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Toronto Art Now

11/8/2018

I have been to a few art shows in Toronto, not many...but I must say that beside Rebecca Belmore's at AGO and Edward Burtynky's I have seen nothing but milk-toast. It seems that artists here feel guilty if their painting actually has some quality of a good painting in terms of succulent paint, great colours something to communicate. They take special pains to show the viewer that he/she was not really trying to paint. It is a kind of jaded approach to art. The Gladstone show had a title for it, "Why the F*ck Do I Paint"...and honestly after seeing maybe a couple of reasonably painted works I honestly can answer that I don't know why they bother..

And yet I am pretty sure if they put some enthusiasm and life into their work, and lost the cynical attitude, they would probably all be pretty good artists.

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FLOWER CHILDREN

11/6/2018

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WE HAVE ACTUALLY COME NOT VERY FAR FROM BEING CAVE-MEN DESPITE ALL THE MARVELS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY!

WE THE FLOWER CHILDREN OF THE SIXTIES, THE ONES WHO TALKED A LOT ABOUT LOVE NOT WAR, WHAT DID WE REALLY MEAN? DID WE REALLY MEAN LOVE AS IN COMPASSION OR SEX AND ORGIES? WE TAUGHT OUR CHILDREN TO RAPE AND PILLAGE THE EARTH. WE TAUGHT THAT ME COMES FIRST COUNTRY, COMMUNITY LAST. WE CREATED THE CAPITALISTIC SELF-ABSORBED FREEDOM-LOVING MESS THAT EXISTS. WE USED FREEDOM TO MEAN DO WHAT YOU LIKE, VOMIT WHERE YOU WILL WITH NO REGARD FOR THE OTHER! AND IF NO ONE FINDS OUT, CHEAT, ALL IS FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR. MORALITY WAS THROWN OUT THE WINDOW IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM. AND OUR WORLD NOW SHOWS WHERE THAT PHILOSOPHY LEADS. TO CHAOS DEVASTATION, EXPLOITATION, LACK OF RESPECT, LACK OF COMMUNITY, COUNTRY, LACK OF RULES IN ANY PROFESSION, ESPECIALLY ART, IT IS ALL JUST A BIG GAME WHERE THE WINNER TAKES ALL!

EVEN IF WE WERE NOW TO SURVIVE THE DEVASTATION OF NATURE, WITHOUT ACHIEVING BACKBONE AND MORALS AND RULES TO LIVE BY, WE WON'T SURVIVE. THINKING YOU ARE A SPIRITUAL PERSON ON YOUR OWN WON'T HELP, UNLESS WE ARE WILLING TO CURTAIL OUR INDIVIDUAL FREEDOMS FOR THE GREATER GOOD.

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Existentialism and Eastern Philosophy

11/2/2018

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It is always interesting to me how the West can misquote and misinterpret some of Eastern teachings.

Existentialism as interpreted by Camus and especially Nietzsche unfortunately has led to some seriously arrogant egomaniacs like Hitler who believed that he was Superman...taken from Nietzsche, who took the term of superman from Indian philosophy while removing the cosmic aspect of it, implying we are all gods and can do what we like.

Indian philosophy says that if god is in us we can only access him/her by acting like the goodness he/she is.

We are responsible for our actions says Camus. There is only death, the abyss so do what we like. Don't bother looking for meaning of life as there isn't any. This thinking leads either to amassing money (why not) or suicide by folks who can not come to terms with impermanence of life and see no point in it.

In Indian philosophy we are a drop in the ocean...and there is an ocean of light, radiance and so on that we also need to be accountable to. We can call it God or Universe or whatever but it is the realization that we are here on earth to grow and learn and the meaning can be experienced through various methods such as meditation...Life is MUCH larger than man...

Kierkegaard was a theologian who had an experience back than and could say, sometimes you just need a leap of faith,when you reach the abyss, if you are not capable of experiencing. The intellect is not cut out for this kind of understanding.

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Toronto Art Now

FLOWER CHILDREN

Existentialism and Eastern Philosophy

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