One Down, Many to Go 2016-W29

Let me first say Gretchen Carlson isn't the impetus for the Banshee series I've been painting of late. But yes, she's been floating around the overflowing pool of potential subjects — those generally blonde females who comprise the blathering talent at Fox News. Prior to last week, I'd still be laughing now if you'd told me that Gretchen would soon earn my grudging respect.

But she has done. She must have known that to come forward with her accusations against the powerful predator Roger Ailes, she consequently would have to prove her case and at the same time fight back attacks on her character and her reasons for doing so. Because that is often the way it plays out in America when women accuse men of sexual misconduct in the workplace. I don't know if I like much else about Gretchen Carlson, but I admire her courage. Best of luck to her as she presses her case.

Which brings me to the other player in this drama and to another series I painted circa 2011: the Faces of Evil. For this series, I selected (evil) people of whom I was aware but (it turns out) the public at large were not. Sure, they knew Dick Cheney and maybe one or two others, but nobody ever correctly guessed FoE #4... Roger Ailes. I suspect that after the events of this week, they might do better — at least in the short term.

Time will tell if Ms. Carlson prevails in her legal actions against Mr. Ailes et al, but we didn't have to wait long to see Roger's fall from the top of the Fox News mountain. What all this means for America remains to be seen, yet one can hardly imagine it could be anything besides a change for the better.

The other Faces of Evil can be seen in a special section of my online gallery. As for Roger Ailes, who knows what he might do or where he might be seen next? (Probably in courtroom sketches.) With that said, if ever they decide to remake The Maltese Falcon, I urge the producers to consider Mr. Ailes to take on the role of the despicable Kasper Gutman...  "the Fat Man". I smell Oscar.

Faces of Evil:  Roger Ailes

Too Much Time 2016-W26

I've been off work for the past two weeks, but don't ask me what I've been up to because the answer is: besides gardening, not much.

I don't know if a universal truth underlies this experience, but in my experience too much time inhibits progress. To wit, I have found that when I have all the time in the world to do something I often end up doing nothing. Or at least I will procrastinate until suddenly there is only just enough time to get done whatever it was needed doing.

Three loads of laundered and line-dried clothes sit in my dining room awaiting folding... but I can do that later. While I watch TV. Or tomorrow. Because it might rain and can't do much gardening when things are wet. And so on and so forth. Now it is a week later and the clothes are still very tidily awaiting the overdue fold-n-stow process. In my defense, I haven't yet worn anything I've peeled directly off the folding queue, except for some sweatpants (it got very chilly here the past two days) and besides they were already folded and on top, ready for the drawer.

In this same vein, I have been procrastinating writing this blog post for a few weeks now. To get started, I figured I would need some synonyms for "procrastinate" and there are some good ones: Delay. Loiter. Putter. Fritter. Trifle & Dabble. And my favorite: Loaf. I don't mind plenty of the latter after a good productive day. Occasionally however, I make Loafing the primary output of my day's efforts. To paraphrase an old didactic aphorism, any job worth not doing is worth not doing well.

I have been diligent about keeping after all the pent up yardwork and some re-work while I'm at it. In fact I thought I'd take some pictures and use the "art" of my garden as fodder for the post. Sadly, when I signed in I see that I have already did that last post.

Which brings me to the painting I want to show you today but which I did a few weeks back now. It continues the Banshee series and I really like a lot of things about it. Seasoned painters can often look back and identify breakthroughs in their artistry or technique and I don't want to be premature or pompous but I do feel like the last few entries in the Banshee series have been a breakthrough for me, artistically. I need to say "enough" with the garden and get back to painting. And folding laundry and whatever else has "gotten sidetracked" (another good, passive synonym for procrastinate — thanks Z).

In closing, let me note that Banshees are female figures in Celtic mythology and so all to date have been women. But I fear that gives the impression of misogyny so the next marcher in my parade of banshees will be male. In fact, the painting is ready to get started on. If only I would stop procrastinating...

Banshee X