Politics Vs. Art

Or Political Gossip Vs. Getting A Life


I apologize for writing a political rant but I hope you will be merciful considering that this is the first time I have given in to the temptation with regards to the 2016 elections.

It seems like everyone I know has been doing way more talking about politics than usual this last year or two.  Of course I live in America so there's been elections and there's Trump and all that that entails (I think he's the best president ever from a technical standpoint but I still can't help finding him deeply repulsive, which may seem a little odd).  Political speculation has a way of eating into my brain so that I have a hard time thinking about anything else.  And I don't even like politics, it tends to make me feel angry and bitter.

Its my opinion that most people have better things to do with their time than worry about politics.  In my case the time I spend thinking about politics, would be better spent figuring out what mythical creatures to draw, or paint, or what happens next in the stories I'm writing.

Only this time they have gone too far.  This means war.  Now is the time to realize that art and politics are fundamentally in opposition and that artists should strive to reclaim the national conversation which has centered too long around politics with all its bleak ugliness, and replace it with something that's actually important.

I do not advocate armed conflict, or even argument, (for the most part).  Yet I believe that if each of us as individuals follow the creative muses of the depths of our hearts, we will create such a sudden yet enduring storm of beauty and goodness that the darkness will be defeated and light will prevail.

It Looks Like Fireworks

It Looks Like Fireworks was the name of a short story I had published as a kindle ebook.  I recently unpublished it because no one was buying it.  The story itself was brilliant, and it might come up again in one of my future collections of short stories.  I just wanted to let people know in case they were looking for it.

And if you want to support me as an artist/writer and want a collection of awesome Celtic designs to look at or color, have I got the book for you!

Celtic Knotwork Coloring Book: Over 30 Original Hand Drawn Coloring Pages

Moving Forward!

Deviantart Group

I can't believe I never linked to this before

Ornamentation

This is a group on deviantart that I started and sort of manage but the artwork is (almost) entirely by other people.

And there's lots of wonderful art there so go and check it out.

Representational Art and Artists that I really like!

Where to begin?

So I follow a ton of artists on deviantart (a social media community based around creating and sharing art) and a ton of them do representational art that I find really beautiful.

Last June I put up some of it on my art tumblr, (tumblr is a social media platform not based around anything in particular,) and here is a link to that month in the archive to give you some idea:

http://jpmorrow.tumblr.com/archive/2016/6

Because I try (and fail) to keep track of these artists I compiled a list with links to all of them, also on my art blog:

http://jpmorrow.tumblr.com/post/155453576652/linkdump-of-a-ton-of-artists-i-follow-on

This list is of artists that I follow that do representational sorts of artwork, and sadly does not include artists that specialize in photography, decorative arts, sculpture, crafts and all the other wonderful kinds of art.  Maybe I will make linkdumps for them too if I ever have the time.

It is not a complete list by any means but I wanted to share the wonderfulness and help support artists around the world.