Archive 2017 | mysite

Robert Flinkman

Pandora's Box

etching and aquatint on Hahnemuehle paper

11" X 9"

2017

January 22nd, 2017 Sunday

I refused to watch the inauguration. I agree with John Lewis that Trump is not a legitimate president. Trump's election was founded on lies, fake news, subterfuge, and continues to be that way. It was so heartening, so uplifting, to see the widespread protests yesterday! Across the country and around the world, millions of people marched to protest Trump and his policies and the bigotry he stands for. Images say alot, and the view of those attending his inauguration compared to the half a million attending the Women's Protest in Washington, the Protest dwarfed that meager turn out for his inauguration, it was the lowest turn out ever for an inauguration. He, of course, refuses to see it and continues to deny reality. We had a couple of thousand attend a protest here in Albuquerque in the Civic Plaza. I've a new idea for another political commentary. I've already done Rising in the Polls and Cassandra. Now I'll do one entitled, Pandora'a Box, with Trump very happily opening the box and releasing hatred, bigotry, xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny. Each in our own way can protest this political travesty. Change will happen, and it's happening already......What scares me is that if his picks for his Cabinet are any indication, whom will he choose for the US Supreme Court to replace Scalia? This person could be even further to the right than Scalia. And the Democrats here can have some influence about who gets chosen.

These next four years are going to be a real roller coaster ride, about as erratic as Trump's character. Still, it's a positive sign to see the unity in those protests, the diversity the millions of everyday people coming together to say the he is not my president and does not stand for what I believe in. We are still here and we will be heard.

June 30th, 2018 Saturday

I don't understand what is happening to my country.

The latest news concerns the retirement of the Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. So long a swing vote on some very key issues, people looked to him for balance, fairness. Abortion rights, gay rights, affirmative acction were all protected by his decisions, and rightfully so. Yet the announcement of his retirement followed by the Supreme Court's decision to uphold Trump's travel ban, then the Court's opinions concerning the Masterpiece Cake Shop case,.....none of this bodes well for this country and its people. We seem to be entering an era of legal discrimination. It will only deepen divisions within this country and descend deeper down a darker path. Where is the unity of this country and its people, a reasonable and rational search to achieve a common good and goal we can all share equally? Economically the gap widens between the wealthy and the poor, the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few, these divisions and prejudices incited in the people, playing well into maintaining the power of the few....This country will turn out to be patchwork of Blue and Red States, some states allowing this kind of discrimination, other states not.

Resistance comes in many forms, key is the ballot box, and I certainly paticipate in that, as well as creative, and hence my etching of Pandora' Box. Victory is won by a series of battles both big and small, both locally and nationally.

Robert Flinkman

Bear Canyon

etching and aquatint on Hahnemuehle paper

14" X 16"

2017

April 15th, 2017 Saturday

I headed up to Bear Canyon yesterday morning to work on the etching. I'll certainly be heading up there for the foreseeable future. It's a faily large plate, and the landscape itself involves alot of images, different ones. I've got to keep an eye on the plate, the sun does warm things up quickly. I like heading up there, and I like the expanse of the landscape. I think it's going to turn out to be a very strong work, one of the better ones.

May 11th, 2017 Thursday

I have recently reread Maxims and Reflections by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and came across an excerpt from something he wrote, On Literature and Life, "But the written word does have the advantage over the spoken word in that it has permanence and can await the time it will be allowed to have its effect." I really thought that this truly sums up how I feel about now reviewing my journals and looking over all my artwork, both from over forty years ago. Now is the time to do this. While I feel the appropriate time has arrived for this immense project, fortunately I can give proper thought and weigh options before making a final decisions on things. One needs to make one's choice wisely - as with the written word, also what's put on the Internet is eternal.

I've been enjoying rereading MIddlemarch by George Eliot. As I read through this great novel, I do recall scenes from the BBC dramatization from 1993. I may watch it again.

May 23rd, 2017 Tuesday

I printed the first proof of the landscape etching I did of Bear Canyon. I did a 10 minute line etch and got a good strong line. As I wiped the plate with the tarlatin certain areas emerged, then I did some selective wiping. As I worked on the plate and then printed it, I felt a certain gentle contentment, a kind of peaceful sense of accomplishment. I know I really worked on the plate, heading up to Bear Canyon a number of times, and now here I can see the results. I'm going to let the print dry, then tomorrow study it to decide where to apply the aquatint. Selective wiping gives a good sense of moodiness and emotion to the work, very gestural. The work is very organic, still emerging, growing. I'll work out the next stage of ideas with graphite pencil and erasure.

Manayunk

oil on canvas

24" X 18"

2017

June 11th, 2017 Sunday

I've finished the 18" X 24" drawing on graphite for the piece entitled, Manayunk. I'm working again with memories, thoughts and feelings concerning my Father. Time has passed, thoughts and feelings distilled, distance lends clarity. The paintings by Marc Chagall - The Falling Angel and Between Darkness and Night, have been an influence, as well as the music by Moisey Weinberg - Piano Sonata #6, op.73, and two string quartets, n.7 in C major, op.59 (3rd movement, Adagio-Allegro-Adagio), and n.10, op.85. Viewing Chagall's work and listening to Weinberg's music, have really influenced me greatly. I've purchased the canvas and stretchers and have gessoed the canvas and when dry, will transfer the graphite drawing over to the canvas.

As for the oil paint, I'm giving thought to that. What is it I want to express, what do I want to say with color. How do I feel? My relationship with my Father was distant, and fortunately he didn't interfere with my interests. He did make some attempts to be open, to be receptive. Ironically he was a great physician and could professionally relate to his patients, but he lacked the ability to extend himself personally to others. In his own upbringing, there was a lack of social skills in his relatiionship with his mother and father, as well a he being raised in that generation and social culture. Men don't express their feelings or say ouch when they get hurt. I remember talking with my Mother years ago, and saying that he never really left Manayunk, and so much in his inner life, mentally and emotionally, issues were just left unresolved. And still he returned to Manayunk almost everyday to go to the office or the hospital on Ridge Avenue. I know he took alot to the grave with him, more than we'll ever know, and I think he wanted it that way.