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Month: March 2011

Nola.Com-ments

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Varg

I am doing it. I was going to write out a whole post but now it all just seems to be coming out over here… Law banning sales of prints at Jackson Square is in trouble Twelve comments in and the word “thugs” has not been mentioned yet. I actually am not super passionate about…

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Nola.com Weather Frog Redux

Posted on March 25, 2011March 25, 2011 by Varg

He was there again this morning so I thought maybe I should embrace the little guy. Here’s a thought, leave him up all the time in a little thumbnail image in the corner and not over a headline that contains the phrase, “Quadruple shooting.” Like this…

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Po Boys and Baby Boos

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Varg

Out on Jackson Square, every artist is a CFO for their little business. The demand is there, ready and willing. The artists’ responsibility is to provide it with the supply. For some artists, this is easy. The supply is fleur de lis or jazz players under lamp posts. You will see these two images repeated…

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…The Fuck?

Posted on March 18, 2011March 18, 2011 by Varg

What intern was left in charge overnight at Nola.com? Who made the decision to put a damn frog in a Hawaiian shirt wearing sunglasses on the front page of the paper Web site? Is the weather the main story in New Orleans this morning? Who drew that fucking thing? Was it the same person who…

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Discordia

Posted on March 10, 2011March 10, 2011 by Varg

NOPD is reviewing arrests of 12 at Krewe of Eris parade Sunday night Arrested at the Eris Parade This isn’t going to be a popular opinion but, there aren’t any good guys in this. There are bad guys, more bad guys and bystanders. Some folks may be innocent, but they aren’t righteous. Krewe of Eris…

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A Social and Emotional Ecotone on Carnival Sunday

Posted on March 6, 2011March 6, 2011 by Varg

I woke up at around 4 a.m. this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep so I figured I’d head over to the Square and reserve myself a good spot. I have often described this time as an ecotone, a layering between two different social and emotional environments. One is the still awake, still spirited…

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‘Communicating Clearly’

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Varg

The Mardi Gras costume market mess: a post-mortem and editorial The best way to achieve it is for the city to communicate clearly with artists and vendors — and to make sure city fees don’t outstrip people’s ability to pay. From the last line of the story, the “communicating clearly” part. It doesn’t happen. I…

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Dear Gambit

Posted on March 2, 2011March 2, 2011 by Varg

Dear Gambit, Love you guys. Love the paper. I see you put the Blue Dog on your cover this week. George Rodrigue is a great artist. Always has been. A little repetitive lately but, as an artist I can’t blame him. So few us us ever achieve significant compensation for what we bring to the…

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3 Noble Truths

Know yourself. Know the Universe. Know yourself in the Universe.

Rev. Varg’s Artist Statement

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.

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