Posted on 02/07/2005 8:12:08 AM PST by owls_man
ROCKLAND - Free speech clashed with free expression on a downtown street corner Saturday as artists opposed to war protested the showing of combat paintings of Marine Sgt. Michael Fay at the Farnsworth Art Museum. Sgt. Fay stood ramrod straight when confronted by the small group of protesters upset with the Farnsworth for exhibiting his paintings of combat forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The afternoon sun reflected off the combat ribbons pinned to his green uniform, and the red chevrons on his sleeves glinted in the finish of his spit-shined shoes as Fay listened to his challengers.
Fay told the group he recognized their right to voice their opinion but reminded them that he had a right to express himself as well.
"I think it's great that we can have a passionate debate," Fay told the protesters. "I am not a spokesman for the war. But am I proud to be a Marine? You bet."
About a half-dozen artists carried signs and stood vigil outside the Farnsworth as the show "Fire and Ice: Marine Corps Combat Art from Afghanistan and Iraq" was previewed for museum members. Fay's paintings show soldiers carrying out their daily duties while serving on hostile ground.
Fay's paintings and drawings do not depict war, but there is no doubt as to their nature. They are set in a combat zone and include images of tanks, bombs, planes, ambulances and rifle-carrying soldiers.
The protesters objected to the show's content and what they claimed was the museum's "implicit support of war." They said a more balanced show would include images of civilian deaths and mass destruction. To represent one facet of military life in combat zones without placing it in the context of the true costs of war displayed a lack of sensitivity, they said.
(Excerpt) Read more at bangornews.com ...
Clock, toilet, lawnmower, box of chalk, water color tin, chair, hammer, spatula...I am sorry; I don't see the Irish theme, unless the theme is Irish junk.
I think you are on to it. The theme is Irish Flea Market.
No.
Is she thinking of "Give Me Three Grains of Corn, Mother"? If so, it's the wrong kind of corn.
Y'know, this woman is indisputably not only a bad artist but a fool as well.
This is a festive assemblage of working class Irish artifacts, swirled in a joyous though somehow disturubing blend of color and texture....
Oh, let me try that again. DISTURBING!
LOL!!! We have to work the word "oppression" in there somehow, too. "...oppressed working class Irish.."?
I stand (well, sit) corrected. Thanks.
what shocks me is that every book i've read about ww2 at home says artists and musicians supported the war effort with special exhibitions and concerts to sell war bonds.
maybe all those musicians who fled hitler and mussolini like toscanini and gieseking knew who the bad guys reallt were.
even the ones who fled soviet russi when stalin rose knew he was also a bad guy. maybe that's why great russian pianists like rachmaninoff and horowitz donated their fees to war bond efforts and when they spoke out publicly did so with even more patriotism than many native-born people.
where did we go wrong?
norman rockwell would never have protested this talented man's paintings. someday i want to ope a restaurant, and i'd love to have some of his work hanging on the walls there.
Ah, well, that's obviously a reference to the Corn Laws of the Famine period. And the green book is clearly the Irish Book of Kells. I guess. Now, the lawnmower, on the other hand...
Toilet. Chaise lounge chairs. What looks like 2 maps of Iraq. Some servicemen and an American flag on what looks like an oriental rug. Hammer. Ladder. Vacuum cleaner. At least three clocks. I think there might be 2 lawnmowers, but the 2nd might be a snowblower. A pair of jeans. What looks like mushrooms and green peppers (pizza?) at about the 8 o'clock position.
Oh yes. All very clearly spells out I-R-E-L-A-N-D. 
Nothing new there. Some 25 years ago or so, my wife was in a class where students could hold an "art happening," in lieu of a term paper of final exam. She and some friends put together some b.s. that they knew was b.s. -- and the professor just kvelled over it.
The lawnmower is obviously a symbol of the English Industrial Revolution mowing down the green, pastoral landscape of Ireland.
"Corn" in Brit-speak means whatever grain is most common in the location in question - i.e. wheat in England, oats in Scotland. I assume it's oats on account of the climate -
Corn on the cob is referred to as maize, or Indian corn.
I've never wanted to post a boatload of bills so badly in my life. :D
HEY now! Some of us know how to dress.
A few of us can even pass as normal people.
Thanks for the ping.
"Illegal and immoral war" said the 70-something faggot and coward of the Left, showing his ignorance and total disregard for the sacrifice others have made for his benefit. A pox on him and the other twirps prancing around a real man.
Sgt. Fay sir, keep drawing and painting those wonderful soldiers, I can't get enough of seeing them.
Dad of an Infantryman serving in Iraq.
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