“Be nice to my army.” — the Ramones
LANDSCAPE WITH YELLOW BIRDS
by the mighty Paul Klee, who painted it entirely in the nude, though fully clothed. He lived a long time ago, so the television wasn’t on in the background, but I do sense cigar smoke somewhere.
Perhaps he did this in an atelier, smoking cigars, not listening to the television because it wasn’t really invented yet. He possessed a phonograph, I imagine, on which he only played the darker Haydn.
Klee’s head is small and severe, and his hair doesn’t stick out. There is a scrunched quality to his face, with a hint of constipation, and it sports a very square jaw. This jaw squareness goes along with the rest of the squareness in his face, and his eyes are direct and penetrating.
He was a warrior and fought at the time when warriors had spikes on the tops of their helmets. He spoke German and was German, despite the embarrassment of being born in Bern. Perhaps he killed a man in France, near the trenches, with Snoppy flying overhead on his doghouse. Though a warrior with a phallic spike jutting from his helmet, he was not a fan of war and would not get along swimmingly with current American neo-cons, no matter what the the tabloids say. He wrote at its outset: “I have long had this war in me. That is why, inwardly, it is none of my concern.”
His two best friends, Marc and Macke, died in battle, so he was wrong.
Klee suffered from scleroderma and it would eventually kill him. A systemic autoimmune disease affecting primarily the skin, it gradually removes the supple softness of humanity, replacing it with the fibrous, scaly hardness of reptilian. It is terribly painful and many art writers have noted with comic obviousness that Klee’s pain seeped into his work.
This is like saying the sky is blue and the ground dirty.
One of his last paintings, “Death and Fire”, features a skull in the center with the German word for death, which is “Tod”. The next time you meet a person named Todd, remember to laugh inwardly.
He died in Switzerland, the land of his birth, in 1940. Despite being born in Switzerland and even dying there, he was not a Swiss citizen. His attempts at it were always refused, the sole reason being his art. The staid and narrow-minded authorities felt his painting was too revolutionary, even degenerate, for him to be Swiss. Six days after his death, however, they had a change of heart and granted him posthumous citizenship.
Bzzz! Too late.
He is buried in the ground at Schosshaldenfriedhof, in Bern. If you happen to stop by, tell him I send my love.
Cartoon selected for my article What The Hell Is Wrong With Arizona? I like how my editor broke out the bolding button. I never thought of it, even though I have one right here.
“Life is NOT cheap…
When George Zimmerman easily killed African-American teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida, it showed me how a life could be taken for granted. Many are being killed unnecessarily around the world. Men, women and children. To many, life means nothing. Leaders kill their own people and people kill their own people.”
~Tayo Fatunla, one of Africa’s leading cartoonists.
more of Tayo’s work
Heroin
I decided quite a while ago that I get to determine what art means. It annoys me when other people tell me what it means, especially the artist.
I play ‘Gimme Shelter’ by the Stones and some nearby know-it-all goes “This song is about heroin.”
Whatever.
All great rock songs are about heroin, it seems. Nirvana? Heroin. Elliot Smith? Heroin. The Stones? Heroin.
I reiterate: whatever.
I say Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’ is an allegory about divorce and resulting alienation. The nearby know-it-all is troubled by this. “No,” he says. “It’s a rock song. Therefore, it’s about heroin.”
“‘Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids,’” I point out. “How is that not divorce and alienation?”
“But it’s a rock song….”
“So it’s about heroin, right?”
“Yes! Thank you.”
“Whatever.”
If you create a piece of art and put it out there, it ceases to be entirely yours. To me, ‘Rocket Man’ is about divorce. Screw what Elton or the nearby know-it-all says.
My song. My meaning.
‘Something In The Way’ by Nirvana is about shelter, about living underneath a bridge. The ‘something in the way’ is the bridge itself. That’s all shelter really is: something in the way of the elements.
‘Heroin’, though, by the Velvet Underground, IS about heroin. Derp.
“Your mileage may vary” is an excellent phrase and should be applied to all art. If you tell me what something means, the only possible way for you to be right is if I agree with you.
Fade, fade away….
Graham, age 5, is certain to grow up awesome.
Toulouse-Lautrec, an ode
Are we right in seeing
between the pictures
that Lautrec finished
stylistic resemblances
peculiar to himself
Different worlds
shown with a cigarette
a half-empty bottle of wine
her tired face undoubtedly
haunting the cabarets
the streets
the circus devoted
The spirit reveals composition
created full of life
and not accidental
Lautrec painted ablaze with provocation
a vulture eying its prey
He was at his most eloquent
in describing the impression
of being determined by chance
:: Michael Kindt
