Double Whammy Discrimination: Diversity at all Cost Even if it Means Empty Museums

In our postmodern era I would be defended as a discriminatee.

My non-White, Third World background would automatically place me in the "victim" pigeonhole where my word against my white "antagonist" would preside, NO MATTER WHAT.

That is, until I start to defend this "white" monster and say he is the one being discriminated against.

Then the wrath, slow though it may come, is full on!

Especially if it is a white women who is regulating the discrimination channel.

This happened to me recently after I attended (and participated in) a lecture at the Art Gallery of Mississauga, where a group of artists were to discuss the works of Homer Watson, a late 19th early 20th century painter from southern Ontario.

I wrote about the exhibition and the panel discussion here: Homer Watson, Native Son. But I left out my questions to the panel.

As wrote in my post:

Last year, I attended a panel discussion on the exhibition Beyond the Pines: Homer Watson and the Contemporary Canadian Landscape at the Art Gallery Mississauga. I had visited the exhibition numerous times, going through Watson's work one by one, to study his technique, his evolution as an artist, his views, his concerns, and his Canada.

The exhibition also displayed works by contemporary Canadian artists to bring this pine "narrative" to the fore. Some were reasonably good, but none reached the overall skill and beauty of Watson's paintings.

I was gong to leave it at that, just a personal observation (not naive or untutored, since I have a solid background in the arts), hoping that I would gain some insight from these artists.

But I should have known better.

The catalogue the AGM produced for this exhibition prefaced with this objective:

Contemporary Canadian artists looking at landscape must also find a way to access the ‘truth’ of a subject that is not only strongly represented in our national artistic history, but one that is both deeply political and personal.

So the "truth" of a subject is now mandated to "represent" not just our nation "objectively" but has to incorporate political and personal views as well.

A tree is not a tree is not a tree, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein .

I asked Reinhard Reitzenstein, one of the panelists, who is a pretty good sculptor (and who is white), if he believes that Homer Watson's standards, and art, set an example for artist in general or if his English (Western) heritage is insignificant. This was of course not what I was asking, as Reitzenstein clearly understood. I was asking him if he thought that Watson's work was good, was superior.

Reitzenstein talked for a bit and finally admitted that he doesn't want to emulate the now archaic art of Watson. We are in the modern age after all!

So, irrespective of technical expertise, artistic beauty, or individual ingenuity, as long as an artist follows the archaic art of Watson, his work can not be deemed "good."

This is the tired discussion of art which has reached now such a comical zenith that works are exhibited in museums and galleries simply based on their mockery (and not simply rejection) of this western tradition. And many artists have become wealthy doing so.

But the public isn't with the program, which is why the Art Gallery of Mississauga has to go through loopholes to get people to visit its exhibitions, including set up committees and workshops to "study" this lack of museum attendance.

I received a "newsletter" email about a year after this exhibition from the AGM, one of the few I have received from them to invite me to participate in two workshops ttled: Collections Through The Prism of Diversity Series (here are day one and day two of the schedules):

But I was given about a week's notice for a two day workshop, where would have had to pay $250/day to attend. My first reading of the email, before I saw the dates, was to figure out ways could come up with the sum, including asking for a reduced fee. Soon after, I realized that I was put on the list as a "visible minority" participant.

Here is the email I sent the gallery:

I can only surmise from this late notification that the AGM is getting some kind of monetary benefit from this "email list" which it seems to use haphazardly to meet with its program mandates.

In my case, the mandate appears to be that of a minority female artist who can participate in the discussion on how to add more "diversity" into the art collections of the region.

Through your lack of appropriate notification, you indeed lost the participation of a minority female artist (myself) who would have made a unique and substantial contribution to this discussion.

And the reply I received from Mandy Slater the director:

The AGM prides itself on its high professional standards and its strong relational manner. We provide a safe and accountable space for our diverse staff, volunteers, artists and audience. All of this supports the democratic nature of the work we do at the AGM.


Moving forward, if you are able to visit the AGM in a congenial and supportive way I encourage you to do so. If at any point in the future, you visit the AGM and create an unsafe, critical and or threatening space, we will contact security who will request that you leave the premises. If you do not comply they will be entitled to further legal action under the Ontario Trespass to Property Act. I have cc’d senior Security Officers at the City of Mississauga on this and other incidents regarding inflammatory and false statements made by yourself.

The AGM prides itself on embracing diversity and inclusion as a core institutional value. We strive to create an accountable and inclusive space that supports like-minded individuals.

Diversity counts at all costs, even if it means getting the "diverse" complainant out the door!

The irony of the AGM's position of course doesn't occur to its staff: that they are discriminating against me (shutting down my "voice" ) in order that they might continue with their program is exactly what they are accusing the white inheritors of Homer Watson.

This time though, they have found a whole different story: An "ethnic minority" who supports a white tradition!

George Washington: The World Historical Figure in the Quintessentially American Tradition

George Washington, 1780
Charles Willson Peale (American, 1741–1827)
Oil on canvas; 95 x 61 3/4 in.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Part of what makes his live story so gripping is that he shaped himself into the world-historical figure he became, in the quintessentially American tradition of men who spring, as F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote, from their own Platonic conception of themselves. But his self-conception was extraordinary: it began as a worthy ideal and evolved into a magnificent one. In his fiercely ambitious youth, he sought to win acclaim for his for his heroism and savoir faire. In his maturity, he strove to be, in his own conscience even more than in the eyes of others, virtuous, public-spirited, and (although his ethic wouldn't allow him to claim the word (noble). He did hope, however, that posterity would recognize and honor the purity of his motives; and Americans, who owe him so much, do him but justice in understanding not only what he did for them but also what greatness of soul he achieved to do it.

From: The Founding Fathers at Home (p. 94)
By: Myron Magnet

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Happy Easter!

The Resurrection of Christ
Raphael
1499-1502
Oil on panel
20.47 in × 17.32 in
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John 11:25-26

25 ...I am the resurrection, and the life:

he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die...

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Posted By Kidist P. Asrat

Another Purim

I wrote of the Jewish holiday Purim last year which I've re-posted below. At the very end of the post, I write:

I'm not sure how the greeting goes, but I will just say: Happy Purim!

This year, it is with a very different mood that Purim is celebrated, at least in Israel. It is not one where one wishes "Happy Purim" but rather where one waits for these terrible days to play themselves out.

Prime Minister Netanyahu made a humbling, brave visit to America to ask America's leaders to stop the deal with Iran. Here is the transcript of his speech.

And below is the video of his forty-five minute speech, which shows his grave and strong voice, demanding attention from the audience.



Here is what I found to be the most significant part of his speech:

Tomorrow night, on the Jewish holiday of Purim, we'll read the Book of Esther. We'll read of a powerful Persian viceroy named Haman, who plotted to destroy the Jewish people some 2,500 years ago. But a courageous Jewish woman, Queen Esther, exposed the plot and gave for the Jewish people the right to defend themselves against their enemies.

The plot was foiled. Our people were saved.

Today the Jewish people face another attempt by yet another Persian potentate to destroy us. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei spews the oldest hatred, the oldest hatred of anti-Semitism with the newest technology. He tweets that Israel must be annihilated -- he tweets. You know, in Iran, there isn't exactly free Internet. But he tweets in English that Israel must be destroyed.

For those who believe that Iran threatens the Jewish state, but not the Jewish people, listen to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, Iran's chief terrorist proxy. He said: If all the Jews gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of chasing them down around the world.

But Iran's regime is not merely a Jewish problem, any more than the Nazi regime was merely a Jewish problem. The 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis were but a fraction of the 60 million people killed in World War II. So, too, Iran's regime poses a grave threat, not only to Israel, but also the peace of the entire world. To understand just how dangerous Iran would be with nuclear weapons, we must fully understand the nature of the regime.

That is all he had to say to make his point, but he is in secular, even with some atheistic, company, and had to go on with a political message.

I listened to the full speech. I found his strength, his poetic moments, his realistic presentation of the problem, and his actions to prevent this apocalyptic event extraordinary. I don't think any leader had come to another country to plead his case, to ask for help, to save the world. I don't think any of this is exaggerated or over-played. It is every bit as serious as he says, and as I felt.

Part of that significance is that this event occurred very close to the Purim holiday (on the eve of the holiday, to be exact).

I wrote a post on Esther last year, and it was mostly a post of Rembrandt's paintings of the holiday and of the personalities, where I said:

The Jewish holiday of Purim ended last week. It commemorates:

...the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire where a plot had been formed to destroy them...

Netanyahu came during that holiday, as fate (as God) would have it, and remind the world of another time when the formidable Persians controlled the fate of Jews. This contemporary Persians would not show any of the goodwill their ancestors granted Esther. Their annihilation of the Jews will be swift and merciless. Now, they have a new god, their Allah, who will sanction their behavour.

It is apt that I write about Larry Auster in this piece of spiritual battle. I link to him below (here is the piece) saying how I met him several times in New York, but the last time I met him, we went down to the Plaza's food court where he suggested that I try the hamentashen, and with the apricot filling, although I went in August which is not the time of the Purim holiday. I remember having the dry cake, with a crust like a shortbread, and the sweet apricot filling, trying to figure out what it tasted like. Larry was watching me curiously as I tried this biscuit for the first time, something which he was so familiar with. And, in a metaphorical sense, he was one of the few then fighting the existential and spiritual battle which took so many so long to understand.

Now here we are, with the leader of the Jewish people, outlining for us the stark reality that was becoming so apparent to him then.

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Below is my post from last year, including the paintings by Rembrandt.

Rembrandt's Esther

The Jewish holiday of Purim ended last week. It commemorates:

...the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire where a plot had been formed to destroy them...

According to the Book of Esther, Haman, royal vizier to King Ahasuerus...planned to kill all the Jews in the empire, but his plans were foiled by Mordecai and his cousin and adopted daughter Esther who had risen to become Queen of Persia. The day of deliverance became a day of feasting and rejoicing [more here].

Rembrandt painted a series of paintings depicting Esther. Below are what I think it is a complete list:



Haman and Ahasuerus at the banquet with Esther


Haman Prepares to Honour Mordecai


Haman Begging Esther for Mercy


Esther is Introduced to Ahasuerus


Esther before Ahasuerus


Esther with the Decree of Destruction


Esther Preparing to Intercede with Assuerus

More paintings of Esther by various artists can be found: here, here, here and here.

A special holiday cake called hamentashen is served for this holiday. I mention my first encounter with hamentashen in my post Kidist's Best of New York City (Best Hotel Bakery Item: The Hamentashen at the Plaza Hotel - apricot filling), which I discuss more here.



I'm not sure how the greeting goes, but I will just say: Happy Purim!

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Are Black Americans Serious About Separation?

I think not. I think they just want the best of all worlds: a place which they can call their country, but which will have the perennial benefits of a white America. But they will keep rumbling on, making all kinds of demands, using a stealthy weapon of discrimination to get their way, since to be racist (well, to be called racist) is now one of the deadly sins.

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It is interesting that the standards for art remain Western. We have tried Chinioserie, Japonism, Orientalism, Primitivism, and many more non-Western "inlfluences" on Western art. I put influences in quotes because the trajectory is more Western art picking up styles from the non-Western world and applying it in a new way to Western art.

Laura Wood of The Thinking Housewife writes about the celebration of African-American History Month here:

As the annual observance of African-American History Month comes to a close, it is worth noting one of the most compelling reasons why African-Americans, or blacks, should have their own nation in North America: Blacks view themselves as a separate nation — a nation with its own distinctive history, its own heroes, its own literature, its own folklore, its own popular culture.

There is no Irish-American History Month, Italian-American History Month or German-American History Month. There is no White History Month. The Irish, the Italians and the Germans are not clamoring for these observances. That’s because they do not view themselves as separate to the same extent. They are not a separate nation. Look at the uniformity with which blacks approach politics. Almost all blacks vote the same way. No group in America has such a strong collective identity.

Here are her posts and the ensuing discussions:
- A Black Nation in America
- A Healthy Black Nationalism and its Benefits for Blacks

I went to the African-American History Month website that Laura directed us to, and looked up the link provided for African-American artists' collections at the National Gallery of Art. As I went through the collections' highlights, it became clear that these were works which emulated, if not mimicked, Western art standards, and even the "black" references could not disguise these origins.

The one that stood out for me was the African Nude by James Lesesne Wells. It was clearly after Henri Matisse's odalisques (of which there are dozens), which Matisse got from Ingres' Grande Odalisque, which itself was influenced by several centuries of Western artists, as well as Greek and Roman art. The leaf-like shapes in the background are also from Matisse's well-known leaf-like cut-outs he did much later in life when he could no longer paint.

Other resemblences are the "flattened surface" which Matisse explored and experimented with throughout his life: "Matisse used his curvilinear forms and bold decorative patterns to emphasize the flatness of the canvas surface." [Source]

Matisse worked with various print-making techniques, partly to get this "flattened surface" that he finally perfected with his cut-outs.

And Wells' African Nude is a the printing technique linocut, which is a variation of a woodcut.


James Lesesne Wells
American, 1902 - 1993
African Nude, 1980
Color linocut on Japan paper

The National Gallery of Art, where this painting is exhibited, says this about Wells:

James Lesesne Wells was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1902 and received BS and MS degrees from Columbia University, New York. He had a long career in printmaking, first participating in the Federal Arts Project, which encouraged the development of the art in the United States during the Great Depression, and then teaching at Howard University in Washington, DC, for almost four decades. Wells was active in the civil rights movement and often depicted the struggles of African-Americans in his work. African Nude, which Wells created late in life, reflects his printmaking skill, interest in traditional African aesthetics, and commitment to representing African-American history and experiences.

And this about his African Nude:

The woman in African Nude, wearing only a large necklace, reclines on an overstuffed settee. Her alluring position is similar to the pose found in classic images of odalisques—female slaves in the Ottoman Empire whose identities became sexualized and popularized during the nineteenth century. Yet unlike the seductive odalisque seen in Western art, whose gaze challenges by staring directly at the viewer, the nude in Wells' work, with eyes downcast, appears unhappily submissive and ill at ease amidst the oversize lush plants and gala colors of the background. The viewer is thus left unsettled, as if unwelcome despite the outwardly inviting scene.

I cannot leave this biography without commenting on the National Gallery of Art's description of African Nude.

I like the modesty with which Wells portrayed his image. But I think it is as much a commentary on modesty as on submissiveness. This leads me to the question: "Why is this black nude 'modest' while the Arab or white odalisques are so confident? Is Wells telling us not of submission but of the oppression of blacks? As is often the case with black American art, the language revolves around race conflict, and blacks always come out "losing."

Here is a 1990 New York Times article where the commentary says something similar to my point above, and written with the usual "aggrieved blacks" angle.

Below are odalisques by Matisse and Ingres.


Henri Matisse
Odalisque à la culotte rouge, 1924-1925
Oil Painting
50 x 61 cm
Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris


Henri Matisse
French, 1869–1954
Reclining Odalisque, 1926
Oil on canvas
15 1/8 x 21 5/8 in.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York


Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
French, 1780 - 1867
La Grande Odalisque, 1814
Oil on canvas
91 x 162 cm
Louvre, Paris

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Finally, all decisions, especially in the media world, count. Why did the website African-American History Month chose to use a .gov as its domain (http://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov), rather than the much more common .com?

As with the politicized black artists, everything is race-relations with black Americans, i.e. the politics of the oppressed.

The domain name .gov is:

derived from government, indicating its restricted use by government entities in the United States. The gov domain is administered by the General Services Administration (GSA), an independent agency of the United States federal government. [Source]

As Laura wrote:

There is no Irish-American History Month, Italian-American History Month or German-American History Month. There is no White History Month. The Irish, the Italians and the Germans are not clamoring for these observances. That’s because they do not view themselves as separate to the same extent. They are not a separate nation. Look at the uniformity with which blacks approach politics. Almost all blacks vote the same way. No group in America has such a strong collective identity.

And she asks:

Can Americans ever amicably come to the conclusion that blacks should have their own nation and make this happen in a peaceable way?

It seems that blacks have already decided, no matter what everyone else thinks, or does. And I saw it in the simple suffix to the website African-American History Month, which is used for website's address andtitled, as though the whole of black American life is subsumed by that one month of "identity."

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat

Gentle Jesus

Christ and the Woman of Samaria, 1625-28
Giovanni Lanfranco (1582–1647)
Oil on canvas, 29 x 34 in
Collection: The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology

I especially like this version of the many. Christ really does talk to this woman, who has been shunned for many reasons, one of which because she has married many times, and is now living with a man, and is considered a loose woman. He doesn't stand aloof, but sits, lowers himself before her, so as to gain her trust and to let her speak to him. He isn't lecturing her, nor condemning her, as is probably what happens to her all the time.

She later spreads the world that she had met the Messiah, and many Samaritans became followers of Jesus (John 4:29-32).

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Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
John 4: 4-26

Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”

(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?

Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,

but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

“I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband.

The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.

Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat

Drifting Down Big Art Money

Drifting Down Big River
2007
Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36 in


Mile 2157 2012, Acrylic on Canvas 40 x 40 in


Painting on the left:
Ere The Winter Storms Begin
2011
Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 in

Painting on the right:
Exit Off Highway 1
2012
Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 in

I saw these paintings scattered around in the lobby of an office building in Mississauga, and took photographs of them, since I couldn't find the painter's signature at the bottom of the canvasses nor any other information in the lobby (and the receptionist was no help) so that I could do a google image search later on.

And they were pretty easy to identify. They are by Christine Proctor, who:

...changed her career focus in 1997 from the corporate world to a full time commitment to painting. She is a graduate from York University’s Creative Arts program and has studied with Harold Klunder, Peter Kolisnyk, Brian Atyeo, John Leonard, David Hannan, and Steve Rose at the Neilson Park Creative Centre, Bridgewater Artist Retreat and at the Haliburton School of Fine Arts. She has participated in the "Artist in Residence Programme" with the Halton Region Conservation Authority at Crawford Lake, Halton, Ontario. Christine was accepted as a member to the Ontario Society of Artists in 2012.

[...]

She is currently represented by Tracey Capes Fine Art, PI Fine Art and A.G.O. Art Rental & Sales in Toronto. [Source: Christine Proctor]

Here are the her teachers.

The Painters:

Harold Klunder


Sun And Moon IV
Harold Klunder
Canadian
2008-2009
Oil on linen, 114 x 78 in

Peter Kolisnyk


PGround Outline
Peter Kolisnyk
Canadian
Date made: 1978
Materials: steel and white lacquer
Measurements: 84 x 168 x 4 in
Collection: Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario

Brian Atyeo


Pastoral Autumn
Brian Atyeo
Canadian
Acrylic on Canvas
40 x 60 in

I can find no date for this painting, but Atyeo was exhibiting his work by 1980, so he is a contemporary Canadian painter.

Steve Rose


Figure 17
Steve Rose
Canadian
Mixed media on paper
30 x 22 in

Again, I can find no date for this painting, but Rose finished his art studies in 1999, so he is a contemporary Canadian painter.

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The critic John Leonard:

The Columbia Journalism Review called Leonard "our primary progressive, catholic [small "c"] literary critic."[10] Stylistically, he was, as CJR dubbed him, an "enthusiast,” known for his wit and wordplay, his liberal use of the semicolon and his impassioned examinations of authors and their works. He wrote definitive career essays on the work of writers ranging from Thomas Pynchon and Joan Didion to Eduardo Galeano, Salman Rushdie, Don DeLillo, Mary Gordon, John Cheever, Toni Morrison and Richard Powers.[Source: Wikipedia]

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The Marine Cinematographer David Hannan:

[David Hannan's] cinematography is featured in some of the world's most successful natural history feature films, television programs and series. These include the BBC's 'The Blue Planet', National Geographic 'The Shape of Life' and 'Great Migrations' series and David Suzuki's 'The Nature of Things'. [Source: Plankton]

These are her teachers! Except for Brian Ateyo, who is really a second rate off-shoot of the Canadian Group of Seven (all Canadians put influences of the Group of Seven somewhere in their portfolio, so Proctor isn't doing anything unusual), and Hannan, which shows her "ecclectic" choices, it is clear where her careful method of primitive style came from, and how it was supported through the cultural critics of John Leonard.

Proctor describes her work thus:

I am a painter of abstract landscapes. My subjects are both conceived in my mind and connected to memories of places I have experienced. I translate images into simple shapes and bands of colour, eliminating details normally visible in nature. By doing this I hope to encourage viewers to fill in the details with their own mental imagery, and the atmosphere of their individual place. [More here]

On the first page of her website, she writes:

I paint abstract landscapes, simplifying visual reality into fields of rich pure colour, transforming nature into a mysterious place for you, the viewer, to contemplate awhile. I invite you to fill in the details with your own individual experience: where the imagery, mood, and atmosphere of your personal place interacts with the colour and form of the artwork.

This has been a clever cop-out of modern and modernist artists: to "encourage viewers to fill in the details with their own mental imagery..."

These badly constructed, poorly drawn, shabbily painted canvasses are what ordinary people, business centers and anyone who may have the money to foot that bill, are being duped into buying. Otherwise, they are deficient in "mental imagery" and have no "atmosphere of their individual place."

Proctor knows. She came from a business background. She knows how prestigious it is to pin up paintings of "artists" in lobbies. And how much money corporations are willing to pay to have art in their lobbies. And in fact, Morguard is doing just that with her work.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat

Salvatore Mundi: "I came not to send peace, but a sword"

Salvatore Mundi (Saviour of the World)
By: Leonardo da Vinci
Painted: c. 1490-1519
Type: Oil on walnut
Dimensions: 25.8 in × 17.9 in

Here is a tough message from Christ at the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 10:34-42

34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.

37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.

41 He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.

42 And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.

The Pious Knight, Warrior for Truth: von Hildebrand's Legacy

The Pious Knight
13th Century
Image from the Westminster Psalter
A reproduction of this by David Clayton is
in the Franciscan University of Steubenville's
Tony and Nina Gentile Gallery.

David Clayton writes about The Pious Knight:

This is a modern illumination based upon an image by the 13th century English monk, Matthew Parris. He is the leading figure of the School of St Albans style of English medieval art

Clayton writes more here about The Pious Knight:

The Westminster Psalter, which was produced in the 13th century, has a picture of a pious knight kneeling before his king.

[...]

As we were painting the picture of the knight, it occurred to me that to the 13th century reader of the psalter, this would have a picture of a contemporary figure. We must aim to make this style of its time in the same way. It is only when we can look at a similar contemporary figure painted in such holy styles and it seems natural that we will have truly established a Christian culture.

More about David Clayton, and his painting style here and here.

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I logged into a live presentation by the Hildebrand Legacy Project on Wednesday December 3, the theme of which was "Hildebrand and Hitler."

It was a two-hour panel discussion in the Tony and Nina Gentile Gallery, J.C. Williams Center. This room, surrounded by the painting collection of Steubenville University, was also the room where I gave my presentation Reclaiming Beauty: Saving Our Western Civilization on October 24.

Here is a synopsis of the program:

Hitler's invasion of Poland in September 1939 rocked the civilized world and triggered World War II. A story not as widely known during the run-up to WWII concerns the Catholic philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand — who valiantly stood up to Hitler's war machine, starting in the 1920s. Hildebrand became one of Hitler’s biggest challengers and fought a different kind of war — one of argument, faith, and conscience. A panel discussion "Hildebrand Versus Hitler" will be held at Franciscan University of Steubenville on Wednesday, December 3. The event will take place in the Tony and Nina Gentile Gallery, J.C. Williams Center, at 6:00 p.m. Much of the discussion will center around the new book, My Battle Against Hitler: Faith, Truth, and Defiance in the Shadow of the Third Reich, which details Dietrich von Hildebrand’s journey, memoirs, and writings during his battle against the Nazis. Three Franciscan University professors will take part in the discussion: Dr. John F. Crosby, director of the MA Philosophy Program, and translator/editor of the book; Dr. Kimberly Georgedes, chair of the History Department; and Dr. Jonathan Sanford, assistant vice president of Academic Affairs. John Henry Crosby, director of the Dietrich von Hildebrand Project, who was the principal editor and translator of the volume, will deliver opening remarks.

The full video is now online here.

I have transcribed Jonathan Sanford's presentation (Sanford is part of the panel) because I will be "deconstructing" it over the next few days, and it is easier to read it (and copy from it) rather than to do so while listening to it.

Sandford is professor of philosophy at Steubenville University.

In the video, Sanford's presentation starts around the one-hour point and ends about fifteen minutes later.

I found Sanford's presentation significant because he focuses on the warrior nature of Hildebrand, who was faced with the upcoming rule of the Nazis and whose methods he had seen first hand as Hitler began to grab power.

Hildebrand knew the dangers of acquiescence, compromise, and even a rationalization for the thugs that took over Germany. Although he was a philosopher by profession, he didn't think philosophy was relegated to mere thought. In fact, philosophy can establish arguments and actions for fighting wrongs and evils, and fighting for truth, since it can develop sound arguments for just battle.

The parallels with our current society are palpable. We have our own Antichrist (as Hildebrand describes Hitler) in the guise of "The Religion of Peace" which we need to call by its real name, not "Radicalism," Terrorism," "Radical Islam," but simply Islam.

This is the calling of our era, and we would be wise to read, understand, and follow the directives for the warrior and activist Hildebrand has laid out for us.

In fact, Sanford ends his presentation with:

And so, I would invite you as you read this text, to reflect as well on this paradox between the particularities of von Hildebrand's life and also the universal, timeless example that he presents to us, because I think there is so much to learn about how we approach those challenges in our own day and age.

We would do well to heed Sanford's counsel to extend of Hildebrand's "universal, timeless example" into our own era.

Below are the sections where Sanford discusses the warrior calling of Hildebrand, and how we too can take example from Hildebrand's actions and act likewise.

What I find inspiring...is the moral example that von Hildebrand supplies. I think of that moral example in term of its exempalariness. It comes through with this word example, but an exemplar, a moral exemplar, has this particular role to play in moral reflection, and so when I look at von Hildebrand, the way he lived his life, and the way he reflects upon the way that he lives his life, I'm struck by the paradoxical relationship of the uniqueness and individuality of this remarkable man, who has this very particular history, very remarkable family, who went to school in the places he went to school, and so on and so forth. He has all of these particular circumstances that are unique, and individuality comes through in a number of those truly intriguing stories - about the five-year-old von Hildebrand professing his belief in the divinity of Christ, for instances.

But, he presents to us values that are universal in scope. So we find in him something that's imitatable, something that can be taken out of the particular circumstances of this man's autobiography and applied to our own life.

And so I wanted to reflect for a few moments on how that works. So thinking on the particulars of the challenges faced by von Hildebrand, and challenges that we too face in response to moral evil, there are it seems to me four general classifications of responses to moral evil. So we have, as the story emerges here, we have those Nazis who fully promoted the evil of National Socialism, embraced it, engaged in propagandic activities in order to perpetuate it. Some of them were murderers. And so on and so forth. We don't hesitate to recognize the grave evil of those promoters of moral evil.

But there are also are a lot of tag-alongs, who in many respects just wanted to be on the winning side. They are along for the ride. The Nazis are rising to power and they're there for the journey. They're hoping to be on the winning side and to come out on top. So they're just tagging along.

And then there's a rather large group of those who recoil in the face of moral evil, and yet remain silent. They keep a low profile. They do what they can to avoid engaging in any kind of open combat. And I would find it to be the case that many of us in this room might find ourselves in that category, were we similarly faced with moral evil.

Then finally we have those few warriors. And indeed von Hildebrand was a warrior. But as a warrior, one of the things he sought to do was to move people from these categories to those that are more appropriate. So the tag-alongs he tried to convict with at least the beginnings of a moral conscience. So they might movie into that territory of being recoilers. And he tried to make of those recoilers in the face of moral evil true warriors. And that's what he did in many respects with his philosophical works at the time and his work with the newspapers.

So what is it that fed this exemplarism of von Hildebrand such that he becomes a warrior in the face of moral evil? Well my colleagues have already remarked on several of those features. So we have his unique personality, the strong individuality of spirit. He's as non-conformist as a human being can be without becoming Diogenes, for instance. He still of course was a civilized human being. He didn't engage in the sort of dramatic anti-conformist activities that we sometimes associate with Diogenes, of you don't know about Diogenes the Cynic, I wont regale you with any stories right now. But look him up, OK!

So even though he conformed to many of the conventionalities of how to conduct oneself in a civilized fashion, he never gave his heart over to the evils of his age, or positions that he didn't fully embrace. So even as a child he was somehow resistant to the infection of ideas that he was not convinced ought to be his own. And it would be tempting for us to say well he's just sort of a one-of-a-kind sort of person, sui generis, who was able to be a moral warrior because of his unique gift. But, I think that gets us off the hook. And it also points to a kind of psychological reductionism here in the way that we're thinking about him. As though all that makes a person tick is the set of individual talents that they have. And I don't think we should get off the hook here.

So the end of my story here is that we all ought to be warriors like von Hildebrand.

The other feature that's been remarked upon a little bit here is the way in which the moral witness plays a major role in the way that he thinks. And here, I think he's guided by his approach to philosophy in many significant ways. And it's not just a phenomenological approach to philosophy that makes the critical difference here. But in fact, an approach to philosophy that puts moral experience front and center. And this is something that he shares with Max Scheler as well.

But one can think of other phenomenologists who did not put moral experience front and center. In many respects Husserl did not have that kind of engagement with making sense of the world of value. Certainly Heidegger does not. So I spent a good bit of time in my youth working through the pages of Heidegger, and it was in that critical period that I'd mentioned before when I encountered von Hildebrand, and I found myself disaffected by my reflections about Heidegger. As excited as I was about many of his approaches to metaphysical questions, one could not find room for making sense of the human being as a fundamentally moral being. One who's engaged in the world of good and evil, who is faced with fundamental choices between good and evil. And in Heidegger, the closest you get, at least in his early period, are notions of authenticity, which need to be worked up into the beginnings of a moral theory. But you don't have a fundamental engagement with the human being as a moral being. "Dasein" doesn't have that facet of his nature plumed in the metaphysical reflections of Heidegger. Whereas for von Hildebrand, it's there, it's front and center, and I think it needs to be front and center because that is what we fundamentally are. We are beings in possession of free will who from the outset of our existence are confronted with choices of profound moral import.

And finally, this has been remarked upon at more length so I wont dwell too long, we have the religious experience of von Hildebrand, and particularly as John Henry was saying, the role of his conversion to Catholicism as the fundamental life-changing moment of his life. And I would agree with that assessment based upon the comments we find here in this book. And for von Hildebrand, the fact of being a Catholic is not a confessional matter. It's profoundly and totally transforming. So to be a Catholic is to be transformed in Christ, is to be Christophied, is to live every facet of your life as a follower of the way, the truth and the life of Jesus Christ. So this resonates in significant ways with the way he approaches philosophy as a way of life, but supersedes it in other significant ways and his philosophical approaches are taken up into his Christianity in ways that are remarkable in so far as they direct him in the kind of choices that he makes, and allow him, enable him, enable him, to be the warrior, that he was.

So we have then these three components, that I think are all imitatable in our own unique ways. We all have our own distinctive set of talents, we all can embrace a philosophical approach that puts the moral experience of the human being front and center, and we can all live our faith in a way that goes far beyond a mere confession of beliefs but is striving to be fully transformed in Christ.

And so we find in von Hildebrand both the moral courage to make the sort of choices that he makes (and you can learn about those when you read his book) as well as to wrestle with a significant, profound, deep sense of responsibility. It was not enough for him to think rightly, it wasn't enough for him just to act rightly in his profession, he needed to commit himself totally to bearing the burden of responsibility to bring as many people into the proper recognition of the moral evil that faced them at this time, and to convert them into warriors like himself.

And so, I would invite you as you read this text, to reflect as well on this paradox between the particularities of von Hildebrand's life and also the universal, timeless example that he presents to us, because I think there is so much to learn about how we approach those challenges in our own day and age.

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Return to the Classics

William A. Nathans
Photograph with Self Portrait
[Source: Academy of Realist Art]

I posted a portrait of Dietrich von Hildebrand by artist William A. Nathans in my last post.

Here is more on Nathans (from these sites here and here):

Education:
- Academy of Realist Art, Toronto, Ontario
- BFA Illustration School of Visual Arts, New York, New York

Experience:
- Academy of Realist Art, Toronto, Ontario
- Freelance Illustration Commissions
- Freelance Landscape Commissions
- Currently working on two commissioned portraits of
His Eminence Cardinal Justin Rigali Archbishop of Philadelphia

Exhibitions:
- Finalist for the Art Renewal Center’s 2006 Annual Juried Saloon Competition
- Connecticut Plein Air Painters Society at the Fine Art and Framing Gallery in Hartford, CT
- Mamaroneck Artists’ Guild Annual Small Works Show in Larchmont, NY
- Represented by the Mary Anderson Fine Art Gallery located on St. Simon’s Island, Georgia
- Finalist for the 2011 Portrait Society of American Competition

And from his Linked In page:

Fine Artist: oil painter
Fine Artist and Portraitist
April 2008 – Present (6 years 8 months)
Fine Artist trained in traditional oil painting technique working within the genres of portraiture, landscape, still-life and religious figurative works.

Spent 7 months of 2010 painting in Europe and completing 6 commissioned portraits and teaching two workshops in Temple Bar, Dublin, Ireland

Currently commissioned to paint portrait of His Eminence Cardinal J. Rigali of Philadelphia

Currently working on new portrait commission of His Eminence Cardinal Edwin F. O'Brien, Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Knights in Jerusalem.

Recently returned from traveling for three months throughout Ireland painting plen air landscapes as well as teaching 5 workshops in Portrait and Figure Painting in Dublin, Ireland.

Recently completed commissioned portrait of His Eminence Cardinal Edwin F. O'Brien, Current Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, now hanging in Vatican City.

And his CV:

William A. Nathans, Painter
b. 1981
Education:
- School of Visual Arts, BFA, 1999- 2003
- Academy of Realist Art Atelier, 2003-2006

Travelled throughout Europe, Great Britain and Ireland copying and studying Old Master works in museums

Commissions of Note: 2007-Present
- Invited to work in Zurich, Switzerland producing 11 portraits and several landscape paintings for private collections
- Commissioned to paint three Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church, one of which hangs in Vatican City
- Currently Commissioned to paint His Eminence Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, Archbishop of Vienna, Austria and President of the Austrian Bishops' Conference
- Continue to work on private commissions globally

Teaching: 2008-Present
- Instructor at the Silvermine Guild of Art teaching Life Painting and Life Drawing
- Instructor of several workshops in Dublin, Ireland from 2010 to present teaching Life Painting and Drawing

Awards and Honors
- Finalist in the 2011 Portrait Society of America's International Portrait Competition held in Atlanta, GA

Additional Awards (Linked In page)
- Finalist with portrait "Sean" in the 2011 Portrait Society of America Competition.
- 2nd Place in Commissioned Portrait cat, for the Portrait Society of America Members Competition 2011
- 2nd place, CT Society of Portrait Artists "Faces of Spring" 08 "the Mackem and Tackem"
- Finalist, ARC 06 International Salon Show
Commissioned by His Eminence John Cardinal Foley to paint portrait hanging in Vatican City

And more on his training at the Acadamy of Realist Art, to study i the Classical Realist tradition. From the ARA website:

Will Nathans is a professional artist and instructor in the Classical Realist tradition who came to ARA after attaining a degree in Fine Arts. His vision was to refine his technical abilities and explore his passion for portraits and religious painting. After completing his studies at ARA, Will was selected over a number of international competitors to execute a commissioned portrait of His Eminence John Cardinal Foley in Rome.

Portrait of Dietrich von Hildebrand
Carbon Pencil on paper
By: William A. Nathans
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Picture Perfect

In the Picture
Derek and his partner Bethany in the Semi-finals of
Dancing With the Stars

The talented and artistic Derek Hough created a gem of a piece last night at the semi-finals of Dancing With The Stars.

The dance had a frame as a central point. The two dancers (Hough and his "celebrity" partner Bethany Mota) danced with this frame, but the main story was how they moved within the limitations of this frame, with the girl at times trying to get out of the "frame" and the boy pulling her back in.


Derek Hough and Bethany Mota dancing with (and within) a frame
Video of the full dance

It was a piece about art, about painting, about human desires, about love and, of course, about (and of) dance.

Hough must have studied art in some capacity. Perhaps he knows the composition Pictures at an Exhibition by the Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky.

Perhaps he knows the endless (and often futile) debate by modern artists about "The Frame" and how it confines art (although I think it is a false premise, but that is for another discussion).

But, Derek didn't scorn this frame, or try to do away with it. Instead, he used its limitations, as great artists have done, to create a whole world within those four pieces of wood.

Of course, Derek's frame is also the dance floor, so even if his partner left that picture frame, she would still be confined to the dance floor's "frame." Unless she lept off the stage. And that would have been another dance.

But were that moment to arrive, I think Derek (or this character that Derek created) would try to keep her there on the dancer's stage, where art, and dance are, and not into the dark and mundane audience hall.

The piece was picture perfect.

(Don't pay much attention to the whiny music, which is supposed to be an acoustic version of the Jackson 5's "I want you back." It looks like contemporary dance is ahead of contemporary music - or "contemporized" music - although there are some really good singer/songwriters that are hidden from the pop public that coming out these days. Listen and decide, the whiny version, that is.)


Modest Mussorgsky, Russian (1839-1881)
Pictures at an Exhibition: Tuileries (1864)
Allegretto non troppo troppo,capriccioso
Pianist: Byron Janis

Although Mussorgsky's piece is titled Tuileries (after the Tuileries Gardens), he had never been to Paris. Instead, he based his piece on a painting of the Tuileries (now lost) by Russian architect and painter Viktor Hartmann.


Maurice Prendergast, American (1858-1924)
In Luxembourg Gardens (1907)
Oil on Panel
Height: 10.75 in x 14 in
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Descent From the Cross

The Descent from the Cross, c. 1435
Rogier Van der Weyden (1399 or 1400 – 1464)
Oil on oak panel
86in x 103.5in
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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This Good Friday

Andrea Mantegna, Calvary

The above image is posted at Laura Wood's The Thinking Housewife. Laura has posted paintings depicting Christ's ordeals through these holy days.

Also, on this Good Friday, Laura reminds us of the darkness of our times, by posting an article titled New York: City of Mohammed:

NEW YORK CITY becomes more and more congenial to Islam by the day. The Police Department recently announced that it will disband a surveillance unit that sent undercover detectives into Muslim neighborhoods for the purpose of identifying potential terrorists. The program, started in the wake of 9-11, was dropped in response to civil rights complaints, including civil rights complaints by Muslims.

And, Bill de Blasio continues to pledge to put Muslims holidays on the school calendar. According to one estimate, ten percent of New York public school students are Muslim

It is not enough to "observe" Good Friday this Easter, nor to optimistically wish each other Happy Easter on Sunday. Our calling now is bigger than words and songs. We have our enemies to ward off. We have to prepare for this.
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Share Joy with a Starbucks Holiday Coffee

The gradual move away from Christmas is subtle and clever.

Starbucks has a new "holiday" logo out, which seems to be celebrating Christmas. But it doesn't quite do that.

The main, written message of the logo, instead of saying "share the joy" of Christ's birth, simply tells us to "share joy." What could this joy mean? One million things. Something different for each person. The unified joy that we are to feel around the Christmas season has splintered into the joy each of us feels for whatever reason.

That is one way Starbucks is shifting us away from Christams.

Another way it is relaying its message of a Christmas Holiday without Christmas is through the design of its products, which either distort Christmas symbols, or leave them out all together.

Here is the Starbucks paper cup for this "holiday season":



1. What looks like a star on the left cup could just be a sparkly tree decoration shaped in a flower design.

2. The triangular star shapes in the octagons (dispersed around the cup) are too uniform, and there are two of each star ray, making a total of eight. The rays are all the same length.

The star that shines in many renditions of Christmas paintings and illustrations has four rays. And the top and bottom rays are longer, with the bottom the longest. This elongated bottom ray connects the star to the earth, to show the spot where Jesus' manger lay. This star is often called "The Star of Bethlehem."




Elihu Vedder (American, 1836–1923)
Star of Bethlehem, 1879–80
Oil on canvas: 36 3/16 x 44 3/4 in
Milwaukee Art Museum

The frantic holiday scene I’ve described is starkly in contrast to the peaceful one we find in Star of Bethlehem created by American painter Elihu Vedder in 1879-80. This painting, currently housed in Milwaukee Art Museum storage, depicts a serene moment in the muted, golden desert. Three figures on camels overlook the path before them, while three shepherd/guides ahead and three behind also survey what lies ahead. Color can be seen in the distance in the green of trees. Above them the sky contrasts what is seen below with a bright light that illuminates the sky. There is a sense of anticipation created by figures that can be seen in the clouds, standing there, backs slightly hunched as they look down upon the earth. [Source: The Milwaukee Art Museum]

Here's Rembrandt's (or what is attributed to be a pupil of his) Adoration of the Shepherds, where Jesus is bathed in what is most likely the light from the Star of Bethlehem.


Pupil of Rembrandt, 1606–1669
‘The Adoration of the Shepherds’, 1646
Oil on canvas

Painters and art of various centuries and cultures show the importance of the star as a guiding light, and especially its pointed direction toward the earth to indicate where the infant Jesus lay.

Even popular illustrations, often for cards and hanging pictures, depict the bottom ray of the star pointing downwards. In the image below, the star shows the three kings where the manger lies.



3. Back to the Starbucks cup. The illustrations on the cup are sloppy. They look like they're preliminary sketches, rather than decorations ready for display. Especially irritating is the cone-shaped decoration, which is drawn as an amorphous blob.





4. The leaf at the bottom of the smaller cup is not that of a pine tree, nor does it look like a holly, the traditional leaf for most Christmas decorations.



It is a coffee plant leaf, and the nut-like shape, a coffee bean. Starbucks' marketing strategy, is to commemorate this "holiday" season through coffee rather than through Christmas.

The Starbucks Christmas cup is all about the coffee and very little about Christmas.

5. Shapes are scattered around the cups, as though to fill in gaps. What are the spikey triangular shapes - rays from a star? And the white dots - snow flakes? Why not have sketch of snow flakes, with some of the beautiful shapes?





6. The homes we see on the package illustration could be homes on any product cover. They have no Christmas distinction: there is no Christmas tree near the homes; there are no decorations around the houses; there is no angel or star above.



Below is a promotional image from the Starbucks website, showing the homes and their surroundings. There is no Christmas tree. The odd, leafless trees are dotted with what could be lights, but it could just be any kind of graphic embellishment. The homes have what look like lights framing the roofs, but it isn't enough to indicate Christmas lights. And the diamond-shaped objects in the sky could be stars, but there is no unique, distinct Star of Bethlehem to show that this is a Christmas scene, and not just any winter scene.

And we are invited to "create wonder," as though we have supernatural powers. What kind of wonder do we create? Again, whatever strikes our fancy, creators that we are. Like the message "Share Joy," what we create, and the joy that we share, are not related to the Christmas story, but rather, our very own individual fancies.



And finally, here is the description of the Christmas Blend mixture, from the Starbucks website:

A time to create wonder. An invitation to share joy.

Three decades ago, we created something wonderful - a coffee special enough for your celebrations big and small. Christmas Blend brings bright, lively Latin American coffees together with smooth, mellow Indonesian coffees, including rare aged beans from Sumatra. The aged coffee dramatically balances the overall flavor to create luscious, sweet, spice notes. Crafting this coffee embodies the best of everything we do - sourcing, roasting, blending, exploring, perfecting and sharing. It’s one of our most cherished traditions - made for you to savor season after season.

Of course, coffee is a Third World export. But, the description above tells us that it is part of Starbucks' "sourcing" strategy.

Dictionary.com defines "sourcing" as:

...the buying of components of a product from an outside supplier, often one located abroad

And Starbucks tells us how it does this "ethically":

Ethical Sourcing
We've always believed in buying and serving the best coffee possible.

And it's our goal for all of our coffee to be grown under the highest standards of quality, using ethical trading and responsible growing practices. We think it's a better cup of coffee that also helps create a better future for farmers and a more stable climate for the planet.
With the help of Conservation International, we’ve developed ethical sourcing guidelines that help us purchase coffee that is responsibly grown and ethically traded.

We’re working directly with farmers to develop responsible growing methods and investing in their communities to ensure a sustainable supply of quality coffee.

This sounds too much like the "Banana Republics" that developed through vast farmlands being allocated for big business plantations, while local farmers had to do with inferior land.

In this Starbucks produced video, Carlos Mario (no last name), who is clearly an intermediary between Starbucks (the corporation) and the local Costa Rican farmer, talks about the farmer and coffee production. This Third World company man says:

We are helping farmers, teaching them how to improve production, improve the quality, and reduce the use of pesticides. We are taking care of the environment and the pretty country that we have. Helping farmers is really good, and I feel really proud of that. I think Starbucks is working with agronomists because they know that if they don't care about the environment, they will not have good quality coffee in the future."

All Hail King Coffee!

Below is Toik Wolf, the cup's designer saying "All Hail King Coffee."

I found his quotes after I wrote my design break-down above. Wolf is saying almost to the word what I've written about the cup design. Of course, he thinks it is a Good Thing, while my analysis is a lament. This shows further that the deconstruction of Christmas is systematic and deliberate by the likes of Wolf and Starbucks, and not some random aesthetic project:

On The Design Process

Toki Wolf, Creative Director, In-store Promotions:
One of our early idea explorations was treating our core product, coffee, in its agricultural form and seeing if we could apply that in a beautiful way for the holidays. See if it can be meaningful in the holiday timeframe. So, there’s this image, a quick sketch of a coffee plant with coffee cherries coming out of the red cup. We were literally thinking, “If coffee is at the heart of what we do, can that be the foundation where the exploration comes from?” Even in that little sketch form, we thought we might be onto something. We kept going back to it, even after moving on from it and exploring different illustration style. We always went back to the drawing with the red cup below it. It was the basis of the elements that ended up on the red cups and the coffee bags for this year.

So, the idea was to take these coffee cherries and use them as a holiday element – like holly berries. The coffee flower that you see on the cups comes across, as maybe a snowflake, maybe a poinsettia. We start to see these interpretations. Even in the origin patterns, they kind of look like snow in an abstract form. They start to have a holiday feel to them. Once we realized that we could make this work visually in a way that was both authentically Starbucks and authentically holiday, we went for it, and extracted it all the way across all of our holiday elements. We started with the way it can be interpreted, creating the story around it. Going back to that original sketch, it feels like this beautiful holiday moment is coming out of the red cup, literally coming from the coffee. We ended up keeping the element in the swoop. We call it a “story swoop” or “story arch” that kind of flow around the packaging. So, you’ll see that across all of our holiday design elements, including the cups and the coffee packaging.

[...]

This holiday is the next step of the visual journey we’ve been on with the brand. Beginning with the new coffee packaging. We wanted the coffee to be at the center. We wanted it to look like the leader and to elevate above the noise in the coffee category. We wanted to create something that felt right for coffee but was unique and own-able to Starbucks. By doing so, we created this new visual vocabulary around coffee that looks traditional, and looks like it’s rooted in heritage, but yet it’s fresh and new. We haven’t done anything exactly like it - nor has there been anything like it in the category. You’re right. This holiday feels like a natural extension of that [the coffee packaging redesign]. It keeps that momentum going.

I like coffee, and I especially like Starbucks' blends. There is no doubt that its the "King of Coffee." I wish its leader would just say that they're in the business of making great coffee, and that they work in Third World countries. Let those countries make the necessary steps to help the farmers, while Starbucks provides the coffee for us through a true market and competitive manner.

And, I wish Starbucks wouldn't tell us to "Share Joy," or to "Create Wonder" if it cannot come right out with "Share the Joy of Christmas." I would rather just have a warm cup of coffee without being pulled into a false sense of the Christmas holiday. It is just coffee, after all.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Share Joy with a Starbucks Holiday Coffee

The gradual move away from Christmas is subtle and clever.

Starbucks has a new "holiday" logo out, which seems to be celebrating Christmas. But it doesn't quite do that.

The main, written message of the logo, instead of saying "share the joy" of Christ's birth, simply tells us to "share joy." What could this joy mean? One million things. Something different for each person. The unified joy that we are to feel around the Christmas season has splintered into the joy each of us feels for whatever reason.

That is one way Starbucks is shifting us away from Christams.

Another way it is relaying its message of a Christmas Holiday without Christmas is through the design of its products, which either distort Christmas symbols, or leave them out all together.

Here is the Starbucks paper cup for this "holiday season":



1. What looks like a star on the left cup could just be a sparkly tree decoration shaped in a flower design.

2. The triangular star shapes in the octagons (dispersed around the cup) are too uniform, and there are two of each star ray, making a total of eight. The rays are all the same length.

The star that shines in many renditions of Christmas paintings and illustrations has four rays. And the top and bottom rays are longer, with the bottom the longest. This elongated ray is to show a star that is connecting with the earth below, to show the spot where Jesus' manger lay. It is often called "The Star of Bethlehem."




Elihu Vedder (American, 1836–1923)
Star of Bethlehem, 1879–80
Oil on canvas: 36 3/16 x 44 3/4 in
Milwaukee Art Museum

The frantic holiday scene I’ve described is starkly in contrast to the peaceful one we find in Star of Bethlehem created by American painter Elihu Vedder in 1879-80. This painting, currently housed in Milwaukee Art Museum storage, depicts a serene moment in the muted, golden desert. Three figures on camels overlook the path before them, while three shepherd/guides ahead and three behind also survey what lies ahead. Color can be seen in the distance in the green of trees. Above them the sky contrasts what is seen below with a bright light that illuminates the sky. There is a sense of anticipation created by figures that can be seen in the clouds, standing there, backs slightly hunched as they look down upon the earth. [Source: The Milwaukee Art Museum]

Here's Rembrandt's (or what is attributed to be a pupil of his) Adoration of the Shepherds, where Jesus is bathed in what is most likely the light from the Star of Bethlehem.


Pupil of Rembrandt, 1606–1669
‘The Adoration of the Shepherds’, 1646
Oil on canvas

Painters and art of various centuries and cultures show the importance of the star as a guiding light, and especially its pointed direction toward the earth to indicate where the infant Jesus lay.

Even popular illustrations, often for cards and hanging pictures, depict the bottom ray of the star pointing downwards. In the image below, the star shows the Three Kings where the manger lies.



3. Back to the Starbucks cup. The illustrations on the cup are sloppy. They look like they're preliminary sketches, rather than decorations ready for display. Especially irritating is the cone-shaped decoration, which is drawn as an amorphous blob.





4. The leaf at the bottom of the smaller cup is not that of a pine tree, nor does it look like a holly, the traditional leaf for most Christmas decorations.



It is a coffee plant leaf, and the nut-like shape, a coffee bean. Starbucks' marketing strategy, is to commemorate this "holiday" season through coffee rather than through Christmas.

The Starbucks Christmas cup is all about the coffee and very little about Christmas.

5. Shapes are scattered around the cups, as though to fill in gaps. What are the spikey triangular shapes - rays from a star? And the white dots - snow flakes? Why not have sketch of snow flakes, with some of the beautiful shapes?





6. The homes we see on the package illustration could be homes on any product cover. They have no Christmas distinction: there is no Christmas tree near the homes; there are no decorations around the houses; there is no angel or star above.



Below is a promotional image from the Starbucks website, showing the homes and their surroundings. There is no Christmas tree. The odd, leafless trees are dotted with what could be lights, but it could just be any kind of graphic embellishment. The homes have what look like lights framing the roofs, but it isn't enough to indicate Christmas lights. And the diamond-shaped objects in the sky could be stars, but there is no unique, distinct Star of Bethlehem to show that this is a Christmas scene, and not just any winter scene.

And we are invited to "create wonder," as though we have supernatural powers. What kind of wonder do we create? Again, whatever strikes our fancy, creators that we are. Like the message "Share Joy," what we create, and the joy that we share, are not related to the Christmas story, but rather, our very own individual fancies.



And finally, here is the description of the Christmas Blend mixture, from the Starbucks website:

A time to create wonder. An invitation to share joy.

Three decades ago, we created something wonderful - a coffee special enough for your celebrations big and small. Christmas Blend brings bright, lively Latin American coffees together with smooth, mellow Indonesian coffees, including rare aged beans from Sumatra. The aged coffee dramatically balances the overall flavor to create luscious, sweet, spice notes. Crafting this coffee embodies the best of everything we do - sourcing, roasting, blending, exploring, perfecting and sharing. It’s one of our most cherished traditions - made for you to savor season after season.

Of course, coffee is a Third World export. But, the description above tells us that it is part of Starbucks' "sourcing" strategy.

Dictionary.com defines "sourcing" as:

...the buying of components of a product from an outside supplier, often one located abroad

And Starbucks tells us how it does this "ethically":

Ethical Sourcing
We've always believed in buying and serving the best coffee possible.

And it's our goal for all of our coffee to be grown under the highest standards of quality, using ethical trading and responsible growing practices. We think it's a better cup of coffee that also helps create a better future for farmers and a more stable climate for the planet.
With the help of Conservation International, we’ve developed ethical sourcing guidelines that help us purchase coffee that is responsibly grown and ethically traded.

We’re working directly with farmers to develop responsible growing methods and investing in their communities to ensure a sustainable supply of quality coffee.

This sounds too much like the "Banana Republics" that developed through vast farmlands being allocated for big business plantations, while local farmers had to do with inferior land.

In this Starbucks produced video, Carlos Mario (no last name), who is clearly an intermediary between Starbucks (the corporation) and the local Costa Rican farmer, talks about the farmer and coffee production. This Third World company man says:

We are helping farmers, teaching them how to improve production, improve the quality, and reduce the use of pesticides. We are taking care of the environment and the pretty country that we have. Helping farmers is really good, and I feel really proud of that. I think Starbucks is working with agronomists because they know that if they don't care about the environment, they will not have good quality coffee in the future."

All Hail King Coffee

I like coffee, and I especially like Starbucks' blends. There is no doubt that its the "King of Coffee." I wish its leader would just say that they're in the business of making great coffee, and that they work in Third World countries. Let those countries make the necessary steps to help the farmers, while Starbucks provides the coffee for us through a true market and competitive manner.

And, I wish Starbucks wouldn't tell us to "Share Joy," or to "Create Wonder" if it cannot come right out with "Share the Joy of Christmas." I would rather just have a warm cup of coffee without being pulled into a false sense of the Christmas holiday. It is just coffee, after all.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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