HUMANITARIAN PAUSE

 What the UN can't do in Gaza, the DEC has no problem instituting in the NY deer woods. The deer got a break from hunters from Dec. 19-25. Yesterday we were back in the stand.

Without hunting to occupy my manic side I went back into the Social Sculpture Park with some new work. One piece is called THEIF. In a rather obvious reach out to Little Bill (and others) the piece is a hand and arm from a mannikin resting on a log with an ax driven between into the top. It's a shout out to the practice of cutting one's hand off for theft. Get it? 

Well it only took 24 hours before I got an email from the Dale (my friends policing the park). They included a picture of an angry woman stalking across the park. This woman (who lives across the street) is well known in town. Spotted trying to wrench the ax from the log, when told it was "art," she screamed "IT'S DANGEROUS!" The next morning the ax was gone.

Usually this would piss me off. But when I saw the piece without the ax I realized that the crazy, old, bag had done me a solid. THIEF looked much better without the ax. So, instead of replacing it I bought another ax and designed and installed X-CALIBER (see above). Two pieces are always better than one. Thanks for the curatorial edit Mrs. Schimdt. Let's see how long this lasts.....

The other thing that was occupying my time was a steady diet of Aljazeera English's coverage of the Gaza genocide and various relevant postings on Instagram. These pro-Palestinian (sometimes nipple displayed) posts also became problematic as the pause continued. On Xmas day I posted an old invite for Pussy Riot Church with a solidarity reach out to the artists of Gaza and Russia. It was immediately removed. The reason for the removsl was "sexual content." Huh? Mystery Girl's nipples had sent off alarms across the internet. I appealed. My appeal was also rejected. How appropriate. I've been silenced AGAIN for another pair of nipples. This is American social media at its worst. When told it was "art" they responded "IT'S DANGEROUS!" I think I'm done with insta AGAIN!

I hunted yesterday afternoon behind the shack. I kicked one out going in and never saw a deer from the stand.  The weather today and tomorrow sucks - warm and rainy. It's not looking good for more meat.