ART to GO - BLOG

10/30/2025 Comments

CATS FROM HELL EAT WELL - A NEW ART book by Sasso

Cats from Hell Eat Well E-Book cover

Cats From Hell Eat Well is a new art book about cat concepts in art.
Artist James Sasso creates a unique body of visionary fine artworks which encompass different mediums, both traditional and new. His mixed media style can be said to communicate an impressive energy that fixates the viewer into their own semiotic translation & personal projections of the art. ------
One of the main motifs & dynamic of Sasso's art since early on, starting out with black & white ink drawings, is an expanding oeuvre of art work revolving around a series of felines (cats) existing in different scenarios & configurations.
These cats have evolved over time into an obsessive evolutionary continuation of his style, and comprise a mixed bag of art on canvas, paper, wood, aluminum and even steel sculptures.

Cats From Hell Eat Well is 133 pages.
Most of the artworks contained in the Cats From Hell Eat Well art conceptual & book have not been published in any book form before & this is a unique collection of Art for Cat & Art lovers alike. Enjoy !

Published October 18th 2025 and Available from Amazon in
Softcover $35.
Hardcover $50.
& E-book.

Comments

9/13/2025 Comments

SKULLS for PEACE the book !

Skulls for Peace book cover with colored skulls

Skulls for Peace -- Book cover detail

Skulls for Peace is now available as a book in both Hardcover & Softcover versions and also as a Kindle E-Book.

Skulls for Peace is an empowering peace initiative using Art a s a tool to heal.

The Skulls for Peace books by James Sasso were published on September 8th 2025 and are First Editions with140 pages.

Available through Amazon in both Hardcover ( $48. )

& Softcover ( $24.)

also as a Kindle E-Book.

Pink Skull 24" x 36" Fade resistant inks on canvas with black frame.

-- A small % portion of the net monetary proceeds from the sale of this book or any related artworks or merchandise will be donated to the organization known as Médecins Sans Frontières, sometimes known as Doctors Without Borders, (MSF) is a charity that provides humanitarian medical care. It is a non-governmental organisation of French origin known for its projects in conflict zones. (MSF) cares for people affected by conflict, disease outbreaks, natural and human-made disasters, and exclusion from health care, in more than 75 countries.

Thank you ! --
Your purchase of this book or any related art means a lot and please know that it is greatly appreciated not only from the artist but others who would benefit.

Comments

7/12/2025 Comments

Helm Hatters is Art that Matters by John Cat

Hats galore by Helm Hatters found in Joshua Tree. Made in the U.S.A.

"We believe that everyone can wear a hat, and that standing out is always better than blending in." - Helm Hatters.

While out in the Joshua Tree area recently enjoying the great scenery of this vast desert place, we chanced upon some great hats. Not just any hats but those by Helm Hatters which are made by a dusty character named Bode Helm.
Bode Helm is also known as a photographer but around the year 2021 developed an obsession with quality hats and started making them out in the Joshua Tree area where he draws creative inspirations from the arid emptiness of this beautiful landscape .
Joshua Tree is a High Desert region of California (around 130 miles East of Los Angeles) not far from the Palm Springs area where he also sells his hats weekly at the Palm Springs Village Fest.
Joshua Tree National park, the town of Joshua Tree and its surrounding communities, including Yucca Valley and Twentynine Palms, are located within part of the Mojave Desert. This High Desert region is characterized by its arid climate, unique landscape, and distinctive Joshua trees.
The Joshua tree, a hardy desert plant, embodies the idea of survival and finding beauty in harsh conditions.
The Joshua tree, as a symbol of the American West, has been a focal point for the artistic expression of many a creative soul including writers, artists, musicians & anyone else with a higher consciousness.
The Joshua Tree is the fifth studio album by the Irish rock band U2 released in March of 1987 which was inspired by the American landscapes most notably the desert. This area & it's unique landscape resonated with U2's exploration of themes like longing, loss, and hope in their music. It represents themes of faith and resilience in the face of adversity, mirroring the band's own experiences and their perception of America.
The song, Where the Streets Have No Name is thought of as a metaphor for heaven.
Deep stuff indeed.
A perfect place for fashionable hats as an art form for sure and none better than the work of Helm Hatters.

Bode Helm is also a noted Photographer with a keen eye. Cover photos by Bode Helm.

The hats by Helm Hatters are all hand made one by one with unique characteristics & timeless methods.
Each one is "blocked" and shaped with a caring eye and detail.
The materials of the hats are felt from beaver, rabbit and sometimes cashmere, using vintage tools and secret proprietary methods using such things as beetle juice and tequila.
Each hat is unique and one of a kind enhanced.
These hats made by Bode Helm are revered by many a man and woman who are lucky enough to own them. A hat as a personal fashion statement is required by anyone who loves something one of a kind and unique.
Hats of course are also utilitarian in the hot sun of Southern California as well as the cool nights but are also seen as a fashion staple all over the world.

A fine hand made & embellished hat by Helm Hatters made of rabbit felt.

No man or woman's life would be complete without a great hat. Collections of hats by Helm Hatters can be found at the website link here.

A fine hat adorns a desert beauty out at Joshua Tree as Helm Hatters looks at his work.

Get a life and get a hat by Helm Hatters.
More info here.

Some beautiful hats by Helm Hatters.

Comments

5/7/2025 Comments

Rebuilding L.A. - Hosted by Faherty & Art Unified

Rebuild L.A. event with artworks donated

Rebuild L.A. -- ART event

This event is open to the public, however; we do ask that you RSVP here.

Join us at Faherty in Venice for a night of music, art, and drinks as we celebrate our city's resiliency. In partnership with Art Unified.
So many people lost their homes and artwork, and we want to help replace them.

It's at 1338 Abbot Kinney Blvd for a night of community, collaboration, and unity. Faherty Brand and Art Unified have partnered to give back to the community & have enlisted local L.A. artists to display art.

Several local artists ( including us ) will be donating pieces to fire victims, as well as displaying some of their collections & items for sale. Three-time Grammy-nominated producer Jansport J will be DJing.
Refreshments will be provided.

Let go let ART.

ALL ART IS ACTIVISM

If you know someone that was affected by the fires, please share this event with them.

Comments

2/7/2025 Comments

FIRE-AID: Art & Alchemy by John Cat

“Nothing is forever in this world, even our problems.” – Charlie Chaplin

Ashes to Art
The recent catastrophic January 2025 wild fires in Los Angeles which caused much carnage have left many people stressed out with needing to heal from the trauma, both physically, emotionally and spiritually. -
We offer prayers for all those impacted and their lost loved ones.
Many prayers also offered to the lost pets and wildlife, also the survivors.
Many thanks also to the brave fire fighters and all the heroic crews who worked tirelessly on the efforts to quell the fires to save lives and property.

Demolished church in Pacific Palisades,CA on Wednesday January 8, 2025 10AM - Photo by Denim Sasso

Aside from the fire events themselves, there is also now the ecological impact of more dangerous poison toxins in the air, in the dirt and in the nearby ocean.
There are many birds, fishes, whales, dolphins, sharks, sting rays and all other type of aquatic life who have suffered adversely from this environmental disaster.
Lots of people have felt helpless and feel a strong human need to help their community and environment somehow. Many people have volunteered to help and efforts are ongoing.

photo of Buddha statue in the ruins of the fire damage in Pacific Palisades, California 01/08/2025 shot by Denim Sasso

"All that exists is impermanent; nothing lasts." Buddha. --- A statue among ruins in Pacific Palisades, California on morning of 01/08/2025. -- . photos courtesy of Denim Sasso

As artists who believe in the empowerment of art, there is a need for an output of creative expression and evocative reactions.
From Ashes to Art.
Many Los Angeles artists have stepped up with their talents to help heal and transform lives and also raise funds for their communities through the internet.
At Obey Giant their art reflects a Re-Build/Re-Think mantra on the situation and they have been making lots of Limited Edition print series to disseminate their positive visual messages. --
“We can re-build, but we also need to re-think. CA is the nation’s most environmentally progressive state, but that alone cannot solve a global problem; more needs to be done.” – Shepard

2 Fire-Aid Los Angeles Limited Editions by Art-to-Go - Inks on 20" x 16" x 1.25" black framed framed canvas.

But what about the effect of Art & Alchemy ?
At its core, alchemy is a practice of transformation, both on a physical and spiritual level.
Alchemy and Art are interconnected ways of seeing, and transforming, the world. Alchemy is the Art of transformation, inner liberation and change.
In the creation of art, there is an alchemical process of turning raw emotions, life experiences into something tangible, relatable and profound, while also raising serotonin levels & advancing intelligence of the brain.
Yes, art enhances brain function by impacting brain wave patterns, emotions and the nervous system.
As well on the appreciation of, experiencing of and cultivation of arts.
A University of London study demonstrated that “looking at beautiful (to the beholder) art can create an instant dopamine release, creating feelings of happiness and gratitude akin to looking at someone you love”
So Creative alchemy is the transformative power of translating personal feelings into art and meanings.
Spiritual alchemy is connected with freeing your spiritual self from your fears, limiting belief systems and lack of confidence

Different flavors of color to choose from on tee shirts and Limited Edition fine art.

Ashes to Art
---This new and fresh contemporary art series, Fire-Aid, has been described as a mix of humor, social activism and self help.
Certainly some of the best Art out there. Or as one pundit explains as “The banality of Pop mixed with social parody and activism to express a transformative vision of Arts culture into a positive outlook for society."
Among the semiotics, social commentary are also at play and a form of Fair Use (no infringement intended)
What does"Fair Use" mean? Under section 29 of the Copyright Act, "fair dealing (fair use) for the purpose of research, private study, criticism,education, parody or satire does not infringe a copyright.
What else does it mean?
The meaning is up to the viewer and there are different interpretations depending on one's mindset.
Art Awakens.
Art Transforms.
Art Reflects.
Art Laughs.
Art Speaks.
Art Sings.
Art Empowers.
Art Dances.
Art is the Dance.
Art is Transcendent.

Pink tee shirt with a yellow character with the words FIre-Aid

Fire-Aid Yellow on 100% cotton pink ( azalea) tee shirt expressing the empowerment of Art.

Art raises awareness of life and culture.
Art puts us in the moment.
Art is one of the only real things left in life.
- John Cat
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“Accepting the absurdity of everything around us is one step, a necessary experience, it should not become a dead end. It arouses a revolt that can become fruitful.” – Albert Camus.
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Ashes to Action
A portion of the monetary proceeds from the sale of this Fire-Aid series of art goes to :
(Or please go to any of the links and make a direct donation )
Heal the Bay. org
Pasadena Humane society (because Paris told us too)
Artists at Art To Go
All purchase records of art kept by Square and verified by a CPA.
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We should not be surprised that Nature happened.
For those who wish to learn more about California wild fires --
The Case for Letting Malibu Burn by David Smith, seems to express dire portents humans face by not respecting nature.

Comments

1/29/2025 Comments

Skulls for Peace art by John Cat

Peace Skull 01 & 02 each on 16" x 16" x 1.25" canvas with black frame. This artwork is digitally signed by the artist.

“What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity, devoid of troubling or depressing subject-matter, an art which could be for every menial worker, for the businessman as well as the man of letters, for example, a soothing, calming influence on the mind, something like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.” - Henri Matisse - painter

SKULLS for PEACE ART
        Skulls for Peace is a new contemporary art conceptual about using art to inspire positive change and elevate ourselves as humans to a higher consciousness of life. This can be both on a personal level as well as related to the world's problems with conflict, genocide, bombing of civilian populated areas & other war crimes in our current times.
          The human skull, has captivated artists for millennia, serving as a haunting reminder of the fleeting nature of life and something we can all relate to as we humans all inhabit the same structural anatomy. The skull protects the brain and supports the face.
It's made up of 22 bones, including the cranium and facial bones.
            Skulls are something we can all appreciate as they house our brain, the so called “seat of intellect”, as well as of course the place of our hearing, seeing, smelling and tasting.
         When we practice meditation we are advised to close our eyes and focus on the inner "third eye", which sits in the middle of the skull between them.
The human pineal gland "third eye" is an extremely active neuro endocrine transducer and when "opened", you might experience a heightened sense of intuition, a deeper connection to your inner self, increased clarity of thought, vivid dreams, a feeling of inter-connectedness with everything around you, and sometimes even subtle sensations like tingling or pressure between your eyebrows; essentially, a more profound understanding of reality beyond the physical world, often described as a "knowing".

           To "Use your skull" essentially means "use your head" - which means to think carefully, use common sense, or apply your brain to a situation; it's a way to tell someone to think logically and make a good decision.
So, Skulls for Peace is an Art movement which encourages higher intelligence.

One skull from the art book Skulls for Peace.

Skulls depicted in art can be both thought provoking & humorous.
Although the most common symbolic use of the skull in ART is as a representation of death, they can also be used as a symbol of:
-- respect
-- strength & protection
-- wealth
-- toughness
-- humor
-- transformation
-- bravery
-- a life-and-death struggle
-- display of power
Skulls also symbolize life and in other cultures the skull is used to celebrate the deceased or to reconnect with the spirit world.
Throughout all history, humans have been fascinated by anatomy and the skull. Skulls can appear in ancient carvings such as Petroglyphs and yes, skulls appear in “Fine” art too.

Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette by Vincent Van Gogh

Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette is an early work by famed French artist Vincent Van
Gogh (b.1853 - d.1890) The small and undated canvas painting featuring a skeleton smoking a cigarette was most likely painted in the winter of 1885–86 as a satirical comment on conservative academic practices.
Van Gogh was a young student at the time as the study of anatomy is a prerequisite for any aficionado of art in general.

          Mexican artist, lithographer & engraver, Jose Guadalupe Posada (b.1852 - d.1913) who is perhaps best known for his animated skeletons (calaveras) created works like La Calavera Catrina at a time when photo-mechanical technology was in its infancy. Most of his works were engraved or etched in relief on type metal for publication in daily publications and pamplets meant for the masses printed on cheap newsprint.
             Often expressionistic in content and style, the art of Posada also has a satirical acuteness and fosters
social engagement with humor.
          Art involving skulls is often termed as belonging to the trope of 'memento mori' – named after a Latin phrase meaning "remember (that you have) to die or remember death, remember the dead". It can be used to describe a practice, object, or artwork that serves this purpose.
            The phrase comes from the Bible, in the opening lines of the Book of Ecclesiastes.Artwork reminiscent of memento mori endeavors to symbolically remind its viewer of the present moment of life & the inevitability of death. The most common motif is a skull, often accompanied by bones.

        In modern art, artist of all stripes and disciplines have used the skull motif and even in the Pop Art movement.

In 1976, American artist Andy Warhol (b. 1928- d.1987) created a 10 part large canvas silkscreen series called simply, Skulls.
Famous for 1960’s Pop Art commercialism of the banal & celebration of fame, Warhol's Skulls offer the notion of death as the blank afterimage of life, rather than as a melancholy fate.

Further on and into the New York art circus of the early 1980's, the super talents of artist Jean Michel Basquiat (b.1960-d.1987) emerged into the cultural mix, if only for a short time.

Painting by Jean Michll Basquiat called Skull

Jean Michel Basquiat Untitled (Skull) , 1981 Acrylic and oil paint stick on canvas. 89 1/2" tall x 69 1/4" ( 207x175.9cm) The Eli & Edythe I. Broad Collection, Los Angeles

Basquiat quickly became one of the most famous artists of that era and arguably still is.
His prolific oeuvre is filled with symbols scratched, words scribbled, words crossed out, phrase, screaming faces, anatomical drawings and also contain Skulls in his unique style.

In our new times, Skulls for Peace conceptual art seeks to engage the viewer via Skulls, as an inspirational peace initiative for all to embrace, utilizing the expressionistic message of art as a tool to heal, transform and transcend an ill society.

The Gift of Gab on 24" tall x 36" wide x 1.25" thick black framed canvas. -- Limited Edition Artwork of only 200 pieces.

Los Angeles based artist James Sasso (b. 1960) created the Skulls for Peace conceptual & art as a continuation of the artistic cultural traditions of mankind. Sasso's definitive and distinctive style involves semantics & semiotics as a prevalent theme in his mixed media artworks filled with color and meaning.

Skulls For Peace art acts as a bridge to elevate the viewer into a higher consciousness of positive energy for themselves as well as the betterment of society.
www.SKULLSforPEACE.com Hardback Art book coming soon.

Two bright primary colored skulls by Sasso

Skulls for Peace on tee shirts with your city on them from the 2025 art conceptual.

Comments

1/29/2025 Comments

Copyright Law: The Road to Perdition and Back. -- by John Cat

A picture of the state of TEXAS in bright colors and drawings.

The definitive and distinctive style art such as the original Texas Modern aka Texas Road Trip size: 8 ' tall x 10 ' wide x 2" dept. A 2006 Mixed Media on canvas is by James Sasso. Private Collection in Dallas,Texas.

“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast
ye your pearls before swine… “- Mathew 7:6 Jesus Sermon on the Mount

“Congress shall have the Power . . . To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” – United States Constitution, Art. I, Section 8

( Artwork examples depicted, TEXAS ROAD TRIP ( aka TEXAS MODERN) is an example of a completely ORIGINAL & DEFINITIVE style Fine Art canvas)
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In 1790, the Constitution enshrined in American law the principle that an author of a work may reap the fruits of his or her intellectual creativity.
Copyright protects through law original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, architectural, cartographic, choreographic, pantomimic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural, and audiovisual creations. Today, copyright provides to an author the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute his or her work.
The Copyright Law also provides, in the case of certain works, a right to publicly perform or display the work; in the case of sound recordings, to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission. The author may also grant to others a license to engage in these activities.
We hope this educational blog will help Artists (and others) to be aware of and protect their art from the unauthorized copyright infringement, unlawful derivatives or usage by for profit entities without them paying the artist any fees or residuals.

Detail middle center of distinctive city styles from Texas Modern artist Sasso.

We hope artists young and old will learn to protect their artworks or definitive style as the copyrighted & valuable intellectual property that it is.
Similar to music rights and royalties, artists should be paid for their works usage on anything, including consumer goods. Each item.
Even though the copyright holder is automatically protected against infringement, the artist should also register their works with the Library of Congress as a singular or collection submission, so as to give more weight and teeth to their actions against criminal violators of their works.
A good work of art can have tremendous commercial value beyond the physical piece itself. Protect your rights against the parasites of culture so that you benefit financially to your satisfaction.
You the artist owns the Copyrights to your works.
We hope that any artist reading will learn something about protection of their work especially when submitting their artwork to others for specific circumstance such as a “cause” or purpose.

Texas Modern being constructed in Venice, California 2005. Finished in 2006 and later auctioned off for $13,500. in Texas to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

The Basics:

To start, artists need to know that copyright is an “automatic right.” Copyright automatically protects your work from the moment it is fixed in a tangible form. In other words, once you create a piece of art, write a story, or write down or record a musical composition, it is protected by copyright.
Copyrights protect the author’s ideas and controls their material up to 70 years after their death, or less if the author is a corporation. The protection covers writing, music, artistic works, and digitally stored material including books, songs, poetry, art, films, graphic designs, computer software, website content, and architecture.
What is criminal copyright infringement? -- Criminal copyright infringement is a violation of federal law when a person intentionally and willfully uses or distributes another’s copyrighted material for financial gain.

The FBI has made ‘intellectual property’ theft a priority of its criminal investigative program.

For your information and according to online sources:
The FBI's Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) program investigates theft of trade secrets, counterfeit products, and copyright and/or trademark infringement cases.
Intellectual property crime is committed when someone manufactures, sells or distributes counterfeit or pirated goods, such as patents, trademarks, industrial designs or literary and artistic works, for commercial gain.

Texas Modern - hand drawn details of land out in west Texas.

Is copyright infringement a crime?
Yes, copyright infringement can be a crime in the United States. Criminal copyright infringement is defined in 17 U.S.C. § 506(A).
This is the principal criminal statute protecting copyrighted works, which provides that "[a]ny person who infringes a copyright willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain" shall be punished as provided in 18 U.S.C.
When is copyright infringement a crime?

When the infringement is intentional and for commercial gain.
When the infringement involves the reproduction or distribution of multiple copies of a copyrighted work.
When the infringement involves the reproduction or distribution of works with a high retail value.

What are the penalties for criminal copyright infringement?

Fines of up to $250,000
Imprisonment of up to five years
Seizure, forfeiture, or destruction of the material involved.

What are other types of copyright infringement?

Civil infringement: When one party sues another for copyright infringement
Willful infringement: When the infringement is intentional.
Fraudulent use of a copyright notice: When someone intentionally misuses a copyright notice
Fraudulent removal of notice: When someone intentionally removes a copyright notice
False representation: When someone intentionally misrepresents information about a copyright

Texas Modern ( aka Texas Road Trip) is filled with the distinctive whimsical hand drawn style of Sasso inspired by old maps.

If you are the author artist of the Copyright to an original work, you need to be aware that you also have the copyrights to any derivative works.
A derivative work is one that is constructed largely of a pre-existing work or derives from it.It can be a series or edition.
Original works are the work created directly and personally by a particular person/artist, while infringing derivative works are based on the original work of someone, an imitation of others' work, style or renderings.

Is producing derivative works of someone's art a copyright infringement crime?
Yes, creating a derivative work without the copyright owner's permission is copyright infringement and considered a crime.

The copyright owner has the exclusive right to create derivative works from their copyrighted work.

· The copyright owner can sue someone who creates a derivative work without permission.
· The derivative work must be substantially different from the original work to receive copyright protection.
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On a different note but same page:
Sometimes cultural images in history can be appropriated for movements or political slogans.
People committing Art theft of paintings, or appropriations, plagiarizing, making derivative works or such things for commercial or idealistic purposes is nothing new.
People will steal when they want something good but don’t want to pay for it.
The swastika is at least 11,000 years old. The word "swastika" comes from the Sanskrit word svástika . In the early 20th century, the swastika was a symbol of good luck in the West. In China, the swastika is called the "Wàn" and denotes the universe or the manifestation of God.

Examples of Hindu & Buddhist swastikas with Nazi logos shown on right.

      The Nazi movement of ww2 stole/appropriated this symbol from the Buddhist, Indian & other cultures which consider it a good luck blessing.
       By subverting the context & purpose of the powerful symbol for their own visual usage & power, they committed a form of cultural art theft/copyright infringement, to go along with all their many other crimes against humanity.
        Now when most people see this symbol they don’t think of good luck, blessings or other feel good stuff but they think of the Nazi movement & some countries have even outlawed this ancient symbol.
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         Closer to our recent times is the artist Frank Shepard Fairey (b.1970) & his Obama poster situation and how the issue of copyright violations come into play during the 2008 presidential run.
Fairey is a popular artist who uses new technology to create his art works and became very well known after his powerful Obama Hope poster caught the public’s eye.
Fairey's art has been described as a "bold iconic style that is based on styling and idealizing images."
   The Hope Obama art image was heavily used to politically market the presidential candidate & helped to get him elected. The image was widely described as iconic and came to represent Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

Left- Associated Press photo by Mannie Garcia. Other images by artist Fairey.

]      Artist Fairey used an AP (Associated Press) photo by freelance photographer Mannie Garcia, without permission or credit to "create" a new image, and was eventually sued by the agency for violating copyrights. That case was eventually settled.
       The digital process simply involved creating a source bottom layer for the photo which he presumably found online, then used layers placed over it to create the vector art image on top of the photo. Later the photograph layer is either deleted or the art image is flattened to render source photo invisible.
This supposedly creates a "New" graphic image without the actual photo visible but in reality is just a form of copyright infringement or image theft by producing derivative works from it.

      With digital technology advancements in the last 20 years, Modern Contemporary Art has changed along with it & artists have adapted with the revolutionary medium of the computer as a drawing tool.
       It’s almost like anyone with a computer can be an artist and in fact, in our opinions, everyone IS an Artist or has the capabilities but most don’t exercise this part of the intellect or brain.
Either way, we still like Fairy’s work a lot & think his art style is interesting statement on the times of how artists adapt to new media..

Visionary and unique. the Texas Modern artwork depicts hand drawn sketches and lettering in ink or pencil by artist Sasso.

To any people reading this we hope this is a learning moment and they can understand right and wrong when it pertains to using imagery without compensation or credit due the artist.
Ethics:
It’s hopeful that a business type person will read this and be educated about ethical behaviors as it relates to the respect of artists, their artwork, Intellectual Property Rights, copyrights & why can be such a heinous crime against the culture of America.
A good practice is to pay for art and in the event of numerous reproductions on anything such as consumer goods then it is standard that an artist royalty be attached to each item produced, similar to songs. This royalty can be any amount from pennies per item to any $$ amount. It is more beneficial to both parties & the best way to conduct things as copyright infringement is a crime which not only hurts artists and keeps them from making new art for everyone but it hurts a culture.
Who is John Galt?
Two questions to ask about Copyrights are:
1.) Would the second, third or fourth or other works (derivative works) exist or be done without the first original work (mother work) ? -- If the answer is no then it's probably Copyright Infringement.
2.) Would the average person ( public, jury member) find the second, third or other works to be from the the first original work & derivative of it? -- If the answer is Yes, the average person sees the similarities & likeness to the first work, then it's probably copyright infringement.
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The End.
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Blog part 2 coming soon: Copyright Law: The Road to Perdition & Bags
(Excerpt Below) ----

Texas Road Trip “Unique & Hand drawn Art” detail lower right with copyright symbol.

In year 2011, Calabasas, California banned single-use plastic bags, becoming one of the first cities in Southern California to do so. The ban encouraged residents to use reusable bags or recyclable paper bags instead and July 1 2011 was when the law went into effect at local grocers such as Albertsons.
A few years later a stricter state wide law went into effect about reusable bags because they are bad for the "environment".
     In 2014, while talking about the state of California’s strict new bag law, a Phil Rozenski, the director of sustainability and marketing at plastic bag manufacturer Hilex Poly (now employed at Novolex as Vice President of Government, Public Affairs & Sustainability) , he claims the new law is not about plastic bags or the environment.
Instead, he says, it is about: “False Environmentalism” and “billions of dollars in profits going to retailers.” (quote from a September 15, 2014 article in Chemical & Engineering News)
--
    Meanwhile, self proclaimed "Community minded & environmentally friendly" Earthwise Bag Co. formerly based in city of Burbank but now in Glendale, California, is the leading manufacturer and distributor of “reusable” plastic bags found in large American grocery store chains, most notably Albertsons ( 375 U.S. stores) , as well as Kroger, Trader Joes and many others including small chains. Albertsons was the first retailer in the United States to sell reusable bags for $0.99.
Earthwise Bags, was founded in California (2005) by South African native Stanley R. Joffe ( current age 77) , who is the CEO. Joffe used to be in the clothing business until he turned into an environmental do gooder, which is his way to market & sell the millions of bags he makes & spreads around.
Seems to be a family affair as his nephew, U.S.C. grad Steven Batzofin (age 47) , is the co-founder/Vice President and spits out the same rehearsed environmental marketing garbage as his mentor.
In 2013, Albertsons presented environmental warrior Batzofin with a “Vendor of the Year” award for providing their stores with “eye catching designer reusable bags”.

According to online press stories, both of these recyclable bag makers shout about a “closed loop environmental sustainability” recycle spiel under the mantra of “benefiting the community” to sell their millions of “eye catching designer" bags to all those grocery stores.
       Most if not all the bags are produced/manufactured in the South East Asian country of Vietnam. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is an authoritarian state ruled by a single party, the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Earthwise Bags, since early February2016, is now owned by a huge worldwide corporation based in London called Bunzl (also Bunzl Distribution North America).

2 Albertsons bags circa 2013-2016 by Earthwise.

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In a previous blog, DEATH TO PLASTIC by John Cat, there is more factual information about "recycled" plastics & how "the success and dominance of plastics starting in the early 20th century has caused a widespread environmental problem, due to it's slow decomposition rate in natural ecosystems." -------

Comments

7/30/2024 Comments

Guernica: Art,War & Peace by John Cat

Guernica, the 11 foot tall x 25 foot wide painting on canvas by Pablo Picasso in 1937.

"Painting was not invented to decorate houses but is an instrument of war to be waged against brutality and darkness."
"No, painting is not made to decorate apartments. It's an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy. The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web."-- Picasso On Guernica
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Have you heard of the artwork Guernica?
Guernica is a very large year 1937 oil painting on canvas by artist Pablo Picasso (b.1881 Spain - d.1973 France) painted in Paris, France & named after Guernica, a small town in Basque Spain which was bombed by the Spanish Fascists & German Nazis in 1937.
Many people think of Guernica as an anti-war statement and a prescient warning about the war (WW2) that would soon engulf the world.
Much of the painting’s emotional power comes from its overwhelming size, approximately 11′ 6″ x 25′ 6″ (eleven feet tall and twenty five feet wide) and it's limited color palette of black & white with muted blue grays.
Guernica is in black and white because it is digging into the truth behind pictures. The discarding of color intensifies the drama, producing a reportage quality as in a photographic record.
     It is one of Picasso's best-known works, regarded by many art critics as the most moving and powerful anti-war painting in history. This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war & it challenges rather than accepts the notion of war as heroic.
      While art critics and historians have different opinions about the symbolism in Guernica, there is general agreement that the painting represents the horrific tragedy of war and the suffering it inflicts on individuals, particularly innocent civilian populations.
With unjust wars and crimes against humanity being committed even today in 2024 against civilian populations, anyone with any degree of higher consciousness would agree that ART is still the only answer to this evil carnage of cicular violence. The same lower primitive mind set of toxic masculinity which created these situations will not be the same ones to solve it to help the humanities heal.
Guernica WAS controversial when it was made (intentionally), but for political reasons, not artistic ones.
   Probably Picasso's most famous work, Guernica is certainly his most powerful political statement, painted as an immediate reaction to the Nazi's devastating casual bombing practice on the town. It was history's first intentional aerial saturation bombing of a civilian population by a State Army.

Detail of tAn image of the artwork Guernica by Pablo Picasso.

Detail of the artwork Guernica by Pablo Picasso.

Based on the testimony of medical personnel in Guernica on the day and in nearby hospitals that received casualties, the Basque government estimated that 1,645 innocent civilian people were killed and a further 889 injured in the attack. A third of the population were wounded or killed. by the Fascist government of Spain, which was allied with the Nazis.
For over three hours, twenty five bombers dropped 100,000 pounds of explosive and incendiary bombs on the village, reducing it to rubble. Twenty more fighter planes strafed and killed defenseless civilians trying to flee. The devastation was appalling: fires burned for three days, and seventy percent of the city was destroyed.
Because of this painting Guernica and his art in general, Picasso was labeled as a degenerate artist by the Nazis, along with many other notable artists of the day. Prior to the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1940, Picasso was offered safe haven out of Europe by friends and collectors abroad who were worried about his safety but he chose to stay in France.
During the German occupation of Paris, Picasso was forbidden to publicly exhibit his art or sell it. All during the war the artist was monitored by the Nazis Gestapo with frequent visits to his studio. Other artists, writers and some of his friends had already been hauled off to the camps but Picasso bravely chose to stay in Paris.

When one Gestapo officer visited his studio and saw a postcard of the Guernica art he asked him “Did you paint that? Picasso’s famous answer was “No you did.”
As well, all during the war the fascist government of Spain tried repeatedly to have Picasso arrested and extradited back there ( his birthplace), where he surely would have been imprisoned or executed by them.
The Fascists in Spain had already show an affinity for executing many of their poets, writers and artists.

Yet despite the Nazi monitoring of Picasso & at peril to his own life during the occupation, he still managed to help the underground French Resistance when he could. Sometimes hiding resistance members in his studio who were wanted or on the run from the Nazis, as well as passing messages and even donating money.

Guernica, like most of Picasso’s greatest works, is pervaded with his own problems and preoccupations, it has become an emblem warning of the dangers and devastation of a war he lived through yet still resonates in today's times with continuing atrocities committed against civilians perpetuated by various state entities.

Here in year 2024, a war is going on in the European country of Ukraine with country of Russia targeting civilian populations as a means of dominance over them. The modus operandi seems to be the total destruction of the Ukraine people and their cities.
Not to be outdone, in the Middle East a group called the Zionist Entity have been massacring the civilian population of a place called Gaza under the guise of defense or looking for their enemies, after they were attacked by them on Oct. 7-2023. A tit for tat merry go round of insanity & egoistic greed.
Even before these crimes against humanity on the Palestinian men, woman and children of Gaza today, virtually every human rights group in the world had labeled it as the world’s largest open air prison & is a repressive system of apartheid against civilians under the Zionists. The driving fuel is Zionism itself, an aggressive and discriminatory ideology that has forcibly pushed out Palestinians from their homelands.
Zionism is not unlike Nazism & Third Reich before them in Europe who had a system called the "Final Solution" in which they rounded up the perceived undesirable Jewish populations (along with the Roma, writers, artists, homosexuals etc) into ghettos and death camps.
One of the cute nicknames today's Zionists has for their crimes on the civilian populations of Gaza is called "Mowing the Grass", in which the current body count is over 40,000 dead at this time, with many many more wounded and maimed daily, notably children.
Picasso's determination in his career made him into a hero. Overall, because of his artwork, Pablo Picasso was and still is an international hero to artists all over the world.
Picasso used paint on canvas to express his protest against ignorant brutalities in the world, but in the ensuing decades new communication methods have been perfected to express ideas about things in other creative ways via art online.
Another famous Picasso anti-war symbol is the dove so artists from ART-TO-GO have made unique artwork inspired by this and put on a 100% cotton tee shirt.

Peace Dove by Jimmy Sasso 2024 on 100% cotton tee shirt.

The Art To Go has also designed other unique PEACE related artworks such as Peace Cat & Peace Skull, available on 100% cotton tee shirts. The intelligent artwork invites dialogue with others and seeks to be a bridge for better communications of higher consciousness.

Comments

4/25/2024 Comments

DEATH TO PLASTIC by John Cat.

Death to Plastic Artwork with cartoon cat characters by artist jimmy sasso

Death to Plastic artwork by Sasso available on a tee shirt.

What does Death to Plastic mean as a statement?
Keep this in mind.
The world's first fully synthetic plastic was Bakelite invented in New York in 1907, by Leo Baekeland, who coined the term "plastics", which derives from the Greek word, plastikos, meaning "capable of being shaped or molded. The noun plasticity refers specifically here to the deformability of the materials used in the manufacture of plastics.
As consumerism grew into the century, 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic are estimated to have been made between 1950 and 2017, more than half of which has been produced since 2004.
In 2020, 400 million tonnes of plastic were produced. If global trends on plastic demand continue, it is estimated that by 2050 annual global plastic production will reach over 1.1 billion tonnes.
That's a lot of plastic but where does it go?
Of all the plastic discarded so far since plastic was invented over 100 years ago, some 14% has been incinerated and less than 10% has been recycled. Plastic is not technically recyclable anymore because it is no longer profitable to recycle. Most recycling facilities simply send plastic to landfills because they would go out of business trying to recycle it.
The success and dominance of plastics starting in the early 20th century has caused widespread environmental problem, due to their slow decomposition rate in natural ecosystems.

Death to Plastic unique handwriting.

The qualities that make plastic so useful have also made it a detriment to the environment. Plastic production releases chemical pollutants that poison animals and plants, while plastic garbage piles up and takes unimaginable time spans to break down. The natural world has proven ill-equipped to handle plastics, and we have fallen short of containing their impact.
--- Most plastic produced has not been reused, or is incapable of reuse, either being captured in landfills or persisting in the environment as plastic pollution or micro plastics. Humans breathe in micro plastics and they also eat it every day in food such as fish and pretty much everything else.
Plastic pollution can be found in all the world’s major water bodies, for example, creating plastic garbage patches in all of the world's oceans and contaminating terrestrial ecosystems. -- Environmental economists now say it is actually better for the planet to simply throw your plastic in the trash so that it requires less trucking to get it to the landfill.
But as a comparison to plastic, of all the aluminum produced since 1888, over 75% of it is still in current use

a photo of two tee shirts with artwork on them which states

Two tee shirts with wonderful Death To Plastic art on them.

Coke adds life?
We’ve all seen plastic trash littering beaches, parks, and roadsides. But have you ever wondered where all that plastic is actually coming from? Thanks to a massive global citizen science effort, researchers can now point the finger at some of the world’s biggest corporations most responsible for manufacturing this environmental scourge. In fact, the new report estimates that just five companies produce the items responsible for a quarter of the world’s plastic pollution.
The single biggest corporate source of branded plastic pollution was the Coca-Cola Company, which accounted for a whopping 11 percent of all branded plastic waste recorded in the global survey.
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Today ( and yesterday) many artists all over work with a higher consciousness and activism via their arts.
Artists like Anne-Katrin Spiess (b. 1968, Lugano, Switzerland) who creates site-specific installations and performances that often address ecological concerns.
-------- The Death to Plastic artwork here was created by Art-To-Go artist Jimmy Sasso (b.1960 U.S.A.) to heighten awareness and help educate the public by making art that has impact and meanings which provoke beneficial community changes for all.
Artwork on things such as Tee Shirts can help spread the message.
The hand drawn artworks appear on 100% cotton Navy blue, black or white tee shirts in sizes
XS to XLG. All tee shirts are Made in the U.S.A.
Artworks also available on large tote bags with various art slogans. Make a statement by educating the public while supporting the arts.
Why not?

3 large tote bags with unique slogans like Death to Plastic, Ban All Bags & Trash.Picture

What great large tote bags with unique quotes like Ban All Bags, Trash or Death to Plastic.

Comments

3/6/2024 Comments

The Artist Stencil Queen & the Psychology of the Fem-Pop Art Movement by John Catso

Artist Stencil Queen relaxes with her artwork.

Who is the mysterious artist called Stencil Queen?

“Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.” - Andy Warhol

"All men are assholes." - Stencil Queen

----- On a recent visit to Dallas Texas we became aware of a mysterious artist called Stencil Queen whom we met one sunny afternoon on the patio of a place called The Lakewood Landing. Just looking for a casual place to sit outside and have a cold beer & maybe a cheese burger, a friend and I saw the The Lakewood Landing suddenly appear to our right and so we stopped. As a person who grew up in Dallas, it is often the unexpected which brings the best experiences.
Only 2 or 3 people sat outside so we did too.
As is often the case when sitting outside on patios, people can get into conversations & soon a youngish appearing female joined us in a welcoming manner. Smoking a cigarette & swigging a Lone Star beer in a bottle while well dressed, she soon regaled us with tales of her life and art. Articulate, talented and well versed, she soon had our attention,
Stencil Queen: Born and raised on a 40 acre farm in the tiny town of Cut & Shoot, Texas ( yes it's a real place) she later ended up playing an accordion while busking in Austin , living in Thailand for 2 years with an arms dealer, attaining a Psychology Degree from UNT ( University of North Texas ) and also making art in the process.
After seeing cell phone photos of her art we begged her to show us in person so we visited her studio nearby. After picking up a six pack, we soon went in.
Art is important to Stencil Queen not only as a healing expressive mechanism and psychological balm for her personal emotional state but also as a personal Feminist statement. Her art postures a tough persona while hiding a soft beautiful soul, all while obsessively laboring away at her works.
As a Cultural Practicioner artist utilizing various mixed media techniques, Stencil Queen is creating an interesting body of work we will just call Fem-Pop. Fem-Pop because all the subjects in her work which we saw were female and because her work carries Pop Art sensibilities
Female musicians and singers seem to be her current fascination of choice.
Dolly Parton, Liz Phair, Bjork, Britney, Deborah Harry & others are depicted in large ish works she has layered unto Birch wood panels.

Karen Dalton (center) and Deborah Harry (right) by Stencil Queen

Another female singer musician Karen Dalton, is also featured in the works. Karen Dalton, born in Bonham,Texas (Born:1937 Died:1993 ) was an American country blues singer, guitarist, and banjo player. She was associated with the early 1960s Greenwich Village NY folk music scene of which Bob Dylan was also around.
Although she did not enjoy much commercial success during her lifetime, her music has gained significant recognition since her death and many count her as an inspiration. Her ethereal and haunting voice continues to captivate listeners.
All in all, the iconic art of Stencil Queen carries a powerful message of female empowerment & feminist work ethic. This stuff just doesn't make itself.

Stencil Queen 88 makes art that people should buy.

In our experience, we feel her oeuvre is admirable and are excited that she might branch out into other techniques. Her work carries a poetic quality and she is one of our favorite Dallas artists. More of her powerful works can be seen & bought here at her website or @stencilqueen88

Stencil Queen (left) and Lemon Loaner (right) discuss some truisms of Feminist Art practice over a cold one.

We also met Miss Lemon L oaner while at Lakewood Landing in Dallas. Lemon Loaner is another very talented Feminist Pop artist so please check out her works too.
After living in Los Angeles for too long, it was nice to meet friendly creative people & experience something interesting related to art while visiting Dallas.

Comments

10/7/2023 Comments

A Mini as Art Vehicle for a Beneficial Society & Healthy Transcendent Consciousness. by John Catso

-- --------------Question the authority of all conceptions. - Kant.   -----------------------------

         Art is the ephemeral enigma and human compulsion. We need art in our lives to enhance the subtle energies of mankind & hopefully bring us deep feelings of inspiration, empowerment, awe, joy & other emotions. Art is something that stimulates an individual's thoughts, emotions, beliefs, or ideas through the senses. With different viewpoints and various acumen of appreciations, Art in a culture ( like Pop or Street for example) can be everywhere for some people yet nowhere for others. Some see it and some don't. It is a unique and evocative personal experience.
     Besides being a mode of transportation, cars can also be for some a status symbol & expression of our personalities but most importantly, Cars are one of the leading causes of air pollution & climate change ...
     Passenger vehicles & commercial, are a major pollution contributor, producing significant amounts of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and other pollution. Vehicle pollutants harm our health causing untold sickness and contain greenhouse gases that influence climate change.

In the 1960's the Mini car helped inspire the name for the Mini skirt, a very short skirt popular at the time.

        -------   --- The Mini Cooper arises -----     -------- In 1959 the car known as the Mini was introduced to the public and the world had never seen a car quite like it.
Small nimble and compacted, with the Mini, "Less seems to be more". Certain innovations gives it a distinct bug like appearance and cuteness factor.
     The Mini was a package that came to symbolize the very essence of the youthful 1960s culture as a form of independence, nonconformity & spontaneity, along with even influencing styles of the times.
-------At some point in time, Fashion met Car. ---
In 1963 the Mini Skirt came into the public eyes as a fashion statement when British designer Mary Quaint (known as the mother of the miniskirt) began popularizing raised hemlines & named the fashion item after her favorite car: a Mini Cooper. The 1960s were defined by counter-culture—society was questioning traditional standards and ushering in a new era of expressive sexual freedoms.
Thus the Mini became an alluring trend outside of the automobile.
    The mini skirt came at a time when the world was changing and it wasn't long before the mini skirt became a symbol. A symbol of the feminist movement, of female liberation expressing sexuality through the titillation of wearing very short skirts.
----------At another point in time, Art met Car.--------------------------
            Over 50 years later the public continues it's infatuation with the Mini Cooper. as an art statement of the times through the cultural practice of Art Cars as a means of beautifying society & communicating positive art into peoples visions.
The artist designer Sasso ( instagram: @Sassothecat ) was tasked in August 2023 with painting a 2013 Mini Cooper after being commissioned by a buyer ( Paul) who lives in Venice) as he wanted something remarkable for himself to drive around the areas and possibly also gift it to his teenage daughter.

A mini Cooper car becomes painted to become an Art Car.

2013 Mini Cooper becomes transformed into an Art Car.

One Shot paint used to paint Mini Cooper

The paint used was a brand called One Shot which is a very high gloss, oil based lettering enamel made to be used on metal or brick outdoors. The Made In America paint has been around since the 1940's and in the 1950's became a favorite of artists who pin striped & painted cars.
The artist also mixed some of his own colors & applied two coats when possible.

The artists goal was a Transformative Art experience as a vehicle to communicate an appreciation of good energy & visual stimulation.
World cultural Art, Surrealism, Modernism and artists like Leonardo Da Vinci, Alexander Calder, Piet Mondrian, Peter Max and others were meditated on during the paint process but merely as inspirations rather than influence, as the style is wholly original in itself as a signature work.

Mini Cooper Art Car in progress.

Stream of conscious flowing lines are depictions of the air and water as waves of energy mixed with color vibrate in the light.
Since Venice California is where the city meets the sea (slum by the sea to some) then an urban decay is left revitalized by new modern art depictions of the ocean and clouds.

Work in progress, Flowing lines become clouds and waves while straight lines depict light.

   With art operating on such a much higher frequency than usually experienced, the physicality of the color structure is only part of the equation and the sub conscious plays a role in the communication as well since there are no words in this abstract piece.
You see it only once and know it, there is no filter, as the art is a bridge to a higher consciousness and creative evocation of the life force.
The sub-conscious and visualizing played an important role in this art rendering on the Mini Cooper. The goal involves a transformation of consciousness through color & form.

      During the weeks long process of painting, the artist became aware of the writings of American mystic & esoteric philosopher Franklin Merrell-Wolff ( American b. 1887- d.1985 ) & it became a part of the artwork as it merged well with the Stream of Consciousness flow aspect of the Mini paint undertaking.
        Wolff devoted himself to the goal of transcending the normal limits of human consciousness. After exploring various mystical teachings and paths, he dedicated himself to the path of jnana yoga, which is the yogic paths of knowledge, action (karma), of loving devotion to a personal god and the path of meditation.
He also studied the writings of Shankara.

   Wolff wrote the Philosophy of Consciousness Without An Object A Discussion of the Nature of
Transcendental Consciousness.
More here -- https://www.merrell-wolff.org/
“The ultimate objective is to facilitate, as far as possible, that event which, when achieved, is called Fundamental Realization or Enlightenment.” -- Franklin Merrell-Wolff

The Mini Art Car now seen in Venice Los Angeles ( update: 01/29/2024 the Venice Mini now lives in Reno, Nevada U.S.A.

Thank you for reading this, The Mini story ,which is part 2 of another blog entry about Art Cars called Art, Art Cars & the Beautification of our Urban Communities

A 2013 Mini Cooper becomes an Art Vehicle.

Comments

6/15/2023 Comments

WHAT IS ART THEFT & ART RECOVERY? By John Catso

A Close up detail of the recovered 2017 Untitled Abstract canvas by Sasso that once was lost.

We hope that artists or anyone else who loves art and who have experienced the loss or theft of their artwork will learn more about it and successfully recover their work or be justly compensated.
Art theft in any form is a serious crime against the people and culture.
Art theft can take many forms but this blog entry is about the theft of a physical works of canvas artwork.

Besides the physical, another form of art theft is copyright infringement using reproductions or replications of intellectual property as direct copies or as appropriated and derivative works. ( future upcoming blog).

For your information and according to online sources:
The FBI's Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) program investigates theft of trade secrets, counterfeit products, and copyright and/or trademark infringement cases.
Intellectual property crime is committed when someone manufactures, sells or distributes counterfeit or pirated goods, such as patents, trademarks, industrial designs or literary and artistic works, for commercial gain.
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We recently interviewed an American artist we will call "Artist" about the art theft (& recovery) of an Untitled Abstract canvas he was still working on before it was surreptitiously removed from his studio without his knowledge or consent. This relates his experience & perspective.
We will trace the painting on it's journey from birth to eventually being liberated by the artist from the people who attempted to keep it.

As it looks today : Untitled Abstract mixed media on 72" tall x 102" wide canvas by Sasso

Catso: Have you ever had someone steal a piece of your artwork?

Artist: Yes it has happened more than several times in one form or another ever since I started circulating my art & no doubt happens to many other people too.
When something comes from a deep creative place and has soul then people will want to steal it because they in fact are missing something in their own souls.
It's for sure a low conscious level thing of someone operating on a very low frequency. It's just not a very smart thing to do and it can also cause emotional harm to the artist.
Catso: Tell us the details.
Artist: In around 2017-2018, someone absconded with a large Abstract canvas of mine that was on the wall of a temporary Pop Up Studio concept I was attempting to do in Dallas, Texas.
I briefly started the work in Los Angeles 2014 and then brought it to Dallas in 2015 on a visit there to work on it further with some other art. It was a part of my life for several years ( and is now back ).
I tend to work on many pieces at once and sometimes there are gaps of time between the process. Sometimes my work goes through many changes and this painting is no exception. So in 2017 it was moved to the attempted Pop Up.
After all, many great artists like Leonardo Da Vinci, Pablo Picasso etc sometimes spent years on a painting and lived with them during the process.

Last known photo of the painting before it went missing. The photo is from right before the white swirly lines & other stuff was added.

Catso: So it turned up missing?
Artist: It was gone and I only had one not very good photo of it (shown above) but this was from right before I added the white lines & other paints to it. I was leaving & worked on it right before I left. Didn't do a new photo it before I left.
So I had no photo of what it actually currently looked like because I had returned to LA the morning after I worked on it. I couldn’t even show others what it looked like or file a theft report. I knew what it looked like of course but it's hard to describe painting. I also didn't really want to get the people in trouble but i wanted them to pay for it or give it back.

A corner of the Untitled Abstract at one brief spot a few weeks before moving to the other space where the white lines were added.

Very early stage of the Painting in progress top and behind the people.

Sunnyvale, Texas --- Painting in background still being worked on seen from a distance of about 60 feet. This is before it was moved to where it was stolen.

Catso: Tell us about it. Did you ever give up on recovering it ?

Artist: Hell no I did not give up on recovering it.
It took some time dealing with over a few years but I was going to keep searching & eventually locate it. My paintings, especially the large ones, are precious beings and lovely creations coming from the hand and heart of my soul. They all have a life of their own & project Transformative amazing energy. This is not a game.
They are like my children and if one is missing it hurts my soul very much.
      They are a part of my life and then I might show it or someone buys it. They get their place. I knew or was hoping I was going to eventually get the painting back but I had to know where it was first, before it went underground.

Catso: What was the painting like?
Artist: It was a large colorful abstract work (around 6 feet tall x 11 feet wide un-stretched canvas) that went missing ( was stolen) from the attempted Dallas Pop Up.
      It started out in Los Angeles with a teal aqua color and black outlined circular forms with abstract colored shapes then eventually ended up with the flowing white lines and movement so you can't really see the circles much anymore. Or at least overtly see them.
        I say missing but eventually I found out that it was actually now hanging in the living room of a house in Dallas which I did not know the location of but I knew the person’s name and that they worked at an Architecture firm in some sort of capacity.
       I knew if I made too much noise that it might get hidden away and I might never get it back. They could say I was harassing them or something if I just asked about it. If I raised a ruckus then it would get too hot for them and they might even destroy it as evidence rather than admit they had it.
    Plus I know the owner of the Architecture firm and didn't want to involve them or cause perceived drama and I felt stupid dealing with such stupid people or something along those lines.
Not to mention I was 3 states away.

Catso: So you contacted them off and on but they never responded or got back to you.

Artist: No response but this seems like the playbook for people like that. A variation has happened before.
There was a large ( 6' x 6' ) canvas mixed media collage Cowboy/Snake painting I did get back years before this (1993-1994) from different people & they did the same thing. I did get it back after I found out they had it. It's this sort of thing where they ignore you, meanwhile this large painting of yours is hanging in their house that nobody paid for. This Cowboy/Snake painting i had actually donated for an auction to raise money for a charity & so there was a stipulation in the contract about it being returned to me if it was not sold. I am not sure it even made it to the event and auction because I didn't go. But somehow it ended up somewhere else so...

Catso: So these new people with the Untitled Abstract painting did the same thing and ignored your attempts to contact them?

Artist: I barely knew the people who had it in their house (met them once briefly) & the person wouldn’t respond at all about the painting of mine that was literally hanging in their living room. A large beautiful painting like that is not something you forget as it empowers the whole environment. I know for a fact that my art can transform a room because I've seen it with my own eyes. A place might be nice and look good but you add my art and you can't see the room without it anymore.
It projects an energy and soul that is palpable. Art.
They just completely ignored me when I contacted them on social media or another person involved said they didn’t know what I was talking about when I messaged them. Or they would act like I was bothering them and or try to flip the story.
I just wanted to discuss a fair price if they liked the work and was willing to accept some sort of payments or the return of the piece but got zero response.
    I wasn't interested in anything else. If they liked the art and wanted it then I wanted them to have it as well. For a price which was never discussed and I had no idea about.

Another detail of the now recovered Abstract work.

Stolen Untitled Abstract painting posted on Instagram twice with their dog and child in front of part of it.

I even saw one photo on Instagram with the person’s child posing in front of it.
For real she was posting it on instagram. The whole painting wasn’t shown only a small section of it. I probably commented about it but can’t remember. They didn’t respond of course. They were being cagey enough to not show the whole painting and probably thought since it was a year or so that they were in the clear.
And another posting ( April 21 2019) with their dog in front of it but again they only showed part of the art and not the whole painting.
Again, all silence when I contacted them to ask about the artwork and I got zero response.

I could even tell from the limited view on Instagram that the perpetrators had mounted it but also shortened it considerably by many inches in the height and width. Such ignorance. Probably to save money when getting it stretched but they actually damaged it ( has since been repaired).

Another detail of the recovered masterpiece

Catso: Did all this make you feel bad? Pissed off?
Artist: Sort of yes of course. They really thought they could just take a large painting like that and not pay for it. It was very disrespectful and demeaning to me as a human being and artist.
     Through the course of several years of off and on efforts, I was trying to locate the painting while I lived 1,600 miles away in Los Angeles. It's a difficult and time consuming thing to do alone from a distance while also trying to work on new stuff & survive.
Plus the Covid times and that whole vaccine scam. LA had a disgusting response to it all and their policies actually killed more people. Closing the beaches and hiking trails? Total nightmare & ridiculous.

     But one day in 2021 after the covid experience of having lots of time to think in the draconian lock downs we experienced out here in LA, I had enough, and so finally got their home address from someone helpful ( Thank you person ) & I then wrote a letter or somehow got it to them right away & gave the people a specific 1 week time frame ultimatum to either return the painting to a specific location in Dallas, I could have a courier pick it up at their house or they could face legal consequences for failure to do so.
       Once I had their address I did start to file a stolen art report even though the theft happened 3-4 years ago but they gave me the number to the local neighborhood station in the area where it happened and then things were solved before it got that far.

In Jan 2022, when I finally got it from the place they dropped it off in 2021, I was very overjoyed to see this large abstract canvas again in person and absorb the energy. It was a big relief.

Catso: We are happy you got it back and persisted in this.
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People committing Art theft of paintings, or appropriations, plagiarizing, making derivative works or such things for commercial or idealistic purposes is nothing new.
People steal what they perceive to be valuable and then don’t want to pay for it. In the case of an original piece of artwork, it becomes a different sort of theft.

The Theft That Made The 'MONA LISA' a Masterpiece
      On Aug. 21, 1911, the then-little-known painting known as the Mona Lisa, was stolen from the wall of the Louvre Museum in Paris. --- And a legend was born.
        Before its theft, the "Mona Lisa" was not widely known outside the art world. Leonardo da Vinci painted it in 1507, but it wasn't until the 1860s that critics began to hail it as a masterwork of Renaissance painting.
      After the Louvre announced the theft, newspapers all over the world ran headlines about the missing masterpiece and this became an incredibly famous painting — literally overnight.
     The hapless French intelligence had no clues and many wild theories abounded about the culprits who stole it. Innocent and surprised by the accusation, famous artist Pablo Picasso was also considered a suspect and was questioned.
         2 years and 4 months later, the painting was recovered and the Italian who stole it arrested. He had left it with an Art Dealer for appraisal in hopes to sell it and the painting was quickly identified and recovered.

     "He said later that he was trying to return it to Italy — that he was a patriot and it was stolen by Napoleon — and he was trying to return it to the land of his birth," according to writer and historian James Zug.

SInce the Mona Lisa was painted in Italy then carried to France by Leonardo where he died, we can sort of see the point of the patriotic art thief.
How did the greatest painting in the world end up owned by France ? It was painted in Italy over the course of many years the artist carried it with him. We previously write about the Mona Lisa in our blog about Mr. Brainwash here.
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JACKSON POLLOCK painting found in garage could be worth $15 million.
     Not really stolen but successfully recovered, in 2017, a lost Jackson Pollock painting was found in an Arizona garage and later authenticated as the real thing.
After digging through the garage the painting was located underneath some paper stuff and posters.

‘God, that looks like a Jackson Pollock,” appraiser Josh Levine told CNN.

The Pollock painting was later sold at auction for $15 million.

    In other incredible recent Pollock news, on March 22, 2023, officials in the country of Bulgaria say they discovered a previously unknown painting by Jackson Pollock during an investigation into an international art trafficking operation. The painting could be worth as much as $54 million

We hope if you are an artist or collector that you never have art stolen but if it happens we hope you get it back.
-John Catso

Comments

5/24/2023 Comments

Mr. Brainwash Art Museum & the Rebirth of Culture by John Cat

A wall of Mona Lisa copies with art & squiggles across her face.

A wall of Mona Lisa's on display at Mr. Brainwash. Who is this woman?

Recycled spray cans as decor.

Do not despise my opinion, when I remind you that it should not be hard for you to stop sometimes and look into the stains of walls, or the ashes of a fire, or clouds, or mud or like places, in which, if you consider them well, you may find really marvelous ideas. “ – Leonardo Da Vinci : A Treatise on Painting. Codex Urbinas written between 1482-1519 & Published 1651

SAMO© AS AN END TO MINDWASH RELIGION, NOWHERE POLITICS AND BOGUS PHILOSOPHY. ---- Literary Graffiti of SAMO ( Al Diaz & Jean-Michel Basquiat) Circa 1980 NYC.

       One fine Sunday we made plans to venture out into the dystopian landscape of sunny Los Angeles to visit the Mr. Brainwash Art Museum in the posh city of Beverly Hills. A Pop Up museum with plans to travel, it sits in a bustling area and more so on this day when a crowded art fair was open across the street in a park.
      The moniker Mr. Brainwash, a “nom de guerre” & artistic persona, was spawned out of the 2010 documentary movie, Exit Through the Gift Shop, which is a fascinating story in itself about an art genre they call “Street Art”.
   A newer label of art branding, "Street Art" is considered a subgenre of Graffiti . Since the term Graffito (to scratch or draw unto walls) has been around since humanity began, then it’s probably correct. Mr. Brainwash calls his own movement by the label "Street Pop" and the museum houses some of his oeuvre since he entered the arena of Pop.
      A man larger than the life itself, Mr. Brainwash not only evolves as a work of living art & a busy artist brimming with energy but is also a skillful raconteur who already knows the game well. He seems to be having fun doing it because for him -- Life is Beautiful.
     Two important American artists (both long dead) not mentioned in the Exit Through the Gift Shop movie yet seem to play an inspirationally important role in the Mr. Brainwash Art Museum concept is Artist/Activist Keith Haring (b.1958-d.1990) & Neo Expressionist artist Jean Michel Basquiat (b.1960-d.1988).
        Both are NYC artists who exploded like rockets into the 1980’s art world money speculation scene yet sadly both succumbed as the decade closed in on their short burst. Both careers began and ended on the same NYC streets as artists of the graffiti subculture (Street Art) and their resultant infamy catapulted them both into worldwide art world fame.
         Starting in 1980, Haring’s animated simple cartoon like imagery first drawn in white chalk on blank black subway advertisements, was seen by millions of people on the NYC subways before most people knew what it even meant or even who it was doing it.
        What is it advertising? Strange lined figures dancing or gesturing up at flying saucers, a radiant baby, many radiant babies, more figures running around a barking dog...
   From 1980 to 1985 it is estimated that Haring drew over 5,000 images in the NYC subways alone and this helped launch a highly successful art career. Haring even opened a NYC retail store called the Pop Shop to purvey his wares he had produced.
In Haring's world the mantra is, "Art is for Everybody."
     Keith Haring sometimes (oftentimes) drew and painted in a somewhat calligraphic "Stream of consciousness style " using fluid acrylics, oils and sumi inks with brush or marker. In his own words : "There was also this stream-of-consciousness thing – this mind-to-hand flow that I saw in Dubuffet, Mark Tobey, and Alechinsky"
--
During these times, ART as a sort of Art-To-Go, became the norm as anything created sold & some artists of the time (Haring) even referred to it as "Fast Art".
-------
      Artist Basquiat meanwhile first gathered infamy (along with his art collaborator friend Al Diaz) with the creation of a fake religion under the tag of SAMO© . The slogan tag SAMO stands for Same old (ole) Shit & according to a later Basquiat interview, was “first created to be a logo like Pepsi.”
The "Literary Graffiti" of SAMO became an icon in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where the cultural influences of rap, punk and street art coalesced, heavily influencing the aesthetic of the decade(s) to come.
      Starting in 1978 while both were still in high school, the SAMO writings would appear large on walls as words, phrases, bombastic prose and untold truths,. It usually appeared in black writing along with a copyright symbol, spray painted or hand drawn on walls with such information as :

SAMO© MY MOUTH, THEREFORE AN ERROR. PLUSH SAFE...HE THINK.

MAKE SOUP. BUILD A FORT, SET THAT ON FIRE. - SAMO©

SAMO© SAVES IDIOTS AND GONZOIDS...

SAMO© AS AN END TO BOGUS PSEUDO INTELLECTUAL.

SAMO©...4 MASS MEDIA MINDWASH ,NOWHERE POLITICS AND BOGUS PHILOSOPHY.

SAMO© AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO GOD.

SAMO© ... 4 THE SO-CALLED AVANT-GARDE.

      Al Diaz says “SAMO was like a refresher course because there's some kind of statement being made. It's not just ego graffiti.”
   Art critic Jeffrey Deitch called it "disjointed street poetry" and yet Basquait quickly went onward to capitalize on the attentions generated to quickly becoming a heavily collected & much shown artist in galleries worldwide.
   Working primarily on canvas or paper ( other medium could be old discarded doors or windows, wood panels etc) Basquiat combined African, Aztec, Hispanic, and ancient Roman and Greek imagery with his own invented iconography and graphic marks in works that emphasized the physical and the gestural aspects of the artistic process. Repetitions of words, lists, names, scrawls, cartoons, anatomy drawings and voodoo incantations alike, his visual savagery articulated a vivid mind eager to cash in on the buying frenzies at the time.
    Even before Basquiat ever showed his work in any galleries or was known, Blondie (Deborah Harry bought the first canvas he ever sold ( $200) when they met on the music video ( 1981) shoot for her hit song Rapture.
      He even befriended Andy Warhol (b.1928- d.1987) & they later collaborated on a series of large paintings together. The wealthy older Warhol took an interest in the younger artist, even renting him a loft/studio from his real estate portfolio at one point. It was the same loft where Basquiat in 1987, age 27, was later found dead from a heroin overdose.

      In 2017, Basquiat became the most expensive American artist ever sold at auction when one of his “Untitled 1982” skull paintings sold for a whopping $110 million. This painting was first shown and sold at Basquiat's debut American solo exhibition in the Annina Nosei Gallery in year 1982. It is one of the artworks he painted in her gallery basement space there where he ensconced himself to work (a sometimes controversially viewed arrangement in the art world.)
      Annina Nosei will forever be associated with Jean-Michel Basquiat whom she helped launch into the mainstream art world as his first American art dealer, and whom she set up in a spacious studio where he could paint large canvases. Her connection with Basquiat was a career highlight, but only one event in her distinguished and ongoing art career.
The "Untitled" 1982 Skull painting's provenance can be traced from it’s original 1982 studio inception in the gallery basement when he was 21 years old, to it's purchase price of $4,000.
2 years later it sold for $19,000 . Not bad for a painting which most likely took no longer than 10 hours (imo & experience 8-10 hours max) for him to paint & later in 2017 sold for the hefty $110,000,000.
If you like the artist Basquiat and want to learn more about his work then we have a first edition hardcover book for Sale here.
       Many of the second floor paintings we saw at Brainwash Art museum revolved around a heady display of Mona Lisa canvas reproductions in gold gilded frames with artful scribbles and artfully applied paint added for effect.

       The Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo Da Vinci, is considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world".

      Enter Mr. Brainwash…

         Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. Although he is best known for his dramatic and expressive artworks, Leonardo also conducted dozens of carefully thought out experiments and created futuristic inventions that were groundbreaking for the time. His keen eye and quick mind led him to make important scientific discoveries, yet he never published his ideas.
       His Treatise on Painting, taken from pages in his notebooks from 1482-1519, was first published in France in 1651. The main aim of the treatise was to argue that painting was a science
    In year 1503, Leonardo began work on an oil painting ( Mona Lisa) that was still in his studio when he died in year 1519. It was painted & worked on intermittently over these many years on a piece of 2′ 6″ tall x 1′ 9″ wide Poplar Wood panel. Later X-Rays have revealed his own fingerprints on it.
     So we know it was a highly valued treasure by the artist as he carried it with him during studio moves & never parted with it during his lifetime. Some theories, based on his own writings, point to it being a portrait of his own mother, Caterina, whom we know later lived with him under his care.

Bellissima Prego ! At the Mr. Brainwash Art Museum. A museum goer wonders. If Batman, Picasso & Francis Bacon had a baby...?

        Leonardo, a chiaroscuro master of art, pioneered the Sfumato technique, which translated literally from Italian means "vanished or evaporated" or “to vanish like smoke”. It was a method that involved applying layers of thin glazes to inform a foggy, almost ethereal effect & oftentimes Leonardo used his own fingertips to smooth the paint instead of a brush.

     The Mona Lisa (also called Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo, Italian La Gioconda, or French La Joconde), another theory was that the model may have been Leonardo’s own mother, Caterina, or other suggestions that the painting was, in fact, Leonardo’s self-portrait, given the resemblance between the sitter’s and the artist’s facial features. Some scholars suggested that disguising himself as a woman was the artist’s riddle, while others argue it is a composite painting of different people)

Since we don't know what it all means with Mr. Brainwash and Leonardo Da Vinci, we asked some museum goers what they felt about the art:

"Ehhh I wouldn’t say he’s a cultural vampire or anything like that. I just think a lot of his works were not very original. Or they were copied from an origin and regurgitated into today's society. “The thinking man” with headphones on. “The Mona Lisa” with a lakers jersey. People want to look at art they can relate to and sadly society is dwindling closer and closer into the screen age where most everyone communicates. I think the whole point is “no ideas original, there’s nothing new under the sun. Or maybe the point of it is there is no point." -- Denim 30, Singer/Musician

A glimpse into the future perhaps? Follow your Dreams.

On the museum rooftop were some cool spray painted metal sculptural car shapes. Maybe they are real cars? We have already delved into Art Cars extensively as the "Ultimate Street Art" -- Art, Art Cars & the Beautification of our Urban Societies. Published in November 2021.

      Since Pop is a key part of the Mr. Brainwash recipe, we feel that further reading on the subject may help better to sense it all and what better source than the master himself., Andy Warhol, to help understand the playbook.
         Warhol wrote two books about Pop Art. Both Popism:The Warhol Sixties and The Philosophy of Andy Warhol ( from A to B & Back Again). The enigmatic, legendary Warhol makes the reader his confidant on love, sex, food, beauty, fame, work, money, success, and much more.
        In The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, told with his trademark blend of irony and detachment, this compelling and eccentric memoir riffs and reflects on all things Warhol: New York, America, and his childhood, as well as the explosion of his career in the sixties, and his life among the rich and famous.

     Another best seller Warhol tome is the later Andy Warhol Diaries which also covers his thoughts and relationships with both artists Haring and Basquiat, among many others. Spanning the mid-1970s until just a few days before his death in 1987, the book is a compendium of the more than twenty thousand pages of the artist's diary that he dictated daily to a co-author.
     Filled with shocking observations about the lives, loves, and careers of the rich, famous, and fabulous. Warhol's journal is endlessly fun and fascinating.

"Pop will eat itself " - anonymous

   All in all, the creation of the Mr. Brainwash brand itself might be his best work yet as he is now successfully enshrined into the pantheon of the Street Art Gods he himself so enthusiastically encapsulates in this epoch.

     In the Mr. Brainwash religion, his Pop is a regurgitated culture on a continuous loop that will never die but only continue to eat itself on an endless cycle (unless he comes up with new ideas). Parasitic by nature, Pop Art as we are led to believe it, becomes both the champion and victim to it's own demise.

   A persona now larger than life, Mr. Brainwash walks a tightrope between his creative evolving persona as a living sculptural entity, acting out his own art his-story, while also creating, manifesting and spinning a mix up mash of sensitive shlock to the culture which happily laps it up.

With simplistic mantras like, LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL, he possesses an idealistic life vision but most certainly not a naive one. Like all great artists in a century, his best work is either what he is currently working on now or has not even been made yet and his largest audience just being born.

In true Warholian fashion, we also interviewed another Brainwash museum goer about her thoughts on the art inside:
"Idk well his whole thing is art can be whatever you want it to be. You can take inspiration from the past and make it new. He wants people to smile and laugh and to enjoy the art as if they were a child again bringing back feelings of nostalgia. And to see things from different perspectives. And Life is Beautiful ." -- Tammy 28, Fashion Consultant

Also as Art2go, Art to Go, makes unique evocative & transformative art to make the world a more beautiful place to be. Thank you for reading.

Culture afficianado Tammy visits the Mr. Brainwash Museum,

Comments

4/3/2023 Comments

Space Junkers by James Sasso: Art as the Aesthetic Ideal - (part 3) by John Catso

A black dog repairing their space rocket that crashed unto an asteroid.

Black dog helping repair crashed rocket using pieces of space junk.

"All that has dark sound has duende", that mysterious power that everyone feels but no philosopher can explain." -- poet Garcia Lorca on Art.

        No environmental story about Space Junk would be complete without a dog as an inspirational mascot. The information is only a bridge to the artworks, using art as a healing practice.
        Remember that it is not so much the words but artwork designed to draw you into a new higher consciousness as you read. The message is ultimately about nothing.

Character: A Black dog – a black dog is associated with good luck & sometimes depression.
Name: Nameless except it is based on a small black dog named Skillet.
Description: Small terrier sized dog. Wears chef hat with an antenna from implanted micro chip, has heart shaped white spot on chest .The antenna in micro chip was a hack added much later for other reasons.
Dog Symbolism: Dogs are symbols of strength, courage, tenacity and symbolically associated with loyalty and vigilance, often acting as guardian and protector. Dogs were also associated with Anubis, the jackal headed god of the underworld.
Black Dog : Why is the nameless dog black?
        A black dog is sometimes used as a symbol for depression. First coined by the Roman poet Horace and later adopted by Winston Churchill to describe his own depression, the metaphor of the "black dog" has been used for centuries. The image of the Black Dog has been used from classical mythology through medieval folklore to modern times as a universal metaphor for depression and other mental illnesses.
         As well, the Black Dog is the name given to a being found primarily in the folklore of the British Isles. The black dog is essentially a nocturnal apparition, often said to be associated with The Devil. Its appearance was regarded as a portent of death.
Personality: The Black Dog in the Space Junk stories has a mysterious air mixed with a deep feeling of Duende.
Duende (Spanish) means "a deep quality of passion and inspiration,"- tener duende ("to have duende") is a Spanish term for a heightened state of emotion, expression and authenticity, often connected with flamenco dance & artworks.
In his brilliant lecture, "The Theory and Function of Duende", Spanish poet Federico García Lorca attempts to shed some light on the eerie and inexplicable sadness that lives in the heart of certain works of art. "that mysterious power that everyone feels but no philosopher can explain. The duende, then, is a power, not a work. It is a struggle, not a thought. "

Cartoon sketch of Black Dog doing a Happy Dance in Space Junk.

Color symbolism: The color Black has always played an important role in the development of art and literature. As the first pigment used by artists in prehistory and the first ink used by book printers for text.
Black is an easy color to read in art. In early cartoon animations from over 100 years ago, (Mickey Mouse, Felix the Cat etc) black ink was painted unto clear sheets for filming.
In color psychology, black's color meaning is symbolic of mystery, power, elegance, wealth and sophistication. In contrast, the color meaning can also evoke emotions such as sadness and anger. People wear all black to funerals as well as for purposes of a cause or movement.
Man in Black is a protest song written and recorded by singer-songwriter Johnny Cash, originally released on his 1971 album of the same name. Cash wrote the signature song to explain the social conscience behind his wardrobe choices.
Man in Black opening lyrics:
Well, you wonder why I always dress in black
Why you never see bright colors on my back
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone
Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on

The black dog giving a speech.

And what do Dogs and Space have to do with each other?
In the early history (as we know it), of space travel from earth, our canine friends, dogs, were some of the first
mammals shot into space and land back down safely.
Dogs are man's best friend.

Next up: Space Junks: Art as a Social Function in Cultures. (part 4)

Black dog escaping into city

Comments

3/30/2023 Comments

SPACE JUNK: A PRACTICAL IDEAL IN ART. (part 2.) by John Cat

Snake character from Space Junk jumping around in a sort of spasmodic dance.

Snake character Ali from Space Junk.

Rough sketch of Ali the snake character in Space Junk.

----at the still point, there the dance is, – T.S. Eliot

           Now that we know what the term Space Junk usually refers to these days, we can delve more into the space of the mind’s imagination & the practice of meditating in that area.
       A decade ago, 2012 to 2013, the environmental children’s story entitled, Space Junk, was published. It is the first children’s story about the topic of Space Junk pollution. Created in a spontaneous stream of consciousness writing style, these hand written (old fashioned style with ink and brush) stories were not formally edited & feature unique works of art.
      In the Space Junk stories are several main characters ( Yama, Ali & a nameless black dog) along with other introductory peripheral ones. Here is a brief analysis and understanding of the snake character named Ali and brief research into the possible meanings to decipher and understand more about this Space Junk story.
         The plot is really about nothing and is almost an inconsequential aspect of the whole concept. The plot merely offers a simplistic narrative about the trashing of the environment of space by humans. The subject matter acts as a bridge to the artworks which operate as a cultural salve to benefit humanity with art.
        The space of our minds is oftentimes filled with a clutter of ideas, emotions, mental formations, memories and thoughts about random things. Mental clutter refers to times when our mind has too many thoughts which makes it difficult to process and focus. A cluttered mind is disrupting and it hinders our productivity, balance and even our mental health. This relates to the sub conscious as well.
       A daily practice of Meditation is a useful tool to unclutter the mind, get into the present moment and offers great health benefits for people of all ages. People practice meditation for many reasons but the main goal is to quiet the mind & focus on the NOW, the present moment and sub conscious.

     When our thoughts slow down and we focus on nothing & attempt to clear our minds, there is a space for cosmic energy to manifest. This space is where things like personal healing, ideas, helpful insights & creative inspiration comes from. The present moment, the eternal now where God energy resides.
     Some people focus on their breathing to enter this nothing state of the sub conscious, while others silently (or sometimes loudly) recite a MANTRA. As we related before, space also means emptiness and nothing. Yet form and emptiness are inseparable and they cannot be understood in isolation from each other.
     Emptying the mind is a useful tool to learn as it helps you give your brain a break. According to the dictionary, to EMPTY YOUR MIND means to try your best to think about NOTHING. It means to purposely put a stop to the constant stream of thoughts that are with us every day. This also acts as a form of brain detoxification as well.
      The practice of daily meditation is also a way of healing traumatic stress and raising performance.
In his book, Catching the Big Fish: Mediation, Consciousness, and Creativity, Director and Artist David Lynch intones that "ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper. "
      Another big proponent of the powerful practice of meditation is Dr. Joe Dispenza, a researcher of epigenetics, quantum physics and neuroscience. Dr. Joe has done extensive research on the effects of meditation and creating a new reality for your life.

Cartoon painting of a snake with arms playing air guitar.

Space Junk character Ali playing air guitar while singing.

Speaking of space & emptiness, a snake is one of the Space Junk characters. Here is a brief overview.

Name: Ali -- The unisex name Ali was chosen by the artist simply because it rhymes with the word tree. No other reason given yet in retrospect has importance.
Ali is a gender-neutral name of Swahili origin ( from Eastern Africa) which literally means “supreme” or “exalted”. Today it is used as a name all over the world and in many different cultures other than African.
Description & Meaning: Ali is a greenish snake with arms, wears a straw cowboy hat. and we all know that snakes don’t have arms, at least not on today’s version. The ancestors of today's slithery snakes once sported full-fledged arms and legs, but genetic mutations caused the reptiles to lose all four of their limbs about 150 million years ago, according to two new studies.
Ali is a snake in the process of mutating backwards for the benefit of his emotional & physical survival, hence the arms. He is de-evolving instead of evolving. As these arms are rubber hose/noodle style appendages, this signifies the animated fun aspect of the character.
These rubber hose/spaghetti style arms are a reference to an early animation style used over 100 years ago. Rubber hose animation refers to the bouncy, rubbery way that characters were animated primarily in American cartoons during the 1920s to approximately the mid-1930s. It is the first standardized animation style to be adopted by Hollywood studios. It was not only adopted for its efficiency, but also to avoid the issue of stiffness.
Color Psychology: In color theory, Green is highly connected to nature and represents new beginnings, renewal and abundance. Growth, fertility, health and generosity are some of the positive color meanings for Green.
Green is also the color of money in U.S. dollars. Green (Secondary Color) is a color derived from mixing Blue and Yellow.
Alternatively, green can also carry negative associations such as envy, jealousy and a lack of experience.
Green has many of the same calming attributes that Blue has, but it also incorporates some of the energy of Yellow.

Ali ( right) with Yama Space Junk( left) as they meet for the first time.

Personality: Ali sings & dances because he craves attention and just wants to be loved. Most people don’t like snakes because they are cold blooded reptiles and scary. Snakes are not perceived as warm and cuddly. So as an evolutionary feat Ali is de-evolving backwards with arms to hug others and be loved. He just wants to be hugged and not be a scary snake that everyone fears.
His arms are not only for hugging but also to do other things like to Dance Rhythmically, play air guitar or gesture wildly in Spasmodic movement.

Meaning & Symbolism: Snakes and serpents are a much maligned species throughout history and literature.       People sometimes scream in fear when they encounter snakes or recoil in horror. A dishonest person is referred to as a snake. 'A snake in the grass' means a deceitful person or harmful thing that is hidden.

   According to the bible’s creation myth story about the Garden of Eden, a snake helped bring about the fall of mankind when naked Eve ate the apple from one and then tempted naked Adam.
     God told them they would die if they ate the apple. Death was God's warning, before “the great fall,” and the loss of innocence for mankind. We all know the story and remember it well from our bible studies in youth.

    But a snake is not all bad as far as symbolism & meaning goes. Snakes are symbols of primal energy, referred to as Kundalini, which is an ancient Sanskrit word from India.

     Prana (another Sanskrit word) can be translated as “life force energy,” “vital energy,” “breath of life,” “spirit-energy,” or “vital principle.” This term is used in yogic teachings as a general reference to the manifest energy of the entire universe. This original creative power is constantly flowing around us and inside of us.
The practice of Yoga can harness the bodies energy channels & cause an upsurge of the powerful life force energy (Prana).
           Kundalini is a healing form of divine spiritual energy that is sourced at the base of the spine & can be activated by breathing exercises, meditation, chanting & the practice of certain yoga postures.
This specific energy (Kundalini = serpent power) that lies dormant in all of us is also our our untapped potential. True enlightenment can be attained as a sort of "awakened" state from this release of powerful energy.

   Kundalini means 'coiled' or 'circular'. The serpent symbolizes this exact type of energy that lies inactive , coiled like a sleeping snake, at the base of the spine ( root chakra) in all humans.
Ancient texts such as the Bhagava described it as 'the coiled power'.
The Sanskrit term "Kundali Shakti" translates as "Serpent Power".

       On another note about snakes, the ouroboros or uroboros is an ancient symbol of a serpent eating its own tail, variously signifying infinity and the cycle of birth and death. The ouroboros was adopted as a symbol in Gnosticism and most notably in alchemy. The term derives from Ancient Greek.
The ouroboros is often interpreted as a symbol for eternal cyclic renewal or a cycle of life, death, and rebirth; the snake's skin-sloughing symbolizes the transmigration of souls.

      The artist/author picked a snake character to avoid the cliché of cute and cuddly because polluting space is not nice and there is nothing happy about it.
      A snake character is not typically commercial. The snake Ali will probably never appear as a mass produced cuddly toy or sold as a Happy Meal character as these reptiles are usually not used in children’s stories and the subject matter is about the pollution of our earth in space.
The subject matter is really about nothing since space equals nothing.

Using ART as a bridge, Art-To-Go seeks to heal & enlighten culture as unique creativity mixed with humor, as an environmental lesson.

Next blog entry -- Space Junkers: Art as the Aesthetic Ideal -(part 3)

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CATS FROM HELL EAT WELL - A NEW ART book by Sasso

SKULLS for PEACE the book !

Skulls for Peace is now available as a book in both Hardcover & Softcover versions and also as a Kindle E-Book.

The Skulls for Peace books by James Sasso were published on September 8th 2025 and are First Editions with140 pages.

Available through Amazon in both Hardcover ( $48. )

& Softcover ( $24.)

also as a Kindle E-Book.

Helm Hatters is Art that Matters by John Cat

Rebuilding L.A. - Hosted by Faherty & Art Unified

FIRE-AID: Art & Alchemy by John Cat

Skulls for Peace art by John Cat

Copyright Law: The Road to Perdition and Back. -- by John Cat

Guernica: Art,War & Peace by John Cat

DEATH TO PLASTIC by John Cat.

The Artist Stencil Queen & the Psychology of the Fem-Pop Art Movement by John Catso

A Mini as Art Vehicle for a Beneficial Society & Healthy Transcendent Consciousness. by John Catso

WHAT IS ART THEFT & ART RECOVERY? By John Catso

Mr. Brainwash Art Museum & the Rebirth of Culture by John Cat

Space Junkers by James Sasso: Art as the Aesthetic Ideal - (part 3) by John Catso

SPACE JUNK: A PRACTICAL IDEAL IN ART. (part 2.) by John Cat

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YOUR CART

Skulls for Peace is now available as a book in both Hardcover & Softcover versions and also as a Kindle E-Book.

The Skulls for Peace books by James Sasso were published on September 8th 2025 and are First Editions with140 pages. Available through Amazon in both Hardcover ( $48. ) & Softcover ( $24.) also as a Kindle E-Book.

Hello - Please follow us on the instagram for more exploits: @SassotheCat -- Also please easily make your own private log in here with us on ART TO GO in menu section. It's fast and easy plus keeps you in the loop. -- Thank you.

Art

Categories

The Skulls for Peace books by James Sasso were published on September 8th 2025 and are First Editions with140 pages.

Available through Amazon in both Hardcover ( $48. )

& Softcover ( $24.)

also as a Kindle E-Book.

Hello - Please follow us on the instagram for more exploits: @SassotheCat --
Also please easily make your own private log in here with us on ART TO GO in menu section. It's fast and easy plus keeps you in the loop. -- Thank you.