Picture Set Of The Month - March - The Graphic Art of Martin Sharp

Martin Sharp is a name that I used to read
on the back of my old Cream albums;
On 'Disraeli Gears' it said 'Cover design by... ' 

He also wrote the lyrics of 'Tales of Brave Ullysses',
to Clapton' music, which is surely a highlight
of the Cream cannon, after 'Badge' and 'I Feel Free'. 

 

But his major contribution to the counter-culture
was as a graphic artist, with posters like the above,
which were perfect for that weekend hippy's bedroom walls.
There were also posters for events like the one below.  

Where if you attended, you might well not quite know
what was going on. The sense of the unknown became
the point. If afterwards you did not know what happened
 either, then that too seemed to be a good thing.
Millions of people were bored more rigidly
than they ever realised with knowing who they were,
where they were, and what they had to do, all the time.
Here is his website, which awaits construction. 

I Can't Get No Facebook Satisfaction

Yes, I do have a facebook account,
I was persuaded to have it, to 'keep up'
with people who said they were my friends.

Now I no longer have to see them.

What they failed to tell me
was that my 'feed' would be laden
with adverts for multi-national charities
who say they are committed to ending poverty
when they appear more to be part of the problem.

I would believe in the sincerity of their mission more
if the young actresses that they employed
to say the words the persuade people to give
looked much more plain that they do,
and had donated the thousands of pounds
they had clearly on make up and plastic surgery
to the cause, instead of adding to the problem. 

War, Truth, And Lies

Wars are not just about the times
when weak leaders hide their weakness
through the lies they tell for their country
towards the leaders of other countries,
who also can't count the lies they tell,
or recall after why they needed to tell them.

War is the time when would-be soldiers
find consensual comfort where they may,
without thinking that the lies they tell to be at ease
will be slowly unpicked by the peace,
by which time it is too late to repair
the tears in their lives, forever broken.

Only in peacetime can truth
speak with clarity to power,
in ways that might make power listen.

In the middle of so many wars
power does even observe
the power of it's destruction.
       

Certainty

Is in the eye of the beholder,
and quality always scores over quantity. 

 

Mind The Gap

It has long been known
that high levels of poverty
and inequality are quite sustainable,
in wealthy westernised economies.
Particularly when the leaders of a country
have mastered the art of using statistics
which are compiled to mislead the public
into the belief that wealth is spreading
whilst the reverse is nearer the truth.

When the poverty gap stretches far enough
and over long enough period of time, 
the only question left
is by how much will the gap
between rich and poor extend
before it becomes so hardened
that it is permanent,
and no amount of change
will make government
more honest or likeable, ever again.       

When No Price Is Good Enough

Popular ideas that don't work
or rather don't work as described.
Where they do work, they work for the few
in ways that are immune to regulation;
'the art market' is a place
where many are encouraged to believe
that they can paint, and to have ideas
about what represents 'creativity',
but creativity is not what sells.

If the test of the definition of a painting
is the ability to sell it for a decent price
then that is where most art comes unstuck;
there are too many who paint and ideas are cheap,
and where the work fails the most is the price;
give it away and people outright refuse it,
put a low price on a work and buyers are suspicious.
Put a high price on your work and then
watch other people say 'That is the right price,
but for somebody else other than me to buy it.'.

When paintings sell for millions
they are no longer bought
for what is on the canvas;
they are bought and sold
as insurance policies
against monetary inflation.

The Fake News Agenda

is not just a sign that the media is bored
by the limits of reporting quotidian reality,
it is the all-year round April Fool approach
towards sharing what constitutes itself as news,
where commentators, keen to shock the public,
can only surprise them with lies,
which they mostly don't realise
are a clear sign of their boredom
with making so much money.  

Saying Less With Good Reason

In a world where sophistry multiplies hypocrisy
beyond any depth that we can conceive,
words become the traps that they were designed to be.  

In that world virtue means observing whilst saying less.
We reflect before we act to the point where we we do not react,
but we accept appearing to be inert, whilst actually not being.
 

Picture Set Of The Month - May - The Paintings Of Maurice Wade

'Bridges over Canal' painted in 1976 by British artist
Maurice Wade(1917 -1991).

'The Bridge' by Maurice Wade

'.........dream and actuality' by British artist Maurice Wade
(1917 -1991).
 

 

'Canal at Middleport' painted in 1976 by British Maurice Wade