Enemies

Look! He’s A Twitcher!

Posted on January 14, 2008 by Varg

I know I am a little late to the party on this one so I’ll just try to post some very brief points. My Nola blogger brethren have already superbly addressed the dude, accuratly pointing at the amazing lack of critical thought he has perpetrated on the Internet. Cheers and love to them. So I…

A Good Sign

Posted on September 10, 2007 by Varg

I am actually taking it as a good sign that far right leaning ahem, wingnuts, are the among the only people taking a stand against New Orleans recovery these days, theirs being the perishing and irrelevant philosophy that it is. Anti-recovery pundits living in the tiny margins must be a sign that the sentiment to…

Wearing Real Thin

Posted on July 23, 2007 by Varg

Well, it appears as though another newspaper columnist has taken up the “let it die” cause. This one has considerably less credentials than the last but he needs to be addressed nonetheless. No one gets a free pass when they are advocating my and my neighbors’ financial ruin and the destruction by neglect of our…

Two More

Posted on July 6, 2007 by Varg

Rep. Dennis Hastert Enemy to the Peoples and Cultures of New Orleans and South Louisiana E-mail: http://www.house.gov/hastert/write1.shtml Homepage: http://www.house.gov/hastert/index.shtml 2304 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Phone: 202-225-2976 Fax: 202-225-0697 He has said… In reference to spending on the recovery: “I don’t know. That doesn’t make sense to me.” And… “It looks like a…

Enemies of the State

Posted on July 5, 2007 by Varg

I have toyed with this idea for a while and wasn’t inspired to actually put it together until I read this editorial published the day after America’s birthday. In it, the author, Robert M. Thorson, blatantly speaks out against the recovery of the city and demands that no further federal money be spent attempting to…

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Rejoice!

I say that a lot. I sign many pieces with it. I do this because I believe our lives are a true happenstance. A brilliant occurence from nothingness. We are so rare. We are so unlikely. And simply being born isn’t enough. From there we must survive, endure. So each morning, after our Sun departs and is reborn again. Please, for the sake of your ancestors and the Universe in general, hoist that cup of joe up and say, “Rejoice.”

Ours is a soulful existence. No matter how many McMansions, polyester fabrics, auto-tunes, modified foods and social networks we surround ourselves with, we are all still native, passionate beings made of ancient matter. We are organic and we have soul.

Wood also has a warm, soulful quality. Wood has a memory. It retains smells, traumas, events. It even has a calendar. This is why I have chosen it as my medium, for its old soul. I like to think the wood in my work is in its third incarnation. First a tree, then a home and now art. If you have a room that needs a little soul, get a piece. A room can never have enough soul.

My inspiration and subject matter comes from many sources, among them: Humanism, old ballads, trickster tales, flora and fauna, science, myths and folklore, stringed instruments, brass bands, amber spirits, lady vocalists, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Some of my pieces are there just to make a short, simple statement about what’s important in life. Some are more diffuse and abstract in meaning. A personal drama, an enduring line from a poem or novel, a poignant song lyric, the legacy of an important person, a fleeting thought … these are the subjects of my art.

I use hearts often because they are a very abstract way of depicting the human soul without also employing the very subjective human form. The symbolic heart is an apt representation for a person’s experience and essence. A body can immediatly conjure happiness, sorrow, youth, age, anger, bliss. These emotions can get in the way. Sometimes it’s simply about the experience.

I am the son of a sailor and a social worker, the grandson of a gypsy, a dancer and a nurse. I spent my youth moving from port city to port city, watching a lot of road go by and reading World Book Encyclopedia. After my parents settled down on the Gulf Coast, I was a miscreant youth, destroying cars and taking the wrongs things too seriously and the right things not serious enough. Eventually I began replacing my imagination with experience.

I will use any salvaged wood but prefer swamp cypress and longleaf heartwood pine.

I despise waste. Particularly the waste of organic matter. Trees are magnificent. They were here before we arrived and they’ll be around after we are gone. I’m making an effort to save as much wood as possible. Creating art is fun too. But beyond communicating with folks, but beyond making money ad providing for myself, beyond rescuing flooded parts, beyond reveling in the ethereal aroma of heartpine that hasn’t seen the light of day in 400 years, beyond all that, I am trying to make a simple comment on waste.