Ars Gratia Artis

If I hear of one more person proclaiming themselves an artist I'm going to throw a camera at something...maybe that would be performance art, making me an "artist!" A local Long Beach City College photo teacher and "artist'' recently caused a stir in the local Vietnamese community, his own by the way, with a photograph he displayed in an exhibition. The resulting furor over the content of his photograph distressed his father so, that he asked his son to remove it.

Here's the "artist" part....the teacher couldn't decide whether to comfort his aged father or "be true to his art as an artist" and leave it up. He left it up. Please, taking down a photograph of a girl in a t-shirt with a red star isn't going to have him booted out of the artist guild that he nominated himself in anyway! Someone please pass me a camera...

The above photos are from my Blue period, hey Picasso had one......

The State of Surfing, And I Don't Mean California

As I spent some time on a lazy Saturday watching the Hurley Pro on the internet I was shaken from my complacency by some catch words heard in the commentary. I thought I was listening to a Rhythmic Gymnastics competition where everyone was trying to do a set of required tricks. What struck me was that every surfer was trying to do the exact same moves. If you had a better scored wave you just did bigger tricks.

But what really woke me up was the comment, that prior to the spread of surf videos, South Africans had their own (as if this was bad) style, and now thankfully from watching videos, they surf like everyone else in the world. Oh and the Brazilian's too.. What happened to surfing for fun's sake and individuality?

What's next the Olympics and the Compulsory Program on day 1 followed by the Short Program and then Pairs? Can't wait to see the costumes.