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This entry was posted in Blog on January 19, 2017 by Leigh Hopkins.

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UKULELE CHALLENGE Part 3: “A Very Mueller Valentine’s Day” Who can turn the world on with one file? / Who can take an endless case / and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile? / Well it’s you, Bob, and you should know it / with each glance and every little news breaking moment / The truth is all around no need to worry / still I have to say we wish you’d hurry / you’re gonna make it after all / you will convict him after all. (doo-doo-doo-doot-doo) #valentine #muellerinvestigation #gomueller #gomueller #nonviolentaction #ukulele #marytylermoore #lgbtq🌈#marytylermooreshow

Method 27: New Signs and Names (link to post in profile) Before I move on to Method 27, two words: Brandy Carlile. Carlile’s performance of “The Joke” at last night’s Grammy awards has been on repeat all day. It’s one of the most powerful, timely performances I’ve seen, and I just can’t get it out of my head. Watch the performance. “They come to kick dirt in your face To call you weak and then displace you After carrying your baby on your back across the desert I saw your eyes behind your hair And you’re looking tired, but you don’t look scared.” Artists are leading the revolution. Method 27: New Signs and Names Method 27 can take many forms, but the approach is to take signs that have been used against people and to turn them into something new. The signs can be repurposed, they can disappear or be replaced with something new. When I was researching this method, I came across today’s LA Times, “Last of iconic illegal immigration crossing signs has vanished in California.” After years of debate, the last of 10 yellow “immigrants crossing” signs that once stood on either side of the 5 and 805 freeways near the U.S.-Mexico border disappeared. The department of transportation stopped making the signs and constructed fences to prevent people from crossing highways instead. (See slideshow, below.) Method 27 was used in 1942 in occupied Poland by a group of young resistors who called themselves “The Little Wolves.” They stole the signs reading “Nur Für Deutsche” (FOR GERMANS ONLY), signs that were posted in front of Warsaw’s best cafes, hotels and theaters. One morning, hundreds of the signs reappeared on city’s lamp posts and trees where the Germans often hung Polish patriots. Overnight, street signs, placards and inscriptions throughout the city were replaced with the names of the heroes of the revolution. I featured the artist Banksy in Method 26: “Paint as Protest,” and he’s back again today. A warning that the images in the slideshow below are triggering, but they end on a note we can all live by. I recommend listening to Brandi Carlile as you watch. [Listen.] #theresistance #nonviolentaction #brandycarlile #genesharp #lgbtq🌈

Spectacular Artist Rina Banerjee Exhibition at @pafacademy "Make Me a Summary of the World is the first in-depth exploration of the contemporary practice of artist Rina Banerjee, co-organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and the San José Museum of Art (SJMA). Though Banerjee’s work has been shown extensively in Europe and South Asia, PAFA and SJMA will be the first North American museums to delve into the artist’s complex and fanciful worlds. Bringing together several of Banerjee’s monumental installations in conversation with 15 to 20 of her sculptures, as well as a selection of works on paper, Make Me a Summary of the World will transform PAFA and SJMA into otherworldly and multi-sensory spaces. Known for her large-scale sculptures and installations made from materials sourced throughout the world, Banerjee’s works investigate the splintered experiences of identity, tradition, and culture, prevalent in diasporic communities. Using a variety of materials ranging from African tribal jewelry to colorful feathers, light bulbs, and Murano glass, Banerjee’s art celebrates diversity at the material level. These sensuous assemblages present themselves simultaneously as familiar and unfamiliar, thriving on tensions between visual cultures and raising questions about exoticism, cultural appropriation, globalization, and feminism. In turn, her wider practice challenges current nativist political leanings by proposing a multi-faceted nature of identity; not based exclusively on a person’s culture of origin or gender, but instead on self-identity. These inclusive and freeing conceptions of the “self” manifest themselves throughout Banerjee’s ever-evolving work – in fragmented figures, riotous use of color, and symbolic materials. Paired with her thought-provoking and poetic titles, Banerjee’s works relentlessly query contemporary modes of artistic production and societal engagement."

Having a moment here, and I know many of you can relate: sometimes the creative life is a constant hustle. Right now, I'm working three part-time jobs. I log my time, because the goal is always to carve out big chunks in my day for writing. My painter partner is a professor and full-time artist, and the two of us are constantly renegotiating how to make art in the midst of this storm. I don't have any delusions that writing will make me wealthy or angst-free, but it does make me deliriously, miserably, gratefully happy. #gutcheck #writing #writinglife

Tuesday night’s State of the Union was a gorgeous example of the effectiveness of Nonviolent Method 18. (link in profile) The sea of Congresswomen in white couldn’t be overlooked – not by the viewing audience and especially not from the podium. The rest of the SOTU caused me to flip between CNN and old episodes of Survivor after my partner asked, “Are you really going to curse at the screen every fifteen seconds?” (Answer: “F*&K YES … the likes of which has never been seen!!!”) Former CIA Director John Brennan, a frequent critic of 45, said this of the State of the Union address: “I think Donald Trump raised to a new level,” he said, “the demagoguery, the hyperbole, the chauvinism, and even the misrepresentation on a lot of the issues, including on the foreign policy and national security front.” For more on how how the rhetoric of dictators can bring down democracies, check out this article. Method 26: Paint as Protest Paint as a tool of nonviolent resistance can take many forms – as graffiti, on buildings, walls, or bodies, or symbols drawn on official portraits. In August 2017, graffiti resembling the work of the illusive artist Banksy appeared on Israel’s security barrier in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. In June 2018, six new murals appeared in Paris to protest the French government’s anti-refugee policies. The first image in the slideshow (link in profile) depicts a young girl spraying a pink wallpaper pattern over a swastika on a wall next to her sleeping bag and teddy bear in an attempt to make her patch of pavement more homelike. Art historian Paul Ardenne said it does not matter if the murals are by Banksy, but they do “show that the Banksy effect, and its ability to manipulate the media, works.” #nonviolentaction #genesharp #SOTU #notmypresident

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