Tag Archives: Art

The End of Everything at the Anchorage Museum

31 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by in Alaska, Politics

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The End of Everything

I thought I’d share this little gem currently on display in the Anchorage Museum. It’s called “The End of Everything” by Thomas Chung. I’m sorry, the photo-quality is really crap. Just thought the content was worth sharing despite that. Anyway, here is what Chung has to say about it:

“The painting explores why we may, at times, dehumanize others. It reflects our current political times, which are brewing with hatred and conflict. The cowboy character riding the bomb represents the male American ideal, while the cherubs represent the many living forms of bigotry from the past and present. The graffiti on the polar bear comes from posters repeatedly disseminated around the University of Alakas Anchorage’s campus this year by white supremacists as part of a larger campaign.”

An Uncommon Rosie

18 Friday May 2018

Posted by in Alaska, History, Politics, Uncommonday

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Rosie - Copy2Rosie the Riveter is one of those proverbial gifts that just keeps on giving. So, was Elizabeth Peratrovich. She would have been a contemporary of the many women who inspired this icon, which makes it just a little more interesting to see her standing in here for the women (whose real name was Naomi Parker) most of us envision when thinking about Rosie. This poster is part of the Unsettled exhibition currently showing at the Anchorage Museum.

Elizabeth was a major figure in the movement to combat discrimination against Alaska Natives in the 1940s. She is memorialized every February 16th, the day in which the Alaska Territorial Government signed the Anti-discrimination Act 0f 1945 into law. You can learn more about her work on civil rights at Alaskool.org. The quote featured in this poster is commonly thought to have been part of her testimony at the Alaska Territorial Legislature during hearings over the Anti-Discrimination Act. It isn’t entirely clear whether or not these were her exact words, though it probably says something about her actual testimony that it has become something of a legend in itself. The wit would certainly be right at home with other things that Elizabeth clearly did say.

Seriously, the woman kicked ass!

Apayo Moore, the artist behind this particular piece has the following to say bout it:

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Couple Murals from the Mission District of San Francisco

12 Monday Feb 2018

Posted by in Street Art, Travel

≈ 7 Comments

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I’ve been to San Francisco before, not often, and never for long. This summer I spent a couple days in the city with my girlfriend, Moni, and her friend Annie, all before starting the great road trip with Wonder Woman as our companion. That was this summer, but what do I recall from before?

I was once on a massive field trip to San Francisco with virtually my entire grade school when by a perverse coincidence someone in California decided to kidnap a school bus full of children and bury them alive while waiting for the ransom. The seventies were kinda wacky that way, but don’t worry, they all made it.

…and someone at my school had to tell countless concerned parents that we were all on course and fully accounted for.

The field trip, itself I don’t remember much.

I remember a speech and debate tournament held at Berkeley way back when I was in college. I remember a hoard of people drumming in a courtyard, lots of great bookstores, a lovely trip to the wharf, and plenty of great street performers. I also remember wearing red ribbons in protest of apartheid. This was a new thing at the time, not just the color and the specific cause, but as I recall the notion of wearing ribbons as a political statement. It wasn’t then quite the cliche that it is now. Two athletes realized what the ribbons were for. That was all.

I also remember attending an anthropology conference held in San Francisco. We were palling around with an ex-Jesuit priest who had done his fieldwork in China. The guy swore he knew a great dim sum place near the hotel. We were snaking up and down the side streets until he finally hooked a quick turn into some place quite unimpressive, at least until they started serving the food. I remember him asking about spicy chicken feet. He was told they didn’t serve it to the customers, because we wouldn’t know how to eat it. After speaking to her in Mandarin for awhile, she agreed to feed him, and she brought out just enough for HIM to eat it. The rest of us got to watch.

Gustatory voyeurism!

I remember a little here and there from other trips, but nothing worth mentioning.

This time I recall getting very sick on a tour boat. I do that sometimes. Pretty much whenever I’m on a boat. Sometimes on a plane. Once recently in the back of a sled. Needless to say, roller coasters are right out! Anyway, I got off the boat this time and found myself miserable and bucking up for a day of hard work just to make it through what should have been good fun. So, Moni and Annie let me sleep in the park for an hour or so after which I actually enjoyed the rest of the day. At the very end of the evening, we decided to check out some street art. Seeing me go crazy with my camera as the sun went down, her friend, Annie, graciously agreed to take me back to check out the art in the Mission District again the next day.

I think I love Annie!

My all-time favorite was the Women’s Building with its great mural, MaestraPeace. We weren’t the only ones there with cameras, which is quite fitting, because a lot of great talent went into this piece.

MaestraPeace Mural was painted in 1994 by a “Who’s Who” of Bay Area muralists: Juana Alicia, Miranda Bergman, Edythe Boone, Susan Kelk Cervantes, Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton and Irene Perez.

Seriously, that painting is very cool.

We were hunting some murals in a small alley at one point when a local suggested we go check out Clarion Alley. Moni was a little annoyed that I was talking to random homeless people, but honestly the guy helped me out quite a bit. Clarion Alley was great advice! Moni was even more annoyed the next day when I was accosted by a homeless man who wanted me to leave Clarion Alley very quickly. He wasn’t as helpful as the first guy. Still, I got my pics, and he didn’t shoot me after all, not that he had a gun mind you, but shootings were mentioned.

…as were donuts.

Anyway, I clicked away at my camera for the better part of a full day, and I could hardly tear myself away as the sun fell again. I have no doubt that I missed a great deal. I’m also told that much of the artwork would be different if we go back.

I really must test this theory some day.

(Click to embiggen!)

The Women’s Building

Hidden Purplitude
In Loving Hands
The Corner Staircase Looks On
In Fabric
A Detail
Dance
Main Figure
Healers
Beautiful in Green
Crouching Lady
Lovely

Random Artsities

Eyes
Matronly Wave
Wicked Headdress
Lotta hands
Remembrance
Probably not all that uncommon
Odd Theme for an urban setting
Cartoonish Bot
A kind of hope
Hm…
Sexy-Saucy
Skull
Tall Headdress
Face to face
Casa Sanchez
Working together in headdresses
Sexy White-Haired Girl
Oddly Futuristic Feathers
From out in the bay?
Oscar Romero
Sexy Hair Bomb
Amiri Baroka
Bad Doggies!
Futuristic Somehow
Drug-induced whale?
Seen him once in concert
Cartoony Wonder
Gold Hue 1
Psychodelic Flowers
Golden Hues 2
Leyenda Azteca
Rosa
Imprisoned Beauty
Frida on Green
Pan-Purplitude
Mission Girl
Gold and Purple
Moody Girl With Flowers
Wings
Eyes Over Hands
Deer Man Will Paint
No Ban on Stolen land
Dragon Head?
Beautiful
Hemp
Against Gentrification
Blue Background
Deb in a Bath
Big Wall Mural
Bullhorn
Dark Glasses
Beauty Bar by Deb
Whaling Wall in San Francisco
Note the building from another pic

Arts District, Los Angeles

03 Sunday Dec 2017

Posted by in Street Art, Travel

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20046668_10213715189019056_3737017398696896189_nLong before Moni and I took to the road to spend this last July in New Mexico, I spent a couple months with her and her family down in San Dimas, California.

I’m usually a little lost in big cities. Vegas would be an exception, because it was once home, but usually cities make me a little uncomfortable. You see more people in 5 minutes down there in L.A. than you will up here in months on the North Slope (and that’s just on a quick trip to Target). I find it all just a little bit disconcerting.

Still, the big cities do have their strong points…

Oh yes, they do!

(click to embiggen!)

Mystical Garage Door
Creepy green Victorians (they hang out near the nice grandma, not sure why)
Looking Up
Lovely in blue
Colorful
Close-p of a large and very busy mural. (The whole thing was cool. I just figured I’d better pick.)
Adadarem Madmanart and Kwuemolly, Outer.Source
Stop staring at me!!!
Gotta have skulls!
Wolves of Los Angeles
Oh yes!
Possibly my favorite
Cuteness fenced in
Not just a door, this is a porthole
Wild, and yet somehow peaceful (it’s an odd combination)
Okay, this is just plain cool
The interior design of a dragon
Sexy & Violency
Almost missed this
You can see right though her!
You are being watched
Just gorgeous!

The Murals of Española

24 Friday Nov 2017

Posted by in Street Art, Travel

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22426453_10214539482825886_622094195494757406_oRegular readers may have noticed already, but when I (and now Moni too) experience a bout of southiness, we frequently do this somewhere in the southwest. Santa Fe is a common destination. We mostly travel through nearby Española on our way up to Taos, Pueblo, but this last summer, we also traveled through on our way up to Ghost Ranch, and that meant going though more of the town. The murals were very cool!

Moni gets mad at me when she sees these, because she doesn’t remember many of them. I think she was on the phone while I ran loose with a camera.

So, brought to you with just a trade of schadenfreude, the murals of Española!

(Click to embiggen)

 

 

Moar Rez Murals!

08 Friday Sep 2017

Posted by in Native American Issues, Street Art

≈ 8 Comments

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DJHabIOUQAES0YE

Power Plant

It’s been a very long time since I worked in Navajo country. The last couple years I’ve made a point to take Miladydebennet through a lot of my old haunts, and this summer that meant a trip through the Navajo Nation. It was great to see some of the old sights again, and to see them a little bit through the new eyes of my girlfriend. It was also great to see some new things in the old places. One of my favorite new things (new to me anyway) is the addition of street art all around the rez. These had me smiling all the way from Page to Santa Fe. I had even more reason to smile when I learned one of my former students had been involved in painting one of these murals.

It seems that these have been part of an ongoing project, called Paint the Desert initiated by a doctor who goes by the name, Jetsonorama. You can find a few articles on his project here and here, here, and here. I’ve previously posted some of the murals from along Highway 89, so I was very happy to catch some more this summer.

As always, you may click to embiggen. (In fact, I highly recommend it.)

These were in Kayenta, just south of Monument Valley.

Prayer
Kayenta Horses

These paintings were all at the Crossroads Trading Post.

Crossroads Trading Post
CTP Love
Well-Painted Mutton Stand
CTP
Corn
Water Rights

Saw this somewhere along the road from Kayenta down to Chinle.

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Windmill

Found this piece on the road between Many Farms and Chinle.

Brotherhood
Backside
Abalone Road
Windmill between Many Farms and Fort Defiance

These (and many more) were all painted along a wall in Fort Defiance. It would have been walking distance from my home for a few years. Kind of a surreal experience to get a soda from the old convenience store and walk around checking this out. Surreal, and very cool.

For me anyway.

Hope y’all enjoy the pictures.

Turning
Rez-Ball
A Bit Eerie
Downright Scary
Rodeo at Monument Valley
With Jigsaw
Flags
…and a little rider too
Code Talkers

Art Alley (Rapid City)

30 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by in Bad Photography, Street Art

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So, I was in Rapid City recently. I was there to attend a convention of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. It’s a great conference and a great organization. So, I was enjoying myself a great deal, already, when a thought occurred to me. I wonder if there is any street art in Rapid City?

Surely, I thought, there must be a mural or two, maybe not even a great one, but I’ll bet there is something.

Turns out the answer is ‘yes’. There is definitely street art in Rapid City. In fact, the city has an entire alley devoted to it.

(Click to embiggen!)

No DAPL!
No DAPL!
Dumpster in the Eye
Dumpster in the Eye
Art Stares back at you
Art Stares back at you
Opening of the Alley
Opening of the Alley
Utility Box at a DIstance
Utility Box at a DIstance
Green
Green
A budding friendship?
A budding friendship?
A violet Rose?
A violet Rose?
Make a saving throw!
Make a saving throw!
CLose-up of a Utility Box
CLose-up of a Utility Box
Foremen
Foremen
Lil' Guy
Lil’ Guy
Monster
Monster
White Lion
White Lion
She's cool
She’s cool
Brighting colored Hummer
Brighting colored Hummer
Downtown mural
Downtown mural
Big Fireman
Big Fireman
Dragonish
Dragonish
The Bun breaks the frame
The Bun breaks the frame
This was on the wall of a non-participating business.
This was on the wall of a non-participating business.
Lotsa coolness
Lotsa coolness
UNdead Bison
UNdead Bison
Creepy
Creepy
Blue CHild
Blue CHild
Girl through some bars
Girl through some bars

When Culture Appropriates You

04 Wednesday Jan 2017

Posted by in History, Museums, Native American Issues

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15871703_10211699926478752_5551079935863716489_nTo the left is one of my favorite images from a mural painted by Shonto Begay and Mike Scovel at the Fort Sumner Memorial in New Mexico. What’s to be memorialized at Fort Sumner, you might ask? It was the site of an internment camp, one which held the Navajo people for roughly 4 years (about 1864-1868). It also held Mescalero Apaches, but Begay’s and Scovel’s  mural is about the Navajo end of this story. Specifically, it is about “the long walk” to this place, still called Hwéeldi out in Navajo country.

What fascinates me about the image is a trick of context. It’s just one part of a rather breathtaking piece of art, but to me it’s definitely the most interesting. The larger mural wraps around the wall on both sides of a hallway at the memorial. If you follow the hallway, you come to a small movie theater where you an watch a short film about the long walk and the Navajo experience at Hwéeldi. The images are striking. Devastating. They depict a national disgrace, and in surrounding us with the images, this mural invites us to see that disgrace, not from the standpoint of objective observer, but from the standpoint of someone in the midst of it. Walking down that hallway, one is surrounded on both sides by images of people (Navajos) herded along by soldiers and scouts. The mural depicts a great deal of suffering, and it places that suffering all around us. Begay’s and Scovel’s work seems denies us the chance to step outside the event and view it as a disinterested party.

But when you come to this image, the immersion takes on a different significance. Suddenly, it becomes clear why all the solders seem to be facing us. The Navajo figures simply plod along, mostly looking in other directions, but the soldiers, they look right at us as we stand in that hallway.

It’s an interesting effect to begin with, but when you walk down that hallway, at some point that soldier’s rifle is pointed at you. The soldier in that painting doesn’t care who you are, what your ethnicity is. He doesn’t even care what your plans are later in the day. And as my girlfriend pointed out, his rifle seems to follow your movements a bit, at least for a step or two. (I swear it does!) It’s a rather brilliant move on Begay’s part, because it places his viewers in the scene more effectively than anything else. More than placing the viewers in the scene, it confers a specific role on the viewer, as one of those forced along the walk.

It’s just art of course. We will at some point walk on to other parts of the exhibit, and many of us will no doubt shake off the effect of the image a bit quicker than those whose family histories include stories of those lost along the way. Still it’s an interesting contrast with the many times non-natives have chosen ourselves to assume some aspect of a native identity. Whether playing Indian as school-children, wearing a headdress at some music festival, or aping the Tonto-speak of Indian characters in countless westerns, many of us have done it at one time or another. Hell, some people have made a life out of it! Countless non-Indian actors have played Indian on screen, and countless non-Indian characters have become Indians in the story-arc of a common movie theme. And of course there is the Washington football team! What all of these other examples have in common, is a choice to assume some part of native identity, if only for a moment. They also have in common that the identity assumed is positive. When we non-natives play at being Indian, we get something out of it. It may not be much, often little more than a momentary source of amusement, but the choice is ours, and when choose it, we do so to our own advantage.

That’s the genius of this particular image. It forces that same transformation on anyone walking through the memorial. For just a moment, it makes us play Indian, and to do so on terms we didn’t choose for ourselves. On terms no-one would choose for themselves! We will survive that moment of course, perhaps even without really learning much from it. Still, it’s an interesting twist in the narrative.

That moment, when the business end of a rifle points you right into the story.

***

Here are a few more images from the mural (click to embiggen)!

Vegas Street Art, Volume 4

28 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by in Bad Photography, Las Vegas, Street Art

≈ 9 Comments

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IMG_20160604_083252So, it occurs to me that I’ve actually got quite a backlog of street art pics from Vegas. I’ve been collecting them for a couple years now without really doing a specific blog post on the topic. I’ve posted street art from Vegas before; here, here, here, and here. Oh, and here (a ways down the post)! I also included some murals in my original posts on the Erotic Heritage Center. but I notice some of those murals are covered now. In any event, I think it’s well past time for an update.

If there is any difference between this stuff and the murals I posted a couple years ago, I would say that I am seeing more large projects done by some well known artists these days. I’m still a fan of the lesser-known words tucked away in corners here and there, but it’s interesting to see the paintings moving closer to downtown and onto bigger buildings.

Anyway, here tis!

(Click to embiggen!)

Fear and Street Painting
As I took a picture of this a guy came up and asked if it was legal. …Heh!
Bunny-Fangs!
Evil in her Ear
Just Cool
Moar Coolness
A Dash of Color
Looking UP
Sadly, this has been painted over.
WIde-angle
Seen this on a few blogs
Serene
Street Cartography? 2 points!
Hm…
Diamonds Escape!
You can see this one at the beginning of a tour in the Neon Museum. It’s on a neighbors wall, visible from within the Neon Museum itself.
Part of a Big Mural
Catching Water
Gasmask
Concentric Ecothemed Mural
Back of the beauty bar. This replaced an earlier portrait of a young woman.
Ladder
Sideways is artways
I have a feeling, I should know the sub-reference here.
Eyes
Horns
Colorful
Reclining With Stars
Creepy Birds
This one cracks me up.
A day in bed with the bunnies. …out on the street.
Horny Mural
Dig these guys!
Girl in Blue
Voodoo on the Tattoo …parlor.
Twins
Elaphant
Iconic
Just one now
Back of the Buffalo Echange
DiskHead
Pointing Down
Behind Bars

Rural Murals

22 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by in Bad Photography, Native American Issues, Street Art

≈ 17 Comments

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Buffalo

Look closely

Just drove north of Flagstaff along Highway 89 up to Kanab. I used to commute from Flagstaff up to Tuba City for work, so a stretch of this was very familiar to me. I was pleasantly surprised to see one new element along the road, a certain amount of street art.

The subject matter is rather distinctive, but I can’t help thinking one of the best things about this material is the background.

An elderly Navajo working one of the craft stands told me there were a couple different people in the area putting these up. I don’t know much more.

Thought I’d share.

(Click to embiggen!)

 

Red backgrouind
“Off the goat” reads a popular T-Shirt (in part).
Stencil
Backside
Nuther Look
Love this one
Under a Navajo Nation Flag
First one I saw
Pink
Dimples

 

P.S. My girlfriend tells me I’m not supposed to include the pictures of the child and a goat on account of she accidentally picked up a black ant taking pictures of those herself. We ejected the hitchhiker on the outskirts of Page. A little Hydrocortisol and a couple Advil had us on our way. The cycle of pain may continue once she realizes what I did here.  I’m not a praying man, but your kind thoughts would be appreciated.