On the Day, the Artist Went Away...

Quilts:

All Together Now (closeup)

Haiti Lady (framed)



A few years back, I had written a poem entitled "On the Day" that spoke to what the world would be like if all the artist in all the disciplines went away musing on how dreary the world would be as if the very life, color & vibrations had been annihlated. How little did I know that I, this artist, would reach a juncture in my own career to have an ephiphany and decide it was time to go away...

I do not mean it literally but in essence to stop exhibiting. After almost 20 years as a visual artist and much more then that in another artistic discipline that something clicked in my heart this morning and said," enough".

It was in a way deja vu reminiscing of another time 17 years ago when a similar "clicked" & I decided to close down my gallery in San Diego, when I knew in my heart of hearts it was time to yield.

Mind you I have a mad amount of work with commissions I have to complete which I pray & trust I will complete, fufilling my obligations to those who have enjoyed my work. My plan is to continue this year completing that trust, but plan to no longer exhibit.

And all because one time too many,as many artists if they have created more then a day can understand, someone(s) or maybe a culmulative amount of someones or one too many someones who seem to not have it in them to truly regard art or artists as a profession or a professional.

One too many people while enjoying the end results, seem to not value the labor, the time, the heart-renching (at times)energy & sacrifice it takes to do what they do. I like many others are not independently wealthy, or can reach the mega dollars of the fortunate few but love what we do, have pride in what we do and make like other professions great sacrifices for a "if and a maybe".

Far too many people seem to think it is totally appropiate to take advantage of artists, sometimes bragging about getting a work for pennies at their next dinner or cocktail party somehow or another not grasping at the other end of that stick is a living breathing person who like so many have all those mundane obligations to care for. And last I check there is not nary an artist based on their winning smile have been able to purchase supplies, pay rent/mortage, keep the utilities on, store needed fuel in one's body, enjoy a pack or bubble gum or a moment at the movies based on the "suffering artist" syndrom that a lot of folks think we like to do which to me that syndrom is very masochistic.

It is difficult to create or maintain if one does not know if one will have a roof over ones head, or the power shut off or if the stomach is growling. Contrary to a almost over romanticized view in the movies that the artist suffers, dies from TB from living in damp broken down attic, becomes famous after death. It did not work in the movies either...

Yes without a doubt we love what we do, am very passionate about what & how we do it and yes can sometimes be in a enviable position of working at something we love & enjoy & willing to make needed sacrifices to make the world a lovely place to walk through even in the most ugly & troubling times.

I've been far more fortunate then many over these 2 decades to not have been burned as much or as badly but sometime there is a moment, a pivotal moment when you have to say no more.

In workshops I've have done over the years I have somewhat tongue in cheek humorously have referred to my "Mooneyisms". And Mooney-ism # 5 has always been "Be prepare to walk away". I cannot teach that if I do not practice it.

Sometimes you have to draw a line and say "you will not do this"(to me).

So on this day, when this artist walks away will the world stop? Of course not! I don't think that much of myself that I could be arrogant enough to think it would or should.

And yes I will have to find another means to substain myself eking out some time to create for my own pleasure without worrying about if when or how someone else will keep their word, honor the contract or show the respect that is due.

I simply know on this day, as I rapidly approach my 6th decade on this earth that I know to do the right thing honoring my ownself even those there are others who would with or without malice want to dishonor.

Those who may read my words, please do not think if you are expecting delivery will not get it. My plan is to continue working through 2010 to fufill my obligations.

After that, time will tell

Opening Exhibition

My exhibition "Thrown Rocks... Building Castles" will open Saturday March 13th-May 6th at the African American Atelier 200 N. Davie St, Greensboro, NC
www.africanamericanatelier.org.

I will be showing for the first time in this solo show my photography, paper collages and of course my signature quilts. 20% of the sale will go to the La-Haiti Substainable Village Relief Fund. The show will feature one quilt "Sometimes it Hurts Too Much-Haiti" where 100% will got the the organization providing medical supplies, tent, food and other resources to Haiti.

In the show will be several others on Haiti as well as how I have embarked on building castles...

http://www.myfox8.com/news/morningnews/wghp-story-fundraiser-100312,0,1721475.story

“The Hate and the Quake – Rebuilding Haiti

Interesting text on Haiti's backgrond so when someone says "well their government is corrupt & that is why they are so poor etc". Information is powerful; so is denial.


“The Hate and the Quake – Rebuilding Haiti,”
by Sir Hilary Beckles
Posted: 30 Jan 2010 12:40 AM PST


From The Colorful Times:

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES is in the process of conceiving how best to deliver a major conference on the theme Rethinking and Rebuilding Haiti.
I am very keen to provide an input into this exercise because for too long there has been a popular perception that somehow the Haitian nation-building project, launched on January 1, 1804, has failed on account of mismanagement, ineptitude, corruption.


Buried beneath the rubble of imperial propaganda, out of both Western Europe and the United States, is the evidence which shows that Haiti’s independence was defeated by an aggressive North-Atlantic alliance that could not imagine their world inhabited by a free regime of Africans as representatives of the newly emerging democracy.
The evidence is striking, especially in the context of France.
The Haitians fought for their freedom and won, as did the Americans fifty years earlier. The Americans declared their independence and crafted an extraordinary constitution that set out a clear message about the value of humanity and the right to freedom, justice, and liberty.
In the midst of this brilliant discourse, they chose to retain slavery as the basis of the new nation state. Thefounding fathers therefore could not see beyond race, as the free state was built on a slavery foundation.
The water was poisoned in the well; the Americans went back to the battlefield a century later to resolve the fact that slavery and freedom could not comfortably co-exist in the same place.
The French, also, declared freedom, fraternity and equality as the new philosophies of their national transformation and gave the modern world a tremendous progressive boost by so doing.
They abolished slavery, but Napoleon Bonaparte could not imagine the republic without slavery and targeted the Haitians for a new, more intense regime of slavery. The British agreed, as did the Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese.
All were linked in communion over the 500 000 Blacks in Haiti, the most populous and prosperous Caribbean colony.
As the jewel of the Caribbean, they all wanted to get their hands on it. With a massive slave base, the English, French and Dutch salivated over owning it – and the people.
The people won a ten-year war, the bloodiest in modern history, and declared their independence. Every other country in the Americas was based on slavery.
Haiti was freedom, and proceeded to place in its 1805 Independence Constitution that any person of African descent who arrived on its shores would be declared free, and a citizen of the republic.
For the first time since slavery had commenced, Blacks were the subjects of mass freedom and citizenship in a nation.
The French refused to recognize Haiti’s independence and declared it an illegal pariah state. The Americans, whom the Haitians looked to in solidarity as their mentor in independence, refused to recognize them, and offered solidarity instead to the French. The British, who were negotiating with the French to obtain the ownership title to Haiti, also moved in solidarity, as did every other nation-state the Western world.
Haiti was isolated at birth – ostracized and denied access to world trade, finance, and institutional development. It was the most vicious example of national strangulation recorded in modern history.
The Cubans, at least, have had Russia, China, and Vietnam. The Haitians were alone from inception. The crumbling began.
Then came 1825; the moment of full truth. The republic is celebrating its 21st anniversary. There is national euphoria in the streets of Port-au-Prince.
The economy is bankrupt; the political leadership isolated. The cabinet took the decision that the state of affairs could not continue.
The country had to find a way to be inserted back into the world economy. The French government was invited to a summit.
Officials arrived and told the Haitian government that they were willing to recognize the country as a sovereign nation but it would have to pay compensation and reparation in exchange. The Haitians, with backs to the wall, agreed to pay the French.
The French government sent a team of accountants and actuaries into Haiti in order to place a value on all lands, all physical assets, the 500,000 citizens whovwere formerly enslaved, animals, and all other commercial properties and services.
The sums amounted to 150 million gold francs. Haiti was told to pay this reparation to France in return for national recognition.
The Haitian government agreed; payments began immediately. Members of the Cabinet were also valued because they had been enslaved people before independence.
Thus began the systematic destruction of the Republic of Haiti. The French government bled the nation and rendered it a failed state. It was a merciless exploitation that was designed and guaranteed to collapse the Haitian economy and society.
Haiti was forced to pay this sum until 1922 when the last installment was made. During the long 19th century, the payment to France amounted to up to 70 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings.
Jamaica today pays up to 70 per cent in order to service its international and domestic debt. Haiti was crushed by this debt payment. It descended into financial and social chaos.

The republic did not stand a chance. France was enriched and it took pleasure from the fact that having been defeated by Haitians on the battlefield, it had won on the field of finance. In the years when the coffee crops failed, or the sugar yield was down, the Haitian government borrowed on the French money market at double the going interest rate in order to repay the French government.
When the Americans invaded the country in the early 20th century, one of the reasons offered was to assist the French in collecting its reparations.
The collapse of the Haitian nation resides at the feet of France and America, especially. These two nations betrayed, failed, and destroyed the dream that was Haiti; crushed to dust in an effort to destroy the flower of freedom and the seed of justice.
Haiti did not fail. It was destroyed by two of the most powerful nations on earth, both of which continue to have a primary interest in its current condition.
The sudden quake has come in the aftermath of summers of hate. In many ways the quake has been less destructive than the hate.
Human life was snuffed out by the quake, while the hate has been a long and inhumane suffocation – a crime against humanity.
During the 2001 UN Conference on Race in Durban, South Africa, strong representation was made to the French government to repay the 150 million francs.
The value of this amount was estimated by financial actuaries as US$21 billion. This sum of capital could rebuild Haiti and place it in a position to re-engage the modern world. It was illegally extracted from the Haitian people and should be repaid.
It is stolen wealth. In so doing, France could discharge its moral obligation to the Haitian people.
For a nation that prides itself in the celebration of modern diplomacy, France, in order to exist with the moral authority of this diplomacy in this post-modern world, should do the just and legal thing.
Such an act at the outset of this century would open the door for a sophisticated interface of past and present, and set the Haitian nation free at last.

All I Could Say~Adding my Voice,Haiti

I saw for the 1st time today some of the heart rending images coming out of the capital...


I had not been able before today see them as know how tender my heart is & could not look, not then, not now, especially having gone through my absolutely pale by comparison trials myself. I thoght it would be too much...

It is too much...
And I am only an observer...

For me, it would trivilize more then I would want to compare the two situations or say as many may have already said, that it humbled me or made me see my situation differently.

I saw the face of this man, who knew hs wife was dead in the rubble and would not leave her side, keeping vigil with tears running down his face and the 1st words of this poem shouted out in my head.

It is a small thing but it is all I could say...




All I Could Say~Through His Tears
All I Can Say à travers ses larmes

By Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney ©10



Through his tears
Know you are no t alone…
Some will tsk, tsk, tsk
Many will groan
Some will weaken while another grow strong
In the midst of the unbelievable…
Incomprehensible
Mind shattering
Earth rattling
Testifying
Soul-filled wails…
In a crescendo scale rippling around the world
Know you are not alone…
Even in His tears…
And ours…
You will not be forsaken…
This time the world is not only listening
They are hearing
We shall…
We must
Yes we can...
We have to…
For the next time…
It may be us.
For Haiti and all of us worldwide
.. God help us all….