Home...eight days 'til Christmas

"Sanctuary," 5 x 7 watercolor Christmas card

"I'll be home for Christmas...if only in my dreams." 

That 1943 song recorded by Bing Crosby, written by lyricist Kim Gannon and composer Walter Kent, captured the emotion and hopes of all those American servicemen in the anger and violence of remote WWII, so far away from the warmth and safety of loved ones.

It still does for so many people, perhaps even more, scattered  around the world though the years, or threatened by danger and violence of war and homelessness.

Last week on a cold day, I saw a homeless person huddled in a sleeping bag at the corner of Penn and Memorial. Near downtown recently, we saw a homeless camp of tents not far from the sparkling lights of OKC's "Renaissance." In Ukrainians, their homes are being bombed. I wonder what their Christmas dreams are like, what kind of "Holy-day" they are having.

For me, with my children and grandchildren so far away, at least I can see and talk to them through modern technology, and enjoy the love of in-laws. Long ago, returning from a Culp cousin reunion in East Texas, I wrote a poem of my thoughts during this season that  includes these lines:

 "Driving in East Texas is like going back into the womb.

It's warm, and wet, and ... green.

Where families are born, and grow, and spread out like runners 

from the ivy growing up the trunks of the hardwoods, 

across miles and years."

So as we approach Christmas eight days from now, with our "decorations so bright," let us savor the sanctuary of "home," and be thankful and enjoy every second and loved ones, remembering those who can't. 

This card captures those emotions for me, the warmth and joy of adobe, red chilis and a Christmas wreath on a white Christmas.

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.

"When there is no peace"--Ukraine and U.S.A.

"Storm Over Freedom," 8 x 10 watercolor, 140 lb. Fabriano cold press paper

 "They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying,'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace."--Jeremiah 6-14

The colors of Ukraine keep unintentionally cropping up when I paint something these days.

That must be how deep in by subconscious the Russian war crimes against freedom  have me occupied.

Thus came to mind the verse from Jeremiah while I painted, but then it's obviously appropriate for America, this so called Independence Day.

The United States of Afraid, and Anger.

We are more divided that anytime since the Civil War, and there is no civility surviving in this country, in governments, in speech, in media, or in the streets. Right-wing "pro" lifers have rammed their vehicles onto protestors. Right-wing bigots have  threatened and  disrupted a patriotic parade in Texas with a decorated Marine as grand master. Mass shootings and murders are the norm, not the exception. 

What are we "free" from?

Where is the "Peace"? 

Today's painting was supposed to be titled, "Storm a' Coming." Not today, that I think about it. 

"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.

White unto Harvest the colors of Ukraine

Behold, the fields are white unto harvest, 12 x 12 acrylic 

“Behold, the fields are white unto harvest,” and then suddenly colors of freedom loving #Ukraine, blues and yellows only just happened. Life to freedom. Death to tyrants and their USA toadies.

Palette knives, on gallery wrapped canvas. Soon available at In Your Eye Studio and Gallery in Paseo Arts District

Full Moon Rising

"Full Moon Rising," 9 x 12 acrylic on canvas panel

Look at the moon.

When I need hope for today, for a future, in these dark days of war and hatred, of discrimination and unfairness, of propaganda and politics, of inhumanity and hypocrisy, in  Ukraine or the United States or even Oklahoma, we need hope. When helpless amid war crimes against a country, or hate crimes against races, or political crimes against genders and religions and beliefs and words,  I treasure nature, and especially the moon.

No, it won't make any of those attacks on our humanity go away. But it's one light in the darkness that we need so much...a reminder that we are brief, that you can count on nature, that creation can be beautiful in spite of us. And that is hope.

Today's painting. No matter humanity or its lack of humanity,  the full moon will rise.

Remember Home?

"Homestead Memories," 12 x 12 acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas

Where did you grow up? Was there an old family home? 

I was thinking of that this past week as more than a half-million freedom-loving people were being driven from their homes in Ukraine. Their flight for survival means leaving possessions and memories behind as a Russian tyrant invades and commits war crimes. Real patriots are fighting  and dying for real freedom there.

Meanwhile, in America, spoiled, selfish and shallow so-called patriots, in convoys and on street corners and in public meetings are protesting vaccination and mask mandates as violating their cherished inconsequential "freedoms."  It would be laughable if it weren't so stupid and tragic. That tells you all you need to know about what's wrong with America these past very few years. 

This anger has been brewing inside me for longer than the Russian invasion, but the character and courage of the Ukrainian people contrasts so strongly with these people who are wrecking America. They're causing a ruckus over masks and then go home to their air-conditioned  homes. Pathetic.

It's time for Americans to remember what is important, like the old home place. I didn't know it when I started this painting, but it is in response to my emotional reactions to all of this.

Thoughts took me down Oklahoma's back roads, though small towns, seeing the many frame houses, some still occupied, others abandoned, all carrying stories and memories.

Thus the painting, palette knives and brushes. Soon available at In Your Eye Studio & Gallery at Paseo Arts District.

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

 

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.

The blog at 130 "countries"--Las Vegas east

• 2-14--Palestine
• 5-14--El Salvador
• 8-14-Albania
• 8-14--Liechtenstein
• 10-3--Macau

I am continually amazed at the people around the world who click on this blog--I wish I knew who they were, and their stories. More than a year ago, I started running short posts about those countries, with brief histories, maps, stories and photos, but got "blogged" down.

And frankly, being a goal-oriented type A journalist, I slacked off because I assumed I'd about reached the limit of reach for Coffee with Clark.
I do check the stats on the blog almost daily, and have been meaning to write about more readership from Ukraine and Hong Kong, those places where freedom is under attack from authoritarian despots and brave people are risking their lives for what we Americans take for granted. More on that later.
But this week, a reader from Macau, the former Portuguese colony near Honk Kong, became someone from the 130th  country to at list click on the blog. Macau, a former hell-hole of sin, was ceded back to China in 1999 the same year Britain give up Hong Kong, which is only 64 kilometers east of it.

Macau's flag

It, with Hong Kong, is one of the two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China. With an estimated population of around 624,000 in an area of 31 square kilometers, it is the most densely populated region on the planet.
It is also the richest, and in 2006 became the world's largest gambling center, dwarfing Las Vegas.
Communist authoritarian China leaves it alone, at least so far, because of the the money (as it has Hong Kong until the current crisis.) Under the policy of "one country, two systems," China is responsible for the defense and foreign affairs, while Macau maintains its own legal system, police force, monetary system, customs policy, and immigration policy.
At the top of this post are the other countries where citizens have clicked on the blog for the first time this year--Palestine (another area of suffering), El Salvador, Albania and Liechtenstein.
If you're interested, here is my earlier post on Hong Kong from March a year ago.

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

Flags, and stories of the invaded, occupied, free

 The world is full of countries that have been independent, occupied, and freed over the centuries. Among the readers of today's blogs are citizens of two of those countries, and I've experienced stories involving both--The Philippines and  Ukraine.
The Philippines have a long history and were colonized and settled by the Spanish, taken over by America, and occupied by the Japanese.

The flag is integral to that history. As a result of the Spanish American War, the country became a U.S. Territory  but the revolutionaries who had fought Spain under the flag, then declared war on America. Most hostilities ended in 1902, but some continued until 1913. In 1916 the U.S. passed the Philippine Autonomy Act, pledging independence. It was partially granted in 1935, but WWII interrupted, and Americans suffered more than 62,000 casualties and 13,000 deaths in the war against the Japanese. The Philippines were granted complete independence in 1946.
That history is vivid to me because years ago a friend of our newspaper was a doctor who had survived the Bataan Death March. His stories were chilling
The flag is different in that it twice as long as wide. The eight primary rays of the sun represent the first group of provinces to start the 1898 revolution against Spain. The three stars represent the country's three regions, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. White for equality and fraternity; blue for peace, truth and justice; red for patriotism and valor. The white and sun symbolize unity, freedom, peoples democracy and sovereignty. If the country is at war, the red stripe goes on top.

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.