Thursday, October 20, 2011

A word to the wise...


"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.
Art is knowing which ones to keep."
-Scott Adams




"People write their wishes on paper lanterns, light them, and launch them into the sky in the belief that they will come true." I'd like to think that's true; it's hard to imagine that something so beautiful would lack the ability to guide an honest, good-intentioned wish to the powers that be. The man explaining the purpose of the lanterns is Sheng-Fa Lin, a man from Taipei, Taiwan who took the above photograph. He calls it Flying Lantern. The picture was taken at the Lantern Festival in Pingxi, a town in northern Taiwan.



The above photograph is property of Sheng-Fa Lin, and is being displayed on Artistic Resistance under Creative Commons licensing. His photography can be viewed at this address.



Sunday, October 16, 2011

UPDATE: Washington Square Park Protestors




The above video belongs to the YouTube user (Rohanharkinson) clearly stated at the top of the viewer.
I do not own or claim to own any rights to this video and am only relaying it onto you readers as a third party.

This video was taken at 12 midnight EST in the center of Washington Square Park, New York City, NY. Note the riot police in full gear, prepared to engage the protesters if they did not leave the park immediately. The cameraman was smart enough to leave, and the police officer in the light blue jacket was very polite and considerate of the rights of each of the protesters that were present there. The park was officially closed at midnight, so the police officers did have the legal authority to ask the demonstrators to leave. The officer that first approached the group was calm, polite, and stated the exact reason as to why the group was being asked to disperse and exit the park. You could tell that some of the other officers seemed more inclined to just arrest the camera operator while he was trying to exit the park from the South end.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, it would be nice to have more officers like the one in the beginning of this video who treated the protesters with respect, specifically commented on the fact that he understands their voice and appreciates their decision to exercise their rights. He also said towards the end, "why get arrested?" and "we just want to go home, it's already midnight." Which was a moment of connection between the two parties, regardless of their stance or whether or not they were uniformed police officers or just a group of civilians.


Saturday, October 15, 2011

BREAKING NEWS: Occupy Wall Street


While the exact details of this incident are not yet known, what we know so far is that TWENTY or more protesters have been arrested inside the LaGuardia Place branch of Citibank. An estimated fifty people entered the bank location with the intention of closing their bank accounts, in an effort to make a statement about their disgust for the United States' financial crisis, and the portion of fault belonging to the banks themselves.

Right now, protesters are preparing to start their march starting at Washington Square and culminating at Times Square later this evening. The non-violent, peaceful means of protest, choosing to go into one of their bank's various branches, and ultimately closing their accounts, have been treated as though they were criminal acts. I personally have seen footage from just minutes ago, where at least two people were arrested after leaving the bank. One woman in particular was first approached by a plain-clothes undercover police officer who briefly said to her "you were inside ... you were inside with everybody else." I clearly heard the woman respond to the uncover officer repeatedly, but in a calm and respectful manner, "I am a customer." She also had paperwork in her hand which appeared to have been given to her by an employee of the bank branch before she had left the building.

The young woman was not in any way acting aggressively, and she responded to the plain-clothes police officer when approached. She did not try to "flee the scene." Despite the fact that it was clear that there was no crime being committed in the first place, she did stick around to respond to the officer. After he repeatedly said "you were in there with everybody else," to her, as if he was suggesting that being inside of your bank, during regular business hours, for the purpose of speaking with a bank employee in regards to your bank account is suddenly illegal, he forcefully grabbed her and detained her. Excessive force was used, despite the fact that this poor young woman had not committed any crime, was not interfering with the police officer's "investigation," and was not causing a scene whatsoever. At least one other individual was approached in the same manner, after leaving the bank, and was also detained completely against their will and without cause.

At one point, the bank was actually locked down, keeping the people inside, and that reportedly is when the majority of the 20+ arrests took place. Some sources are now saying that the estimate the arrest total at about 23. As far as I'm aware at this point of the evening, all these people were doing was simply walking into the bank and attempting to close their bank accounts. Most, if not all, of the bank customers in question, have reportedly been charged with crimes such as criminal trespassing. Good luck explaining that one in court, guys. I've never heard of anyone being charged with criminal trespassing because they entered the bank where they are an established customer, and asked to close their bank account. The NYPD is going to have to think of a better story if they want to keep arresting New Yorkers that are choosing to take a stand and make a statement through non-violent, peaceful acts of protest.

I'd like to point out that I have heard reports and seen footage of a very small amount of protesters ignoring direct orders from police officers and/or committing minor offenses such as disturbing the peace, and therefore being arrested. I am not trying to tell you that every one of these protesters is staying within the limits of the law, or that all of the police officers in these locations are abusing their powers. What I am saying, however, is that the vast majority of these protesters are exercising their rights to protest, and their legal right to freedom of speech. I have seen and heard of far too many NYPD police officers abusing their power, using excessive force, and making unlawful arrests.

Earlier today, I saw two different videos that showed an NYPD police officer on a motor scooter literally driving into crowds of people, and at one point, the officer drove right into a cameraman and proceeded to drive directly over the man's legs. This makes me sick; these officers need to be held accountable for their actions, and I wish that the law-abiding cops were doing more to uphold the integrity of the NYPD by holding these corrupt cops responsible for their gross misconduct and completely illegal and dangerous actions.


Saturday, October 8, 2011

FREE Original Art Giveaway

Photo is licensed under Creative Commons and was taken by Longzero


So, one of the various things I've been doing lately in terms of my art, is making collages. The collages (for the most part) are made up of words, letters, numbers, symbols, photographs, magazine cut-outs, and freehand drawings all combined together, on everything from white printer paper, to recycled cardboard. They all generally have specific themes and messages that go along with them, and each one is 100% unique. No two are the same.

There have been more and more readers visiting Artistic Resistance lately, and I wanted to try to do something for you, the "audience." It's funny, because sometimes when I look at a webpage, I make assumptions about their reader-base according to the number of comments I see underneath each post. You however, my friends, don't seem like much of a commenting crowd. Lately it's gotten a bit more popular, which I'm very happy to see, but I'd love for there to be TONS and TONS of more comments. And I promise to write back to each and every one of you that writes to me here.

Just to give you an idea, as of the time that I'm typing this sentence, there have been 307 viewers to visit this site just in the past 12 HOURS alone. For some websites/bloggers, that's not really much to celebrate, but to me, a completely independent writer without ANY additional writers, contributors, and with ZERO advertising, those are figures I'm really proud of. That means our audience is solely coming via word-of-mouth, and from people doing Google searches that happen to be related to topics and keywords associated with these articles.

Previously, I had tried to put together a little contest for one lucky Artistic Resistance reader to win 2 FREE advanced-screening passes to a movie that was not yet even in theatres, but the contest really didn't go the way I had planned. The main reason that I think it didn't become popular was because I didn't really allow for enough time before the actual screening would be taking place. Also, I had specifically mentioned that in order to screen the film, you would have to be in the proximity of New York City (because that's where the theatre was located.) Out of the people that I do know personally, who often seem to enjoy discussing the latest articles I've posted, a handful of them asked me specifically about the screening passes. They were wondering who won them, and said things like "ah, I would have loved to go to that!" Well, all I really could say to that was, "why didn't you enter to win the tickets?!"

So here's the new idea I had. During this past week I've made three completed pieces, and I'm in the process of finishing a fourth, which is taking a bit longer because of its size and the material its made of. I'm only going to do this if there is enough of an interest being expressed by you, the readers, but I'd like to COMPLETELY RANDOMLY pool together the names of those that are interested in winning, and pick out 1-3 winners to receive one of these collage pieces that I've been creating. Each one is made by hand, completely by me, and is given a lot of time and thought. The winner(s) will be RANDOMLY selected. Whether or not I know you personally, you have an equal chance of winning, because I'm just going to put each entry into a program that shuffles the names randomly, and that's how the winner(s) will be selected. I'll also sign the piece for you as well, and if you want me to inscribe the back, I'd be happy to do that.

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN ENTERING TO WIN AN ORIGINAL SIGNED PIECE OF MY ARTWORK, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS...
1). Go up to the top left of this page and register as a SUBSCRIBER/FOLLOWER of Artistic Resistance.
2). Contact me either by commenting on THIS blog post (dated: Saturday, October 8th), -OR- by clicking on the "View Profile" button on the left sidebar, and sending me an e-mail by following the instructions that should be given right through there. **I know some of you have expressed that you prefer remaining anonymous on the actual webpage; I completely respect your privacy and I'm not going to push you to do anything differently.**

Once you've become a SUBSCRIBER/FOLLOWER of the blog, and left a comment or e-mail with at least a first name (or a nickname is fine,) then you will be officially entered to win. No other steps needed. Deadline, for now, is TO BE DETERMINED.
IF YOU ARE ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER, YOU CAN JUST LEAVE A COMMENT.
I HAVE THE LIST OF WHO IS ALREADY SUBSCRIBED.