Banksy in Gaza

 

It's election time in the UK so why don't you ask your prospective MPs what they think about drug dealers selling Class As to school children. Then ask them what they think about arms dealers selling guns to countries that target civilians and kill children. Then ask them why we should support ANY of the main political parties in England ALL of which "fully support" selling arms to Israel to do just that. Kill children.

539 Palestinian children won't be watching this.

If we wash our hands of
the conflict between the powerful
and the powerless we side with
the powerful - we don't remain neutral ~ Banksy February 2015

Maz O'Connor

Listen to Maz O'Connor at www.rivenrod.com, The Mississippi Woman a treat for your ears.

Art: Intimations of love

Another new gallery: Intimations of love over at www.rivenrod.com.

Art: LifeImages

Here's a new gallery of my paintings and drawings.  LifeImages, snapshots of events in human life we may or may not have taken notice of when they happened to us.

God knows

One man's thoughts on Easter:
Since I was knee high to a grasshopper, I've been reminded an untold number of times of God's omniscience ~ him with the big voice and handsome beard.  I've been led to believe that everything the scary old fella' has in store for us is pre-ordained.  Apparently He's had it all worked out for years, decades, millennia and not just for us human beings either, poor diminished weasels that we are, but for the whole world and everything in it ~ clouds, earwigs, medicine, door knobs, rocks and liver, sex and bunions.  You name it, it's been part of the master plan since the beginning of time, that's what I've been told anyway.

But I'm not so sure because on a human level it doesn't make a great deal of sense.  On any level actually.
You see the trouble with knowing everything and being able to foresee everything that's going to happen to everyone and everything would be boring.  It might be fun for a few minutes but that's about it, from then on it would be unutterably, brain-numbingly tiresome.  There would be no surprises, no adventures, no awesome discoveries to make also, crucially, He would know everything about himself and would therefore understand how He was going to react in every situation.  He would have no secrets from himself and consequently no interesting character traits to exploit.  He would be flawed by the very fact of being flawless.
If there is a God, and there probably might-be, right?  And if, as we're being asked to believe, it was this God who created heaven and earth and all the other bits and bobs.  And if we're also to believe He's the Uber Creator, the Mega-Boss in charge of everything, it would be reasonable to assume he would have foreseen just how boring it was going to become and factor in, I don't know, a loose canon, a fly in the ointment, something over which He would have absolutely no control to spice things up, to circumvent the likelihood of going insane, to keep him on his celestial toes as it were.
Perhaps for just that purpose, He might have invented something called “free will” and distributed it freely amongst the human race.  Then again, if that is the case he would have foreseen how easily “free will” could be manipulated by the powerful for their own ends and decide it wasn't a very good idea.
And perhaps, if Jesus is God's son and everything really is pre-ordained and Jesus actually communicated with his dad then it's reasonable to assume he would have known he wasn't really going to die.  He would have known whether he was going to rise up or remain in that cave with the boulder firmly blocking the entrance.  And whether or not humanity was worth saving in the first place.
I’m fairly sure about that . . .

© Rivenrod 2015

Goodbye brave world

Goodbye brave world, it was good while it lasted. Haven't we done well though, us, the human species.  With all our brain power and free will we've managed to last a couple of hundred thousand years.  I know it's a few hundred million less than those brainless mega-cattle ~ the dinosaurs ~ but we've certainly left our mark.  Some doing eh, we should be proud of ourselves!  But there's no use crying over spilled milk, or oil, or enriched uranium is there. Here's hoping the next lot do a better job than we have, seriously they couldn't do much worse.  Anyway, See you around somewhere, sometime.

As fossil fuels diminish, the scramble to preserve our way of life kicks up a gear to serve short term profits at the expense of global sustainability.  The more furious the efforts of Big Corporations to achieve their commercial objectives, the less likely the human race will survive in the medium term.  Preservation will fail.  To adapt or slow down the damage we're causing to preserve our existing way of life, is not enough.  If we have the will to survive, we as individuals, as communities, as inhabitants of this glorious planet must look to fundamentally change our ways.  The threat of Shell drilling in the Arctic is looming closer than ever but the movement against it grows stronger every day.  Join six Greenpeace activists as they cross the Pacific to speak for the Arctic.  Click to see where they are now.

© Rivenrod 2015

Hubble

Chains

How those screeching chains
did wrack my aching feet, sir,
and such was my gritted pain
I squirmed and wormed, flip-flop
flatbellied in the dirt, sir.

Though loud I cried for sweet release
and kissed his earthly feet, sir
the master bade no man must raise me
but pledged devils divide me instead
and my plight was keenly seen, sir.

"Hubble has profoundly changed our view of the universe, allowing us to see deep into the past while opening our eyes to the majesty and wonders around us."  Charles Bolden (NASA Administrator)

2015 marks the 25th anniversary of Hubble's launch into low orbit around the earth.  See new Hubble images

Arp 273 lies in the constellation Andromeda and is roughly 300 million light-years away from Earth.  The image shows a tenuous tidal bridge of material between the two galaxies that are separated by tens of thousands of light-years.

© Rivenrod 2014

Serious about art

I had to make the commitment to my chosen profession at some point so I recently became a part of the on-line gallery Seat214.

In a world infused with the restrictions of bricks and mortar galleries, and the vaguaries of many others in cyber-space, Seat214 has a refreshingly straightforward outlook on the business of buying affordable artworks.

"Our single aim is to bring people closer to art, closer to the [artists who create them]  and want the world to know about." Joe York (Founder)

I envisage Seat214 as the pumping station while the lifeblood is the interaction between the audience and the artists.  All in all it makes for a vibrant and stimulating environment.

I've uploaded a few pieces along with some prints and will continue to do so as time allows.  In the meantime please go explore and enjoy.
Seat214 is here.

Syria © Rivenrod 2013

Freedom

There have been occasions throughout my life when I have been in a situation where it's been necessary to question what Freedom actually is.

Freedom requires no Bill of Rights to secure it, no doctrine or manifesto, no lip service or twisted lie to lend it credibility. Freedom is neither substance nor nutrition and yet by Freedom alone the spirit can live. Freedom asks for nothing and expects nothing, neither does it have ambition or proclaim a righteous cause. Freedom is not a game to be won or lost and does not come with a price tag. Freedom has never once asked forgiveness and is not about to start now. Freedom simply is and has no need to grant permission to anyone for anything, neither does it work within parameters or a field of operation. Freedom is not finite and even though it is more precious than gold people cannot shape it to suit their desires, neither can it be hoarded by a few at the expense of many. Freedom is the father of equality and belongs to everyone in equal measure. Freedom is one blessing we all must strive selflessly to propagate and protect.

© Rivenrod 2015

Shall we be free?

November 1975: Beyond a phalanx of sticks and rifles glittering in the growing heat of the morning sun, in a border town called Tarfaya; at the far end of a rubble boulevard heaving with a forest of men in armour all smothered in the blue fog of military diesel, stood a sad white wall.

And there, scribbled by someone half-blinded by savage light, was a salutation, a plea to the many who silently waited ~ the men and women of the Green March ~ who had been told their kinsmen would be freed and their land reclaimed, but they were duped by merciless strangers who had been turned by the smell of easy mineral dollars.

“Shall we be free?”

That was the question written large upon that wall.

© Rivenrod 1975