. I was not surprised, saw that coming from the start, having gone through the Cold War with the Left’s Idol, the USSR. I would guess I have been shadow banned to some extent, but inasmuch as I have always decided to be direct to readers, it doesn’t affect me that much. I was lucky to have been a slightly large frog in the Blogosphere Pond when it bloomed, and that set the readership pretty much from there.
Q: What’s your new project?
CM: A SciFi project based on today’s Red vs Blue conflict but set on a different world. www.HolyTera.com should be up November-December this year.
Q: What appeals to you about the science fiction genre?
CM: I suppose the invention of Worlds, what might be, and especially Men and Women-not Xis or Zirs- in such settings.
Q: What do you want your fans to take away from your comics?
CM: A desire to fund me! Well, mostly I aim to be a 15 second read on the day’s political/cultural/MenWomen news in comic format. In today’s attention span deficit era-and I include myself on this-it is a powerful way to entertain and inform in a multiverse of endless online content. So, readers get a summary, in a fun form, of what’s going on.
Q: In this technologically advanced but fragmented age, what future do you see for comics?
CM: A good one, actually-there’s never been a better time for any content provider or artist, as the ‘net delivers for free to unlimited readers-no gateway, editor, middleman, or social justice idiots to drag one back down into the crab bucket. But I would suggest whatever you do, make it constant, for once you lose a reader, you are lost to them in the noise of Many Choices!
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 abook. Or a painting.
2020 is an appropriate year to indulge in hindsight. I must admit now, when looking back, I got played.
I profoundly misunderestimated the true intentions and agenda of a man I once respected. I suspect I was not alone in buying into the delusion. We all can’t blame ourselves too much for being fooled. We were up against a massive psyop of enormous subtlety and resources, and the alternatives we had presented at the time were outright monstrous.
No, the only way we could be at fault would be to deny the reality of what we underwent, now that it’s been revealed.
I now thoroughly distrust George W. Bush. Not for the same reasons that the deranged Leftists who loved to hate him during his presidency did. They were fooled too. They shouldn’t have been melting down over this guy, they should have been celebrating him.
I distrust W because, in many important ways, he advanced Anti-American globalist interests, carrying on his father’s work. In this, Bush was on the same side as the Leftists all along.
W was taking an active part in the same Postmodern schemes that have brought Western Civilization to the brink of collapse. Bush was both controlled and colluding “opposition,” enabling the illusion of choice in the direction of our Republic. He invoked the authentic goodness and power of the USA, and used that as cover while he and all his Uniparty political cronies continued to arrange for our destruction.
It’s hard to reconcile this with my long term impressions of George W Bush, of a flawed but ultimately decent man in a very difficult role. I believed he loved America. Could he really be that good of an actor? Or has he just been able to persuade himself of the inevitability of the totalitarian cabal’s domination, and he was trying to manage our decline as gently as possible?
As we continue to undergo the illuminating unmaskings of the Trump era, Bush has exposed himself. The motivations of all his actions and inactions, his talking points and silences, all need to be examined in a new light. We see what he is willing to do, and who he is really aligned with.
It’s a Big Club, and We Ain’t In It
Now, in another sad move, George W Bush is taking his sincerely felt art, and applying it as a backhanded propaganda ploy.
I’d written before on Bush’s paintings of veterans he’s come to know. In his interviews regarding the book, Bush described his authentic engagement with painting, speaking a language that I recognized through my own experiences as an intuitive painter:
“The thing about painting is you never finish a painting. I mean, there’s always something, at least in my case, there’s always something I could do to improve, and so at some point in time, you had to have the discipline to say I’m moving onto another portrait.”
“…I don’t think the quest to develop a style that you can express yourself as fully as you want ever ends.”
Bush has a new book coming out now. Given the moment we find ourselves in, I believe this offering does capture Bush’s true style: Take something positive, and give the appearance of revering it, while simultaneously delivering a Deep State Parseltongue-bath twist which taints the whole enterprise.
Bush’s latest book is Out of Many, One. He evokes the motto of the United States to present 43 portraits of immigrants. So far so good. The melting pot was the traditional American immigrant experience. These immigrants loved the idea of freedom so much, they worked hard on a difficult process to come to our nation of laws. They left their old lives behind to start again, taking on all the risks and benefits of liberty; it is the essence of the American dream. Those are exactly the kind of people we should be welcome here.
We are the only country ever founded on the idea that the people tell the government what to do, and not the other way around. We are the only country that acknowledges our rights and equality come from God, and are not granted to us by any earthly authority.
American is not a race, or an ethnicity, or a class. American is a set of principles, and appreciation for the opportunities those principles provide. That’s why the United States was called a melting pot for so long: despite all of our varied origins and circumstances, America gives a fresh start. We were forming a new civilization together, making many into a new dynamic Unum, the likes of which the world had never seen.
The world didn’t like this.
But Out of Many, One, being by George W Bush, we have to scrape off the appearances and get to the implied implications. After all, W’s beholden to that world that hates the USA so much, and he’s doing his part against us.
Our Postmodern administrative class fractured the Melting Pot long ago. Arrivals are no longer encouraged to unify as part of our great national efforts. Now they are encouraged to hyphenate and separate, and above all, to despise the very land which has offered its hospitality. Look no further than the growing Mogadishu in Minneapolis for the results of those efforts. You can take the war lords out of the ruins, but you can’t take the ruin out of the war lords.
Another pose struck here is the relentless conflation of immigration with illegal invasion. “Act of love,” droned the feckless Bush brother Jeb! Wrong. Illegal immigrants by definition have blown their side of the deal right off the bat, by disregarding the same system of laws that made our country thrive. You can’t cheat your way into being an American. Yet the elites lump the criminals in with the promising citizens, and accuse anyone who knows the difference of being a racist.
This, of course, segues right in the real point of George Bush’s book: Orangemanbad, and you’re bad too, if you support him. End of story.
Sorry George W Bush, I’m not buying your propaganda any more. I’m sorry that I now have to look at your paintings knowing what you’ve done, and why.
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 abook. Or a painting.
“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?
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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 abook. Or a painting.
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
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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.
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.
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.
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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 abook. Or a painting.
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.
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.
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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 abook. Or a painting.
“In the Belly” Richard Bledsoe acrylic on canvas 30″ x 40″
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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.
Understanding the Corona Virus Response Through the 5 Factors of Postmodernism
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.
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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 abook. Or a painting.
