I am too old for this shit

Double page spread in the large Dina journal. 

I still feel it needs more work, but uncertain of what to do so left it

In a Dylusions 9x12 journal

Opposite page

Back to the Dina large journal. Was tempted to stop here

Added writing about the chaos

Added a bit of stamping and some white highlights. Done.

This is in a Canson Mixed Media journal and my favorite so far

I have finished the Fun with Abstracts class, and highly recommend it. It is relaxing, fun and informative. When I couldn't take any more news, or conversations about this country I hit the art studio and just played with paint. Evaluate, paint, and try not to think too much about it.

I am old enough to remember the year 1968 vividly. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr in April. Rev. King had gone to Memphis to help with the sanitation strike after 2 black workers had been killed. The escalation of the Vietnam war and the realization that someone was lying about what was really happening in that entire region. The assassination of Robert Kennedy in June, after he won the California primary as the Democratic candidate. President Lyndon Johnson announcing he would not run for a second term. Nixon as the Republican candidate looking like a crook from the get go. And the country blazed and burned. Protests were global. Against the war, against oppression. The Democratic convention was in Chicago, my home town. Richard J Daley was mayor, one of the last bosses of old style politics. Young men and women flooded into Chicago to voice anger over the establishment that was fueling the war, and not changing fast enough.  Riots, arrests, deaths.

"take a sad song, and make it better." sang the Beatles. It was the summer of Hey, Jude. And with all of the anger, chaos, arguments, we all sang the chorus of na na na nanana na. Because there was hope. Because we KNEW we could make it better. Baby boomers had been educated, we were well read, rounded, and had logic. There was hope.

I have no hope today. I am scared. I am terrified of what our society has become. That we have a President who praises armed white men who invaded a state legislature in Michigan, but calls black/white/latino protesters thugs. That he calls white supremacists "good people" and sneers at one of the finest Presidents this country ever elected, Barack Obama.  And that for whatever reason we have police that think it is just dandy to target people of color.

I hug my dogs and play in my art studio. When I venture out if I encounter racism, I will speak up. One voice at a time. That is what it will take. Just one voice.
Linda