Freedom

"The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude." Friedrich Nietzsche

I watched as the water, the air, sky and earth paraded by me. I felt joy and thought to myself, how on earth did Olympia become the Hippie core of the Universe? Perhaps Berkeley is more known for it, but every April in Oly, every belly baring, sandaled, patchouli scented, pierced for your pleasure freakazoid hippieshitliberal (not that there is anything wrong with that....) and um....people who bathe, congregated in Olympia Washington to celebrate the Arts and the Earth. The festivities are centered around Earth Day and it makes for one hell of an interesting weekend of creative expression and the glories (and faults) of Mother Earth.

This was the last Art Walk I'll do for awhile and it was my most successful! I went into it with no expectations other then spending some time with my Mother at her store before it she closed it. I completely enjoy my time with my family, I even enjoyed working on clay in public......no anxiety attacks!! LOL!....but then we did strategically block my work area so that people fascinated with what I was doing would respect my personal space, god damnit. I sold some pieces and have one commission, that's more than I asked for! Like the dink I am I took NO pictures, I kept forgetting the camera in my book bag, ugh. Tanya took some so I'll try to grab from her stockpile.

Soon, I'll actually post pics of my work....I have most of it home now until Mom gets the new store in order. I bought one of her old fixtures so that I can rig it as a stationary and centralized location for new pieces. The sooner I get it done the better, the task of cataloging all the pieces is gonna be interesting, my direction is changing to much larger pieces in polymer, I started a piece this weekend that I'm really looking forward to seeing the final product.

"The arts are an even better barometer of what is happening in our world than the stock market or the debates in congress." Hendrik Willem Van Loon

The weekend did not go by without incident though. On Saturday evening, a small group of anti-war protestors gathered down the street from the store. I'm not really sure what happened but six patrols cars later and a rousing rendition of the Star Spangled Banner the freaks dispersed. The complete irony of them singing "....and the rockets red glare...the bombs bursting in air....." um....duh, dude without those rockets and bombs we wouldn't be here and um.......I think the rockets and bombs had targets.

free·dom ( P ) n.
The condition of being free of restraints.
Liberty of the person from slavery, detention, or oppression.
Political independence.
Exemption from the arbitrary exercise of authority in the performance of a specific action; civil liberty: freedom of assembly.
Exemption from an unpleasant or onerous condition: freedom from want.
The capacity to exercise choice; free will: We have the freedom to do as we please all afternoon.

Michael Moore and the Dixie Chicks were persecuted for using their god and government given rights.......maybe some of those rockets red glare hit them? The biggest Weapon of Mass destruction is ignorance. We're all in this together, whether we like it or not. History is made with, or without us. Sometimes our humanity blinds us, and our successes help us see that freedom is for some, worth living and dying for. This war has shaped our future, whatever it may hold, we are subject to even more criticism of our gluttonous way of life, yet, for the most most part, we stand undivided and embrace, freedom.

To life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness....... *cheers* !