CIvilized Nuclear Power Vs. New Killer Powers EDIT

http://www.grayedgerton.com/illust_politicks.html

This is an illustration that I re-edited, and decided to post in light of the most recent press regarding Nuclear Iran. Via Truthdig:

Last week,the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency expressed “serious concerns” over Iran’s nuclear program in a strongly worded report that claimed that there is evidence that Iran might be developing an atomic weapon.  This is the stuff of “fantasyland,” according to The New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh. The investigative journalist appeared on Monday’s “Democracy Now!” broadcast to give his take on the IAEA’s agenda, which he said reminds him of a similar situation in our nation’s not-so-distant past.

Watch the video below to hear Seymour Hersh on Democracy Now!

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/democracy_now_seymour_hersh_on_the_iaeas_racket_in_iran_20111121/

In the re-edit I also added an oblivious-american character, one of those that get marched off to war with propaganda that makes them believe they are defending freedom. 

VIDEO: Jared Diamond on why societies collapse

Click to watch TED talk with Jared Diamond

http://www.ted.com/talks/jared_diamond_on_why_societies_collapse.html

I read this book by Jared Diamond (author of Guns, Germs, and Steel) a few years ago, seems worth posting in light of current global social unrest and ideas for how to proceed. Directly intervening and rising up to stop the processes that are leading to societal collapse is what is happening around the world. Around 12 minutes in this video from 2003, he goes into why societies fail to act when facing collapse. The short-term gains of greedy investors allowed them to justify their pilfering of our economy, while ultimately causing the collapse of the system they used to sustain themselves.

The following painting that I did shortly after reading Collapse. It is titled, Collapsable Maps, A Growing Pessimism for the Times. 

Billboard Art Competition ART MOVES 2011

Lost/Found in Patterns of Gaia, 2011

 Digital collage from two paintings

This is an entry for a contest I entered titled,  „Reality or fiction? Let’s pretend it’s not there.”  In the application they asked, "we think the question of what is real and what is fictional has a deeper meaning… If we stop asking ourselves what is real and what is not, what we discern and what we overlook, will we be able to say who we are and what world we really live in?" I took two paintings I made and combined them to form a double-portrait narrative dialogue piece for my proposal. You can see them on my website here and here.The description that followed goes:

Reality is what we make it. This work reflects on emerging planetary consciousness.We are conditioned in society, through methods of mass mind control, to ignore the limitless imaginative potential of our being. We are conscious spiritual beings that have been systemically conditioned to be prisoners of egoic thought that breeds fear, hate, competition, greed, and shallow consumption. This fractured egoic mind is isolated, seeing itself outside the web of connectedness. 

The figures in the work are reflecting on nature and the sublime, in a state of stillness, in awe of nature's beauty. (the patterns of nature, the female form, Hurricane vortices, tree rings, vine growth, etc.) This painting is composed of two separate frames in whichboth figures look out with a distant gaze. Man and woman search out for connection and find it in each other and the web that weaves all existence. Their bodies being enveloped by the organic patterning and swirling paint to suggest the greater energy field that surrounds us.

We can and will create a better future as we place ourselves within the planetary ecosystem. We have all the capabilities to design our thoughts and living systems to align with the patterns and cycles of nature. As growing concerns of ecological collapse looms, more and more people are 'awakening' to the true reality that weare parts of an evolving planetary web of life that follows patterns and conditionsthat allowed us to emerge on this earth.

I would love for this work to be seen in the context of a billboard. Art is a portal through which we can access our intuitive, imaginative selves and it is badly needed in public spaces. This image on a billboard would shock and transformthe space. With my work, I aspire to expand perception to dissolve the illusion of separateness.  

Gray Edgerton
grayedgerton.com

Painting Flashback 2006

This is a painting I made back in 2006. Briarpatch is acrylic on canvas and measures 6 feet wide by 8 feet tall. It's from the series: Revenge of Gaia. Click to check out more images from the series.

Upcoming Group Exhibition

One of my paintings will be in this upcoming show at Hadas Gallery, Brooklyn. Stay tuned for details!

Pop-Up Piano Concert

Me and Manoela's piano we painted will debut at the Queens Jazz: Pop Up Pianos Borough Garden Concert at the Louis Armstrong House Museum garden. Come check it out Saturday, June 18 at 3 pm.

Pop-Up Piano at Louis Armstrong House Museum

A young pianist enjoys playing our Baby Grand at the opening concert of our Pop-Up Piano in the Louis Armstrong House Museum garden. It will be on view until the 4th of July.

SugarTone Brass Band plays an awesome set at the LAHM garden concert.

Pop Up Piano!

It's great to work with Sing For Hope on their 2011 Pop-Up Pianos installation. Here's a work in progress shot with my collaborator Manoela Madera.

Myrtle Windows Gallery

Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partership is hosting the Myrtle Windows Gallery Exhibition, curated by, Christina Vassallo. 11 artists including myself are participating in the organization's 7th show. Check out my painting, The Jig is Up, (Pangea Paradox) above! Here's the full brochure.

Evolution of Power Movements

ManoGray, Freedom isn't Free, (Detail)

Hello there and welcome to 2011.

Welcome to 2011, and what better way to get back in gear with a new resolve to update more frequently than to start with a start of a 2010 piece.

So now it's two years later and you get to see the finished painting that I'll show  for the first time at the Gowanus Art Fair, Jan. 14, 2012

soothsLAIR, 2010, 26" in. x 24" in., Acrylic and Latex on Reused Wood Crate