Posted on 07/18/2004 9:32:10 AM PDT by Elle Bee
Rosie O'Donnell expresses herself on Duval Street
BY CHRIS TITTEL
Citizen Staff Writer
KEY WEST — "How much damage can he do?"
The haunting question has been clipped from a news magazine and plastered alongside pictures of President George W. Bush, a cutout of the color-coded homeland security advisory system and photos of a newborn baby.
Out of chaos comes order, as the viewer steps back from the smear of random bits of graffiti to discover a very clear, direct and serious personal message.
"He is the most divisive president we've ever had," the artist asserts, "and I think he has caused more harm than any president in recent memory."
Rosie O'Donnell is the artist.
"In March '03" is the title of this particular work, created in response to President Bush ordering troops into action in Iraq more than a year ago. Like so many of her other paintings and collages, it serves as an expression of O'Donnell's thoughts, feelings and emotions in response to the ever-changing world around her. Her work has been described as "a visual journal" of abstract expression, punctuated with sometimes harsh realism.
"Each work is a snapshot of a moment in time that represents what Rosie wants to say on the subject at hand," a promotional pamphlet reads.
O'Donnell visited Key West on Wednesday, one of several stops on a gay family vacation cruise that she and her family embarked on a week ago. After receiving the key to the city, the Emmy Award-winning talk show host and gay rights activist stopped at Luis Sottil Studios on Duval Street to meet art collectors and buyers and to sign some of her original works.
In an exclusive interview with The Citizen at the art studio, O'Donnell reacted to the U.S. Senate's rejection earlier in the day of a proposed constitutional amendment that would prohibit same-sex marriages. She also touched on life with her spouse, Kelli Carpenter O'Donnell, whom she married in a civil ceremony earlier this year, her adopted children Parker, Chelsea and Blake, her new gay family-friendly cruise line and influences on her artwork.
The Citizen: Why is the issue of same-sex marriage being brought to our attention at this particular time?
Rosie O'Donnell: Because George Bush would like to distract Americans from the fact that he has started a war based on pure fabrication and that over 900 of America's poor have been killed in action. For what? For the arrest of Saddam Hussein. Well, that's not an equal trade if you ask me, or if you ask the parents, the brothers, the sisters, the children of the dead soldiers. People say: Well, peace is not patriotic. Well, guess what, peace is very patriotic. I'm very supportive of our military and when we ask them to go to war that it's for a worthy cause. This war, there is no worthy cause. We have done such damage to ourselves, as a nation, in the eyes of the rest of the world.
Citizen: Changing gears a bit, how's the cruise going?
O'Donnell: Really, really well. Everyone's having fun. I never see Kelli, which is kind of interesting. She runs in, gets on the phone and runs out. You know, our kids are having fun. Everybody's having fun. There's a lot of people with lives that don't allow them to be as open as they could be on the cruise. To see the sense of freedom that they and their children feel is very fulfilling.
Citizen: How's married life treating you?
O'Donnell: Pretty good. I think I've been married to Kelli since probably shortly after our six-month anniversary. That's when I told her parents that we were going to do this for the long haul. Going to San Francisco really was inspired, in many ways, by the fact that during a war our president held a press conference to denounce gays and marriage as the big issue in our nation, just as he was sending our 22-year-olds off to be killed. I thought it was absurd and was so transparent, his motive was so transparent. I think America feels that, too. With the vote today in the Senate, I think even the senators are looking at President Bush in a different light. He is the most divisive president we've ever had, and I think he has caused more harm than any president in recent memory.
Citizen: I read that a lot of your artwork comes out of your reaction to current events. Are you feeling any artwork coming out of today's vote in the Senate?
O'Donnell: You know, I actually believed that the Senate would do what they did. A lot of people in the gay community were saying: What are you? Nuts? When it comes right down to it, look at the McCarthy era. You stand up and you say: Have you no decency? You're called, you're tapped on the shoulder, you're a senator and you're asked to put discrimination into the Constitution. I don't care what your party affiliation is. The ones who voted for the amendment ... I hope that what will happen is the opposite of what the president expected, which was that anyone who voted to reject this amendment would be chastised, that it would hurt their career. I think the opposite is going to happen. I would love just to get the list and the faces of every single person who voted for the amendment and support the person running against them. I mean, how absurd is that?
Citizen: Tell me about your interest in abstract expressionism.
O'Donnell: Well, I started painting after Sept. 11. I had always done collages and journals. I had all these images from Sept. 11, from magazines and newspapers. I couldn't throw them away. I didn't know what to do with them, so I started gluing them on canvas and painting over them. And, so it began. By the time I got to know [New York gallery owner and fine art publisher] Mitch [Meisner], I think I had 1,000 or 2,000 images, something absurd. He said: Well, let me take them and see what we can do. Then, I started to learn about art. He got me a book on [Jean-Michel] Basquiat. You can see the influence of Basquiat. I got another book, on [Willem] DeKoening. So, I'm starting to be educated as I go. I was the kind of person who would go into Madonna's house and go: Oh, my God, that's so nice. Who did that? She's like: Monet! And, I'm like: Oh! He's good! Some nice ponds he made! I didn't really know a lot about art, so I'm getting my education as I go.
O'Donnell: Well, I started painting after Sept. 11. I had always done collages and journals. I had all these images from Sept. 11, from magazines and newspapers. I couldn't throw them away. I didn't know what to do with them, so I started gluing them on canvas and painting over them. And, so it began. By the time I got to know [New York gallery owner and fine art publisher] Mitch [Meisner], I think I had 1,000 or 2,000 images, something absurd. He said: Well, let me take them and see what we can do. Then, I started to learn about art. He got me a book on [Jean-Michel] Basquiat. You can see the influence of Basquiat. I got another book, on [Willem] DeKoening. So, I'm starting to be educated as I go. I was the kind of person who would go into Madonna's house and go: Oh, my God, that's so nice. Who did that? She's like: Monet! And, I'm like: Oh! He's good! Some nice ponds he made! I didn't really know a lot about art, so I'm getting my education as I go.
O'Donnell: He and Keith Herring were the two artists I was very familiar with before I started. In our culture, they were the ones who I could identify their work right away. Then, Basquiat, I had seen the movie, but I had never seen his work. I didn't have a book of it. I have since seen the real ones. Collectors had seen the show and said: You have to see the real ones. So, it was very inspiring. But, the more you look at other artists, real artists ... [points to colorful painting on the wall] like this guy, I think that I shouldn't paint. To me, that is electric and alive.
Citizen: Have you been to Key West before?
O'Donnell: Never have. Kelli has, but I never have.
Citizen: How do you like it?
O'Donnell: You know, Miami is my favorite place in the world. When I had no money, I used to go visit my friends, like Madonna — [rolls her eyes] uh-oh, I've said her name twice in an interview, that's going to seem weird — and I would have a rented car, and I would drive around Star Island and I would say to myself: When I have money, I'm going to buy one of these houses. Then, I'd go sleep in one of her guest rooms. As soon as I got some money, it was the first thing I did was buy a house on Star Island. To me, it is perfection, it's paradise. We've never come here, but we go to Islamorada, to the Moorings, a lot. This summer, we're going to make a trip, come down here. It's beautiful. It really is.
Citizen: You should be Fantasy Fest grand marshal. Do you know Fantasy Fest?
O'Donnell: No.
Citizen: It's like Mardi Gras at the end of October, with parades and costumes. It's a wild time.
O'Donnell: Really?! I'll do it! I'll do it!
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(Excerpt) Read more at keysnews.com ...
BY SCOTT FUSARO
Citizen Staff Writer
KEY WEST — John Kerry's eldest sister arrived in the Southernmost City on Saturday with a message for the Key West crowd.
"My brother is a great environmentalist and cares greatly about women's issues," Peggy Kerry said in the leafy courtyard of the Gardens Hotel after she addressed an assembly organized by the Key West Women for Kerry/Edwards.
Following the fund-raiser, which organizer Gail Lima estimates raised about $15,000 for the all-but-assured Democratic Party nominee for president, Kerry's sister addressed remarks to supporters at the local campaign headquarters.
Lightheartedly calling herself the "sister behind the man," Kerry said she had introduced her brother to politics at a young age.
"When I was in fifth grade, I took John around the neighborhood in Washington D.C., selling Stevenson buttons," she said of Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic presidential candidate in 1952 who lost to Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Peggy Kerry has worked for the American Civil Liberties Union and is the liaison for nongovernmental organizations for the United States in the United Nations.
Kerry said she has a long history of liberal activism.
She also said her brother's campaign has become a family affair, enlisting the active support of other siblings, his children and stepchildren.
While John Kerry and his vice presidential running mate John Edwards focus their campaigning on larger population centers, Lima said she invited Peggy Kerry to speak through friends at the United Nations.
"Peggy will inspire and together we will inspire the women in this town," said Lima, a delegate to the Democratic National Convention where John Kerry will receive the party's formal nomination for president later this month.
Saturday's event rallying women to the Kerry/Edwards campaign coincided with the 156th anniversary of the inaugural women's rights convention held in Seneca Falls, N.Y., in 1848, and Peggy Kerry said she believes women remain underrepresented in American politics today.
"It's about a women's grassroots effort to reach out to other women and empower them and get involved in the campaign," she said.
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Rosie claimed after 9/11 that she supported Bush.
Now she doesn't.
Looks like she knows how to read public opinion....
Did she manage to graduate from high school?
Wouldn't their nannies let them give away the buttons?
Please refresh my memory - I thought there was a weight limit on Duval.
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It's a tough town to live in and not gag
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There are weight limits on most streets. It all depends on how you spread the load. I'd say hers is pretty well spread.
...over 900 of America's poor have been killed in action.
What an arrogant b!tch. So only poor people enlist in the military? Go buy a clue, Rosie, you obviously don't have one.
and this is in a town where the largest employer is the Naval Air Station Key West
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Rosie left Key West on the cruise en route to Nassau, Bahamas where the disembarking passencers were met by Bahamian business owners holding protest signs saying "If you're openly gay, stay away"
What a difference a couple of hundred miles makes.
Hopefully you don't buy the Key West Citizen, it's a terrible waste of 50 cents daily or a buck on Sundays.
Rosie O'Fatsow is nothing more than a pimple on the ass of posterity. She's a bitter has-been who will soon be forgotten.
So do the paintings of kindergartner's.
I place a higher value on those.
You in the HE business?
She was lactating? ewww!!!!
Rosie, the reason why you never see your spouse is--
A.) She probably can't stand to listen to your fat a** blather on about crap.
B.) She's having an affair.
I vote for all of the above.
I’m just up the road in Key Largo. Even if Gay Marriage never happens, it’s a virtual institution in Key West. It’s been a magnet for people on the edge of society forever.
in the same direction and reason that she hasn't seen her shoes in years
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