Glenn Beck.... the new Mapplethorpe?

Let me preface this blog entry by saying that I do not like or listen to any of the right wing talking heads or their radio and television shows and that this blog is written from my liberal/ artistic/ Buddhist point of view.
 I have heard of Glenn Beck but know nothing of him more than an occasional rant of his that I read in passing. So I did a double take when I saw an article about him and his art piece "Obama in Pee Pee"  (Yes, he called it that) A mason jar filled with Beck's urine (supposedly) and containing in it a small plastic figurine of President Obama draped in a white robe and wrapped in an American flag looking up to the heavens with a hands outstretched.

Obama in Pee Pee - Glenn Beck - 2012

My first reaction was not that of disgust or hatred towards him but "Wow, Glenn Beck does art?!" Having lived the latter part of my life immersed in art, the shock value of this piece seemed secondary to it's message but I'll come back to that...

Part I.

What the F#@k gives Glenn Beck the right to be an artist?!

From what i know, I have never known Beck to be an artist nor to have any interest in art. To me, he was just another hot head conservative, spouting dumbing verbal diarrhea across the airwaves of America. Right wing pundit yes, artist no, but that being said, there is a precedent of famous artists who started out in completely different careers like:

Henry Rousseau who was in the French Army and worked as a toll collector before he painted

Henry Rousseau - Sleeping Gypsy - 1890

And Paul Gauguin who was a Stock broker before he painted Tahitian women

Paul Gauguin - Two Tahitian Women - 1899 

and similarly famous people that are "secretly" artists, creating art on the side while doing what they are famous for, which is not all that strange because creativity in a person usually overlaps into different disciplines. Among famous actors such as the late Peter Faulk, and James Franco who [were, and] are painters and Leonard Nimoy who is a photographer, some famous musicians are also artists like:

American music icon Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan - Train Tracks - Drawn Blank Series - 2006

and Paul Stanley of the rock group KISS

Paul Stanley - Self Portrait - 2006

So what exactly makes one an artist? Is it years and years of formal training and practice? Can anyone be an artist? My answer to that question is Yes, anyone can be an artist.  But even saying that is being very general, If Glenn Beck is an artist, what the hell kind of art is Obama in Pee Pee and how is it classified? Well, if you delve deeper into the world of art you will find it has two main facets:
Aesthetic Arts and Practice Arts. Aesthetic arts is the branch of art in which art is created for the sake of beauty, art made under this branch is surface deep and will not necessarily have a message beyond itself. Practice arts, on the other hand, will more likely express a concept or idea which is intended to inform the viewer or challenge the viewer to think and perhaps question an existing ideology. Obama in Pee Pee falls under Practice Arts as it was created to elicit a reaction from the viewer and since it is the manifestation of a concept that Beck had, it can be labeled as Conceptual Art. I was intrigued by the offensive nature of the piece, not because I agree with it but because Beck was copying the work from an artist in the 1980's... Andres Serrano

Part II.

Following the leader

In 1987 , New York artist and photographer Andres Serrano created a piece of art in which a small wooden crucifix was submerged into a glass filled with his urine. He photographed it and manipulated the color and tone a bit and called it "Piss Christ". Needless to say, there was a public uproar over it and was denounced by public officials, church groups and private citizens. Serrano received hate mail and even death threats, his prints were vandalized at various exhibitions and in Australia, the court tried unsuccessfully to prevent it from being displayed in a gallery. Obama in Pee Pee sounds rather identical to Piss Christ. If you  put them next to each other, it is immediately apparent that both contain the same elements, an effigy of a highly regarded icon submerged in a glass vessel filled with human urine. 

Piss Christ - Andres Serrano - 1987

Obama in Pee Pee - Glenn Beck - 2012

When I first saw Obama in pee Pee, I immediately knew that Beck was trying to replicate Serrano's Piss Christ, granted it as an amature attempt but i was fascinated that he would choose to try and replicate something that when first unveiled was considered un-American and Filth. Both wprks of art are making a statement but just what Beck trying to say with his? As stated before, there are several messages that he is putting forth to his viewers. In Serrano's case, he has stated that the Piss Christ was a reflection of what was happening to Christian icons in contemporary society. this feeling was echoed by Sister Wendy Beckett a popular art critic who happens to also be a nun

Sister Wendy remarked that she did not see it as blasphemous but on the contrary, saw it as what we as a society had done to Christ in practice and that it was a reminder of the importance to reverence the death of Christ. In the case of Obama in Pee Pee, it seems to be a reactionary work of art, a reaction in particular to a painting by New York artist Michael D'Antuono "The Truth" which in it's own right is a painting that according to him, is a commentary on how varying political views skew how a single message is interpreted.

 Michael D'Antuono - The Truth - 2012

While D'Antuono is making a justifiable argument to back up his painting, Beck seems to just be reacting to the controversy and his own dislike of D'Antuono's painting, as if to say, "If he can do it, then i can do it too". Controversial art for the sake of controversy and yet the art world has shown that there is a market for just that...case in point Robert Maplethorpe.

Part III

Obama in Pee Pee is comforting

New York Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe is arguably one of the most controversial artist of our modern time. In the early 90's he unwittingly caused national uproar over his travelling photography exhibit "The Perfect Moment" which features among flower still lifes, overtly sexually charged homoerotic and sadomasochistic photographs as well as nude photographs of children. The controversy centered around issues of public funding for the arts, who decides what art is obscene and what are the parameters of censorship.       

Robert Mapplethorpe - Self Portrait - 1980

One of the most important questions that was brought up during all this was: if art can be considered a form of free speech, is it a violation of the first amendmant to take away federal money that was already given for funding based on obscenity issues? In other words, no matter how much a person may dislike another's opinion of something, the right to have that opinion is protected under the first amendment. Now, if an artist manifests his or her opinion into a piece of art, and others diagree with it or hate it, the artist still has a right to show it but if the art is seen as obscene to a certain percentage of viewers, do they have the right to force censorship on that art? Throughout history, artists have continually pushed the envelope of what is acceptable in a society and as an artist, I feel that this is one of the most important issues in the art world.  Not because it creates controversy but because it is something that is uniquely American, our constitution states that a citizen's opinion in the form of speech and action is protected under the appropriate conditions, this means an american flag can be burned as a statement about or commentary on society, such as the opening sequence to Spike lee's 1992 film  "Malcom X" which features the intercutting of the Rodney King beating video with that of an American flag burning synched to a Malcom X speech  

Similarly, The Constitution allows for and protects a Crucifix being drowned in human urine as a commentary on the sate of religion in modern times and surely it protects an effigy of the president of the US drowned in a jar of Human urine as a commentary on the right for controversial art to exist. 

The debate over who decides what is and is not obscene will go on forever but the important thing is that we have that right to speak our minds and manifest those opinions freely without the fear or retaliation or punishment from the government, private institutions, celebrities or private citizens. With beck's first attempt at controversial art, he isalready following in the shadows of giants but is it possible that he may some day eventually be on par with Serrano or Mapplethorpe in terms of creating art that challenges the status quo? Being the eternal optimist, what I can say is only time can tell. But I will refer to something that Sister Wendy Beckett said in the video posted above. 

Much of the art that is out there is "Comforting" art. Meaning the viewer can look at it and have an immediate reaction to it. this immediate reaction is comforting because by the very fact of having a reaction for or against the art piece reinforces that idea that the viewer's opinion is a correct one. By contrast, she states: "Real art makes demands". 

of course, different people will have different opinions as to what is Comforting and real art. If Glenn Beck is to start creating art beyond this impulsive first attempt, I for one welcome him with open arms into the world of art but f he is just creating "Obama in Pee Pee" as a markteing stunt, then it might be better suited for Regretsy.

Thanks for reading :)

My Art and my motives - Part 1

chapter I

BUBBLEGUM DOLL

In early 2010 an old high school friend, Taiz, whom is also an artist said to me, "Carlos, let's do a Dia  De Los Muertos show at the Coffee Table!" I said sure! The coffee Table (now closed) was a Silverlake icon ever since i can remember and I was born and raised in Silverlake so that's a long time. Their prices were a bit steep but the food and the atmosphere were great. It was a community hangout with Actors, writers, artists, musicians, students and parents as patrons. Taiz got in touch with Matthew, who became out liaison to the owner. after a bunch of emails, we set the show for October 23rd.

Among the ideas and themes we had in mind for the original art we would produce for this show was the idea of synergizing aspects of our experience with that of Dia De Los Muertos. In the US, this celebration only slightly resembles the one in Mexico, The Mexican community here decorates their faces resembling colorful sugar skulls. Once we had locked in a date and general concept for the show, I got to work creating art i started with 3 portraits of Aztec Goddesses, two of which I used my roommates as models for. These paintings hinted at the contrast between old Aztec beliefs and the new Spanish ones that took over, namely  Religion and Sex.

The Conquest of Chalchiuhtlicue

The Conquest of Ilamatecuhtli  

and the third one I made up entirely.

The Incarnation of Xochiquetzal

then came my monster series, inspired by years of watching Sesame Street and Tim Burton films.

From Left to right: Norton, Octavio, Bob and Diego

Quite simply, they are portraits of monsters wearing plastic skull masks, each of them even has a price still attached.

Sugar Skull #1

 My Tattoo sugar skulls were inspired by just that, the Tattoo culture in the US. my love of Anime inspired my Anime De los Muertos series and among the girls that i painted is a portrait of Taiz which I named "Bubblegum Doll".

Bubblegum Doll

 I did a series of small drawings that embodied music and the central piece my punk rock Mariachi skeleton! All inspired by my exposure and immersion into the punk rock world.

La Guitarrista

 The show itself was awesome! I worked with Vesper Public relations to get me on air interviews about the show on Spanish Television in the months leading up to the show and alot of people came out!

The Coffee Table

Taiz and I

This was the show that in essence kick started my Fine art career, until this show I had mostly done work for hire: storyboards, background layout, illustration, Logo design etc..

but it was this show that helped to start me on the path of a fine artist in the traditional sense.  Two things happened as a direct result of this show my own solo show in NY and a year long exhibition in a high end LA restaurant.

Chapter II

ORCHARD WINDOWS and YXTA

One of the paintings at the show, "Xotchilquetzal" caught the eye of a gallery owner on the lower East side of Manhattan and before I knew it, I was in talks for my first Solo show. Dino Eli, owner of Orchard Windows in New York's Chinatown told me that my rendition of the Aztec Goddess of flowers, love and beauty caught his attention and that if i could create 8 large paintings in that same style, he would give me a show in his gallery, I jumped at the chance. I immediately started looking for models and canvases. Once i had photographed all my models, I began painting.

Veronica 50% complete

Nancy 50% complete

At this very same time i was in the process of beginning a second series of paintings at the request of Jesse, the owner of YXTA Mexican restaurant in Downtown Los Angeles. he had stopped in at the Coffee Table one day and by chance, saw my art and signed my guest book letting me know that he was interested in having my art on the walls of his restaurant. After a visit to his place, i decided to do large rectangular paintings depicting various Aztec Goddesses, this would give me a chance pay homage to my main artistic influence Alphonse Mucha.

La Diosa Mictecacihuatl

I knew that i couldn't do a series for Yxta at the same time that i was doing a series for NY so i proposed a year long series, one where i would unveil one painting every other month throughout 2011, he agreed and I began the first of 6, and had it done in a week. I unveiled it on the first Monday in January and would be unveiling 5 more every other month throughout the year.

Ias for my NY paintings, I enlisted the help of my dad who built a crate to ship my paintings out to NY.

I flew out to NY in February for my show. my brother and Sister in law live in NJ so I would be staying with them.

My brother Jeff and my Sister in Law, Sandra

The crate had arrived at Sohung Designs Boutique in the East Village where my sister in law sells her clothing lines. I now had to transport the crate from there to the gallery and the lack of any car left me with only one option, I put the crate on a wooden dolly and pushed it 15 blocks south through the city. This seemingly daunting task was anything but that! i was loving every moment of it! Soaking the sights and sounds of the big apple at street level, meeting people on the way, answering their questions as to what was in the big box I was pushing and handing out flyers. I felt like a true artist. at one point, i came a cross a window front DJ who was doing a show on an Internet radio station, I rapped with him for a while, gave him a flyer and he announced it on the air! It may not have been a big deal but it added to the positive vibe that i was feeling. A few nights before the show, I passed out the majority of my flyers in Chelsea during their art nights where the public descends in droves to check out all the galleries there. My solo show went off without a hitch!

Mimi and I

Melba and I

 I had old friends that were in NY show up as well as new friends that I had made in the last few days plus I got a nicely sized crowd from my Chelsea flyer hit!

Tony, Steve and I

All in all throughout the evening, I think there were about 80 to 90 people that passed through the gallery, I consider that a success!
I left the paintings with my brother in New Jersey and a few weeks later he and my sister in law helped me display the series at Sohung Designs boutique!
Once I was back in LA, I got to work on the second painting for Yxta, every other month after that, i began work on a new Goddess and looked forward to each unveiling

Sister Vivian, Bro in law Geoff and I

Model Casia and I

Geoff, Model Nathaniel, dad and I

Jesse, owner of YXTA and I

Model Bodhi and I

Friends Andy, Tina, Brian, Kengi and I

It was a great year long exhibit i had people come out monthly to the unveilings that i haden't seen in years! I got to give out but during all this time, i had an alterior motive for producing so much art...

Chapter III
Stalking the cemetery


coming soon.....

Live painting at the Catalina Bar and Grill

Bill Henderson and I

So there i am kneeling next to the legendary Bill Henderson cracking jokes and taking pictures amongst jazz greats like Barbara Morrison, Marcus Miller and Stanley Clarke.  The event was the 25th anniversary of The Catalina Bar and Grill in Hollywood. It all started a few months earlier when I was doing a live painting at a HARK event in the Hollywood hills. HARK (Healing Arts Reaching Kids) is a guild that was set up some years ago to help raise money for the art and music program at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, where i have been an Artist in Residence for over 8 years now. When HARK has an event i try and help out in any way that i can, and at this specific fundraiser, i was asked to do a live painting which would then be raffled off at the end of the event, I brought along my friend Kengi who photographed it. I chose to paint an Alphonse Mucha, one of my biggest influences in Art.

Alphonse Mucha - 'Fruit" - 1897

Like Mucha, i love painting the female form and portraying them in natural states, focusing on their strength and beauty. When doing a live painting, the artist must do a majority of the painting before hand so as to be able to finish in time, as an event normally lasts 2 - 4 hours and an average painting can take from 5 - 10 hours or more to complete. with that in mind, i did 80% of the painting at home using Acrylic paint, which is not my first choice because of its obscenely quick drying time (3-10 minutes) where as Oil paint has a drying time of... forever. That is much more my style because I can spend more time mixing colors and tones. But for the purpose of a live painting, where someone will be taking it home at the end of the event, Acrylic is more appropriate.

Beginning - "Fruit" - copy

It took me the whole time of the event to finish the painting, not because i painted slowly but because i was multitasking, meeting people and networking. There were alot of amazing people there

"Fruit" - 99% complete at the HARK event

Among those many amazing people, I met Lisa Spalding and chatted with her for a while, she looked at my portfolio and was impressed with my work, in fact she told me that she would like me to do a live painting at one of her future events, needless to say, i was excited! A few moths later she called me and told me about the 25th anniversary of the Catalina bar and Grill and that she wanted me to be the principal artist there. I was honoredn and as soon as I hung up with her I began to feel stress, mainly from what to paint! What i normally paint would probably not interest an older Jazz crowd, so i began to think about different ideas, after a few days, I had a vision of a Billie Holiday-esque scene. I immediately called a fellow Artist/ Musician friend Carmen Perez who came over to my place for a photoshoot. Carmen has great multi-cultural features, she was the perfect model for the painting, not to mention she is a singer and posed perfectly for the painting. I began composing the painting reference on photoshop, adding images of a bass player and trumpet player (Miles Davis) that i found online. them came the painting, which i was not looking forward to... reason being, Acrylic paint is a transparent medium meaning that you have to go over an area 2 or 3 times with the same color to get a solid color effect whereas with Oil paint one coat per area is enough to get smooth consistent coat, its like painting with butter!

So for the first 40% of the painting, I was NOT happy with how it looked but i know that this was part of the process so like the buddhist that i am, I just went with it. I continued through and when I got to 60% completion, I felt that It began to look good.

 I arrived early the night of the event and met Catalina, the owner the the bar and Grill, she was very kind and courteous amd showed me where i could set up. I began putting my Aztec Goddess paintings out along side my live painting. I still wasn't sure how these would be recieved but i went with my gut feeling. I met with my fellow artist friend Alexandra Kube who was also there painting. As we set up our areas, the crowd began to arrive and started drinking. I had alot of interest in my live painting as well as my Aztec Goddesses which made me feel better about my decision and to my surprise I began to sell a few prints!

after a few drinks, my painting began to come together..

I kept getting onlookers which fueled my drive to finish it

As the night progressed, and the live jazz filled the air I was more and more in the zone

As my painting came to a completion, lisa instructed me to place it amongst the other Auction items  locaed in the front lobby area

I was pleased with how it turned out, of course i would have loved for it to be Oil and not Acrylic but hey what are you gonna do...
it was now my chance to mingle and listen to some great live Jazz by the legends themselves, I ran in and was instantly met with a drink, compliments of one of the bartenders. I settled in and turned on my camera.

Bubba Jackson on stage

Bubba Kackson from KJAZZ was the M.C. for the evening He was on stage getting the crowd ready for the next perfomer

Barbara Morrison on stage

Just my luck, I happened to walk in as he was introducing the legendary Barbara Morrison! Barbara had recently dealt with some life threatening health problems but you never would have known it because she was shining as brightly as ever! 

I was lucky enough to catch her rendition of "Love dance" a slower, more sedate standard

then she picked up the pace and jumped into "I'm going to Chicago" which she sang directly to Bill Henderson who was in the first few rows, he eventuallly gave in and joined Barbara on stage for what was an awesome finale!

Afterwards I got to meet and hang out with Bubba Jackson and his lady who are both very funny, warm and charasmatic people.

We exchanged stories about the changes that KJAZZ has gone through over the years and how i used to listen to the station back when I worked on the Simpsons when the call letters were KLON

 I told them about my art and showed them some pieces at which point they told me that they would be interested in having me do some portrait work for them! I was so excited at this prospect as we exchanged info.  As the night drew to a close I got the word that my painting was had been auctioned off for several hundred dollars, I was ecstatic!
all in all it was a great night working along side great people and and meeting some other great people a big thanks to Alexandra Kube and Lisa Spalding

Lisa Spalding, Alexandra Kube and I

I had to end the night with one stop off before home

 for two delux bean and cheese burritos...yummm...