Category: art
Table of Your Choice
Somedays, there is a line. One of the few places that requires cash, no checks, no cards. It’s a bagel store, so you can imagine who comes to buy lox, whitefish, etc.
Sharon Duckman and some woman from the Bronx (I overheard her talking to the counterman). They always want to tell you where they came from and the first time they went to an appetizing store.
Always a character at the cash register.
All Natural Duckman
“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”
Aristotle
Everywhere I go, I carry with my camera. I don’t usually have an idea what to take or what I want to say any particular day. Somedays I just see it. I am always looking.
I believe that the more you look, the more you see. And the more you see, the more you know. Then the big thing happens, when you know more, you see more.
Trump Beat Impeachment
Tools ready. But the Friends of Trump controlled the process and the outcome. My colleagues on the bench, a process the complainants in my case [Pataki and Bruno] controlled, wanted raises and my friends in the bar didn’t want to spend any capital offending prosecutors who control the plea bargaining process (something I interfered with). So I got buried.
Trump doesn’t want anyone to go through this process again. He should talk to me. My life was ruined. He will go on ruining lives.
Sampson Duckman’s Dream
Samson was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last of the leaders who “judged” Israel before the institution of the monarchy.
Impeached in the way that only judges can get away with. No one signing the death warrant. Silent and deadly. And I had no way to speak out, say my peace or give my side.
I sometimes dream that I would want to bring the whole system down, but I don’t have the power or the story. And there is no way to separate the good people who try so hard from the selfish, self-centered.
I went down and things got worse. Now we face authoritarianism, a monarchy supported by republicans. They got me. They will get anyone they want. Trump will not be removed and the next election will not be on the level.
John Baldessari, Conceptual Artist, Dead at 88
John Baldessari will never die, even if he did. He was an artist who taught, did and saw. When he said Giotto influenced him, I looked at Giotto. When he covered his face with a hat, I did too. And when he did a picture I looked at it. We all steal from other artists; may he be the complainant in my case.
Working WOMEN
https://photoplacegallery.com/online-juried-shows/women-at-work/
So, I was selected by the juror. I submitted 5 images.
Can’t Stand It
All that violence; all that hatred.
Lorin Duckman, 72
I turned 72, which was a good thing and a not so good thing. As to the former, I am alive; as to the latter I have CLL, a blood disorder that isn’t lymphoma or leukemia, but what it is requires me to take pills everyday and be fearful of falling or catching a cold.
I have a marriage that thrives, even though I didn’t support us as planned or become the man we both wanted me to be. I cannot shake the past and don’t have much of a productive future planned. My photography comes second to my wife, so for those two things, I don’t want for attention, assignments or affection.
I read, shoot pictures, travel and volunteer. The images I make at the Soup Kitchen of Boynton Beach are printed and handed out. I have been given a wall that needs to be filled. People leave stuff at our door which I deliver and I beg for diapers (4s and 5s), along with donations of money, clothes and household goods.
Nothing can be done to ease my pain or fix the story. No one knows what happened to me, except a select few and I am not important enough to find out the truth. Not saying I was perfect, just not so imperfect to have been the subject of judicial and political torture. Few friends, none close, and few relatives, none close. Not so bad as long as I live.
Read The Dec
This little book tells it all. It costs a buck and you can buy a pack and pass them out. But it don’t matter if you don’t remind yourself of our dreams of a more perfect union. Not until the late 19th Century did they address slavery and there is no mention of God. Here’s one of the things the founders said:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
So as we sip our beer, eat our franks and watch fireworks, we should be thinking about how to make these truths real and not just words.