Thomas Cave's Tattoo: Marvelous and Ridiculous.

"Thomas Cave's Tattoo"

I've started a blog that discusses what I call the New Great Depression - the idea that the next few years will constitute a Depression era, and not simple recession. I believe that to understand it in that way will enrich it, and encourage everyone in this country to make this era a creative period, a positive time, an act of construction, and not a cause for panic, chaos and fear. This is a chance for renaissance.

If the New Great Depression produces art, literature, theater, film, community, and a discovery of human value, as the first one did, who wouldn't want to be a part of it.

I am here to barter, trade, share, talk, listen, discuss, argue, understand, make fun, and make peace with the lack of the old prosperity. It was corrupt, and corroded, and it's gone. The dead weight of spoils has been lifted.

Thank you for listening, ma'am.

"About Thomas Cave"

Mr. Cave is the gentleman in the photograph that graces this home page. The photograph was taken by the American photographer Dorothea Lange, who so powerfully documented the country and its citizens during the Great Depression. I found this photograph at www.shorpy.com, a website with a specialty in Depression images. According to Shorpy's site, the Lange photograph, titled "535-07-5248 and Wife," was taken in Oregon in August of 1939. The gentleman is described as an unemployed lumber worker. His tattoo is his Social Security number, by which he is referred to in the title of the photograph. A public records search conducted by Shorpy's revealed that the number belonged to Thomas Cave, who was born in 1912 and died in 1980 in Portland. His wife's name, Ann Kathryn, who died in 2000, appears on their tombstone, a photograph of which is appended under Shorpy's readers' comments.

Mr. Cave is 27 years old in Lange's picture.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Marvelous and Ridiculous.

A steady Depression diet might likely make it easier for navel-gazers to find their navel. Such would seem the case with Alexandra Peers' article in New York magazine, "Arte Povera: Why Recession Isn't Good for Art."

Ms. Peer's characterizes the low-water marks of the high-tide of contemporary art as, "marvelous and ridiculous." And this in defense. I'll take three. Have them sent to my refrigerator box, second from the end under the elevated bridge at 125th St.

Would someone step forward with the notion that art can save us, by making great art? There is no cynicism in that.

Thank you for listening, ma'am.

1 comments:

Alex said...: Don't need to read that chick. I'm already subscribing to the counterargument of this chick: "The upside is it [struggling economy]really makes you get clear with your values. People will be more contemplative about their work, ideas about community, sustainable design. Utopian theory always kind of peaks in economic recessions. I'm excited about the austerity that can come from times like this."- Kirsten Murray, partner, OSKA (Seattle), 2009 winner AIA Architecture Firm Award; March 8, 2009 7:30 PM

Thomas Cave's Tattoo