Gathering Storms

"Gathering Storms," 16" x "20 acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas

Violence seems to rule our lives these days, at home and in the world, as storms gather on all horizons.

The only places where people are smiling, completely out of touch with reality, are in the stupid TV commercials, trying to sell happiness, no matter the product.

Gathering storms--the war in Ukraine, with a real threat of another world war on the horizon. The infuriating proof of the Jan. 6 treasonous riot at the capitol, with another coup threatened. The string of mass shootings, as the NRA ownership of Congress, looms as more disaster at anyplace, anytime. The variant spreading pandemic, and climate change threatening human extinction. 

I find relief and peace from the maelstrom of threats and bad news only in reading the insights of religious mystics, in happy moments with families, in traveling the back roads, and in painting.

Even it takes effort to shake off the gathering storms. But again, I somehow returned to the valiant colors of The Ukraine, in a similar effort to my earlier smaller watercolor, "Storm Over Freedom."

Here it is, after a week of work, dedicated again to the Ukrainians fighting for freedom and survival against the war criminal Russians and their neo-Hitler.

"We will survive," Calm before Storm, and Ukraine's colors

"We Will Survive, dedicated to the Ukraine, 24 x 30 acrylic on canvas

 Finished. My largest painting, "Calm Before the Storm."

While it was in progress I noticed it featured the colors of Ukraine, battling the monstrous Russian invasion. 

So my title has changed, "We will Survive."

As most have on the Great Plains of America, through hardship, drought and violent weather. 

This will be available in two weeks at  my @InYourEyeStudio&Gallery and in time for the @Paseo Arts District  Arts Festival May 28-30.

Dedicated to the real patriots, not with words, but fighting with their lives in Ukraine. Death to tyrants, here and everywhere.

Which country is next?

Russian Rape of Ukraine, 5 x 7 watercolor

Eight years ago, March 5, 2014, I did this watercolor after the Russian Hitler invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea. Now it's the rest of the country. Remind you of someone back in 1939?

Which country is next? This is how WWII started. The rape of Ukraine shows history always repeats itself. Too bad the war criminal Putin hasn't been assassinated. Though his puppet pal tRump would be sad.

Why, as the year ends?-I

My journals, ten years ago, for the most popular post this December, "Toasting the Passage of Time"

Ten years ago, as this blog completed its first year of existence, I posted an account of the journals I keep, "Toasting the Passage of Time."
It raises questions, somehow appropriate today, as that post has been searched 2,311 times this month, for some reason, out of a total 5,510 December clicks on the blog, again for some reason with 2,667 of those from readers in Russia--only 732 of those readers from the USA.
The Russian readers began concentrating after I posted December 15 about a large number of Ukrainian readers, Glory to the Ukraine and still they outnumber Americans with 1,481 reads. (These figures will change before this day is out.)
More on the state of the blog, after more than 10 years, later.
Here's that ten-year-old post: Toasting the Passage of Time

Glory to Ukraine!

"Invaded Again," 5 /12 by 8 watercolor from 2014--See "Blood and Bars" below

I don't know why, but hundreds of Ukrainians have been clicking on this blog in the last month and week, more than readers in America.
For some reason in previous years, blog readers in Ukraine have consistently ranked about fourth or fifth as the blog's total audience, but these numbers have recently soared. More than 1,900 in the last 30 days, and almost 1,000 of those in the last week.
I'm wondering if these freedom-loving, often suppressed people are worried about their country's future in the Trump Ukraine scandal, and if his friendship with Russia's dictator Putin will bode more threats to their freedom.
It's nothing new for a country whose name can be roughly translated "borderlands," already invaded by Putin in the east, and remembering other despots from Stalin to Hitler and most recently Putin in 2014. (Russian readers of the blog rank second over the years behind the U.S., but only 257 in the last month.)
I blogged and painted about that when it happened. Since then, we have terrific new neighbors, across the back fence, Ukrainians Aleksandr and Iryna, also a watercolor artist. 
I've read that most Ukrainians are trying to ignore the Trump impeachment proceedings, wanting nothing to do with it. They need our and international support to fend off more Russian atrocities. 
Still they gather to remember the Maidan protests from Nov. 2013, which started peacefully, ending with 100 killed by riot police in Kiev's Maidan--Independence Square. 
You can read my previous articles on Ukraine in the three links below.
In the meantime, here's a salute to their citizens, who have lots of experience with dictators, and value their freedom.
I asked my neighbors how you said "Viva Ukraine!" in their language. Iryna responded with what translates to "Glory to Ukraine!" In their alphabet, it looks like this.

Слава Україні!

Here are my blog posts:

• Saluting Ukraine
• Invaded Again, Blood and Bars
• Flags of Invaded, Occupied and Free

 

Blogging right along...unanswered questions

I don't understand a lot about blogging, even though I've been at it for years. 
In fact, don't even ask me why I blog--multiple reasons perhaps, and I'm not sure I know the answers.
Two questions cropped up this week.
The first was over the weekend when a reader from war-torn Syria clicked on my blog, representing the 141st country in my roll call of visitors.

What is happening in Syria is a humanitarian tragedy, dictatorship, civil war, global conflict (Russia and the U.S.), and global terrorists (ISIS).
In America, hate groups (so-called Christians against everything Jesus was about) are targeting, for selfish, political reasons only, Syrian refugees--poor people desperate to get out, leaving behind homes and families to get to safety. 

Official flag

Rebel flag

I just wonder who this person is who had time and security to click on my blog, and why? Fact, the capital of Syria, Damascus, is the oldest continuously occupied city in the world. It's also where the Apostle Paul sojourned.
Today, Syria has about 23 million people. Arabic is spoken by about 85 percent. Nine percent of the population is Kurdish, in the northeast, the most displaced, under represented ethnic group in the world--I think--along with the Palestinians. It has two flags--one of the "Republic," and one of the opposition, the rebels. I admit, as a Southerner, I understand "rebels."

Today's blog traffic, and popular posts

My second question today had to do with blog traffic. I'm a first-born Capricorn journalist, so I'm competitive. I always check the readership stats on my blog, and today 243 people clicked on it. Notice the day has already ended, about 6 p.m., something else I don't understand.

Today's country traffic

I wonder why. I didn't even post. I also clicked on which posts got the most traffic. One thing I learned long ago is if I mention trains, I get more traffic. I didn't mention trains today, but past posts still get traffic. So "All aboard!"
And, for the reader in Syria, regardless of which side...Shalom. Americans don't hate you. Thank you.

The Russian bear awakens from hibernation

The bear has awakened from hibernation and is hungry.

Grizz is my totem, ursa horriblis, the dominant carnivore in the northern hemisphere. I think it is no accident that the bear is the symbol of Russia.

Recent actions by Russia, in the Ukraine, and now in Syria, and who knows where else, make us Americans uncomfortable. We may be the world's only "superpower," but we don't like, and fear, competition. 

I grew up in the Cold War, afraid of Russian ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) coming over the north pole. We even had evacuation plans, extra food ready to load,  and took part in exercises from Albuquerque...figuring we had 45 minutes before being hit to reach the Sandia Mountains. In high school speech class, my memorized oration was about "detente" and the fear of nuclear war. We feared the bear.

We feared the bear

I'm wondering why more people from Russia have clicked on this blog in the past few days than those from other countries, including America. 

Bears are confident, territorial, proud, and survivors. A mere eagle is not a  match, really more of a scavenger. What have we been able to do in the face of Russian "aggression" in Ukraine and Syria? Nothing, and that has nothing to do with politics. Short of war, sending American soldiers to die, we're powerless.

Any country that can lose 10 million people in a war, and still be a world power, has to be reckoned with, or at least respected. The crack "Red Army" defeated Hitler, and fell into decay. No longer. Grizz's claws are long. You can't outrun it. 

Americans forgot that when we "won" the Cold War. But the bear has only been hibernating.

Saluting Ukraine--fighting for survival

I painted this back in March, when Russia's dictator Putin invaded this peaceful land, annexing part of it. The struggle continues and innocent people are suffering. It symbolizes the Ukraine's flag, being invaded by blood and bars.

I reprint this to call attention to those brave people who so value freedom, trying, alone, to withstand the new Hitler. They serve as examples for us Americans who take our freedoms too much for granted, I think.
During the past week, there have been more readers of this blog from Ukraine than any other country, save the U.S.  Now I know the following term is also the name of one of Ukraine's political parties, but this is merely a salute to your dedication to 
"Freedom."
Свобода
Svoboda

Thank you.

Ukraine, again invaded--the Cold War II

I painted this and wrote this article back in March, before the Russian militarists and their dictator KGB Putin, put 15,000 Russian troops and tanks  on the border, sent separatists, missiles to shoot down innocent civilians, and started the second Cold War

I don't care what we say, it has started. But as with all "Cold" wars, people suffer, and the people of Ukraine suffer, and more than one there read this blog.
Here's the link: Invaded again, blood and bars

Invaded again--blood and bars

Invaded again--5 1/2 by 8 1/2 watercolor, 140# d'Arches

The crisis in Ukraine and Crimea is nothing new...the strategic area has been invaded and occupied over and over, from the Turks, to the Russians, to the Nazis, to the Soviets, and now after a few years of independence, again the Russians
The Russians, with Putin pulling the same prevarications  Hitler did in Europe years ago (we've got to protect the ethnic Russians), are bullying their way back into Empire, and innocent, free people will suffer.
For some reason, this crisis is very personal to me. Thus today's painting. The blue and yellow of Ukraine's flag, being swallowed by tyranny's red flag, with bars looming.
I have readers of this blog in Ukraine, and wrote about them a year ago: The Ukraine.

Ukraine's flag was adopted in 1918 in its short lived Ukrainian People's Republic, following the Russian Revolution, but was later changed to red and red-blue flags as part of the USSR. It was officially restored in 1992 following independence, and flag day has been celebrated since 2004 on Aug. 23.

The colors symbolize the blue skies and golden wheat fields of the steppes, but the first representations of the colors for the Ukraine go back to pre-Christian times for ceremonies and represented fire and sky.
I remember growing up that one of my fellow high school students was a blond-haired girl who had Ukrainian royal blood. Her parents and grandmother had fled the Soviets.  That made the threat of communism very real to me.

Color for a gray day

Where footsteps and time blur...5 by 7 watercolor, 140# d'Arches

Yes, the sun was out, and bright on the snow.
But around the world and in Oklahoma, it was a gray day. And more winter weather is coming.
 We're about to see Russia swallow an independent Ukraine, with Putin using the same tactics Hiter did in Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. And the world is powerless. Putin is the new Hitler.
And in Oklahoma, the narrow-minded legislature and puppet governor Fallin are attacking the arts, science  and education, cutting funds, stifling creativity, gutting the quality of life and future for normal people, and the good of the state as a whole. They are the new  "No-Nothings," sending us back into new Dark Ages.
It's hard to be anything but disturbed or depressed. 
We need color in our lives more than ever, and thus today's painting, where the colors run together and our footsteps and time blur.

A flag of a poor but feisty and free country

Readers of my blog come from countries often in the news, and especially these past few days, when the government of Moldava collapsed and the prime minister resigned, with charges of corruption helping bring the end to the government.
I have no idea why citizens of that very poor, but country of a long history, read the blog, but it heartens me that they do, and have the gumption to overturn a government not serving them.

The region goes back to the 14th Century and was independent until 1859 when it became part of Romania. Since then it's been part of Romania, the Ottoman Empire, and in the 20th Century, it was one of the socialist republics of the USSR. With that collapse it became an independent republic in 1991. In recent years it has tried to move away from Russian influence to try to join the European Union, but this latest news is a setback for that, since the communist party was instrumental in the ousting of the prime minister. The country is also very dependent on Russia for many citizens work in Russia.  That's the news in a nutshell, and you can check the link at the bottom for Reuters' report on the events.
The country is divided with some territory in Romania and  some in the Ukraine, but still it is free and feisty. Its flag is identical to the Romanian flag, except it carries the country's coat of arms in the middle.

News link on the government turmoil:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013%5C03%5C09%5Cstory_9-3-2013_pg4_4