Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Momo le Homo (and other literary dribblings)


To He, who shall remain nameless (a worthy point of contention)

Thank you for vindicating the, Momo le Homo (Butt Bandit from Zanzibar) piece submitted by our mutual friend. You have singlehandedly reinforced the belief (to my dismay), that small minded / short sighted and gender intolerant journalists are alive and well in lieu of Almost Dead and Forgotten!

Your level of insightful journalism is of the sort that seeks divine meaning in lint-less naval cavities. I am certain that somewhere in your bathroom are countless quantities of Sani-wipes, organic brain bleach and blinker hoods.

What is clear, you are an overeducated dilettante that has acquired a minor station of visibility either through family, the like-mined, bending over a copy machine (the compromise) or quite possibly marriage. Regardless, your vacant expounding on the nation’s economic recovery (five weeks after President Obama’s inauguration) will serve future generations of writers as a barometer for the must to avoid.

People do not want “another” premature opinion, they want palpable results!

While many progressive thinkers attempt to expand their consciousness and universal understanding of “all things considered or being equal", as a reference point for new beginnings. Quite to the contrary, preconception and common claptrap (laced with archaic notions of urban legend) appear to dominate the origins that determine the continued worthlessness of your work.

The question is, have you ever considered astrophysics as a possible career change? Imagine for one moment the exhilaration of exploring a massive black hole (and never returning) or seated comfortably, straddled to a gamma ray pulsar . . . are you feeling the love!

Les orbis de la féminité – The Orb of the Feminine (defined)




Women have always had a unique inner strength and depth, far beyond the capacity of most men. As a young boy growing up in Brooklyn, the condition became an apparent oddity.

It was a blistering-hot midsummer day in New York’s Greenwich Village. Pedestrian traffic was somewhat lively, there was a mist hovering above the hot asphalt as the cooling rains fell upon the urban landscape. I was sipping a double espresso at the Café Rienzi while browsing copies of the Village Voice and the East Village Other for local events and book reviews. On that day, Robin and I were seated at a corner table overlooking MacDougal Street when she asked for my thoughts on common gender behaviors.

It was that isolated moment that inspired the concept for the painting and allowed for a greater understanding of the spherical symbolism as well as the use of varying levels of sharp-to-softened focal points.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Neoclassical Abstract Automatism

New York City artist Ron Maubidea is currently working on a new series of portraits for his upcoming show in Connecticut titled, The New Wave of Abstract Automatism.

His striking portrait of Charlotte Corday (Dreams of the Revolution ~ Virgin Death in Paris) is a fusion of 17th-century French classicist sensibility and depraved isolationism, a common condition amongst the inmates of Charenton Asylum. The image reflects her repugnance for the likes of the Marquis de Sade and Jean-Paul Marat, a radical journalist and proponent of a period known as The Reign of Terror.

Beginning in September 1793 and ending in July 1794, as many as 40,000 people (enemies of the revolution) were executed or guillotined for which she held Marat directly responsible. In a dream, both the Marquis and Marat get their “just rewards” as they pleasure and feed from Charlotte’s derriere.

The inspiration for the piece was the 1963 play by Peter Weiss, (The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade) which in 1967 was adapted for the screen as Marat/Sade.

Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont was found guilty for the stabbing death of Marat and executed under the guillotine on 17 July 1793 in Paris, France.

Donna Berlanda, Publicist
Cassandra Landau, Gallery Coordinator