I Have A Face For Radio

At 9AM Thursday October 1, Michael Kahn, special legal counsel to the City of St. Augustine will be on hand for First Coast Connect , Melissa Ross' program on National Public Radio affiliate ,WJCT FM 89.9. Artist Greg Travous aka Suvo will also be in the studio for this discussion and call in show. Whatever position you hold, call the number (904) 549-2937 and make it a lively show.

You may catch the program on streaming audio no matter where you live so try to tune in right here, OK?

City Hall Thriller

"I seen this before, I mean I read about it in a Plastic Man comic!" Rodney was an excitable guy who did sidework cleaning offices after hours. "I was nosin' around the City Hall closets lookin for this awful stink and there they were man!" He was shaking like a child in the rain.

"Hold on Rod ,what are you talking about?"I said, trying to calm him down. "Circe changes Plastic Man into an animal and now I seen it myself. Mr. Harris the City boss was turnin into a big ole hog!"

"Wait a minute!"I interrupted. "Are you trying to tell me that Marvel comics is ripping off story lines from the Iliad?"

"No! I mean ,what am I gonna do? I cant go back there! Man it was creepy.....It looked right at me with this half smile and there was another one half asleep and completely changed lyin' right next to him. That one was real pale, so I think it was the city attorney Mr. Brown!"

Rodney has been known to partake of the giggle juice quite frequently but he seemed stone sober tonight. "Man this has got me wound up like a douche" "What?" I said. "You know, from the Manfred Mann song." "No Rod, I think that it's 'wrapped up like a deuce'. Rod stopped shivering "That doesn't make sense",said Rod. "Well neither does............never mind! Just go home , get some sleep and do not ,I repeat, do not tell anyone what you saw until I talk with you again,Ok? ""You betcha." said Rodney who had fairly composed himself. He squinted and looked beyond my shoulder.I knew what was coming."Hey, I know I owe you a bunch already but you got ten dollars to spare?" I gave Rod two fives knowing that he's going to head over to the nearest guzzle joint on St. George Street. He'll repeat his tale and everyone will laugh except maybe a guy at the end of the bar paying close attention and wearing a city meter reader uniform. Rodney, for my benefit,had the courtesy to head in a westerly direction away from the tavern. He'll double around to the bar a block after he's out of my sight. Poor little guy. He just may have seen his last livestock. Guys like Rodney aren't missed much when they are not around. Let him have his shot and a beer or two. I'll check on him tomorrow at his hundred dollar a week fleabag over off San Marco............To be Contd

It Cant Happen Here?

Painting by YAQUI LEGEND

Mandolin Wind

Last night things were hoppin' at the big old 1890 house on Grove Street where firedancers, musicians, artists, singers , cats, dogs, the high standing and the lowdown (you know who you are) were all mixing it up at Quigley' s party. The sounds of the harmonica, mandolin and Spanish guitars went on until the wee hours. No neighbor complaints and the designated drivers got everyone home, as far as we know. A slight headache this morning will be cured with Tylenol and Krystal's grits with cheese will absorb anything. Who was the person who called out a request for "Muskrat Love" by Captain and Tenile? We may be older and unhip but forget about an invitation next year. Ok , just kidding. everybody loves you...but ....come on!

I Do Not Like Lotteries!

I've never bought a state lottery ticket and I sometimes get irritated standing in line waiting, while the sweet old lady blows fifty dollars of her Social Security money on the latest gimmicky promotion to Easy Street. That said, I'm not about to pay seventy five dollars a month to the City of St. Augustine for a chance to set up my art in the slave market, vying for room next to "Rheumy Eyed Joe" or "Snickers", also known as "Crackboy". These guys have every right to be there and it is unfair of the city using the artists as vigilantes ,evicting the homeless.

I will not cite cases here indicating that First Amendment activities cannot be lotterized and licensing schemes are illegal codes that are clearly prior restraints on first amendment activity. Read enough of these cases like I have and you will just throw up your arms and say , "F@#k it. I'm going to the beach!"

The city licensing office had two applicant artists for the six "performer" spots in the market making the first lottery a non exciting event, being that we know the outcome in advance. I was imagining the City Comptroller, Mark Litzinger regally coming down the steps at the designated time of two Pm and reaching into a large fishbowl held by Barbara. The names on the two slips of paper were posted on the outside door as lottery winners . The "winners" then have three hours to get to City Hall to pay the seventy five dollars and get photographed or forfeit their spot for the month. When asked if a person could call on the phone to see if their name is drawn, Barbara was unsure. It did not seem fair that someone in Jacksonville would have to..........wait a minute! Fair?! What am I thinking? This city administration openly and blatantly violates artist's rights by throwing them in jail and I'm grousing about their unfairness? Criminal behaviour is what they are perpetrating and City Manager Harriss and City attorney Brown know it.

So, I've saved myself seventy five bucks and made my own license (see above). It's every bit as valid as theirs, ..........no...., more so, since I didn't force myself to obtain it . *

By the way, like many businesses nowdays, the art selling business is slack as well. So if you are interested in a license of any sort I'd be willing to issue one to you after you give me a good story as to why you need it. Just a small fee. I can be found in the Plaza.

* I have tax certificates in four states ....artists pay taxes too.

Archaeology in The Plaza

The City of St. Augustine is soon to bury some power lines in the Plaza de la Constitucion. Prior to this excavation, the archaeology people are doing some sample digs in the area. The first dug pit is on the east side of the Plaza with the Episcopal Church just across King Street. Look closely at the bottom left of the picture and you can see an archaeologist digging . That's him to the left of the bucket. Nothing much found so far, but the layers indicate that the original Plaza "floor" (1588) was about three feet lower than it is now.

Goodbye Mary

Mary Travers (1936 - 2009) died of leukemia today.She was one third of Peter Paul and Mary.Generation X and Generation Y may not know them but those of us who are the early baby boomers (starting in 1946) remember them well. Mary was the cool looking blonde between the hip, goateed, suit wearin' acoustic guitar players.Singularly they were good , together they were fantastic (like Lennon & McCartney)They had strong beliefs behind their "message" music and lived accordingly.Just look at Mary singin up there.....I'm an infatuated fourteen year old again.She was something wasn't she?

Bad Pollster..Dana St. Clair

At Monday night's circus of a City commission meeting, hired gun ,self styled constitutional expert Michael Kahn had newly appointed Heritage and Tourism director Dana St. Clair give sworn testimony that the artists in the Plaza detract from the "visitor experience." St. Clair stated that he has talked with many tourists and he found none that approved of artists in the Plaza. He specifically referred to the artists...not the merchandise vendors. According to a number of locals, Mr St. Clair has a habit of "grossly mislead(ing) the public and to infiltrate government both with misrepresentations and by seeking public office in yet one more attempt to better care for his business."Here and Here
Mr. St. Clair no doubt was part of the VIP entourage a few weeks ago when Haiti's ambassador to Washington, Raymond Joseph was in town for a commemoration of Haitian General Georges Biassou*
Later in the evening, Ambassador Joseph, a soft spoken gentlemen, sought out the three artists exiled away to the SW corner of the Plaza, apart from the flea market vendors. His entourage, with state senators and local politicos, passed by earlier and he saw something that interested him.
Mr. Joseph's wife wife is an accomplished artist and we discussed Haitian Art,Hypolite, the artistic influence of Rousseau and the old Hotel Oloffson.He purchased a colorful painting of a fish for his wife, promising that it would hang in his home in Washington as a memory of his stay in St. Augustine. Avoiding the flea market vendors her returned to his room at Casa Monica with the painting.
So we ask you Mr.St. Clair....do you think that Ambassador Howard's "visitor experience" was marred by the three artists in the Plaza?

*According to Wenda Parkinson (1978). in her book,"This Gilded African. "London: Quartet Books ,the General bought a large plantation near St. Augustine farmed, ironically, by slaves, but he drank both his land and his money away and died in a brawl when drunk as was his usual state. What say we leave that off the plaque.

The Counterfeits

Donald Crichlow, Nancy Sikes-Klein, Joseph Boles, Errol Jones, Leanna Freeman

City of St. Augustine City Commission


"You must pay for conformity. All goes well as long as you run with conformists. But you, who are honest men in other particulars, know that there is alive somewhere a man whose honesty reaches to this point also, that he shall not kneel to false gods, and, on the day when you meet him, you sink into the class of counterfeits."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

Story

Very Sad

The City Commission last night voted unanimously to prohibit artistry (the creation of visual art) and art sales in the nation's oldest park, The Plaza de la Constitucion. An amendment was made to refer to visual artists as "street performers" and this seems to satisfly the commission. The Federal courts protect visual artists and their wares as "fully protected" First amendment wise whereas street performers do not have such protection. This is their awkward way of defying a recent Federal Court order.

These meetings and the three minute public comments beforehand are simply an illusion of public participation. The commissioners who are sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution purposely vote in a blatantly unconstitutional "law" knowing that the artists have limited resources and energy to take it to court again. If we did...they would lose and once again write an illegal ordinance......after all it's not their money.

According to a bronze plaque in the S.E. corner of the Plaza,the Plaza de la Constitucion is where the British hung John Adams in effigy, yet they permitted the Patriot captors to celebrate the Fourth of July in the same location. Martin Luther King rallied his supporters there in '64 and the infamous KKK held nightime rallys against equal rights during the same time period. Recently, President Obama's inauguration was celebrated in The Plaza. One commissioner called it a "partisan "rally and wanted to disallow it. As the Supreme Court has written "Public parks are quintessential public forums where citizens may engage in constitutionally protected expression"

To those who continually harp that the sale of artwork is "commercial activity" and is not permitted, we say......this is opinion contrary to well established case law. Your "opinion" does not change this.

This "law" will be passed on 9-14

Freedom Erodes

On Cathedral Place and St. George

Here is a man delivering his message last Saturday. This will be declared illegal on September 14. The First Amendment dies.

Anger Management Candidate

St. Augustine City Commissioner Errol Jones

Jones, who likes to present himself as a leader from the 60's civil rights movement here in St. Augustine, regularly comes down to the Plaza de la Constitucion. He is usually in a particular state that propels him to start arguments and throw his 135 pounds around while flashing his gold plated commissioner badge and wearing his custom made polo shirts with "The Commish' emblazoned on the breast (very cute). Unfortunately he has no compunction against agressive confrontation angrily using the 'F' word and being loud with Mom, Dad and the kids walking past. At yesterday's city commission meeting, Errol showed only a slight example of his temper when he said on camera to Suvo, the artist "YOU'RE A LIAR! HA HA HA" Rarely have we ever seen Suvo speechless.

What Would Krishna Do?

13 foot wide chariot on a 6 ft wide sidewalk

BOTTLENECK!

On Saturday, the Plaza contained the motley crew of flea market vendors hawking their trinkets without concern to the grass, the din that they create or the foot traffic that they disrupt. Chasing the tourist dollar was all important. The best thing Saturday was the return of Festival of the Chariot.This festival originated in India, where it is known as "Ratha Yatra," and is still held yearly in many cities throughout India. Vegetarian food was served and it was a nice event, though the attendance has been dropping regularly over the past three years. The organizers told me that they definitely get a chill from the city administration who would prefer that they hold the event on the edge of town at treeless Francis Field.

The three artists who set on Saturday have been self exiled away from the dozen mercantile vendors. They have been setting up their exhibits on the northeast corner of the Plaza, away from the plastic beads , hot dogs,used shoes and even kitchen sinks for sale (not kidding!). A festival coordinator told us that the hand pulled chariot was to follow the route of other years ,as published in the St. Augustine Record. (down Cordova, Orange, Castillo, St. Francis, Cordova, back to King Street and conclude at the plaza.) Instead, the city rerouted the 3/4 mile parade from Cathedral, down the Plaza sidewalk where the artists had set up along the sidewalk, ending at a bottleneck at the Constitutional Monument. Instead of the traditional .75 mile parade, it ended 30 yards from where it started. The chariot float is 13 feet wide and the sidewalk is six feet wide. Why would the city do this? Take a look at the picture above, the float is behind.This was the bottleneck. We artists have always worked with the festival but no one informed us of a route change with a gargantuan colorful chariot heading our way.Even after moving our artworks the guys had to pull it off into the grass because shrubbery did not permit passage. The city surely had their photographers there and we are sure to see these pictures again with commentary on how "the artists cause impediment to passage through the Plaza .""This is the first time they altered our route, it really wasn't a parade as it is supposed to be," said a participant who didn't want his named used."This was not our idea".

Be Back Soon

Richard Childs & Karl

Art In The Market artist,Richard Childs is now in Upstate New York displaying and selling his works on the streets and sidewalks of Saratoga Springs causing that city to rethink illegal ordinances that ban this activity. "We don't arrest artists here", says city attorney Michael Englert.

Big Apple Weekend !

Art InTheMarket Photographer Elena Hecht and husband David

Elena and David have departed today for Manhattan. They will be visiting with art vendors in the WestVillage and Chelsea. As usual, Elena will have her ever present camera bandalero'd over her shoulder. We wish that they could bring back a hot dog and a papaya drink from Gray's Papaya or Papaya King but they do not travel well. (......the food, that is)

Charles Is The One With The Sign

Art InThe Market artists Charles Dickinson and Deb Boon

Charles and Deb are on their annual New England plein air painting vacation. The Salty Dog Gallery in Southwest Harbor Maine had a weekend show , August 6 of Charles' works . Our question is.......is that Charles' hand in the picture* or is someone thrusting a wine gass in Charles' direction.*Doesn't look right, kinda creepy looking.

Pensacola Appreciates Artists

Photo by B. Graner Art In The Market artist Ouigley wearing a tie!

Last weekend, Pensacola Florida celebrated the wrap up of it's 450th Birthday.Quigley, who spent nearly a month in Pensacola in May completing a series of 10 paintings depicting the 450 years of Pensacola's history explained his detailed paintings before an enthusiastic crowd at the charity event. Dean's paintings and prints raised a total of $11000.00 dollars benefiting "Celebrate Pensacola". story

Long Lost Tools

In doing research on John James Audubon and his times in St. Augustine, Florida I came upon information that Audubon used a camera lucida to capture some of his bird and mammal studies. I then came across mention an artist's tool with which I was not familiar, a Claude Mirror. This is a small, black, convex mirror, usually sized for the hand that was used extensively by artists and tourists in the 18th and 19th centuryto contemplate, reconfigure and transcribe, that is draw landscape. The idea is that faults in ones paintings tonality should become easier to spot. As all colors are equally tinged with the color of the glass it has the effect of creating simpler arrangements of tone and so making it evident if one color is lighter in tone than another. Unity in the light and dark masses of the painting should therefore be easier to see. When you look through the glass,you notice less tonal variations and a simplification of tonal masses. As the amount of light is reduced while viewing the scene through the mirror, the amount of visible detail is greatly eliminated.........................WhatI also found interesting is that this was used by tourists to view vistas that they encounter along the way..........Poet and novelist Hugh Sykes Davies observed groups of tourists facing away holding their claude mirrors away from the object they wished to view, and commented: "It is very typical of their attitude to Nature that such a position should be desirable"............Artists, I'm sure that one can be made easily enough. Go to Goodwill and look for a small frame with curved glass (two might be better for depth), use Liquitex Mars Black paint to eliminate all light on the front and use the verso for viewing. Me....I am a "fauvist" painter, color and tonality is rational ,my painting is not. I like what Gauguin had said in 1888,
"How do you see these trees? They are yellow. So, put in yellow; this shadow, rather blue, paint it with pure ultramarine these red leaves? Put in vermilion."