A blogger's license

License to blog

I like using the blog for something purposeful. Sometimes I envision this space as a bulletin board, where I tack up postcards or random items of interest whose only connection is my scattered mentality. Sometimes the blog serves as a spotlight or magnifying glass, to highlight a topic or an individual artist.

But what if the blog could function as a curatorial space? I don't have walls on an on-going basis, or a budget to import, frame, hang, and publicize (or publish, in the quasi-gallery of ink on paper), but I can use the virtual display space to draw images together and present them to the public. I know, I know, this is all so old-hat, you correctly remind me that I needn't bother dwelling on metastructural issues like this. Just bear with me as I  rationalize a new venture. New at least for me.

In my posts tagged "WIIGF" I highlight projects and artists providing an answer to the unanswerable question about war, which is...What Is It Good For? As answered by Edwin Starr in 1970, in lyrics by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong: "Absolutely nothin'." But I'm not so sure that absolutely nothing of value emerges in the wake of war. (Side note: I quoted this emphatic song in a recent photo-eye review of The Aftermath Project's fourth volume of War is Only Half the Story, further tribute to the fact that there are meaningful, albeit at times mournful and anguishing, products of conflict.)

I don't know that the work I point to was specifically intended to answer this question, or that the responsible image-makers even imagine a positive end-product to war. For me, the work is that war-generated entity. Because of war, this work exists. We are blessed by its insightful presence, even though we would prefer to live in a world which does not inspire such work. (Just like war photographers, Jim Nachtwey et al., would prefer to have to do different work.)

GREENER is a similar conceit, though more positivist in its program. What I will do under this banner is present work that celebrates a world recovering its more natural, greener, organic self. Over the years I've been increasingly drawn to work that pushes, nudges, subtly advances an agenda; the agenda I favor is one that has all of us thinking about things we do that can help sustain the planet rather than exploit it.

I will start my GREENER program in the next few days. Take a look, and let me know if there are projects I should know about.


p.s. I know that my Prius is still a car, but as a hybrid it's greener--and stingier with gas--than most. Hence the vanity plate.