Uno va avanzando según pasan los años pues se adquiere algo que es imposible adquirir en la juventud o cuando uno comienza y eso es la experiencia. También si uno trabaja, y se lo curra bien, adquiere talento. Pero el artista tiene que reivindicarse con cada obra…
One advances as the years pass and acquires something impossible to attain as a youth or as a beginner, which is experience. Also, if one works, and hard, one develops talent. However, the artist must revendicate him/herself with every work of art he/she creates.
Marilyn Buck, one of six women in M19. Photographs courtesy of Atria Books. The Washingtonian)
Someone help me out here! Today I am directing this page in my diary to my friends and followers from the United States (mostly) because these incidents happened over there and I had never heard of them until now. If you knew about this female terrorist group, or had read news items about them, please let me know.
I had been in law enforcement in the US for many years. I took courses at the local, state and federal level. I served in the USCG reserves (until 2018) and for 9 years I was part of US Homeland Security and I was never taught about this terrorist group!
As I read now, I have just discovered that this female-led organisation bombed the Capitol Building in Washington on the 7th of November 1983. They called themselves the May 19th Communist Organization, or M19. They were fighting President Reagan’s (supposed) imperialistic regime. Although no one was hurt in the incident, the bomb did cause one million dollars in damage.
It was no small act, and one that should be known to all. But that is not all. They bombed the National War College, the Washington Navy Yard (twice), The Israeli Aircraft Industries Building, South African consulate in New York, the New York City’s Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association and the US Capitol. All from1982 to 1985. Almost all their members are now dead or in prison but one of their leaders, Elizabeth Ann Duke is a fugitive.
(Photo by FBI)
This seems very strange to me because I had been exposed knowledge of many radical terrorist groups, including sovereign citizens, the Weather Underground, Black Panthers, et al but I never heard of this very unique group. And neither had my colleagues! Now that I have, I wonder why so many things, previously unknown to so many people are appearing as news items of the past…
This amazing artist was left aside and in the place she should have occupied mediocre male artists have inhabited in museums. It is time to change that. Art History must be revised and updated and women artists that were cast aside in the «old days» must be given their proper place in museums all over the world.
(Photo of Dora Maar by Man Ray, 1936 – Foto de Dora Maar de Man Ray, 1936)
In case you missed the previous entry on VALENCIARTIST about this great woman artist, Dora Maar. She was a photographer and a painter and the recognition of her life should not be based upon the fact that she was Pablo Picasso’s romantic partner for several years, and the woman he depicted as the «crying woman» with perhaps some issues of mental health…
(«La mujer que llora» Picasso, 1937 – «Crying Woman» Picasso, 1937 – Photo: Public Domain)
He also painted her portrait many times, as he was accustomed to do…
(«Retrato de Dora Maar» Picasso, 1937 – «Portrait of Dora Maar» Picasso, 1937 – Photo: Public Domain)
Here are some interesting things about her as well as images of her work:
A very interesting and little known surreal woman artist of the XX C.
(2022)
If you are interested about surrealism or about Art History in general, this is one painter, overlooked for sure, that is interesting and that you should get to know. She is another woman artist left aside because surrealists were such macho-men!
These three songs have to do with fire… One is a very strange tune indeed… The other one is about burning down a girl’s house out of anger… The other one, I really don’t understand, maybe you do…
The first tune: «Fire» (The Crazy World of Arthur Brown) released in 1968, written by Arthur Brown, Vincent Crane, Mike Finesilver and Peter Ker. It reached number 1 in the UK and Canada and it is about the «god of hell fire» destroying everything… A real positive tune, but I guess for the times it was appropriate as many things were burning both in Europe and in the US in 1968…
(1968)
Moving along to a more positive song…supposedly…I bring you «Norwegian Wood» by The Beatles, and probably written in its entirety by John Lennon, although Macca has said that he added the part about «so I set a fire isn’t it good Norwegian wood.» But the song is about a guy who goes out with a girl and she brings him back to her place but then tells him to sleep in the bath because she has to get to work early the next morning. When he awakens, this bird has flown, so as he walks away he sets fire to her beautiful flat decorated with Norwegian wood, not cheap pine like in London… Oh, by the by, George Harrison played the sitar, first time used in pop/rock. Oh those lads!
(1965)
And to our final entry, «Burning Down the House» (Talking Heads) released in 1983. Catchy rhythm, unusual vocals and eponymous chorus, but who the hell knows what this song is about. It doesn’t seem to be about burning down someone’s house but it does have to do with some sort of destruction… Anyways, you tell me.
(1983)
I like them all. I remember the first one from my days as a wee lad, the second one too, actually even from before and then, of course Talking Heads from CBGB in New York when I visited there so often back in the day…
