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This is dedicated to all my American friends, who I love dearly
Today, given what Trump and his enablers have done against humanity, decency, democracy and the common good, many around the world, look at America through the lenses of horror and disbelief. They see a land of ugliness, fear, hopelessness, arrogance, conflict, guns, selfishness, bigotry, racism and xenophobia.
But, this is not the America that I wish to remember. This is not the America that my many American GCGI friends and supporters represent.
America is also a land of beauty, hope, kindness, humility, respect for others, hopefulness, immersed in a special love for nature, friendship, hospitality and the common good.
To impress this point further, I would very much like to share a very special and beautiful film with you, which depicts also my own love for nature, as well as the real values of America which I very much appreciate.
A film like this, gives me hope that Trump’s America is an aberration of what America is, and thus, my hope that, once again, America will become a beacon of light and hope.
Kamran Mofid
The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism
‘The Artist’s Garden tells the intertwining stories of American Impressionism and The Garden Movement which flourished between 1887-1920. Both movements responded to rapid social change brought about by America’s industrialization.
With increasing urbanization prompting the emerging middle-class to seek refuge in the suburbs, they began to spend their free time and wealth cultivating impressive private gardens.
When French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel brought a selection of impressionist paintings to New York in 1886, he changed the course of art in America. Many American artists, inspired by what they saw, made the pilgrimage to study in Monet’s Giverny and were keen to employ their experience to capture America’s own unique landscapes.
Audiences of the film will be transported to Appledore Island, where pre-eminent impressionist Childe Hassam produced three hundred works over three decades. The film also reveals how the poet Celia Thaxter and other American women saw the garden not only as a beautiful oasis but as an important political space for women.
As gardening’s popularity rose, women began to take on new professionalized roles, from garden design to horticultural writing and lead activist movements to protect native species.
Directed by Phil Grabsky (Seventh Art Productions) the film The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism offers a unique opportunity to get up close to the greatest examples of American Impressionism and to understand the unique cultural movement in which they were produced.’
The film is part of the pioneering series EXHIBITION ON SCREEN, and was released on 21st March 2017.
THE ARTIST’S GARDEN : AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISM- Watch the trailer HERE
In the UK the film is also available on Sky Arts
The Artist's Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement Hardcover
Purchase The Artist’s Garden HERE
And finally, in conclusion, to all those in pain, fear, anxiety, frustration, hopelessness and anger: Let Hafez, the Persian Sage and Philosopher of Love to be your Light out of Darkness:
How to defeat hatred and fear: Don't Despair Walk On
In this troubled world the path of hope will save us
Photo: NBC News
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Friday, January 20, 2017- Wednesday, January 6, 2021:
When America Lost Reason and Humanity to Ignorance, Religious Fundamentalism and Bigotry
'Monsters are the result of the sleep of reason.'— Francisco Goya
Goya portrait painted by Vicente López y Portaña (1772–1850) on display at the Prado National Museum, Spain.
Two centuries ago, Spain was a mess. Struggling to escape the Inquisition. Invaded by Napoleon’s France. Wracked by war, confusion, random cruelty. In the midst of all that, the great Spanish master Francisco Goya painted, made prints, of kings and aristocrats. And then of chaos. The Sleep of Reason. The Disasters of War. Execution. Torture... In our time of attacks on democracy, atrocity and dismay, hopelessness and despair, anger and frustration and the rise of monsters, Goya is showing us the perils of forgetfulness and turning our backs on reason.
‘Want to understand the Capitol rioters? Look at the inflamed hate-drunk mobs painted by Goya...
because no artist better captured collective delusion and mass fanaticism.’- Jonathan Jones
‘It could be Trump on the banner … detail from The Burial of the Sardine, 1808-12’.
Photo: DEA/G Dagli Orti/De Agostini/Getty Images/Via The Guardian
Goya's Lesson on the Fall of Reason and Humanity in the US under Trump
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters
Goya, Plate 43, "Los Caprichos": The sleep of reason produces monsters, 1799, etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burin.
(The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
In this ominous image, we see the dark vision of humanity. A man sleeps, apparently peacefully, even as bats and owls threaten from all sides and a lynx lays quiet, but wide-eyed and alert. Another creature sits at the center of the composition, staring not at the sleeping figure, but at us. Goya forces the viewer to become an active participant in the image––the monsters of his dreams even threaten us. We forget this at our own peril.
Friday, January 20, 2017- Wednesday, January 6, 2021:
When America Lost Reason and Humanity to Ignorance, Religious Fundamentalism and Bigotry
‘Goya even gave a name to our current plight, in a print of a man resting his head on a desk as if giving up on trying to understand the world. All around his despairing form, strange monsters of the night materialise with the shining cold eyes of owls and cats. On the side of his desk is an inscription that translates as: “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters,” wherein Goya criticized the rampant political, social, and religious abuses of the time period.’
'Follow the flag … pro-Trump supporters breach the US Capitol building on 6 January.'
Photo: Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/Rex/Shutterstock/Via The Guardian
...‘The great neoclassical monuments of Washington DC were begun in Goya’s lifetime and continued through the 1800s. Their harmonious design sang the beauty of reason at the very moment the artist witnessed it fail in Spain. The Capitol building was started in 1793 as part of Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s grand plan for a spacious, calm, yet sublime monumental Washington whose classical geometries express an unshakable belief in rational republican optimism. Goya returned to Madrid that same year after losing his hearing and hope for humanity.
L’Enfant’s confidence and optimism now seem to have vanished. Goya’s dark pessimism has far more pertinence to the last days of Trump’s tenure. The invasion of the Capitol brought the Spaniard’s horrific vision to Washington, as the logical architecture of the Capitol clashed with the chaos that filled it. Neoclassicism meets Goya, reason is overrun by madness, and lawlessness threatens to swallow the republic.’- Jonathan Jones, ‘Want to understand the Capitol rioters? Look at the inflamed hate-drunk mobs painted by Goya’, The Guardian, 12 January 2021
......
This is When Reason Loses and Ignorance Wins
'Fire, pestilence and a country at war with itself'
'A pandemic unabated, an economy in meltdown, cities in chaos over police killings.
All our supposed leader does is tweet.'- Robert Reich
Photo:usnews.com
Is this the way to make America great again?
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who’s the maddest of them all?
The Emperor has no clothes: The Madness of King Donald.
Photo:Odyssey
The Lesson to Learn from Trump’s Chaotic and Shameful Life Journey
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‘Johnson and his cabinet didn’t prepare for the inevitable second wave’ and ‘Rather than getting ahead of the virus, the
UK government has continually searched for a magic bullet that doesn’t exist.’-Photo: The Guardian
With COVID-19, we are all in it together. We are all suffering and we are all paying a very heavy and painful price.
But things could have been not as bad as they are, only if we had a different socioeconomic model and a more caring, competent and worthy leadership.
The other day I read two very good articles discussing these issues:
With a government this bad in charge of the UK during Covid, how do we respond?
England's crisis can't be blamed on the new Covid variant alone
‘How Do We Respond?’ in the caption above captured my attention and I set out to respond:
Below, I am pleased to share the fruits of my search with you:
Given what is happening to our country, to us, and to our children and grandchildren’s future, I only wished that Boris Johnson had read what I had written to him when he was discharged from hospital with COVID infection. Only if he had read it:
Dear Mr. Johnson, your Covid-19 survival must become a force for good
- The Disgraced Trump has Called Nigel Farage ‘King of Europe’: My Question- Can Brexit ‘Scam’ still be Valid?
- 'Donald Trump's Tory cheerleaders have brought lasting shame on Britain' :Time to Remember, Name and Shame Them
- Brits Be Aware: ‘The nation is paying a high price for a prime minister who puts blind loyalty before ability’
- I am doing Nothing, how about you?
- BREXIT Broke My Heart: The Moment that the Milk of Human Kindness Went Sour and Lumpy