Art I'm Making: New Collages

I continue to work making collages--five new ones since last reporting. These are "Untitled Collage No. 41" through "Untitled Collage No. 45." Needless to say, I'm pleased with them--or I wouldn't consider them finished works--but I particularly like No. 43, No. 44, and No. 45 (Shown at top, in that order). I've just cleaned out my piles and piles of painted paper scraps. I now need to get out the paper and paints and create some new raw materials. The next work I do will reflect the colors and textures of this new raw material, while these last pieces share traits of earlier pieces.

I'm happy to report that the Sonoma County Art Trails jury chose me as a new Art Trails participant for 2014, so I'll be opening up my "studio"--just a space on my office floor, actually--for the open studio weekends in October. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by. Click on the pictures for larger views. For more, use the "Art I'm Making" tab at right.

Click on the images for larger views. For more, use the Art I'm Making tab to the right or visit my collage and photography website at http://ctalcroft.wix.com/collage-site/ (requires Flash Player).

Visit my studio during the 2014 Sonoma County Art Trails open studios event, Saturday and Sunday, October 11th and 12th and Saturday and Sunday, October 18th and 19th, 2014.

Miscellaneous: Yet Another Deadly Mass Shooting

At the end of last month, in Santa Barbara, California, a young man, armed to the teeth (with apparently legally acquired weapons) randomly shot and killed six people and wounded another 13. It's sickening that we have to talk about such an incident yet again. In my view, the problem is at least partly that we've acquiesced in accepting false interpretations of the 2nd Amendment. The idea that the 2nd Amendment gives every individual the right to possess and carry deadly weapons is wrong and historically novel. James Madison's original wording of the Amendment makes it absolutely clear what was intended. A well-regulated militia is unambiguously equated with organized military service.

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well-regulated militia being the best security of a free country; but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person."
– Annals of Congress, House of Representatives, 1st Congress, 1st Session: pp. 451. 

The 2nd Amendment, although confusingly worded in its final form, does not say what gun advocates want us to believe it says. It says nothing about the gun rights of individuals. It’s time to take back the 2nd Amendment.

What a country this is: Legal to carry a loaded AK-47 down the street, illegal to carry a glass of wine down the street.