Tribute to Rick Santelli

"Tribute to the Wall Street Bull"
8X8
Oil on Canvas Panel
Available
Contact to Purchase

I had another title for this guy, but as I was painting him yesterday a wonderful outburst was taking place in Chicago by Rick Santelli, a commentator on CNBC. Watch him here The Wall Street Bull may be temporarily out to pasture, but I am a free market capitalist and am praying the he comes running back at some point in our lives, sooner rather than later. It isn't as if I have had tons of money in the stock market...just one small IRA that has been decimated by the Socialists who ruined the banks. (Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, etc.) What that Wall Street Bull represents to me is that American businesses are flourishing and people are living well. That, in my mind, is a great thing. While it doesn't fit the stereotype of "artist," I am an artist with a business. Besides art for art's sake, art is a business. No different than manufacturing any other product. The current bogus administration of our government is doing everything in its power to ruin freedom and the financial health of our country. I am watching a travesty beyond anything that I could have ever imagined. God bless Rick Santelli for his eloquent outrage at that moment yesterday. He spoke for the majority of Americans who are now held hostage to a Marxist / Socialist / Fascist tyranny. As Rick said yesterday, "Are you listening, President Obama???"


My first title was, "Beware of 'Being' Over the Hill." I was thinking it would make a funny greeting card for a guy's birthday. In fact, if you know a guy who is having a birthday soon, this would be a very nice present....he can hang it in his office to remind him of his strength!! I had a lot of fun painting him and love the strength he conveys. Art cannot thrive under tyranny.

WIP A Carolina Farmscape

"A Carolina Farmscape"
Detail
Work in Progress
Oil on Linen Panel

It's been a week since I have posted and I hope you didn't think I was slacking away over here. I actually have been working on this 16X20 piece in hopes of coming up with something bigger for an upcoming show. What you see here is about the middle third of the painting. Many challenges here. First I normally work much smaller...so the size alone is daunting for me. Secondly, this thing has a lot of sky, a middle area of lots of details, and then the foreground is a tilled field that looks to be waiting for planting. That means a lot of dirt. And the sky...well, it is a spectacular sky and I don't know if I could ever do it justice.

Anyway, I've been working on this for the last three and a half days (in between Dr.'s appts. for my Dad and trying to keep my daughter sane since she is one of the casualties of the Bank of America job cuts). I hope to finish it up tomorrow or the next day.

I also want to announce that Peter Fiore has begun a new blog to share his landscape studies. He is one of the contemporary artists I admire very much, so I am happy to have him join us in the blogging world! Take a look and sign up!!


Of course the other distraction is the disaster in Congress. Now that the left wing has shown its real agenda in bankrupting the country with the so called "stimulus bill," otherwise known as the biggest socialist travesty I personally have ever seen. I hope some of my artist friends are finally seeing what a mistake they made in electing this bunch of thieves. Ever the optimist, I try to think that even people with no brains can see the hypocrisy and out-right lies in this "New Messiah and his cohorts in crime." As an artist, personal freedom means something to me. Having George Orwell's 1984 come to life before my eyes is not fun. Having the United Nations tell Americans how they are supposed to conduct their lives is not my idea of American values. Having a pig like Al Gore, who is a scam artist and the biggest hypocrite in the world, tell the rest of us how we are ruining the earth is disgusting at best.

So as I try to paint and capture what is left of family owned farmland, I am totally sad that the political elite are taking land and resources out of the hands of private citizens and giving the same away to groups like the Land Conservancy....taking your tax dollars to confiscate farmland and other open space, taking it out of the hands of American citizens forever. When I say confiscate, I mean confiscate. The government has punished farmers and taxed businesses out of business...so when the farmers can't keep paying the price of government, the Lands Conservancy groups step in and offer tax credits to take the land out of the private sector. What that means is that we lose the tax base of the farm, we pay for the maintenance of the land, and the land is no longer available for anyone for any reason forever. And you and I are then taxed higher in order to cover the loss of the farm taxes, and the maintenance of the land. In short, you and I are paying government bureaucrats to take away the farm / agriculture base that sustained the food supply of our country. The abominations go on and on and on....and I just keep trying to paint. And while artists sit around lamenting the loss of our beautiful farms, they do stupid things like voting in people who are planning to place taxes on farmers for methane emissions of cows and other livestock. They vote in people who create food shortages by pushing ethanol on the transportation industry.

Go figure...

Freedom and an Interesting Cat

Photo of Speedo


The other day I was doing a myriad of things while my mind was racing away on; what to paint next, weeding the garden, thinking about my son and family who are about to move to Korea for two years, worrying over my husband's recent knee surgery, and preparing for a medical procedure I am about to have tomorrow, among many other things. After coming in from the garden I used a few moments of rest to sit down and look around at other artist's websites, something I often do to stay inspired and connected. This is the mental trail I took.... if you can follow my convoluted thought process.

The painting.... Speedo the rascal adopted cat belongs to my son who is a Major in the US Air Force. Speedo was a feral cat my son rescued about four years ago from the animal shelter in Goldsboro, NC, close to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. Speedo loves freedom and is very vocal about it. My son loves freedom and works every day to secure ours. My son and his family are heading to Korea soon. Speedo is about to embark on this trip to Korea and I am hoping the flight won't be too traumatic for him and that he will like Korean cat food...and can make the adjustment O.K. The trip to Korea is for a very good cause, keeping us secure to enjoy our freedom.

So then, as I was looking around, I came across a blog by another artist, whose work I keep up with, named David R. Darrow. That is the link to his art site. His blog, however, is about various other things he shares with the rest of us. The particular post I found was about Russian immigrants who also love freedom. Their story is compelling and David tells it well. It hit home with me because I think so many people in this country have forgotten what freedom is, don't care about it, and do many things to undermine it. It's an election year and much is at stake, freedom being the most dear. If you are an artist in America, freedom is your ticket. Freedom is the reason any of us can do what we do. Too many freedoms have been lost and more will be lost if you choose to vote for Marxists / socialists/ leftists. And so I hope you will click on this linkLearning from Commies and go read David's account of the Russian immigrants. Remember this story when you are thinking about your vote this year. Please remember that limited government means liberty!