Cape Cod Art

Cape Cod ART

Cape Cod ART magazine is evidently an arm of the "Chamber of Commerce" and its tourist industry, which really does sum up what ART has become and is on Cape Cod, where I've been living for a decade.  In essence, art has become fully coopted and castrated, fully palatable for the local elites, including autocratic library directors like Lucy Loomis.  Criticize the latter and be fully ostracized, if not outright banned, by the latter.  

Now, I am not against art depicting little children playing on the beach or boats glistening in the sunshine, BUT I am against a machine that prohibits art critical of the machine and its diverse organizations and apparatchiks.  TOTAL SILENCE, for example, was the reaction I received last year regarding my criticism of the Fine Arts Work Center of Provincetown (see my blog post on that below a bit).  The local newspaper, Provincetown Banner, refused to publish any criticism.  However, I actually did receive a rare reaction from an establishment-art personage the year before--Editor Chris Busa (Provincetown Arts):  "You are a silly pest that sucks blood from living things."  

In any case, below is my correspondence with Cape Cod ART.  Julie Craven Wagner, current editor, chose not to respond.  TOTAL SILENCE, by the way and contrary to general editorial belief, is not a cornerstone of democracy!  The previous editor, Matthew J. Gill, actually responded.  And how interesting it is to read his rationals for not questioning and not challenging the evident domination of business interests regarding the local art scene...

From: George Slone

Sent: Saturday, March 9, 2019 9:24 AM

To: jwagner@capecodlife.com

Cc: John Lauritsen; cbusa@comcast.net; ppronovost@capecodonline.com; sturgislibrary@comcast.net; curator@CapeCodArtCenter.org

Subject: The cooptation and castration of art and artists on Cape Cod

To Julie Craven Wagner, Managing Editor, Cape Cod ART:  

Why celebrate an art center that ostracizes art critics and only seeks to promote art apt to please tourists and business interests?  The boundaries of art should NOT be determined by the latter, but rather by independent artists not afraid to speak truth as they perceive it.  Contrary to your assertion, Cape Cod Art Center has NOT been “supporting artists and the community as a whole”!  It certainly, for example, has NOT supported me as an independent and highly critical artist living in the community!  

So, rather than celebrate the Center, we should instead DENOUNCE it and by doing so helpfully encourage it to embrace freedom of expression… ALL expression, including and especially that critical of the Cape Cod art scene.  You argue that, in your magazine, one will “encounter artists of all kinds.”  Yet clearly, one will NOT encounter artists that question and challenge the art machine!  That kind of artist is simply not permitted by the art machine.  Recall Thoreau’s dictum: “let your life be a counterfriction to stop the machine.”  The publicized career artist today instead has let his or her life be an integral part of the machine.  By presenting only art that does not offend, you end up offending independent thinkers like me.  

You could begin by manifesting the courage to devote one little page in your annual magazine to such criticism… just one little page!  Without real criticism, art will suffer and continue on its journey to full banality.  If you cannot devote a page, and I suspect you cannot/will not, then clearly your role has been one of coopting and castrating art and artists on Cape Cod.  Might you somehow actually be proud of that?  

Contrary to your conclusion, one will NOT find “artists of all kinds” in your magazine.  One will certainly, for example, NOT find Cape Cod artists who criticize the Cape Cod art establishment.   After all, proponents of the latter tend to detest real debate and freedom of expression, cornerstones of democracy.  

Finally, for the correspondence I had with the former editor of your magazine, Matthew Gill, see  https://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/2019/03/cape-cod-art.html.  Why not check it out.  After all, curiosity did not kill the art-magazine editor, the establishment paying her did that.  

As a footnote, I have yet to find one artist--just one artist--on Cape Cod willing to write a letter of protest against the permanent banning of my person in 2012 without warning/without due process from Sturgis Library.  Why the banning?  "For the safety of the staff and public" was the only reason provided by Lucy Loomis, despite the fact that I have NEVER threatened anybody and have no record of violence whatsoever.  It actually took an order by the State Secretary of Records to force Loomis to open library records to the public so that I could finally find the reason for the banning (for actual documents and details, see http://theamericandissident.org/orgs/sturgis_library.html).  My civil rights are currently being denied because I am no longer permitted to attend any cultural or political events held at my neighborhood library.  Do you care?  Paul Pronovost, editor of Cape Cod Times, has refused to publish anything regarding the banning.  Is that called good journalism... or rather journalism that suits the local elites? 

Finally, if you ever decide to open up to freedom of expression and devote a little page to criticism, then please include this letter on it.  Thank you for your hopeful attention.  

From: George Slone

Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2017 10:15 AM

To: mgill@capecodlife.com

Subject: A suggestion et al

To Matthew J. Gill, Ed. Cape Cod ART,

As a rather different kind of Cape Cod artist, I was wondering how I might get profiled in your Cape Cod ART magazine.  Although I do not try to capture the beauty of boats and sand dunes, I do try to capture the reality of the arts establishment on Cape Cod.  I would certainly have plenty of thoughts and anecdotes to share with you, including my view that art should be more than that approved by local chambers of commerce and apt to be purchased by tourists.  

You do mention in your editorial that some of the work you present is “to put it simply, fun.”  Well, “fun” is a rather subjective term.  But, well, I do have some rather “fun” aquarelles for your perusal.  To date I’ve done 50 in a collection I call “Democracy” and now 16 in a collection I call Entartete Kunst, many of which depict local Cape Cod personalities.  Entartete Kunst, as you might know, is the term the Nazi’s used to what they considered to be “depraved art” (i.e., art that had to be destroyed and suppressed).  So, in today’s America, as opposed to yesterday’s Germany, entartete kunst refers, from my point of view, to art that must be suppressed, banned or censored because it is critical of pillars of the academic/literary/art establishment.  It is the glaring taboo that few artists seem able to grasp, let alone willing to break now and then, especially here on Cape Cod.  

It has always been difficult for me to comprehend the artists, editors, poets, cultural apparatchiks, etc., who cannot bear to be criticized.  As an editor, I make it a point to not only brook criticism, but to encourage it and publish in each and every issue the harshest lodged against me and the journal.  What’s the big deal?  Well, apparently it is a big deal.  

Hopefully, you’ve been able to digest what I’ve written here, though I’m certainly not convinced that will happen.  Why not a few pages, even just one page, in your magazine devoted to artists who break art taboos.  

From: Matt Gill

Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2017 12:23 PM

To: George Slone

Subject: Re: A suggestion et al

Hi George,

What a very interesting letter that was. Very interesting.

Thank you for reaching out.

Can you send me 2-3 images of your artwork that I can check out?

In a few weeks time we will be hosting an editorial board meeting to plan out the 2017 ART issue, and we will review all candidates for profiles.

I'll show your artwork to the group at that time.

I'll keep you posted.

Matt Gill

Cape Cod LIFE

Cape Cod ART

From: George Slone

Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2017 2:21 PM

To: Matt Gill

Subject: Re: A suggestion et al

Hi Matt,

Thanks for getting back to me.  It would be very (very, very, very) surprising if your group proved sufficiently open to my dissident aquarelles.  It just ain't gonna happen!  But I'll attach 3 of the pieces anyhow.  I have been openly critical of just about every literary or art organization on the Cape over the years.  Sadly, that has gotten me essentially 100% ostracized.  

Now, if you want more neutral stuff, I am also a photographer, specializing in scenes from Newfoundland and Labrador, though have also been shooting on the Cape of Course.  I will be a featured photographer in an upcoming issue of Newfoundland's Downhome Life magazine.  Yes, I can get published up there (guest editorials et al), but not down here.  Newfoundland is as the Cape might have been 150 years ago--cod fishing.  Well, there's the moratorium now.  I'll attach three photos too.  Thanks again!

G. Tod

From: Matt Gill

Sent: Wednesday, March 8, 2017 9:55 PM

To: George Slone

Subject: Re: A suggestion et al

George,

Alas, you were correct. We ended up choosing a different lineup of artists for this year's issue of ART.

I'm curious though. Why have you been so critical, as you mention, of all the different literary and art organizations on the Cape over the years? Are you too extreme for them, or are they too run of the mill for you, or something?

I'm not an art expert, really more of a novice - I'm just good at editing and organizing, that kind of thing.

Let me know some more of your story, and I'd be happy to meet you one day if you wanna swing by our office.

Sincerely,

Matt Gill

Cape Cod LIFE

Cape Cod ART

From: George Slone

Sent: Thursday, March 9, 2017 9:26 AM

To: Matt Gill

Subject: Re: A suggestion et al

Hi Matt,

Thanks much for responding.  That alone makes me feel not 100% solitary, as an artist on the Cape, just 99%.   Anyhow, as I see it, an artist ought to seek truth and exercise his/her basic right of freedom of expression.  An artist ought to ask him or herself what he or she should not depict… then, now and then, depict it!  Break the artist taboos, the main one, of course, being criticism of artists themselves and their organizations!  Indeed, one truth I have found is quite simple:  artists and their organizations hate to be criticized and will usually ostracize any rare artist daring to do that.  And thus I exploit that fact in my art.  Academics are the same.  Now, without hardcore criticism, how can there be improvement?  

Should I not be critical, for example, of the Concord Cultural Council that at one point had banned "political" art, as a direct result of the art I’d sent it for grant consideration?  Should I not be critical of the Mid-Cape Cultural Council, which will simply not respond?  Should I not be critical of the Cape Cod Poetry Review, which will not publish my poetry for the evident reason that my poetry has a critical component?  And on and on.  In fact, I have given up trying to get public grant money.  I'd even spent $500 to get the 501c3 designation for The American Dissident in the hope that that might open the gates for public grant money.  Of course, I was wrong.

Again, I am confounded by artists, academics, poets, journalists who canNOT brook criticism.  As an editor, for example, I not only encourage harsh criticism of me and the journal, but also publish in each issue the harshest received.  From criticism, I create.

Again, I test the waters of democracy.  On the Cape, those waters are very murky!  And of course one does not know that unless one actually tests those waters.  The gatekeepers of art on the Cape keep their gates hermetically-sealed vis-a-vis the rare artist, who tests them.  In fact, I know of no other artist on the Cape who will question and challenge those gatekeepers.  In essence, doing that has become my artist modus operandi.  I'd rather speak rude truth, than gain entrance through the art gates.  In that sense, and sadly so, I am definitely too extreme for them.  I do not seek to make all art critical of art gatekeepers.  I simply seek to get the latter to open their doors to a little critical art.  Why not, for example, just one little page at the end of Cape Cod ARTS devoted to rare artists who criticize the art machine, including Cape Cod ARTS?  Or how about 1/8 of a little page?  Get my drift?  It's the same absolutely-not'ism found in poetry and writing magazines across the country, not to mention newspapers.  Imagine, for example, I could not get the Cape Cod Times or Barnstable Patriot to publish a tiny paragraph reportage that I, a citizen living on Cape Cod, was permanently banned from Sturgis Library, my neighborhood library, w/o warning or possibility of due process.  My very civil rights are thus being denied because I am not permitted to attend any cultural or political events held there.  Did the Barnstable County Human Rights Commission care?  Of course not!  

My story is a long one, for I have "battled" at Elmira College (NY), Fitchburg State University (MA), Bennett College (NC), Grambling State University (LA), American Military University (WV), Festival International de la Poesie de Trois-Rivieres (Quebec), Martha's Vineyard Regional High School, Walden Pond (MA), etc.   

Perhaps it would of interest to you personally to contemplate what art might be prohibited from the pages of Cape Cod ARTS.

Anyhow, thanks again for your interest!  And indeed I'd be happy to meet.  

G. Tod

From: Matt Gill

Sent: Friday, March 10, 2017 10:22 AM

To: George Slone

Subject: Re: Je suis Charlie et al...

Morning George,

Excellent points made in this letter.

I admire your convictions!

I do see the irony of phrases and philosophies such as "all the arts for all of us," and then, yet, there's exclusion.

However, I cannot take on that particular battle on this particular day (day off).

Have a good weekend George. We'll get coffee some day.

Matt

From: George Slone

Sent: Friday, March 10, 2017 2:40 PM

To: Matt Gill

Subject: Just Say No to Alt-Art!

Matt,

Good enough, though you did not address a number of issues evoked.  When Cape Cod ART opens its gates to alt-opinions and alt-art like mine (don't worry I definitely will not be holding my breath!), then we should on that "some day" have a cup of coffee... or better yet a bottle of champagne!  Bon week-end!  

T.

From: George Slone

Sent: Saturday, April 1, 2017 1:08 PM

To: Matt Gill

Subject: New issue just published...

Hi Matt,

You are mentioned in my editorial for the new issue of The American Dissident, fresh off the press.  The reason for the mention is my unanswered challenge to you:  why not provide 1/8 of a page in Cape Cod ART to criticism of Cape Cod art (and ART)?  That question is of course at the crux of the art problem.  Copies are just $9.  And sorry, you won’t be able to read a copy in any library on the Cape because not one Cape library director is sufficiently open-minded to subscribe, whereas directors of Concord, Newton, Lincoln, and a handful of university libraries (Harvard, Yale, Brown et al) are sufficiently open-minded…

G. Tod

Linda Sarsour

The front cover and editorial for issue #33 of The American Dissident...

Ideology Trumps Reason

O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks (veils) all over their bodies that they may thus be distinguished and not molested.

—Koran 33:59

It seems students in perhaps many universities today are learning to scorn the principles of democracy. And indeed when their professors and academic administrators manifest scorn or at best apathy regarding those principles, how to be surprised?  As an example, my academic bosses, Dr. Gregory Stratman, Dr. Lorna Wheeler, and Dr. Grace Glass, at American Public University System  (American Military University & American Public University) ordered me to cease exercising my purported right to freedom of expression (no threats issued, no prohibited vocabulary used) and refused to provide me with further courses until I’d taken one of their unremunerated, deadly tedious re-education “netiquette” workshops.  Well, I didn’t take the latter and ended up disobeying the order and was thus finally “separated from the university” (their term for fired) after six years teaching for $130 per student head. What I’d done was simply respond to Dr. Dean Givens, a faceless character operating from an unnamed student financial organization, who’d contacted me out of the blue regarding “The few [student] comments I received indicate: sarcasm, racism, bullying, and a ‘flaming’ tone. I urge you to attend a netiquette course immediately.”  So, accused of being a racist bully with a “flaming” tone, I was ordered not to respond!  The irony: the military (and APUS), where absence of free speech, purportedly protects free speech.  Go figure!   

It seems students in perhaps many universities are embracing the inane principle of islamophobia, the fear of Islam. Well, I am definitely islamophobic. The front cover of this issue surely outs me there! Many female students in America celebrate “Wear Hijab Day” in full blissful ignorance that in Iran, for example, females are forced to wear them. When a line of Swedish women with covered skulls walked past Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, UN Watch rightfully called it the “Walk of Shame.” What made it truly shameful was that those women professed to constitute part of the “World’s First Feminist Government”! How aberrant could it possibly get? 

     Standing on the soap box on the front cover is American Muslim national co-chair of the Women’s March, Linda Sarsour, who is openly pro-Sharia Law, which demands not only the head cover, but also submission of females in general.  Islam means submission, not peace.  Now, how did someone like her become a co-chair?  Again, can it get any more aberrant?  Next to her stands  Swedish Trade Minister Ann Linde, who argued: “It is law in Iran that women must wear the veil. One can hardly come here and break the laws.” Some feminist, eh!  Next to her is Swedish Ambassador to Iran Helena Sangeland. On the opposing side is Masih Alinejad, Iran-born journalist in exile in England, who wrote, “By actually complying with the directives of the Islamic Republic, Western women legitimize the compulsory hijab law.” Then depicted is chess champion Nazi Paikidize, who decided against wearing the hijab, thus could not  go to Iran for the Women's World Chess Championship (2017). Kudos to those two women! Not depicted is another heroine, Dorsa Derakhshani, Iranian chess champion, expelled from the national team for refusing to wear the hijab.  Hillary, of course, chose to wear the hijab, but politicians Marine Le Pen (France) and Ingvil Smines Tybring-Gjedde (Norway) refused and thus had their scheduled meetings annulled. Other courageous feminists exist, including Malak Al Shehri (the “Saudi Rosa Parks”), arrested, imprisoned and receiver of many death threats for not covering her head, and Qandeel Baloch, a young Pakistani celebrity, who posted selfies without her head covered, then was strangled to death by her brother in an “honor killing,” who boasted:  “I am proud of what I did. I drugged her first, then I killed her. She was bringing dishonor to our family.”  Hillel Neuer, UN Watch, reasonably argued: “If Sweden really cares about human rights, they should not be empowering a regime that brutalises its own citizens while carrying out genocide in Syria; and if they care about women’s rights, then the female ministers never should have gone to misogynistic Iran in the first place.”  Yes, I am islamophobic!  

On another note, it has been impossible for me to find literary/art magazines willing to publish any of the critical essays or cartoons I create with the exception of Global Free Press, an online Canadian journal. Otherwise, upsetting editors with uncomfortable truths has in fact become my modus operandi: writing or sketching what I know won’t get published, and not because of some fault in the forme, but rather in the fond (substance). And yet I continue probing, as the Literary Letters section at the end illustrates (please do send letters!). And I continue presenting futile challenges like the following to Matt Gill, editor of Cape Cod ART because, well, that’s what I do.

Why not, for example, include just one little page at the end of Cape Cod ART devoted to rare artists on Cape Cod who criticize the art establishment, including you? Or how about 1/8th of a page?  Get my drift? Yours is likely the same “absolutelynot’ism" found in poetry and writing magazines across the country, not to mention newspapers. 

Futile? Of course! I’d sent three of my aquarelles to the guy… and likely he  and the other art judges knew the local pillars of Cape Cod satirized in them. So, why bother? Well, bothering, as mentioned, has become my principle inspiration for writing and sketching.  Well, the guy actually responded, and we had a short back and forth. He terminated the “dialogue” with some compliments:  

Excellent points made in this letter.  I admire your convictions!  I do see the irony of phrases and philosophies such as "all the arts for all of us," and then, yet, there's exclusion. However, I cannot take on that particular battle on this particular day (day off). 

    Of course, his last sentence was bullshit, obfuscating the real reason: he who seeks to keep job and climb the ladder must not “take on that particular battle” on any day, off or on.  Period.  And that was the last I heard from him.  BTW, I voted AGAINST Hillary and didn’t care if Hitler himself were running against her.

For Blind Followers and Hack Surrogates

Trump is a businessman and now a politician.  

He is thus a Machiavellian, not a truth teller.  

He is like Obama and all those who preceded him.  Like it or not! 

Regarding my Sturgis Library battle, I recently engaged in a rather fruitful dialogue de sourds with the director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, James LaRue. Yes, Orwellian definitely comes to mind! Thought-poems created from the ashes of that battle appear on p47. Kudos to John Lauritsen (p10) and David Seidemann (p37) for also creating from the ashes of their particular battles with the establishment!  In any case, everything we humans do, including such battle, is but a diversion away from the reality awaiting each of us: the Black Hole Abyss…    

Wanted: Pro-bono legal assistance. The editor has no civil rights in Barnstable, MA, where he lives, and would be arrested and incarcerated if he attempted to attend a political or cultural event held at Sturgis Library, his neighborhood library.  No due process or trial took place.  The post-facto justification for the permanent banning was “for the safety of the staff and public.” Yeah, dangerous!