Image © 2009, Paul Pomeroy. All rights reserved.
Make sure you click on the above image to see the large version ...
Image © 2006-2008, Paul Pomeroy. All rights reserved.
a community without artists
is like a piano that no one ever plays
in a room full of people
waiting to dance
The arts enliven us.
They open our eyes and our hearts to both what is beautiful and to what is depriving us of beauty.
Don't forget. Support your local artists.
My granddaughter, Katelyn, enjoying the hospitality (a.k.a. free brownies) at the Surface Gallery in downtown Bakersfield (California) during October's "First Friday" art event.
Seems to me some of these looked a little different when I took them. :-)
All images © Paul Pomeroy, 2009. All rights reserved.
This photograph, and 7 other photographs of mine, are available via silent auction tonight (9/15/2009) to raise funds for the sole AIDS hospice and resource center in the area.
More information.
Artist’s Statement: This one is rather special to me as it is made from some experiences I shared with my granddaughter, Katelyn. We picked the leaves up while out for a walk to the park one day. The Koi fish were photographed on another outing of ours, this time to CSU Bakersfield. So what you really have here is a recipe for art, I guess:take fall leaves, Koi fish and dark waters; season with wide-eyed wonder and a dash of laughter. Add fond memories and then stir.
Tonight, Tuesday, September 15th, from 6 to 9 p.m., Metro Galleries in downtown Bakersfield (1604 19th Street), California, will be hosting Saving Grace, a fundraising event for Ricky’s Retreat, Bakersfield’s AIDS Project Hospice House and Resource Center. You can read more about Ricky’s Retreat and the Saving Grace event in the following article,“The grassroots effort to save Ricky’s Retreat.” The cost is $30 per person. Please RSVP to Jason Gutierrez at 661-496-9245.
The event will include a silent art auction featuring art donated by local artists including Jill Thayer, Barbara Reid, Susan Reep, Liz Sherwyn, Yvonne Cavenagh and also by Metro Galleries. All money raised will go to Ricky’s Retreat.
I am donating 8 prints, including the one shown above. The photos are all 6×6 inches in size. They are dated and signed as well as matted for 11×14 frames. I realize that many of you reading this won’t be able to attend. That’s okay. If you’d still like to bid on a photograph, you may do so by contacting Jason Gutierrez at the above number.
This coming Tuesday, September 15th, from 6 to 9 p.m., Metro Galleries in downtown Bakersfield (1604 19th Street), California, will be hosting Saving Grace, a fundraising event for Ricky’s Retreat, Bakersfield’s AIDS Project Hospice House and Resource Center. You can read more about Ricky’s Retreat and the Saving Grace event in the following article,“The grassroots effort to save Ricky’s Retreat.” The cost is $30 per person. Please RSVP to Jason Gutierrez at 661-496-9245.
The event will include a silent art auction featuring art donated by local artists including Jill Thayer, Barbara Reid, Susan Reep, Liz Sherwyn, Yvonne Cavenagh and also by Metro Galleries. All money raised will go to Ricky’s Retreat.
I am donating the following 8 prints. The photos are all 6×6 inches in size. They are dated and signed as well as matted for 11×14 frames. I realize that many of you reading this won’t be able to attend. That’s okay. If you’d still like to bid on a photograph, you may do so by contacting Jason Gutierrez at the above number.
Image © 2009, Paul Pomeroy. One of the fallacies regarding free market capitalism is that it is, over time, universally productive. However, with enough historical perspective one sees that while it is indeed productive it is driven by consumption and the rate of that consumption will eventually and inevitably turn the whole system into one of large scale destruction. Another flaw in what has been the conventional thinking is the idea that what free market capitalism does for technology and manufactured goods it can do for human services. Human welfare, though, is not a "for profit" service in a way that free market capitalism is able to work with. The problem is that free market capitalism has no regard for morals or ethics -- it is ambivalent in these areas -- so it has no practical means with which to value human life and well being.
One might argue that this is untrue, that it at least values these things as they relate to labor and consumerism, but in practice this isn't the case. There is a more fundamental problem at play here, one that needs to be balanced by morals and ethics but isn't. The valuation cycles that are used to steer the free market capitalism juggernaut happen too quickly to focus on the long term (future) benefits of, for example, health care. Instead, they exaggerate the value of short-term profits which, in turn, creates the current irony we live with: a health care industry that is, for the sake of profit, partly driven by a need to not provide health care.
Image © 2009, Paul Pomeroy. If not for its caffeinated rhythm, the following song (by Delbert McClinton) would have nothing to do with five cups of coffee. Then again, if you drink five cups and
then listen to it I'm pretty sure you'll be thinking it's the best damn coffee drinking song you've ever heard (except for
that other one).