$72,000 Basquiat/SAMO Graffiti

Short on the heels of another Jean-Michel Basquiat painting titled Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump selling for more than 100 million dollars this month, someone purchased one of his collaborative SAMO graffiti pieces for 72,000. 

Basquiat sold this month for 110 million dollars

I was a little confused when I saw one of his paintings sell to a Japanese collector for $110 million a few years back. After research, I found the draw of his story and his work intriguing and gained a new appreciation for his paintings. After viewing one of his works in person at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, my admiration of his work grew tenfold.

$110,000,000.00 Basquiat

I understand the draw, but once again find myself a little unsettled at the price of the graffiti sale when I look at it. I know, due to the nature of graffiti in general, most works could never be owned or purchased. However...

$72,000.00 SAMO graffitti

 What do you think? I'd love to hear your opinion.
Jim

Tax Day Protest

I think I'll just leave this here as my little tax day protest.

Tax day is gone

Good riddance I say

Another full year

Before we must pay

Honoring Tax Day, Sergio de Companion’s Blood of Man, comment on taxes and the IRS.

Perhaps overshadowed by the decapitated Statue of Liberty, which unintentionally looks indigenous American, is the true metaphor: Taxes collected by the IRS are the American worker’s blood drained to fill a leaky bucket.  The figure portraying Uncle Sam resembles the old man from the Kansas Leftoverture cover. Also unintentional.

Drawn on a 2017 1040EZ

James M M Baldwin, Sergio de Companion, Jim

It is said, science fiction and fantasy are two separate things. Science fiction; the improbable made possible. Fantasy; the impossible made probable. But what happens when you mix these two opposites? Rod Serling,Twilight Zone The Fugitive 7/9/1962

Born into this mixture between science fiction and fantasy, speculative fiction author James M M Baldwin persists in these endeavors to this day.

After writing three to six hours a night, six nights a week (never on a Sunday), for 15 years, (that’s approximately 21,000 hours), I took a break from writing. From Memorial Day, 2017 to Labor Day, I didn’t write a tittle or a toddle (or a title). I did participate in the Nebraska Writers Workshop’s June Bits of Scripts facilitated by Sally J. Walker. That was a big success this year.

Island of Magic

Portals of Erzandor

You’d think, with that many hours writing I’d have more to show for it. Beside the two novels; SPENCER MURDOCH AND THE PRORTALS OF ERZANDOR and SPENCER MURDOCH AND THE ISLAND OF MAGIC. Beside my science fiction short story collection;  ORION’S ARM: TALES FROM THE MILKY WAY. Beside my horror collection; BEYOND THE VISUAL CORTEX: TALES FROM THE INNER REACHES OF THE MIND. Beside and my long form poetry collection on mental health topics; MENTALCHAOS. Beside the situation comedy, MOCKINGBIRD HEIGHTS, written for the 2016 NWW Bits of Scripts (yes it’s true, sometimes I think I’m funny). And besides turning my short story DREAM HUNTERS into a feature length sci-fi/fantasy/horror script. Besides all that. There’s one thing I’ve accomplished more than any other; rejection.

Beyond the Visual Cortex

Orion's Arm

Pursuing traditional publishing is a tricky path. Convincing an agent or publisher to invest in you is somewhat of a catch-twenty-two. You can’t get them to notice you without a record of successful publishing, and you can’t get that record without getting published (to a certain extent). With that said, Mockingbird Heights’ failure to place in the 2017 Omaha Film Festival (I might not be as funny as I think I am) registered as my 213^th rejection.

I think I've earned a break.

Tatanka, Sergio de Companion

During my hiatus, I finished several large art projects painting under the brush-name Serio de Companion. (If you had read Spencer Murdoch and the Portals of Erzandor, you’d know I stole the name from my own writing.) As Sergio, working religiously every Sunday, I’ve completed hundreds of works, many abstract, recently swinging almost 180 degrees, creating my own lineal contemporary style. I’ve not started counting gallery rejections. Not yet. While continuing my lineal contemporary series, I’m adding a ledger art line matching historical event drawings with antique ledger paper from the same years. If you’re interested in ledger art, take a look at the great Don Montileaux’s website.

Sergio de Companion Ledger Art

Mental Chaos

Another thing I seem to be good at (whether writing or painting) is ideas. I have lots of ideas. I have more ideas than I have time. In my writing que are two more novels and another screen play, but next on my list is my second poetry collection (yet unnamed).

Bottom line, you’ll see more of me in the future. Whether as James M M Baldwin, Sergio de Companion, or just plain Jim, I’ll be lurking around somewhere. You may have to scan a few asteroids. 

Peace and love, brothers and sisters.

Jim

Observing Jackson Pollock

Observing Jackson Pollock
James M M Baldwin

Swirling, dripping, drizzled color
Looming, high and wide
Lost within your intricacies
Overlapping blues and greens
Stepping close you fill my vision
Stepping closer I feel your process
Closer still, I smell the oils,
Turpentine, canvass
Texture, color, curves, spots
Within inches now, fingers twitch,
longing to touch
Over my shoulder
A security guard watches,
intently scrutinizing
I back away
Standing, gazing
Drinking in your wonder


Jackson Pollock Convergence
Albright–Knox Art Gallery
Buffalo, New York

Seagulls at the Walmart

Seagulls at the Walmart
James M M Baldwin

A screeching gull o’er
Rolling tides of ocean waves
Surfers bob in a salty sea
Sandy shores burning the souls of feet

Graceful flight
my heart is longing
days of sun and drifting blue
warm winds kiss my rosy cheeks

But alas, it is Nebraska
At Walmart no less
Nay an ocean a thousand miles
No fishing allowed
in the frozen food section

What brings this majestic bird?
Scavenger though he is
To my corner of the planet
To brighten my day?
To sprinkle morning cheer?

Across fields of wind-blown plastic bags
Beyond corrals of wobbly wheeled carts
Past the puddles of oil stained blacktop
He has come to dine
In the trash bin at the fast food shop


Jim

Swords and Dragons

Swords and Dragons
James M M Baldwin

Dragons deal death upon the land
Raised swords split the sky
Dreams of destiny dance in the dark
Serpents soar above singing sorrowful songs
Demons draw their daggers in deception
Snakes serve a sour justice in a sunless season
Dogs growl, drums direct a stampede
Scarred soldiers draw silver sabers from crimson scabbards
A dance of danger drowns a kingdom in demise
Scarlet sands recite somber stories
Darkness drapes the dead in a desolate shroud
A single sword rises in success
Death defeated
Sovereignty saved

A Frayed Knot

In response to a recent query, an agent wrote that she was afraid not. Aside from the old joke about a rope that’s refused service in a bar, goes outside, has its friend tie it in a loop and unravel its end. It goes back in and the bartender says, “Aren’t you that rope I threw out of here. The rope says, “I’m a frayed knot.” But back to the agent: It seemed an odd thing to say. An agent never admitted to being scared from my query. She was probably just being flippant in her use of an idiom. What she should have said was, “I believe, regrettably, that the answer is no, or “Unfortunately, no; I regret that that is not so.” Technically, the way she phrased it, it means she is not afraid. But no; I’m afraid not. So it’s a “no?” I’m afraid so. The full sentence should have read, “I’m afraid I can not,” something she probably did not want to admit. I had hoped she would be not afraid, but ‘fraid not. In the words of a John Michael Talbot song, I’d offer my dear agent this advice, “Be not afraid.” However, since much of my writing has taken a dark turn lately, maybe it was a subconscious compliment. My words may have actually scared her. Maybe I had written my query too well. But, then again, maybe knot.

What do you think about this fearful word play?
Have you ever been scared by a book?

Thanks
Jim

The Similarity of Differences

The Similarity of Differences
by James M M Baldwin

There is a difference between the swimmer and the dancer,
the football team and the chess team,
the hockey team and the math team,
the softball player and the spelling bee champ.

There’s a difference between the teacher and the student,
the coach and the athlete,
the mentor and the protégé,
the priest and the parishioner.

There’s a difference between the Buddhist and the Scientologist,
the Taoist and the Wiccan ,
the Hindu and the Jew,
the Christian and the Muslim.

There is a difference between the boy and the girl,
the man and the woman,
the mother and the father,
the husband and the wife.

However, within these differences, there is similarity.

There is a similarity between the Down syndrome child and the Rhodes Scholar,
the graduate and the dropout,
the acclaimed and the unknown,
the distinguished and the despised.

There’s a similarity between the prisoner and the free man,
the doctor and the patient,
the beggar and business man,
the lawyer and the criminal.

There’s a similarity between the author and the illiterate,
the artist and the scientist,
the musician and the mathematician,
the poet and the politician.

There is a similarity between the dependent and the self-sufficient,
the child and the parent,
the young and the old,
the unborn and the dying.

We are all the same.
We are human.
We have life.
We live.

So let us live.
Let us live for life itself,

Whether in happiness or misery, poverty or prosperity,
Whether in health or sickness, youth or infirmed,
Whether in joy or sorrow, loved or lonely.

Let us live for life itself,
For we are all the same.
We are human.
We are one.



Original reduction print
We Are Harmony
by Summer Skye Baldwin

Life's Autumn

Life’s Autumn
James M M Baldwin

Silver sunlit rays traverse a lavender sky
A fragile hand clings to life

Purple clouds trimmed in gold hide a setting sun
Hope remains amid enthusiastic prayer

Copper hues dapple autumn leaves
Disease enforces its penalty

Birds speckle the sky departing for southern lands
Loved ones visit but return whence they came

A season ends
Death claims its prize

A distant star lights the dark
A wandering soul finds an eternal home

Writer as Artist

In an e-conversation, a friend of mine, Doug Sasse, asked if I've noticed the similarities between writing and drawing?

This really got me thinking because, as an artist and a writer, I've often pondered this.

In both mediums you are telling a story. You put thousands of little marks on a blank surface to produce a final product. Both forms take hours to produce. You know what they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words." But there is one major difference between the two. With writing, the reader spends hours, days, sometimes weeks absorbing your work. On the other hand, with a painting or drawing, you spend hours and hours producing the work and the viewer usually gets the entire story in a few seconds. Sometimes they might spend a minute examining the work, but never much more.

Continuing our conversation, my friend clarified his opinion on the subject with the following.

Both mediums start with an idea or a subject. You sketch in broad strokes, blocking in the structure. Structure is important in both mediums. Each element has to not only stand on its own, but work with the other elements to be successful. I think they call that Gestalt. Drawing uses different values of light and dark, just as does character development. But then once the basic structure is in place, you refine, refine, refine, until you've completed all of the details. Drawing is a right-brain exercise; writing is, to a large extent, also a right-brained exercise, requiring intuition and creativity. In the end, both mediums create something artificial that, ironically, enhance its creator’s ability to see the world, while providing the viewer a greater appreciation of reality.

I'd like to thank my friend and fellow Nebraska Writers Workshop participant Doug Sasse for initiating this dialogue and giving my cause to think.

What do you think?

Jim