Farmer in the dell??

Ok, so I was asked by a curious five year old who was wondering what the word `dell' means in the song: "The farmer in the dell-The farmer in the dell-Hi-ho, the derry-o-The farmer in the dell. "

 I admitted (reluctantly) I din't know. So I pulled out my phone and Googled it = "Dell= a secluded hollow or small valley usually covered with trees -Middle English delle; akin to Middle High German telle ravine -First Known Use: 13th century."

" OK, now we know." My (almost) five year old nephew answered when I read him the definition.

"Now we know," I agreed.

My nephew smiling jubilantly sang out,- "Hi-ho, the derry-o-the farmer in the dell. "

Then I clicked on the Wikipedia link. As I scanned quickly, I came upon this unusual story:"There is also a Thai version to the same tune but with a slightly different story. The three verses roughly translate to "Why does the frog have a stomach ache? Why does the frog have a stomach ache? Because he has been eating wet rice. Why is the rice wet? Why is the rice wet? Because it has been raining. Why has it been raining? Why has it been raining?, Because the frog has been croaking."

"Wow!" my nephew said, as he tried to read the text on my phone screen. "Did the frog burp?" he asked.

 I shrugged and said "probably"; which made my nephew giggle. 

Then we began singing the song in earnest- now with new feelings and insights.

There is so much potential hope in the future generations.

Obama turning to the dark side

Bradley Manning being mistreated, says Hillary Clinton spokesman
PJ Crowley; says Pentagon is being 'ridiculous and stupid' by subjecting WikiLeaks suspect to punitive conditions in jail (1)

YET:


Obama Defends Detention Conditions for Soldier Accused in WikiLeaks Case (2)

(This coming from the man who promised to close Guantánamo Bay Prison within one year of his term - a place that Amnesty International released its annual report calling the facility the "gulag of our times. Obama, now in office, changes his position and signed an executive order that moved to set into law the already existing practice on Guantánamo of holding detainees indefinitely without charge. What happened to the `change we can believe in' ??)

1.http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/11/bradley-manning-clinton-crowley-comments
2.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/12/us/12manning.html?_r=4&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1299949248-9Poaci537Ekt+sensgZO0A

Creationem-photography: Shiva pose posted in Illiterate Magazine online

The Shiva Pose

This is from a collection of works that I made (6) for a group show called “Bike Art” held at Altered Esthetics's in Minneapolis Minnesota . All the art in the show had to have bicycles in it. Each of my works showed people doing yoga poses while on bicycles.

Each image begins as a photograph and then undergoes transformation using Photoshop, then reprinted, the new image undergoes transformation using pastels, then is scanned - and printed again as a photograph.

The process is to create a `work’ , rather than just take a photograph (which is capturing an image). I call this concept  of creating a `work’, using a camera as only one tool in a process and not the end means : “creationem-photography”.

In my classification system there are three uses for a cameras ability to capture:

1.A photograph is a predetermined picture, where there is forethought and, perhaps,  posing. The photograph is a capture of physical reality in time and space.

2. A snapshot, which is a happenstance picture . Where the camera is used to record something not specifically planned on. The snapshot is a capture of physical reality in time and space..

3. Creationem-photography, which is the using of either a photograph or a snapshot and manipulating it to create something new and different and unreal.

I do not judge any of the classifications to be higher or lower. The sucess of each process can only be judged by the final work. I would be interested to hear other peoples views about  this.

The friend who posed for the original `photograph’ was 7 months pregnant.

My artist statement

When I got to college,(Loyola) my freshman adviser said that I didn't necessarily need to pick my major right away, that regardless of my major I would need to get through a lot of core classes first. But I told him I knew what I wanted to study, and I knew what I wanted to be. I wanted to major in Theology, and I wanted to be a Jesuit priest. Seven years later, still a full time student taking only classes that interested me - I had a fateful conversation with the director of the initiate of the Jesuits. He told me that, in his opinion,I wasn't a `good fit' , and that I might make a fine priest in another order (he suggested the Carmelites.) This was devastating to me. When I told my closest friend, I was embarrassed and dreading telling my family. My friend shook his head and said it was clear to everyone who knew me that I was already a priest and an alchemist. Suddenly I woke up. It was kind of like the scene in the first Matrix, when Neo goes to see the prophet and she tells him that he is not the `one'. Being told that he wasn't allowed him to better fulfill his destiny. Sacerdos, is a general Latin term used to refer to priest - or people whose lives deal with a relationship to the sacred. It originates from root for sacred.  My creative work is the work of a sacardos, and my life is dedicated to developing a relationship with the sacred.

Dead Sleep a novel by Greg Isles

Just finished Greg Isles- `Dead Sleep'. It was a long, though  gratifying novel.


(Note- 'long, though exceptionally gratifying novel' might often be used to describe the work of any of Salman Rushdie's novels- this by comparison is more contained, though less informant (less generally unknown `general' information conveyed through the story. I think I agrree wit T.S. Elliots dictum that great literature both educates and  entertains { I however at this moment cannot find that quote}I did discover that there is an actiual term for this "edutainment" see Wikipedia definition  here. Could be a title for a nonfiction book. )







This book could make a good movie- it involves a twin sister who discovers a painting of her thought dead sister. The painting is from a series called `sleeping woman'. The women appear as though be painted of corpses. This series of paintings become a major clue in the disappearance of many women in New Orleans. then the FBI are called in.