A dear friend of mine gave me this article written by their friend and wife to artist Roy Carruthers.. It was New York in the late Seventies when I first saw a Roy Carruthers painting. It put a smile on my face then and continues to do so today.
By Valerie Carruthers
For more than forty years now Roy Carruthers has been creating paintings and sculptures that continue to amuse, fascinate and perplex viewers, infatuate art collectors and defy easy categorization by an art-world used to pinning labels on movements and trends.
His name conjures up a world of iconic figures whose faces and forms may
reference Easter Island carvings yet whose appearance, mood and setting come directly from the boardroom or the boutique. Business suited men and lingerie clad women smoke cigars and sit opposite one another at the poker table, their expressions appropriately poker faced.
Placed in surreal settings or enigmatic situations the oddly proportioned inhabitants of Carruthers paintings mirror western culture’s social programming or lack thereof. Don’t think you’ve got them pegged, though. Carruthers’ art works deftly sidestep easy interpretation. Do the figures’ small heads, topping long necks and wide shoulders mean that western society is small minded? Do their hands have six or seven fingers because they are greedy and over-grasping? Or is Carruthers, given his endless explorations of the human form, just playing with our heads?
Carruthers has long held his artistic ground despite frequent comparisons to the figurative painter Fernando Botero, not totally surprising given that both masters enjoy messing around with form in a large-scale way. The difference between their works, however, is as substantial as the figures they paint.
Consider that Botero’s brushstrokes are loose, even coarse; the figures “squeezably soft” and he positions his art in the lineage of Old Masters such as Rembrandt.
By contrast, Carruthers’ steely forms are meticulously rendered with virtually invisible brushstrokes. His personal heroes are 20th century legends: British eccentric painter Sir Stanley Spencer, French surrealist Fernand Leger, the German formalist painters Konrad Klapheck and Frederich Meckseper and portrait photographer August Sander. Over the decades their diverse influences have challenged, shaped and replenished Carruthers’ vision.
At 70, with a long string of sold-out solo exhibitions in major U.S. art centers and scads of awards for his advertising art direction, graphic design and magazine illustration from the Sixties to the Eighties, Carruthers continues to explore new dimensions for his art.
Bio
Born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Education: Technical Col of Art School, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 1956. Teaching: School of Visual Arts, NY, 1975. Awards: Am Inst of Graphic Art, 1973; Gold Medal Soc of Illustrators, 1973. Collections: Ulrich Mus, Wichita State Univ, Wichita, KS; Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Univ of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC; Univ of Wyoming, Laramie, WY; Ponce Mus, Ponce, Puerto Rico. Printers: Editions Press, San Francisco, CA (EP)(OB)
Ok, I know we have a farmers market in the dirt lot downtown because every Friday and Saturday it is there. And I know we have a new Publix in Flagler Beach just over the bridge inland and up SR 100 is both a Winn Dixie and further out is Target. But where is our food. I mean food grown here, organic local food. Where are our organic grocery stores? I can not find them.
Today my wife and I went shopping at one of the previously mentioned stores and we are still in shock. We saw two organic peaches for sale for $7,00. That is a $1.00 higher per peach than a gallon of unleaded gas. $3.50 a peach! $2.50 a gallon of gas. Is it me? It is just nuts.
Where has our food gone? Try to eat well. Try to eat organically within a budget. You can’t unless you have an income that allows you to pay $3.50 per peach. And the branding, for some reason I just can’t seem to connect with organic produce wrapped in a Jolly Green Giant logo. It dose not work for me.
Then there is the lack of taste. The food has no taste. You can find bright colors, big bright colors. But the taste. They all taste the same.
There is a solution. A local merchant who plans to retire on a farm near Lake City told me that in that area they have co-ops that allow you to purchase your produce as a percentage of the crop produced that season.
Tom Shannon shows off his gravity-defying, otherworldly sculpture — made of simple, earthly materials — that floats and spins like planets on magnets and suspension wire. It’s science-inspired art at its most heavenly.
Every town has a story, every town has a mystery but when two come together, watch out you might be in The Flagler Beach Triangle.
You have seen them, I have seen them and there is no doubt that they exist. But where do they come from? Where are they going on there short walks next to the ocean? I see them at sunset, in the mornings before the snow birds come driving by and always, always, they gone as quickly as the came.
Note the different triangles - no one is for sure where the Bermuda Triangles is located. But everyone can feel it's effect.
I live in Flagler Beach, Florida. A small (5,000 residence) fishing village on the North Central coast of Florida. It has a fishing pier and at times is only four or five blocks wide and about 14 miles long. Flagler Beach is a small and thin Island between beautiful St Augustine and NASCAR Capital Daytona Beach. So we get a visitors year around, snow birds from Canada, motorcycle enthusiasts and of course anyone that need sunshine and a beach to play on.
When you first find Flagler Beach everyone has the same first thought “ What a diamond in the rough” . You see, Flagler Beach has look about the same for sixty years – rustic is putting it mildly. Even after the real estate development boom, Flagler Beach looks pretty much the same. It did get a new modern bridge to the mainland – but the town is a fixer upper’s dream come true. It is an endless struggle with local business and the local government. Change is frozen unless stolen.
Ok, that is the Flagler Beach part of the this blog. Now for the The Bermuda Triangle part or what I call “The Vortexes”. We all know about The Bermuda Triangle and have heard and re heard all the stories of the strange and mysterious incidents that occur there, but this stories is about the subtle effects of The Triangle on those that live close by.
It may not happen everyday, but more so than less, but when you are driving around Flagler Beach you see people that appear odd, out of place with time and dress and they have a strange air or aura – their energy is different. First let me say this, I am not pre judging. I am making an observation about the appearance of people not their personal character. Although on a deeper level I am not really sure they are people as we think of them, being human. But what ever form they are, I am not making a moral judgment about them; I am sure they are just find.
So as I being to realize the frequency of this occurrence. The more attention I began to give it. Like, “why dose this happen here”? Then I thought perhaps what I am experience is the effect of living so close to a point on the Bermuda Triangle.
That when the stories starting to come to me. I would be sitting with friends and someone would start a stories about an Artisan Well located due east of Flagler Beach and how it was a major interest of the military during World War II because the well gave fresh water. How odd I thought, fresh water in spilling in the salt water, must be quite and exchange of energy as they mix.
Then I read that often the elements (earth, air, water and fire) often exchange energy, exchange form, and exchange appearances. This exchange provides the energy for a vortex to occur. I experienced this with water first hand in Brazil at the Foze de Iguassu. That is another story, but let me say this for now, the exchange of energy from water can be felt at the bone level. It is real and extremely up lifting. One of the greatest moments of my life was lived given to me.
So the water exchange off the coast of Flagler Beach from the artisan well could be an indication that the tip of a point to the triangle was close?
Could it be that The Triangle is creating a Vortex in time and what I am seeing are people trapped in that vortex. They come and go, appearing as they were, lost in their own realities and unaware of the change in time and surrounding. To them everything seems as it was and they are busy with they own reality.
Here it is the real thing. You will not find a more loving couple who provide insightful and helpful information about farming, health and life in a gentle and kind way.
If you can get their product you are in for a real treat. Their produce is the best. I believe they sale it in St Augustine at the farmer market. I will check on it and provide a link.
In this video they share with all of us how they produce their compost and what they charge for it. If you are into organic gardening in the NE Florida area then Bunnell Organics is a must. Bunnell Organics can be reached at 386-437-5723.
Update: On Friday, the U.S. disease-tracking blog Biosurveillance published a timeline of the outbreak:
Residents [of Perote] believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which in turn led to the disease outbreak. According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to “flu.” However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms. It was unclear whether health officials had identified a suspected pathogen responsible for this outbreak.
A pandemic is a widespread epidemic that may affect entire continents or even the world: : the pandemic of 1918 ushered in a period of frequent epidemics of gradually diminishing severity. Thus, from an epidemiologist’s point of view, the Black Death in Europe and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa are pandemics rather than epidemics.
There are few things in this world that cannot be easily replaced, repaired, or regained. Our health and the health of the ones we love falls into this category. The best thing we can do to protect our health, above medication or rest, is prevention.
Please cover your cough and sneeze into a handkerchief. This is a very important time to prevent the spread of this virus. We have a large number of people that travel through our communities from around the world. Spring Break is happening and caution is prudent.
Echinacea & Goldenseal
Here is an update:
8 NYC Students infected… 20 cases confirmed in US… 5 States…Countries Worldwide Rush to contain virus… Quarantines planned…Pork Bans…Travel warnings issued for Mexico, US…Swine Flu Suspected in New Zealand, France, Spain, Israel, Hong Kong… Mexico, Likely epicenter, struggles to contain outbreak, As many as 81 killed… Over 1000 sickened.
The leading source for health and disease -related information is The World Health Organization (WHO). Vist their site for breaking news on major outbreaks: Who Link
You might want to check with CDC TRavel Notices for Outbreak Alerts – CDC LINK
Mark your calendar for 2 days of family fun when Washington Oaks Gardens State Park celebrates our 20th annual Earth Day. This event will offer park visitors an opportunity to learn more about history, handmade arts & crafts and our environment. Live entertainment by local artists as well as some of Florida’s finest folk musicians and storytellers. Kids will have special programs including a painting wall, crafts and more. There will be interpretive programs on a variety of topics for all ages. Bring the kids and your friends to Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, located on A1A – 2 miles south of Marineland. The $8 admission per vehicle (up to 8 people) will support the Friends with various park projects, and you can’t have this much fun anywhere else!. For additional information contact the park at 386.446.6780, 446.6783.
The above quote is by Bob Dylan. After reading an interesting article on the NYTimes site and I want to share the quote and the story with you. I am a firm believer that our government, from the local level to the the Federal fails to understand us. By it very nature a government will always be in opposition to it’s people, but our Constitution allows us, the people to do something about it. That something is call change. In fact it is our duty to do so as free people.
