Speed of Life

I am eager to share with you an interview I did with Artists 4 Freedom on my paintings for Iran. Artists 4 Freedom is international in scope and is located between London, Barcelona, Lisbon and Berlin, Here's the link. Please feel free to comment on the site. Artists 4 Freedom They are doing important work.

"Pompeii, especially, with its grand murals and flourishing gardens haunted by the dark shadow of Vesuvius, has always suggested uncomfortable parallels with our contemporary world, especially here in Southern California, where the sunlit life also turns out to have dark shadows in which failure and death lurk at the edge of consciousness. Now, in these times, we have even closer parallels with those ancient, beautiful, affluent people living the good life on the verge of annihilation." —Eleanor Antin on Classical Frieze Eleanor Antin The Artist's Studio from "The Last Days of Pompeii," 2001 (detail) chromogenic print 46 5/6 x 58 5/8 inches Eleanor Antin The Tree from "The Last Days of Pompei," 2001 chromogenic print 60 x 48 inches Eleanor Antin's film and photo work, Classical Frieze , re-imagines Pompeii and the classical Roman world as if seen through the eyes of a contemporary filmmaker paying homage to the sword and sandal film epics of t...

In Alex Eliot's marvelous essay in Frederick Franck's book, What Does it Mean to be Human? , Alex recounts his journey to the Greek region of Karoulia and his encounter with the "very holy fellow" Simon. Like many of his fellow Orthodox monks from Mount Athos, Simon retired to a cliff side residence in Karoulia. Perched high above the water, these monks spend their later years in solitude with the meeting of the sea and sky as their constant companion. Alex was invited by a fisherman from Mount Athos, who spoke of Simon as a holy fellow, to make the journey with him by sea to visit the monk. With the fisherman's boat bobbing in the waves below, Alex climbed a series of steps carved into the rock face with only a series of chains spiked into the cliff to hold onto. The fisherman had said, "If those chains will hold you, it is as God wills" for Alex to meet with Simon. At the end of his climb, Alex explains that he lay drenched in sweat gasping like a be...