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15w
Artistic Influences
Documents of Contemporary Art: The Sublime
£20
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PLEASURABLE TERROR.
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15w
Artistic Influences
Maurice Broomfield: The Industrial Sublime
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Broomfield was born into a working class family near Derby, Broomfield, in 1916. He left school aged 15 to take a job as a lathe operator in a Rolls Royce factory, and spent evenings training at Derby College of Art. During WWII, he was a conscientious objector – serving as a driver for the Friends’ Ambulance Service amidst the Blitz. The aftermath of the conflict in Europe provided Broomfield with his first major photographic project, as he visited ruined cities to document the devastation wreaked by fascism.
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16w
Artistic Influences
The Simple Sabotage Field Manual
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This is the manual for resisting the nazi's in Vichy France...the Strategic Services Committee that made this eventually became the CIA. Still useful today, the entire thing is available for free at the link.
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19w
Artistic Influences
The Doomed Cleveland Balloonfest of '86
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I was fourteen when this happened, and besides it being a major event in Cleveland, the hosts were late night horror movie hosts Big Chuck and Lil John. That it failed miserably, resulting in the deaths of two people and a massive environmental clean up is probably the most Cleveland thing of my storied childhood. Balloons have been showing up in my painting since graduate school, and this is their origin story.
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19w
Artistic Influences
May 31, 1985 Tornado Outbreak (35th Anniversary)
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I was a kid when this historic tornado outbreak destroyed my grandfathers home. It's been the seed nestled inside most of my work about disaster since the very beginning.
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19w
Artistic Influences
Danger of Mutually Assured Destruction: Managing the Cold War 1962-85
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The threat of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) was the Cold War policy that awakened the young activist in me. MAD posited that each superpower had enough nuclear weaponry to destroy the other. If one superpower attempted a first strike on the other, they themselves would also be destroyed. This was meant as both promise and deterrence. Whenever I would get upset by nuclear proliferation (we had enough firepower to destroy the world 13 times over during my formative years), my mom would have me write a letter to the editor of ur local paper.
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19w
Artistic Influences
The Day After
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This made for TV movie aired when I was in 6th grade and traumatized my entire generation. It's set in Lawrence, Kansas, where a nuclear exchange begins and cannot be stopped. The accurate depiction of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) was so accurate that it had an impact on then president Ronald Reagan. For us kids, the melting eyeballs told us everything we needed to know about the idiocy of our leaders. Want to know where the prevailing sense of dread and Gen X ennui came from? Start here! More about the films impact here. The cast includes JoBeth Williams, Steve Guttenberg, John Cullum, Jason Robards, and John Lithgow.
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19w
Artistic Influences
Flutter FETTI Confetti & Streamers
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Some of the flutteriest confetti, often used in bulk for political conventions.
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19w
Artistic Influences
The Edible History of Confetti
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The confetti rabbit hole...hint: It's candy!
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19w
Artistic Influences
Confetti: New Year's Eve Wishing Wall
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Did you know that the confetti dropped over Times Square on New Years is inscribed with hopes and dreams? If you are in NYC during the season, look for the Wishing Wall so that YOUR dreams can fall like colorful rain upon the crowds, instantly becoming street trash as soon as the oohs and ahhs end.
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