03 December 2009

marvel


15 X 20 cm, Tombo pen on japanese paper


So, Obama escalates the Afghan invasion! What a strange surprise! Its a military catastrophe in the making to save a gas and oil pipeline. Its certainly understandable, but is it not an endless1 swamp of quicksand?


Is it not unlike our so called 'War on Drugs' which has us fighting the coca farmers "over there" because our own culture is addicted to the drug on our own shores?


And now, instead of looking at our own energy consumption, are we now waging war "over there" in order to prolong our own fatal addiction to oil over here?


History will be the judge. On our own soil meanwhile, and not at all (disconnected), society is dying and could use all that 'war' money and manpower to help fix us. The signs of decay and death are visible everywhere, they are like graffiti tags on walls all over America.


Three years ago I was on a trip to Morocco. On these trips I generally stay for two or three weeks drawing most of the day, and nights. I usually come home with six or seven hundred drawings. But of course, I work fast, sometimes in a minute I get what I am after. The drawing above is a good example. I vaguely remember my surprise as it appeared on the paper, but it was upon sifting through the work at home that I was given a pleasant shock. While simply drawing in the streets somewhere in Essaouira, Death was passing by and without thinking, I just drew it. I marvel at the smile.


My dear friend Carlo, a buddhist not surprisingly, bought it when I showed all of the drawings later that year.


1 l'engrenage

No comments:

Post a Comment