I guess she figured, I’m married, I’m not going to school

Yesterday, at the start of our commute, my daughter and I were listening to national public radio as they reported the high school dropout rate for the Inland Empire.  Overall, the California State Department of Education reported this week that the rate of high school graduation had increased by 1.5 percent from 2010.  This puts the graduation rate at 76.3 percent.

For San Bernardino County (part of the Inland Empire) the high school graduation rate increased by 3.5 percent.  However, on the whole, San Bernardino County students are still behind state averages for graduation and dropout rates.

Probably because I’m not an educator, high school dropout rates had not been at the front of my mind, but the fact that the California graduation rate was only at 76.3 stunned me.  I thought, who is still dropping out of school?  How do they think they’re going to compete in an already dry job market?  But then I figured, if you’re dropping out of school, clearly, that is not what’s on your mind.

My daughter tried to give dropping out legs.  “Well, maybe they drop out to pursue music careers, or entertainment jobs.”  Please note that my own daughter wants to pursue a career in music.

I told her, “That may be the case for some of them, but they need to know that statistically speaking, with the number of people looking to break into music, the odds of them having a long successful music career are not in their favor.  They need a backup plan.  They need to be educated.”

In the old days, I told her, people dropped out of high school all the time.  Some people didn’t even get to high school but still were able to make a decent living and support a family.  I don’t really see how that’s possible anymore with the world relying so heavily on the educated and the advancements in technology.

“My grandmother dropped out of high school.”

“She did?”

“Yeah.  She did.  And she got married at sixteen.”

“Yeah, that’s crazy.  That’s like me getting married right now.”

“I guess she figured, I’m married, I’m not going to school!”

With all the pending budget cuts to the public school system, and the graduation rate being at 76.3 percent, the education of today’s youth look pretty grisly. For those who are graduating their education will suffer.  For those who aren’t…  is this our physical labor workforce?

Your Mind is a Battlefield

After scouring essays to find something that didn’t seem like beautifully wrapped common sense, I came across this one that allowed me to look at my own life from a different “perspective.” 

What I’ve posted for you today is an essay from ETR by Clay Collins titled, “The Battle for Our Minds.”  After reading (and posting) this I think I might have to reserve a few minutes to ponder its meaning.  The concept is so delicious I want to savor it.  I want to apply it.  If only I could  remember this later.

Enjoy.

The Battle for Our Minds

By Clay Collins

The battle for our minds usually isn't a struggle against brainwashing (although most of us are mildly brainwashed). The battle for our minds isn't usually about politics, consumer culture, and mass media. Nope. The battle for our minds is fought out every day in the workplace, and due largely to...

The Paradox of Intelligence

More intelligent people tend to have jobs that require very high levels of mental engagement (not to mention, longer work weeks). If you're a doctor, lawyer, accountant, consultant, teacher, etc., then chances are your thoughts are consumed by work-related activities (and that you have less-than-average amounts of free time).

Highly intelligent people are more likely to exchange their brainpower for money, and less likely to retain much of said brainpower for themselves. They're more likely to enroll in mentally demanding graduate programs and accept mentally demanding jobs.

(In the western world we're taught that if we have the capacity to be a doctor then it's somehow a "waste" to work retail, make smoothies for a living, or become a farmer – even though a retailer worker, smoothie maker, or farmer get to own more of their thoughts).

Hence, the paradox of intelligence (POI) says that in general, the more intelligent you are, the less brainpower you're likely to keep for yourself. The POI says that the smarter you are, the less you keep your mind for yourself. It says that the more intelligent you are, the greater the probability that an employer owns too much of your brainpower.

As a result of this paradox, intelligent people are losing the battle for their minds. They simply have less mental energy at the end of the day to ask the bigger questions. They have less mental energy and time needed to gain perspective.

The battle for our minds is really the battle create our own thought destines. The battle for our minds is . . .

The Battle for Own Our Thoughts

The battle for our minds is the battle to think on our own terms and on our own timetable. It's the battle for freedom to let our minds wander, because the best thoughts emerge from the most unlikely places, and when we're lavishing ourselves with time.

The best thoughts happen when we're staring out windows and daydreaming; they happen when we're looking at scenes like this (because we're really there). They happen when we have perspective.

The best thoughts occur when you don't have to have them, they occur after plenty of rest, they occur when you're grasping the gestalts of life. The best thoughts occur when we're mindful of the full immensity of this beautiful thing called existence.

The battle for our thoughts is the battle against our ego's desire to gain an "important" job; it's the battle against the very materialism that encourages us to exchange too many of our thoughts for money; and it's a battle against the collective flattery (of society) that sweet talks us into crazy-busy careers. (Note: This paragraph was highly influenced by a great anti-travel guide I'm reading called Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide. It's got loads of perspective and I highly recommend it).

The battle for our minds really isn't about reclaiming brainpower to do our own taxes or solve more Sudoku puzzles. No. The battle for mind is important because. . .

We Desperately Lack Perspective

Raoul Vaneigem once wrote that "Everything has [already] been said [and] all our knowledge is essentially banal." And he's right. If you read the profound thoughts of any great teacher or leader, you'll likely find no new knowledge. What you will find, however, is heaps of timeless perspective. You'll find knowledge deeply rooted in perspective and amplified by perspective.

Great thinkers and teachers are great because their perspective forces you to take a second glance at the knowledge you already have. And their perspective is so compelling because it couldn't have come from anywhere except direct experience.

When workaholics give up their minds each workday in devotion to balancing spreadsheets, selling widgets, arguing cases, etc. it's not knowledge they're missing out on. It's perspective. The kind of perspective that requires variety, and discursive thinking, and morning runs during sunrise. The kind of perspective that requires new experiences, reflection, and carefree conversations with friends.

We desperately lack perspective because we are a society of workaholics, and workaholism is like kryptonite to perspective. (It's often said that highly intelligent people lack common sense; but I believe they really lack is perspective as a result of handing an unhealthy amount of their brainpower to their bosses).

You Just Can't Hack Perspective

There are no perspective hacks. None. You just have to suck it up, live a little, and wallow in the mud of life. You have to get your hands dirty with this beautiful business of living. You have to question, meditate, and fail often. You simply have to make space for perspective and hope that it will come eventually. You have to spend time in a manner that would seem self-indulgent to most.

There are no perspective shortcuts.

Who's winning the battle for your mind?

Erika Meriaux - Today's Featured Artist

Erika Meriaux's version of "The Scream"

Today’s featured artist is inspired by the tales and characters of Greek Mythology.  It is Erika Meriaux, who was also gracious enough to provide The Wrighter with her own version of Munch’s “The Scream.”

What is your artist statement?

For a few years, I’ve been working on a series that is completely dedicated to the illustrative interpretation of Greek myths.

Eros and Psyche - E. Meriaux

Why did I choose this subject? The reasons are multiple, and some are subconscious.  My interest was aroused by visiting museums in France where interpretations of classic myths appear throughout the artwork of many old masters.  Another obvious reason is that mythology encompasses so many subjects that it gratifies my curiosity and eclecticism. It's a medium that evokes a panoply of topics, including love, sex, violence, greed, jealousy, beauty, ugliness, nature – in other words, everything! All the details of human nature and the human condition are enclosed in its stories, it gives artists the opportunity to explore a large field of subjects while at the same time enabling them to keep their focus on a unique body of work.

This inspiration led me to read extensive about Greek mythology and antiquity, and I have the wonderful feeling that I will continue learning about it for a very long time.

Which is your favorite work of yours and why?

Nike - E. Meriaux

Usually, my favorite work is the last I made, but with time, I find that a few of them are stronger and make me proud (I might as well be ashamed of a few too).  Deciding which paintings are my favorite might vary with my mood or with the things I have experienced. Sometimes it might be a technical challenge I had to overcome, or just the pleasure I felt in making it. Making art is also a way to entertain myself.

Astraea - E. Meriaux

What is your favorite thing you've purchased in the last 30 days and why?

Circe - E. Meriaux

Two frames for two paintings.  A few years ago, I had great difficulties in my personal life and I can say that painting saved me from collapse (I'm not sure if I chose the right term), but the result is that I became obsessed with my work, I have no special interest in buying things if they’re not related to the process of making art. I used to love buying things to decorate my house, but it's a very small house, so I cannot buy anymore.

What do you think about "The Scream" auctioning @ $120 million on May 2nd?

Ferronniere - L. da Vinci

It makes me think that it's not a recession for everybody (1% VS 99%). Even if "The Scream" is a great piece of art (not necessarily my favorite from Munch) , spending $120 million on it has probably more to do with speculation, vanity or prestige than with its intrinsic artistic value. When I went to visit Le Louvre, I have never had the opportunity to view Mona Lisa, because of the crowd around. In the next room there is a beautiful portrait painted by Leonardo.  It's certainly not less beautiful than the famous Mona Lisa and you can stay in front of it as long as you want to admire it because it doesn't make a crowd. I am probably not the best judge to decide which piece of art is more valuable and deserves more interests from people but I have a little voice telling me that $120 million might have been more useful spent elsewhere.   Why not art education for kids?

One hundred years from now, what do you want people to think/ remember about you?

Tyche - E. Meriaux

You are teasing my narcissism! As an artist, I have a big ego too. Why not a $120 million auction?

To view more of Erika Meriaux’s work, go to: http://erikameriauxart.com/

Goodbye Nora Ephron

I’m sad that I never got the chance to meet Nora Ephron (writer, producer, director) because from the snippets of interviews I’ve heard, she seemed like a woman who new some things and found an elastic joy in imparting it. 

If you’re not aware, Nora Ephron wrote movies like This is My Life, When Harry Met Sally, Julie and Julia and co-wrote Sleepless in Seattle.  You know these movies!  They are awesome – some even iconic.  Unfortunately, this brilliant writer is no longer with us.  She died yesterday from pneumonia, a complication resulting from acute myeloid leukemia, a condition with which she was diagnosed in 2006.  She was 71.

In tribute to Ephron, I’m providing a few quotes from some of the movies written by her.  She’s in our hearts forever.

JULIE AND JULIA

“Nowadays anyone with a crap laptop and an Internet connection can sound their barbaric yawp, whatever it may be.”

“Without the Project I was nothing but a secretary on a road to nowhere, drifting toward frosted hair and menthol addiction.”

“If there's a sexier sound on this planet than the person you're in love with cooing over the crepes you made for him, I don't know what it is.”

“If I had thought the beef marrow might be a hell of a lot of work for not much difference, I needn’t have worried. The taste of the marrow is rich, meaty, intense in a nearly-too-much way. In my increasingly depraved state, I could think of nothing at first but that it tasted like really good sex. But there was something more than that, even. What it really tastes like is life, well lived. Of course the cow I got marrow from had a fairly crappy life – lots of crowds and overmedication and bland food that might or might not have been a relative. But deep in his or her bones, there was a capacity for feral joy. I could taste it.”

HEARTBURN

Mark Forman: He has an unlisted address.

Rachel Samstat: What are you talking about?

Mark Forman: Oh, well, it's the latest thing.

Rachel Samstat: What kind of person has an unlisted address?

Mark Forman: I'll tell you what kind person. The kind that doesn't want to be dead. The kind people are trying to kill all the time.

Rachel Samstat: Why are you angry at me for?

Mark Forman: I'm not angry at you.

Rachel Samstat: Then what you shouting at me for?

Mark Forman: Because you're the only one that's here.

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY

Harry: You realize of course that we could never be friends.

Sally: Why not?

Harry: What I'm saying is — and this is not a come-on in any way, shape or form — is that men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.

Sally: That's not true. I have a number of men friends and there is no sex involved.

Harry: No you don't.

Sally: Yes I do.

Harry: No you don't.

Sally: Yes I do.

Harry: You only think you do.

Sally: You say I'm having sex with these men without my knowledge?

Harry: No, what I'm saying is they all want to have sex with you.

Sally: They do not.

Harry: Do too.

Sally: They do not.

Harry: Do too.

Sally: How do you know?

Harry: Because no man can be friends with a woman that he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her.

Sally: So you're saying that a man can be friends with a woman he finds unattractive?

Harry: No, you pretty much want to nail 'em too.

Sally: What if they don't want to have sex with you?

Harry: Doesn't matter because the sex thing is already out there so the friendship is ultimately doomed and that is the end of the story.

Sally: Well, I guess we're not going to be friends then.

Harry: Guess not.

Sally: That's too bad. You were the only person that I knew in New York.

Harry: Would you like to have dinner? ...Just friends.

Sally: I thought you didn't believe men and women could be friends.

Harry: When did I say that?

Sally: On the ride to New York.

Harry: No, no, no, no, I never said that... Yes, that's right, they can't be friends. Unless both of them are involved with other people, then they can... This is an amendment to the earlier rule. If the two people are in relationships, the pressure of possible involvement is lifted... That doesn't work either, because what happens then is, the person you're involved with can't understand why you need to be friends with the person you're just friends with. Like it means something is missing from the relationship and why do you have to go outside to get it? And when you say "No, no, no, no, it's not true, nothing is missing from the relationship," the person you're involved with then accuses you of being secretly attracted to the person you're just friends with, which you probably are. I mean, come on, who the hell are we kidding, let's face it. Which brings us back to the earlier rule before the amendment, which is men and women can't be friends.

SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE

Walter: Look, Annie... I love you. But let's leave that out of this. I don't want to be someone that you're settling for. I don't want to be someone that anyone settles for. Marriage is hard enough without bringing such low expectations into it, isn't it?

Dennis Reed: Annie, when you're attracted to someone, it just means that your subconscious is attracted to their subconscious, subconsciously. So what we think of as fate is just two neuroses knowing that they are a perfect match.

Annie Reed: Destiny is something we've invented because we can't stand the fact that everything that happens is accidental.

Melissa Ann Lambert - Mixed Media Artist

Today’s featured artist, Melissa Ann Lambert is a California mixed media artist and  has graciously included an original poem for this project.  No other artist has done that so far.  I’m excited…



Scream - by Melissa Ann Lambert

Scream

I gazed

After

A stream of souls

And shouted of their numbers, Why?

They marched a circle round my goals,

And merging, rumored of a spy

-Melissa Ann Lambert

 What is your artist statement?

My art, whether abstract, figurative, or combinations of both, explores dimensional vibrations through the use of line, color, symbolism and form. Geometry, particle physics, holonomic brain theory, and Jung's theories of synchronicity of the collective unconscious all inform my work.

Perceiving the concepts contained in the above theories, I strive to reveal the deeper dimensions and innate spirituality that exist in the here and now of every moment.


Which is your favorite work of yours and why?


Doppelganger - M.A. Lambert

It's hard to pick a favorite, because the most recent one I've done always seems to be "the best I've done yet;" however having said that it's a psychological state of mind that I'm in and I immediately look forward to doing a new piece. I do especially love “Doppelgänger” however, not only because it looks great in a lightbox at 48" square (plans in the future include producing work in LED panels), but also because my boyfriend and I met when he curated the piece into a show. I also really love the last one that took me five months and one day to create, called “Joule.”


Joule - M.A. Lambert

What is your favorite thing you've purchased in the last 30 days and why?

I did a small edition of my works in a catalog. Only 16 images are displayed, however that is enough to give someone (ideally a gallery owner) a good idea of my current body of work.

Cho Hwa - M.A. Lambert

What do you think about "The Scream" auctioning @ $120 million on May 2nd?

Overall I think it's awesome, as it's bringing awareness of the power of art to the general public. Having said that, however, I think it's a shame that most artists – or at least many of them – don't get the attention they deserve during their own lifetimes. Think of van Gogh.

One hundred years from now, what do you want people to think/ remember about you?

Well, I'm rather fond of what museum curator Peter Frank wrote about my work.

“MELISSA ANN LAMBERT produces images of profound depth and mystery, even when their sources and subjects are as familiar to us as our own names. Exploiting new technologies and new sources of visual material, Lambert conjures a world – perhaps a universe – that reveals its secrets and its complexities with a reticent grandeur, cloaking them in an obscurity resistant, but ultimately not immune, to the eye’s penetration. In this way, even when creating portraits of well-known people and including well-known things in her atmospheric compositions, Lambert poses us a gentle challenge, to come into her visual realm, where events unfold gradually and resonantly.”

-Peter Frank, 2012


Contrast - M.A. Lambert

Personally, I love it when people see "math" and "science" in my work, and also many have observed that they see a depth to my work. I will give you another quote, written by Michael Ned Holte, who has contributed to Artforum Magazine.

" Employing an arsenal of digital tools, Melissa Lambert mines a hallucinatory territory embedded with personal codes and signals that lend her dizzying, pixelated surfaces unusual depth."
- Michael Ned Holte, writer

Echoing Fields - M.A. Lambert

To view more of Melissa Ann Lambert's work visit: http://melissaannlambert.com

Tessa Farmer @ Millennium: From the Deep

On Friday June 22^nd, the Millennium Gallery in Cornwall opens an exhibition by Birmingham, England born  “intermediary” (artist), Tessa Farmer.  The exhibit is called “From the Deep” and will be showing at the Millennium Gallery until July 17^th.

According to publicity information, “From the Deep” is a series of sculptural installations and this is the first time Tessa Farmer will be exhibiting there.

What I’ve gathered from images of these sculptures and the description of the overall exhibit, “From the Deep” sculptural scenes are tiny, using Farmer’s researched history of fairies as they were known in the Middle Ages to be associated with fear and death.

Farmer:  “People feared fairies; they were associated with unknown, unmapped places and the kind of force that would steal from you or kill you.”

Farmer’s fairies are not of J.M. Barrie lore and far from the Disney branch.  The essence of these dark little winged and webbed creatures are more reminiscent of Christopher Columbus and his voyaging men as they annihilated the Arawak people of Hispaniola.   They appear to be brutal and barbaric despite their size against Farmer’s hybrid insect-o-saurus-like creatures who are clearly the conquered.

“From the Deep” tells an epoch story that has been repeated throughout history by man (and animal) through Farmer’s imaginative use of pest and predatorily fantasy.  The thread of savage dominance ties these non-traditional scenes together in a very intricate and highly studied way. This should be no surprise, I suppose, given Farmer’s background in taxidermy, entomology and research on the parasitic wasp.

I guess it also helps that her great-grandfather was a horror/fantasy writer.  It’s in her blood.

What About Your Friends...?

A friend of mind named Vidga had a falling out with her family over events that haunted her from childhood.  Her parents, as she’s told me, were both physically and emotionally abusive.  As an adult, while attempting to stare down her demons, Vidga wanted answers from her parents.  Why?  Why would they call a 5-year-old a slut?  How could they tell their children they wish they weren’t born and that the devil should take them away?  Crazy.  Right?

Vigda, being the open young woman she is, miscalculated her parents’ reactions in dealing with her confrontation.  Both denied such events ever took place and warned her that if she continued to spread such lies, she would be dead to them.

Confused and brokenhearted, Vigda turned to her friends for support.  She embarked on a spiritual journey, trying to make sense of her life and what she was to garner from the hardships she has had to endure.

At Christmas she went to her best friend’s house and celebrated and exchanged gifts with her and her family.  On Mother’s Day she had tea with an older woman who befriended her at her church.

There was no shortage of open arms to her when she was antsy and wanted to get out and do something; or when she was heavy and needed to talk.  Vigda had collected a small group of good reliable people she could call friends.

The Drifters

Throughout the years I have managed to meet and befriend many good people.  Yet, the majority of them aren’t in my circle today.  It’s okay.  There are friendships that I call seasonal, meaning, they serve a purpose in your life at a certain time (or you in theirs) and then you (or they) drift off into the distance.  Sometimes they return years later, but many times they don’t.

In high school, my friend Kat was one of those people who seemed so happy all the time.  Super happy.  It was sickening sometimes.  But we were friends and I was an angry teenager, so… what are you gonna do?  

Once high school was over, I saw Kat two years later in an Old Navy with her future husband and my then boyfriend.  I heard my name called from behind and spun around.  I think I shocked her more than she shocked me, as her eyes fell upon my very round, very pregnant belly.

“How are you?”  I asked her.

“Not as good as you, apparently,” she replied.

I didn’t see her for four years after that.  The next time I saw her was when I was teaching dance at my daughter’s dance academy.  I tried to stay connected, but it was impossible.  She didn’t return my calls or emails and I decided it was just best to write her off.

Four years later, she left a message on my voicemail.

“Hey!  This is Kat, your friend from high school.  I was just going through my address book clearing out old numbers when I came across yours.  Just wanted to see if it was still working.  Anyway, give me a call when you can…”

Since this last call, Kat and I have bonded, like we never did in high school.  Of course I had to forgive her for brushing me off and ignoring my calls.  I found out that she was going through her own rough patch in life with her now ex-husband.

Making New Friends

In this new age of virtual friendships, it is very difficult to meet new people and forge deep and lasting friendships.  It seems that you can delete people from your life with just a click of a button.

Personally, I’ve been challenging myself to be more open to real breathing people and more human in my responses rather than relying heavily on emails and texting for communication.  It’s no small task.

In The End

When you get to the end of your life, what will matter to you most, will not be how much money you made or how many things you have acquired, but the relationships you have created and nurtured.  The bonds you built.  The memories you made.

This will be how most of us in our aged wisdom, measure our successes and failures.  After all, it will be quite difficult to convince yourself that your life has been successful when your children are not speaking to you; you never get to know your grandchildren and visitors elude you.

As difficult as it is and will continue to be, the challenge of maintaining and obtaining friendships in this cold technical age is an issue worth tackling and a skill worth mastering.

Marianna Ignataki - Featured Artist

Today's featured artist, Marianna Ignataki, was born in Thessaloniki, Greece and studied Fine Arts at the Saint-Etienne Art School, France. She lives and works in Beijing, China.

What is your artist statement?
My work is anthropocentric. I combine a variety of media, which interact with each other, such as drawing, performance and installation using ready-made and sculptural objects, in order to create surrealistic environments.

The presence of symbolic objects is significant in the entire body of my work. Surrealistic elements with ambiguous functions and fetish objects that stem from my personal mythology create narratives, based on their symbolic roles.

I explore themes like the Double – the different versions or the other side – the mask, identity and self-determination, eroticism, magic; through the staging of certain rituals, and is mainly focused on the psycho-emotional aspect: a dream becoming a nightmare, the attraction of terror, situations of crisis and impasse, good and evil, male and female, the ambiguous feelings carnival might provoke and the freedom it offers.

My protagonists are women-witches, animals and hybrids.

There is often an implication of an unspecified – or even perverse – eroticism, which does not concern sexuality in the sense of sexual acts, but the mental processes of erotic desire; our instincts, our hidden dark side.

Inverting or perverting the initial meaning of a scene by adding an unexpected detail –often with a sense of black humor – is a strategy discernible in the entirety of my work. It could be like playing a game, where an act can never be completed and a feeling can never exist without the possibility of it being reversed.

Corporality –experiencing the procedure through different media in all its physical substantiality – is a necessity, and is conducive to the enactment of some sort of personal exorcism.

Which is your favorite work of yours and why?

I don’t have any favorite works, my ‘favorite’ ones are usually the ones I haven’t started yet…

At this point I ‘m mostly interested in my latest drawings, Asian woman 1 and 2, which are parts of the installation I am currently working on.

What is your favorite thing you've purchased in the last 30 days and why?

My whip collection, which I‘m going to use in a series of performances.

What do you think about "The Scream" auctioning @ $120 million on May 2nd?

That’s how the art market works…There are people spending huge amounts of money for cars or clothes, at least I find it comforting that there are people out there willing to spend that much to buy an important work of art. Besides, if not so much‘the Scream’, I really love Munch’s works and consider him one of the most interesting painters ever existed.

One hundred years from now, what do you want people to think/ remember about you?

I think that every artist longs to be remembered for his/her work… this is all I am.

To see more of Marianna Ignataki go to:www.mariannaignataki.com.