Through the Fears

FOR NEW POSTS

2009-04-02T13:41:00.006-05:00

Visit the new and improved wordpress version of through the fears. I'm blogging very regularly over there, as well as showing some of my new work.

Step like a giant's Constance Humphries interviews me

2009-02-17T00:51:00.005-05:00

Genie is a painter who specializes in ethereal abstracts that suggest the landscape, with the horizon line as dominant element. About her work, she says, “My goal is simplicity of composition, exquisite color, and interesting surface. I apply old-world methods of building color to contemporary themes.”

+1 ::: When did you first realize you are an artist?

It was a quiet evolution. The environment I grew up in wasn’t culturally rich, though there were examples of practical creativity all around me. I shied away from the arts because I felt painfully vulnerable when expressing myself. After my children came along, doing projects with them gave me a way to explore my own creativity without any lofty expectations. Then one day I found that a photograph of my then-husband and me had been damaged beyond repair in storage. It felt as if the state of the photo echoed the state of my marriage, and for whatever reason, I suddenly wondered if I could draw it. I think I had some irrational hope that if I could learn to reproduce the contours of our happy, hopeful faces, I might remember how to feel that way again. While drawing didn’t heal the marriage, it did unlock a door inside me. I came to understand the transformative nature of art and believe that it might have some application to my own life.

One night a month or two later when I was cleaning up my kids’ tempera paint, I sat down to smudge some yellow on paper, just because the color was beautiful and I wanted the pleasure of touching it. After awhile, I had a painting of a naked woman crouched awkwardly in despair on her kitchen floor. I was shocked to realize I could express truth with visual images, and I was more surprised when someone asked to buy it.

As impure and commercial as it sounds, learning that someone wanted to buy what I’d blurted out made me wonder if I could be an artist, and it was the fact that people continued to respond to my work enough to part with hard-earned cash that made me sure. That doesn’t mean I don’t love the work, or take it seriously, or dig hard to do it, or that I don’t paint truthfully with my own vision and impulses. But this has felt like a career since I started, and I do paint with the intention of selling. I think most artists come up against periods when the work comes harder, or we have trouble achieving what we want to. People who quit at those moments are probably not artists. But I think there is variation in what drives the rest of us to keep pushing when it gets hard. I can’t pretend that part of my motivation isn’t that I have three children to feed. Maybe a big-A Artist would keep at it even if she didn’t need the money, and a little-a artist keeps pushing because doing this work is how she survives. I don’t know. If that’s so, I don’t know which I am, since I’ve never been in a position where I didn’t need to sell.

+2 ::: Could you tell us about your work?

I paint in oils. The foundation of my work is transparency, though I do employ opaque colors to obscure. I’m driven by color and light, but have become more fascinated by balance and boundary in the last year or two, and have simplified my composition greatly in order to develop a deeper understanding of those concepts. My work is abstract, driven by process and internal exploration, but for the current body of work, I’ve narrowed my focus to explore the very primal visual cue of horizon. It provides a sense of groundedness, security, and expansiveness. I think as my work has evolved, it has become less about expression of my current state or position, and more an exploration of what I want to experience, the way that first effort at a portrait was. If I can evoke it, perhaps I can embrace it.

+3 ::: How did you find your voice/subject/process?

My voice emerged through the simple act of painting. In the first four years, I pretty much worked every moment I wasn’t sleeping or making grilled cheese sandwiches or managing the business end of being a working artist. I painted furiously for at least five or six hours a day, seven days a week, and I produced an enormous body of work. I didn’t think about developing my voice at that point, rather I kept my brush moving, and over time a group of coherent, consistent elements became obvious. Those things still don’t change much, regardless of how I experiment. I think my voice is clear and recognizable because it’s grounded in the sheer volume of that early work, produced before I started thinking very deeply about things likes voice or style or image.

+4 ::: Which artists have influenced you, and how?

There’s something about Diebenkorn that fascinates me, and I’m still learning exactly what — line, layering of color, but there may still be something more. I saw the Turner exhibit when I was in New York last year, and was profoundly moved by his surfaces. Picasso’s boldness and willingness to strip away niceties. Bonnard’s color and liveliness. Alice Neel’s frank honesty. Rothko for… everything. Pollack’s willingness to step off a cliff, Frankenthaler’s graceful dive. But I came to this exploration late in life, and I’m at the beginning stages of gathering context for my own work and strengthening it by appreciating what has come before.

+5 ::: What do you do for fun (besides creating art)?

Not enough! I enjoy doing simple things with my kids. I like movies, music, and long walks. I read and write when I can summon the mental energy. When I’m feeling social, I like conversations with friends about things that feel important at the time. I like to laugh at small silly things. I stare off into the distance a lot.

+6 ::: What inspires you to create art and how do you keep motivated when things get tough in the studio?

I’m curious. I like watching beauty emerge, truth fall into form, balance reassert itself after being lost. I was one of those women who actually enjoyed pregnancy and giving birth, and painting echoes that sensation of having something move through me into physicality. It has become as important as eating or drinking to me. It’s necessary for me to feel healthy and whole. That’s not to say that I don’t have periods of a sort of creative anorexia, that can be painful and difficult to overcome. The only way I know to move beyond that is to cultivate a willingness to tolerate a profound kind of vulnerability, and the discipline to pick up the brush and move my arm even when I feel my weakest. I don’t think there’s a way to make that part of the process easy, but working consistently can make it easier.

+7 ::: How have you handled the business side of being an artist?

Since I came to art through a back door, I’m naturally unorthodox in my career decisions. I read the books and blogs, then hack my way through what continues to feel like uncharted territory. I’ve had some amazing successes and some very challenging times. I try to ride the waves. Like many artists, I struggle with organization and details.

I’m in the midst of re-evaluating the way I approach my career in the face of a tightening economy. I’m examining both my life and my business to make sure it’s in alignment with my wider beliefs, goals, hopes. I’d like to find a way to have my business become a simple extension of who I am in the world, the way the art itself is. I have ingrained judgments about worth and money that I’m trying to shake loose. Art has been a tremendous avenue for healing and expansion in my life. Business is about how that extends out into the world, and whether it brings enough back home from the world to sustain itself. Does it sound as if I’m married to my work and kissing goodbye when it goes out into the world to bring home a paycheck? Sometimes it feels that way.

I’m encouraged by the concept of social entrepreneurship, and by the continually expanding accessibility to the direct art market provided by the internet and other new models. I’m looking for places where capitalism and social good can dovetail, in ways that strengthen human connection and community. As a loner, that’s a challenge, but art has always been about opening for me.

+8 ::: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

It’s hard for me to think that far ahead. I’m less than ten years in now, and I couldn’t have predicted any of this. My fantasy is that I’ll have built enough momentum in the business/selling arena that I can hand over the day-to-day running of the business to someone I trust, and just close the studio door and paint. But I don’t know if that’s in the cards. I think in ten years I’ll be doing more writing, will have developed deeper relationships, more insight and a sense of context. I hope I’ll feel more peaceful in general.

+9 ::: What’s the best and worst parts of being an artist?

The best part is feeling that my work is an integral part of my life, an extension of who I am. The hardest part is reconciling the unpredictability of an artist’s life and income with the responsibilities of being a sole parent. Beyond that, I’ve also found that the work I do affects my relationships. Living with the kind of emotional and intellectual openness and outspokenness I find necessary to do this work well has an impact on relationships, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.

+10 ::: What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?

Work a lot. Find as much joy and contentment as you can in the process, without getting lazy and falling into habit or always doing what comes easiest. Stay curious. Try not to over-think the work itself, at least until you’ve created a large enough body of work to teach you something about who you really are as an artist, rather than who you think you should be. Tell the truth, both in your life and your work — it’s all the same thing. Develop your ability to tolerate discomfort and uncertainty as you work and learn. Avoid pretension. Stay humble — no matter how good you get, you aren’t as good as you could be.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Read more artist interviews, along with practical advice about simplicity of living, insightful thoughts on the current state of the arts, and examples of Constance's exquisite work, visit Step like a giant.

small painting

2009-02-03T18:58:00.003-05:00

Fruitful Times
12 X 12 inches
oil on canvas

Oil sketch

2009-02-03T18:56:00.002-05:00

untitled
24 x 24 inches
oil on canvas

New 12 X 12 painting

2009-01-17T22:58:00.003-05:00

Running Red
oil on canvas
©2009
12X12 inches

If you're quick you can catch the credit in the book scene.

2009-01-15T21:16:00.007-05:00

Had a friend email and ask, "Can I interpret this to mean you have an exhibit at MOMA?"
No, but I have a painting in a very cool commercial.

If it's too small to read my name you can try here.

Manna Food Bank Benefit Update - new title, new logo

2009-01-15T17:46:00.005-05:00

Event: Art for Food - weekend art market 50% of sales to benefit Manna
Date: To be announced in February
Location: My studio, Cotton Mill Building, Asheville's River Arts District
Participation: To be announced: Juried group of Asheville's fine artists

We have a logo to unveil:

Next order of business is to select a date, then I'll begin profiling the participating artists!

Madonna of the Totems: an Art Critique

2009-01-14T13:43:00.006-05:00

Thanks to Kristina Laurendi Havens for posting this critique on a blog at 1000markets.com. I appreciate the time and care she put into evaluating the work, and of course the nudge at the end to remind people it's for sale.

This painting by Genie Maples really struck me the first time I saw it. The blue in particular is very special - it makes me want to go to my studio and see if i can get the right combination of pthalo and cerulean and prussian and whatever else it takes to re-create that beautiful blue.

Genie has developed a wonderful sense of balance and precariousness. She has used the compliments of orange and blue to bring out the strengths in each color. Yet she buffered their individual intensity with a sublime field of white. Had any of these elements been brought together in a different way, the painting could have been too jarring.

Color fields and shapes and linear elements are layered, and although probably thought out, have a level of spontinaety that not all artist's can achieve.

The title adds another element - bringing to mind images of Virgin Mary Figurines draped in blue. But this is one of those abstract paintings that can be interpretted in infinite ways by the viewer.

And as I was looking at this piece...I couldn't help but scan all the walls in my house...looking for that narrow strip that I never considered, but always felt empty! This painting would be a great opportunity to turn a forgotten space into a moment you can't ignore.

Note: click the image to see a larger photo.
Madonna of the Totems
40 x 10 inches
oil on canvas
©2008

Fundraiser progress for Manna foodbank

2009-01-12T08:53:00.003-05:00

Reminder:

Updates on the fundraiser are here I'm still getting more traffic from people reading about "it's not just the artists starving" on this blog, but I don't want to dilute that story with bits and pieces of personal info.

Details are beginning to solidify.

It's Not Just Artists Who Are Starving

2009-01-09T10:52:00.011-05:00

The Project:

It's Not Just the Artists Who Are Starving
A benefit event for Manna Food Bank
Location: to be announced
Time: sometime within the next 60 days
Description: An art market open to the public, with 50% of proceeds going to Manna Food Bank, 50% to participating artists and craftspeople

The statistics from Manna Food Bank's website are two years old:

Hunger in Western North Carolina

Hunger is a condition of poverty. Hunger has a price. Medical problems, learning difficulties, headaches and fatigue are all the result of not having enough to eat.
Hunger Statistics

Out of total clients in households served by MANNA Food Bank and documented by Hunger in America 2006:

* 71% of households w/children are food insecure.
* 42% have at least one employed adult in the home.
* 53% chose between paying for food and paying for utilities or heating fuel. Nationally, this figure is 42%.
* 28% chose between paying for food and paying their rent or mortgage bill.
* 30% chose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care.
* 46% have one household member in poor health.
* 37% receive Food Stamp Program benefits, but it’s likely that many more are eligible.

With the downturn in the economy making it much more difficult for so many of us to be certain we can cover our family's basic needs, it is clear that the pain and fear of hunger are much more widespread today.

Artists are typically on the fringe of the economy in the best of times. I am a single mother of three, and an established artist with a studio in Asheville's River Arts District, and have managed to support my family by selling paintings for the past five years. I am fortunate.

These days, I am also sometimes one sale away from wondering whether I can buy groceries this week. As I said, I am fortunate, because so far, the sale has always come through. That is not the case for all of us.

Beginning today, I am organizing a fund raising event to support both Manna Food Bank and the artistic community here in Western North Carolina. My goal is to hold the event within 60 days, and to raise as much money as possible, and as much food as possible for Manna, while also helping artists support themselves and their families in these difficult economic times.

I've never organized an event like this, though I have participated in this type of fundraiser, and I've seen the model work very successfully. But I will need help from people with skills I don't have to make the event as successful as it can be. I'm currently recruiting volunteers, a potential venue in case the event grows larger than my 1000 square foot studio can accommodate, legal and organizational support, sponsorships, catering donations, participating artists and galleries, word of mouth and publicity support, and whatever other assistance is available.

Today I spoke with John Fritchio at Manna to be sure they were amenable to the project, and I'll be speaking with other artists and a few other potential supporters. My first goal is to organize key volunteers.

I'll be blogging about our progress daily at it's not just the artists who are starving. I hope you'll join me there. If you would like to participate, volunteer, provide support, or attend the event, please comment here or email me at hunger at geniemaples dot com.

Thanks.

More Jason Webley - Last Song

2009-01-02T10:05:00.003-05:00

I may end up posting one more Jason Webley video every day until I run out. I'm sure it helps that I've seen him live, but this music touches me like nothing has in awhile... and those of you who know me know... well, that I feel touch deeply.

This is the most powerful message and delivery I've see in awhile. Get quiet. Turn off the distractions. It will only take a couple of minutes. Watch the video now.

lyrics here

Did you watch it yet? If not, stop reading and watch it. I'm going to come back and talk some about this, about the incomprehensible vulnerability not just of pregnancy in general, but of that point when a woman (or an artist, or the world) is heavy with child. There are phrases that capture reality in ways our modern syntax really doesn't.

Starting the New Year Early

2008-12-30T12:23:00.006-05:00

...the right way, with love, music, energy... life.

I've said it before. This is what art does. It reminds us who we are. What I wanted most when I was a child was to run away and dance with a gypsy fire lighting the darkness, passion burning the light, something jangly tied round my ankle that transformed my foot-stomps from some kind of disruptive intrusion into something rhythmic, powerful, beautiful, celebrating the insistence of life against entropy, and my decision to move, to express.

The holidays have worn on me. They do on lots of people. As this difficult year closes, the children and I had a quiet simple Christmas, with few gifts. Candy in stockings. Tickets to a show late next month we thought we would have to miss -- an extreme luxury right now. Fewer shiny distractions isn't much loss. Like many people, I'll feel a huge success if we end next year with this roof still over our head, our bellies still satisfied, the family still safe.

It's not the lack of gifts, or even the inability to give what I'd like to others, it's that when life is a struggle where days don't end with time and peace of mind to enjoy the people we love, or the things we have, when weekends don't end with days of rest to renew us, life wears us out. Jason Webley sang last night something to the effect, "You're not killing time, old man Time is killing you."

This is music from the heart of the human spirit. Depth and absurdity, beauty and tragedy coexist, just as they do in life. That's what I longed for in my childish gypsy dreams: life, fullness, Truth in all it's multi-faceted-conflicting-beautiful-painful-intricate-simple paradox... passion, the admission that life has an undeniable affect on us, that we affect each other, that life is movement and expression and the sweet serrated knife of a violin's cry cutting through to a vulnerable heart imprisoned by its own protective armor. Life insists on reminding us that we are human.

The holidays, the absence of people who have mattered to me, the empty spaces in my life cry out to me this time of year, and I feel guilty for not feeling full. But it takes that knife cutting through the fortressed chambers of the heart to let life into those places we protect.

This is art's function.

Jason didn't have accompaniment last night beyond whatever instrument he was playing and his own stomping feet, so he did what a magician does, a bit of alchemy that transformed us all into instruments. For a little while I got to be the beauty that cut through my own heart. Now there's the difference between being alive and living.

What a gift.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, maybe you didn't watch the video yet. Watch it, and learn to sing that lovely "Ya. Da da da dum" at the beginning. And check out Jason's myspace page to see if he'll be playing near you. He travels a lot. The Charlotte shows are sold out, but it looks like there's space in Chapel Hill on New Year's Day.

Wishing us all fullness in the coming year,

Genie

Tiny Study

2008-12-18T14:08:00.002-05:00

The big painting is still taking most of my studio time. Finished this little baby though.

Nothing pushes compositional simplicity like a 6X6 inch canvas.

Constance

2008-12-11T10:45:00.009-05:00

Constance Humphries is an artist.

Sometimes the simplest statements are the most profound. If I wrote the way Constance creates, I might pause and wonder whether it serves a purpose to expound on that sentence. Some assertions are truest when they are spare. But having wondered, I would embellish, embracing the challenge of building intricacy and illumination without doing violence to elegance. If I wrote the way she draws, I would succeed.

“I love you.”

“That hurts.”

“Look at that sunset.”

“Constance is an artist.”

Art, Love, Truth, Beauty. We minimize elemental ideals every day. We long for the profound. We hunger for meaning in a world cluttered with the mundane. Often, rather than honoring that longing as a vital tool that sharpens our senses enough to recognize the profound when it reveals itself, we distract ourselves with plastic and perfume and whatever voice clamors loudest.

It’s human nature to respond to whatever asserts itself most immediately. But it’s our humanity that houses a longing for something deep and real and nourishing… and the ability to discern the difference between truth and volume.

This is why Art matters. Because it calls us home. It reminds us who we are, and what we are not. Nature can do the same thing. One of the reasons I settled in Asheville is that the beauty of the mountains surrounding the city awakens me. I spend my days the same way I did when I lived outside Atlanta, scuttling from task to task, room to room, building to building, preoccupied with my thoughts and worries and challenges. And then I glance up and the simple edge of mountain against sky arrests me. My heart stutters. My eyes widen. My mind opens. It can be that simple. I remember who I am. Caught up in life, I am still myself. The immediate and the eternal converge for a moment, and I know I’m alive. Here. Now. Me.

It can be simplicity that engages me, or it can be a sudden awareness of intricacy, experienced through the way the sunlight skirts across a tangle of tree branches on the surface of a mountainside otherwise obscured in damp foggy shadow, the miracle that somehow there’s brightness and warm illumination even against that cold gray blue purple sky… but it only evidences itself where something reaches into it.

Constance’s work embodies both the crisp and the intricate. And the word “intimate” wants to slip in against “intricate,” as I type, so I’ll indulge Language and allow that.

I have a feeling I’ll be writing more about Constance and her art, maybe a lot more. But for now, I’ll say I come back again and again to her work for the same reasons I settled here in Asheville. Because it delights me, and awakens me, and reminds me, and it’s so full and rich, but at the same time spare and elegant. It’s the paradox of surface and depth and layer that makes life, Life.

I haven’t even mentioned how sexy the rare interweaving of humor and elegance is.

Check out Constance’s website. (Don’t neglect to click on “blog,” and then on “bookmark,” after you look at the images.) But realize that a snapshot of sunlight on trees is not sunlight on trees – you need to see this work in person. And you need to quiet yourself and breathe it in.

If you breathe deep enough, you’ll sigh.

New Major Work in Progress

2008-11-30T20:37:00.006-05:00

This may be the first painting I've ever titled before it was finished. As a rule, I begin a painting spontaneously with a slash of color and work back and forth between impulse and intention in layers as I discover pattern and develop balance over and over again. After I'm done, I stand back and work on discovering the words and concepts that follow from the finished image.

With this painting, though, I'm probably a bit more than half done, after several months of work. This is an ambitious 5X5 foot painting, substantial in both size and depth. The title is already there -- I'm clear what I'm working toward. I may have another couple of weeks of work left, or it could take another month or more. here are progress pictures, beginning with the second stage, as I'm beginning to build depth of color over a warm gold and orange oil sketch, and the second after much of the cool blues have built up. What's left to do is bring subtlety and weight to the final piece.

I'll post an update when the painting is finished. There won't be any major compositional changes, but the color will shift.

Learning Love's Language (work in progress)
60X60 inches
oil on canvas

UPDATE:
Here's the finished piece. It was included in "On the Verge," a joint exhibition by the WNC Magazine and Asheville Area Arts Council, highlighting "the best emerging artists in Western North Carolina."

Truth-telling matters.

2008-11-29T17:24:00.004-05:00

"Telling the truth in a time of universal deceit is a revolutionary act"
- George Orwell

This is a painting I completed a couple of months ago for the Pittsburgh show at Sirani Gallery. It is still available through the gallery.

Evidence to the Contrary
44X44 inches
oil on canvas
©Genie Maples 2008

I also have 30X30 archival prints on canvas available.

Happy Thanksgiving.

2008-11-27T13:21:00.005-05:00

I'm thankful for extraordinary friends, the love I share with my children, and hope for a new, brighter day.

In The Company of Chagall, Van Gogh, and Peter Maxx

2008-11-19T21:39:00.005-05:00

The things you find when googling yourself!

From the press release,

WINSTON-SALEM The Winston-Salem Lighting Project 2008 will debut at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, at the historic Millennium Building on the corner of Fifth and Trade in downtown Winston-Salem. This public light art show will run continuously from 6:30-11 p.m. through Saturday, Nov. 15.

Thirty-eight University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) students in groups of sixcomposed both of lead designers and electrical engineers acting as assistants have joined together under the direction of award-winning and internationally renowned lighting designers Paul Gregory of Focus Lighting in New York (www.focuslighting.com) and Jonathan Speirs of Speirs and Major Associates in Edinburgh and London (www.samassociates.com). The light shows will cycle every 30 minutes, during which each group of student designers will have five minutes to project imagery. The dynamic cycles will constantly change and evoke the imagery of the chosen artist in the medium of light via projected color and image.

The lead designers and the artists incorporated into their projects are: Brad Peterson: Dan Flavin and local glass artist John Kuhn; Michael Kohler: Peter Max; Paola Rodriguez: Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh; Sean Beach: Sjer Jacobs and Genie Maples; Alex Fogel: Marc Chagall; Samuel Rushen: Barnett Newman and Mary Capan.

Wish I'd known in time to attend!

The new pup

2008-11-17T21:05:00.003-05:00

Thanks, Susan Last-Name-Unknown, for snapping the photo at the Cotton Mill today and sending it along.

Studio Stroll this weekend!

2008-11-07T18:25:00.003-05:00

River Arts District, Asheville, NC
100 artists in all mediums and styles

Yes We Did!

2008-11-04T23:24:00.000-05:00

Time to get to work.

One more day

2008-11-03T09:29:00.003-05:00

I'm fighting a bug ... cold? flu? Hard to tell since I'm still achy from the long loop of a drive from Pittsburgh to Southampton to DC to manage shows and gallery issues.

This gave me a lift today. One day more.

Pittsburgh solo show at Sirani Gallery in Squirrel Hill

2008-10-22T21:38:00.002-05:00

Barbara Krauss and her staff did a magnificent job hanging nearly 30 of my paintings this month. The show is gorgeous.

I'm in NY tonight, picking up some paintings to move to a new (to me) gallery in DC, but I can't wait to get home to Asheville.

Republican for Obama at the Birthplace of the Republican Party

2008-10-12T07:57:00.001-05:00

Dr. Robert Newton, a lifelong Republican, explains why he'll be voting for Obama next month:

Where Love is Born - new painting for Pittsburgh show

2008-10-08T22:59:00.004-05:00

Where Love is Born
Genie Maples
©2008
40 X 40 inches
oil on canvas
available at Sirani Gallery in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh show coming up this month

2008-10-06T22:36:00.001-05:00

Click on the image to see a larger version.
Hope to see some of you there!

Evidence to the Contrary - new painting

2008-09-30T19:41:00.003-05:00

Evidence to the Contrary
44 X 44 inches
oil on canvas
©2008 Genie Maples

Last week, when there was no gas to be had in Asheville, I brought my paints home and spent my working hours out in the sunshine on my deck. This week, I'm still home, finding it hard to go back inside.

I'll be back in the at work in the studio Thursday and through the weekend.

But today, overloaded on the crisis-news cycle and research, I turned on my iPod, danced and sang to Brown Eyed Girl while I painted, and let go of worry that the neighbors would see and hear me. I'd come to the end of my rope and remembered how to let go, and I figured anyone who didn't smile when they saw joy in motion, well maybe a lesson in letting go would be good for them, too.

The crack in our economy widens with every individual who falls through it.

2008-09-28T09:16:00.003-05:00

Think about that. Now think about it again.

Here's what I've learned so far through researching this mess:

1. No business should ever be too big to fail. Any corporation that is too large to fail should be broken into bits small enough to either survive or fail individually, and that should be allowed to happen. If there is to be any bailing out at this point, we should at least guarantee our economy will never be held hostage this way again.

2. What happens in Vegas has to stay in Vegas. There should be a sharp, meticulously guarded regulatory line between risky speculation and the consumer economy (the line Glass-Steagall provided until 1999).

I think those two things have to be the preconditions, or any bailout will just worsen the mess, whether there's an initial little happy market rally or not. We should remember "the market" and "the economy" are not synonomous, and actually be at odds until 1 and 2 above are accomplished.

There's a lot to be done beyond that. The housing market has to settle back to real values as the paper that inflated them blows away, and during that transition, there has to be relief enough for consumers for them to stay in their homes. Reassessments? reasonable terms? A foreclosure moratorium? What that would require is still in question.

Jobs have to be created. and have to pay living wages so people can pay their mortgages. and workers have to be educated or trained, infrastructure has to be maintained and repaired, and new energy technologies have to be created. Those all seem to go hand in hand, and the system that can solve the energy and infrastructure problems would provide jobs, and income, and necessitate education/training.

Healthcare has to be available and affordable for everyone, since medical bills can so easily set people in a spiral toward foreclosure.

Those things all seem absolutely essential if any recovery is to be successful for anyone but the reckless speculators that profited as they put the rest of us at risk. It's not that we ought to just throw the little guy a bone. We should remember that the individuals in this country ARE this country.

The crack in the economy widens with every single person who falls through it. What's happened now is just that it's widened enough that those on top of the pile are feeling themselves slide down with the rest of us. Those in the middle shouldn't forget this anymore than the ones at the top.

Bringing comments to the front page

2008-09-28T07:48:00.003-05:00

I spent so much time responding to a comment Jeff made on yesterday's post, I wanted to bring it here. (I edited a little for the sake of clarity, and indulged myself by adding in a pithy sentence -- a girl's got to have a little fun.) The discussion veers off into a couple of meaty tangents, and I'm putting it here simply as food for thought, not some sorto of manifesto:

Jeff said:

Genie,
Thank you for taking the time and doing the research to write this post. The view is getting clearer by the minute. I do, however, have a minor quibble - I think that paragraph 5 is very much a part of the problem. Understanding the mortgage mess is critical to a better understanding of the predatory nature of the capitalist system. If what you write in paragraph 5 were to come to pass, then we wouldn't have a problem. But the bill to solve the problem of over-extended mortgagees could also be enormous. But the solutions you write of in paragraph 5 won't come to pass because the elite don't give a damn about the peasants. The elite are only concerned about themselves, not anyone else. They do not subscribe to the adage of being their brother's keeper. The bailout is to serve the elite, not the peasants. As long as we refuse to see that both the Democrats and the Republicans are part of the elite (and thus part of the problem) we will never be able to come up with a solution. Obama is more acceptable than McCain, but he is still part of the elite.

Genie said:

Thanks, Jeff.

I agree that understanding the mortgage mess is critical. It is part of the real world market, so in my mind it is part of the "real economy" that has to be saved now that we've come to the point of triage.

Nothing can work if the real-world economy isn't separated from the speculative market of paper-swapping, because that game is a crap shoot.

No matter what else is or isn't done, the living room needs to be separate from the casino. What happens in Vegas should stay in Vegas. There has to be a way for people to get a home loan from a pool of money that is being well managed, at reasonable rates, and to buy that home at a real-market price that hasn't been inflated beyond all reason just because some high rollers upped the ante in their game.

Glass-Steagall was that wall. It worked. Casino on this side, real-world security of consumer banking (the idea of savings-and-loan) on that side.

The only reason this "bail-out" should even be considered (by anyone other than the speculators still trying to game the system) is that the speculative market has become so insidiously intertwined with the real world economy that it may take a scalpel rather than an ax to separate them if anything is to survive, and that takes time. The speculative market was allowed to infect the economy just as it did in the 1920's. Perhaps because that generation has died off, we don't remember what happened.

That's a shame, and probably an indictment of the educational system as well -- if compulsory education laws were really developing an educated populace, maybe we as a nation would have some historical perspective, and maybe we as individuals would have the curiosity and skills to sift through the information that is, thank goodness, more widely available than it has ever been. Instead, our eyes glaze over and understanding seems so far beyond us we collectively resort to cynicism, apathy, addiction, and knee-jerk response.

It's not just an issue of wanting to learn, though. The less prosperous the average citizen, the more time he must spend putting food on the table and keeping the table on the floor, the floor under his feet -- and the less time and physical, mental, and spiritual fortitude he has to ask questions, comprehend problems, develop perspective, propose solutions, and take meaningful, effective action.

I think we're at a point where "develop perspective" is critical.

That's where I see a difference in Obama and most other players on the political field. I don't believe he is perfect by any means, but he is head and shoulders above anyone else I see on that field in terms of in terms of "perspective" -- an ability to grasp both lofty social ideals and real-world practicalities. I think he has the capacity to comprehend systems without losing sight of the purposes they should serve. If he runs the nation the way he's run his campaign, there may be a chance we'll survive.

I think he will make mistakes -- and the gamblers have recklessly raised the stakes for all of us since the casino was allowed to flow into our living rooms, so unfortunately there is no such thing as a small mistake right now. That is why there is no such thing as security for us right now, and I'm not just talking about economic security.

Obama will inherit a high stakes hand to play out. It was greed, foolishness, and recklessnes that raised the stakes to unconscionable levels. It will take a leader with the intellect, the practical skills, the vision, the perspective, the fortitude, and yes, the charisma, common to the greatest leaders we've ever had to ensure we get to play another hand. He is the best option we have, and I am hopeful that he will rise to the challenge.

The word "elite" has been corrupted into a meaningless code word -- unfortunately. That could be a whole new topic.

New Painting - Little 6X6 miniature

2008-09-27T20:47:00.001-05:00

Alpha
6X6 inches
oil on canvas
©2008 Genie Maples

We were warned about this mess. We didn't listen then. Let's listen now.

2008-09-26T07:56:00.008-05:00

I just heard our economic situation describes in terms of "hard landing" vs. "soft landing." Pragmatic experts who are primarily concerned with the real economy of people living out their lives and building prosperity in the world of real things like food, clothing, shelter, and transportation have been warning that conditions were worsening alarmingly for quite awhile.

Other experts, often themselves personally mired in the shadowy world of derivatives and credit swaps where value and measurements are based on easily manipulated numbers moving from one set of books to another rather than any definable or provable value of real things, disagreed.

Well, I think it's clear to all of us who was right. Funny thing is now that everyone realizes a crash is imminent, we seem to be turning toward the manipulators to tell us how to manage the hard landing.

I think that's a horrendous mistake, and I think it's important that we understand at least a little about what is happening if there is to be any hope of survival, not because you or I can formulate a workable plan for landing this rocket ship, but because we need to decide which experts are competent to do it for us.

It's not mortgages on real property that are the heart of this problem. If that were the case, it would seem the government could step in, guarantee or purchase the actual mortgages at prices that reflect the real value of sellable assets, guarantee the income stream to the original bank, help the citizen keep a roof over his head (which also protects the asset itself and the neighborhood it's in) and the system would respond. If the problem was as simple as overextended home buyers, too-high appraisals, and mortgage banks taking a bit too much risk, a simple solution would work.

New York Times, in February, 2008, warned about the speculative world of credit-swapping, which had penetrated, tentacle-like into every aspect of our economy, including those most of us assumed were still low-risk:

The market for these securities is enormous. Since 2000, it has ballooned from $900 billion to more than $45.5 trillion — roughly twice the size of the entire United States stock market.

That's $45,500,000,000,000.00 45 trillion. With a TR. Over 45 thousand million. That was in February, and it was an educated guess. I tremble to think what that expotentially exploding market is "worth" on paper now. Nobody knows, because the paper trail of these transactions are indecipherable, even to those participating in the contracts. Absurd. The article continues:

Because these contracts are sold and resold among financial institutions, an original buyer may not know that a new, potentially weaker entity has taken over the obligation to pay a claim.

In late 2005, at the urging of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, market participants agreed to advise their trading partners in a swap when they assigned contracts to others. But it is unclear how closely participants adhere to this practice.

It would be as if homeowners, facing losses after a hurricane, could not identify the insurance companies to pay on their claims. Or, if they could, they discovered that their insurer had transferred the policy to another company that could not cover the claim.

(snip)

There is no exchange where these insurance contracts trade, and their prices are not reported to the public. Because of this, institutions typically value them based on computer models rather than prices set by the market.

Neither are the participants overseen by regulators verifying that the parties to the transactions can meet their obligations.

The potential for problems in sizing up the financial health of buyers of these securities leads to questions about how these insurance contracts are being valued on banks’ books. A bank that has bought protection to cover its corporate bond exposure thinks it is hedged and therefore does not write off paper losses it may incur on those bond holdings.

The article goes on to explain the reasons that these transactions have become more and more risky as the market grew. Contracts were resold, sometimes in bits and pieces, parties on one side didn't have to notify the other when that happened, so there was no way to quantify what parties were making the agreement, or whether they were solvent. Losses didn't have to be reported in accounting systems because they were hedged. Values were based on computer models, not market prices. The few regulations that were in place were not enforced.

(Please read the entire linked article for a real understanding of the situation. Or for an even more in depth but understandable explanation, see Chuck Simpson's article on credit default swaps)

This is not some sudden problem that arose out of nowhere. It was reported in 8 months ago in a major newspaper. The insiders with clout and position who are now shrugging their shoulders and saying, "Who knew?" while throwing around ultimatums that taxpayers pay up and legislators legislate in a three-day time period to keep this charade of a system functional are either incompetent, disingenuous, or perpetrators of fraud they have personally benefited from in numbers with so many zeroes most of us cannot even comprehend what those figures represent.

These are the ones who pulled the 700TRILLION number out of thin air, saying, "We just wanted a really big number." Does that inspire confidence?

Who knew? Experts who have been warning us knew. Maybe they are the ones who understand what is happening right now. Maybe we should be thanking them for the warning, apologizing for not listening, and maybe we should listen to them now when they tell us that bailing out a failed system so it can continue to fail would be a potentially deadly blow to an ailing economy.

I suppose we will find out who is right by Monday. We were told today was the deadline for this ransom to be paid, and it doesn't look as if it will be. If the hostage economy is still alive Monday, we'll know the experts we've been listening to were wrong yet again, when the stakes were unconscionably high.

And then, I hope we will understand that it's time to listen to the pragmatists who were right all along.

There's been a good faith effort this week to soften the blow to the American people, to make reasoned decisions on a timeline that should never have been set so short -- the "act today or else" scenario should never have been reached, and it's a failure of those in authority. But given the situation legislators found themselves in, I was heartened by the effort to work in a nonpartisan way to make this hard landing as soft as possible for the average American who didn't sign up for this ride, and who benefited little if all, unlike the pilots who were demanding raises as the plane went down.

McCain, who stated that he hadn't even read the full three page plan the day before he rode in to Washington like F-Troop to save the day, who hadn't been in communication with anyone attempting to solve the problem, and who didn't have anything substantive to say at the meeting he "suspended his campaign" to attend, needs to get out of the way, and legislators need to start asking "Does anybody on board know how to fly this thing?" The best hope may lie in taking enough time to listen to the people saying all along, "That engine doesn't sound right. We'd better figure why and fix it before we go down."

There was a plan nearing completion to put in a portion of the funds demanded in order to keep the plane from hitting ground while we listened. Unfortunately, it was thrown overboard by a panicked, unruly passenger yesterday. Candidate McCain needs to sit down, buckle up, and let the people who've been trying to educate themselves enough to make good decisions proceed.

And then, after the landing, whoever can scramble out of the wreckage, and hopefully help those pinned under the refuse, had better get the hell off the damn plane and reinstate Glass-Steagall so we won't find ourselves hurtling through space "unexpectedly" again.

My latest metaphor

2008-09-24T09:51:00.003-05:00

I've spent the last week researching and trying to understand what's really happening in this financial meltdown. My own crisis is pretty easy to understand. Too much liability, too few assets, so a drop in cash flow sets me into free-fall. I've never had enough money to worry beyond that, though I did read some in the '80's about all this OPM money for nothing stuff, etc. I had the same reaction to it as I do as a Mac user when I have to use a PC. If it's unintuitive or counterintuitive, my mind wants to shut off.

But I'm learning just enough to start understanding what the overall system is, even if I don't grasp all the details. My latest useful metaphor is the pinball machine. The financial speculators start with a marble (something with real value, like my house). I threw the house into play when I took out the mortgage. Real marble, collateralized loan. The derivatives market players operated the flippers. Every slice, dice, trade, credit swap bumper they managed to hit added a zero onto their point total. At the end of the day, there's still only one marble, still the same real value of the asset, and it's eventually going to fall out of play, whether I pay off the mortgage or default. The gamers don't really care which -- it's not the marble that matters to them. In the game, all that matters is how long they can keep it in play, how many posts they can hit, how many trades they can make -- they are just after a big point total, signifying nothing real, that all the other pinball players will jump up and down about, knowing there's another marble where that one came from. They know eventually it will come to game over, but if their meaningless number is big enough, they will get another free game .

I think that's where we are now, and the only way to get out is to pull the plug.

Throwing a trillion new points of money that doesn't exist to be spread around won't make anything better, no matter what rules are put into play. The only thing that will help anyone trying to make it in real daily life in the real world of food, clothing, shelter, and transportation of real things that really exist from one real place to another is to separate the game players from the real-live people. Let the players amuse themselves all they want, but allow real people to keep their houses and businesses and futures out of play.

I don't think it's going to happen.

Maybe my old house of cards metaphor is just as apt.

More and more, I just want a simple life, real things I can touch and appreciate without constantly being distracted, a few people I love, time to look at light reflecting on water or listen to the sound of those few people laughing. I want to learn to actually enjoy things like washing the dishes, and the fact that I have a coffee cup to wash.

Maybe trying to understand what's happening is pointless, and I should zen out and be grateful for whatever comes my way, but I'm having a hard time letting go of the compulsion.

Hope

2008-09-23T08:43:00.010-05:00

I'm happy to see hearings taking place before the Senate takes action on Paulson's bailout plan, rather than pointing fingers after wholesale looting takes place. Congress is stepping up to the plate. I hope they take a good, hard swing, and connect.

If you read this right away, you can watch on C-Span.

I'm happy to see Senator Shelby (R) talking about real products vs. derivatives, and lack of oversight. Right off the bat, he and Chris Dodd (D) are both expressing disbelief that this plan can solve the problem or protect American citizens. I missed much of Dodd's statement, but Shelby is taking Greenspan and SEC members to task, calling this risky disregard. It's a hopeful thing to see both parties questioning what has been put in front of them in stead of sniping at each other.

I'm watching to see how much emphasis is placed on the troublesome (and oddly named) "Section 8" the obscene sentence that attempts to disembowel the separation of powers and concentrate power over an amount of money greater than the the entire Treasury in the hands of one unelected man:

"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

Read the entire text of the proposed six-page piece of legislation legislation here at Huffington Post.

Just thirteen words could gut the separation of powers.

But this morning, there is evidence that the legislative branch may be waking from a long slumber. This morning I'm hopeful.

The difference between the economy and the financial system

2008-09-23T03:40:00.006-05:00

From a post at Democratic Underground:

In the economy people buy and sell goods and service, including making capital improvements. The economy is necessary for day to day living.

In the financial system, people make side bets on the economy. It is basically a casino filled with gamblers.

The size of the economy is about $45 trillion / year for the world GDP.

The size of the financial system is above $200 trillion, principally in derivatives and similar unregulated contracts. Each day, upwards of $5 trillion in payments are made to settle trades (i.e. the daily "handle" in the casino).

We need to put bariers (sic) between the economy and the finacial system so that the gamblers in the financial system casino can't wreck the economy.

This is an excellent distinction. It is not housing foreclosures that are directly driving this crisis, but sleights of hand whereby individual mortgages are sliced, diced, and leveraged through multiple credit swaps to something like 30-100% of value over multiple transfers (I don't have my source for that figure at my fingertips -- it's lost in a mountain of info amassed over the last week), backed by nothing but an indecipherable trail of paper. That is why foreclosing doesn't solve the problem of individual defaults on real mortgages -- you can't foreclose on the uncollateralized debt.

It's difficult for me to understand how throwing money (from the economy) onto the top of this bloated pyramid scheme and waiting for pennies on the dollars to trickle back through the financial system is going to save the economy. Why do we need use the corrupted financial system to keep credit available for real people and businesses? Why should we provide the stakes for losing gamblers to keep gambling? Why not just make credit directly available to the real-world economy and re-enact safeguards to keep this casino-like financial system from poisoning it? Wouldn't it make more sense to use just a small portion of that $700,000,000,000.00 (if it's really there to be used) to finance Obama's Kennedyesque 10-year plan for energy independence, thereby providing real jobs for real people do real research, development, and production of tangible, marketable products that increase quality of life, protect the environment, and enhance our national security... rather than shoring up the black-hole industry of debt-manufacturing?

There may be a reason that would not work. Can anyone explain it to me?

Before I started researching how these pieces fit together very recently, I had no idea that the only product involved in all of this swapping and shorting and "deriving" is massive debt, built on debt, built on debt, built on uncollateralized insurance, built on debt, teetering precariously on a percentage of a much smaller mortgage of real property.

We used to manufacture real things in this country, but that's been outsourced and fair traded away. It's not so much that we are a nation of debtors, but that our product is debt itself. This was set into motion by Phil Gram's repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, the Roosevelt-era firewall that salvaged what was left of the economy after the earlier version of our current crisis crashed the market in 1929.

Check out an excellent explanation and history of this debt production factory over at Daily Kos .

Just a short quote here -- click on the Kos link above to read the whole thing:

How big did this market become? Here's business correspondent Bob Moon and host Kai Ryssdal on American Public Media's Marketplace from back in the spring.

BOB MOON: OK, I'm about to unload some numbers on you here, so I'll speak slowly so you can follow this.

The value of the entire U.S. Treasuries market: $4.5 trillion.

The value of the entire mortgage market: $7 trillion.

The size of the U.S. stock market: $22 trillion.

OK, you ready?

The size of the credit default swap market last year: $45 trillion.

KAI RYSSDAL: That's a lot of money, Bob.

As in three times the whole US gross domestic product, Bob. And the truth is that Moon probably underestimated. The unregulated and poorly reported credit default swaps may have actually passed $70 trillion last year, or about $5 trillion more than the GDP of the entire world.

So, are you starting to get an idea of just how big a genie Phil Gramm and his pals unleashed?

Who will benefit from the ex-CEO of Goldman-Sachs' bailout plan?

2008-09-23T03:13:00.004-05:00

Surprise, surprise! The Goldman Sachs Group could be one of the largest beneficiaries of Paulson's bailout plan.

How expotentially Halliburton!

Source: Jody Shenn at Bloomberg again:

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley may be among the biggest beneficiaries of the $700 billion U.S. plan to buy assets from financial companies while many banks see limited aid, according to Bank of America Corp.

(snip)

Paulson is a former chairman and chief executive officer of Goldman.

And Paulson wants to have sole authority for distributing this initial $700,000,000,000.00 bailout that could end up costing over $1,000,000,000,000,000.00? No Congressional oversight, just quarterly reports, and no judicial review?

I've felt as if we were in the Twilight Zone for years, but I think we are officially on the other side of the Looking Glass now.

More from Bloomberg

2008-09-21T22:32:00.003-05:00

Bloomberg reports that the Bush administration is already widening yesterday's plan beyond its initial scope, after meeting with lobbyists. How could anyone consider handing over a blank check to this administration? Lack of oversight is what landed us here.

Quoting:

Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration widened the scope of its $700 billion plan to avert a financial meltdown by including assets other than mortgage-related securities.

The U.S. Treasury submitted revised guidance to Congress on its plan a day after first submitting it, as lawmakers and lobbyists push their own ideas. Officials now propose buying what they term troubled assets, without specifying the type, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg News and confirmed by a congressional aide.

The change suggests the inclusion of instruments such as car and student loans, credit-card debt and any other troubled asset. That may force an eventual increase in the size of the package as Democrats and Republicans in Congress negotiate the final legislation with the Bush administration, analysts said.

Bloomberg is providing good up to the minute reports. Glad this time there's at least a little digging being done before catastrophic legislation is enacted. I just hope there are enough legislators paying attention.

Here's some good info on derivatives and leverage, which spiraled this situation out of control:
Helen Hodgeson Brown's IT’S THE DERIVATIVES, STUPID!
WHY FANNIE, FREDDIE AND AIG ALL HAD TO BE BAILED OUT

And a good audio clip that explains shorting, described as something like taking out an insurance policy on your neighbor and then running him down with your riding mower:
David Brancaccio's interview with David Johnson Again, deregulation at work.

The End of the Balance of Powers?

2008-09-21T09:32:00.008-05:00

What ever happened to those checks and balances I learned about in 5th grade Civics class? This is the essence of the bailout on the table, and the reason we shouldn't allow it to pass "clean and quick." That phrase translates to "get in, get the goods, get out before the alarms go off."

The Bush administration seeks ``dictatorial power unreviewable by the third branch of government, the courts, to try to resolve the crisis,'' said Frank Razzano, a former assistant chief trial attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission now at Pepper Hamilton LLP in Washington. ``We are taking a huge leap of faith.''

Source: Bloomberg Newa

This proposal pre-authorizes unilateral unspecified decisions by Treasury that are not reviewable by the courts.

How to Prevent the next Great Depression

2008-09-19T07:43:00.009-05:00

In my last journal entry, I referenced an article explaining why the Glass-Steagall act was the lynchpin that has stabilized our economy since the Great Depression. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (that's Gramm as in former Sen. Phil Gramm, a deregulation zealot and top adviser to John McCain) repealed Glass-Steagall's safeguards that separated "regular bank" safety from speculative, unregulated corporate market gambling. Gramm's legislaton was passed by a Republican majority of Congress and signed by Bill Clinton.

Today, I'm quoting from an article that spells out the similarities between policies and practices that led up to the great crash of 1929, and what is taking place around us as I type. It also spells out the specific steps taken by Roosevelt that are our roadmap to survival now.

I'm pulling out a few quotes, but please read the entire article. It's written in simple, understandable terms. It's vital that we understand what the current shift of corporate debt to the backs of the American population means to the economy (and thus the security) of this nation. Privatizing the profit, socializing the risk. An open invitation to abuse the system again, should it be salvaged this time.

Only a Roosevelt-Scale Counterrevolution Can Prevent Great Depression II
by Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect

quotes:

Government, under Franklin Roosevelt, got serious about regulating financial markets after the first cycle of financial bubble and economic ruin in the 1920s. Then, as now, the abuses were complex in their detail but very simple in their essence. They included the sale of complex securities packaged in deceptive and misleading ways; far too much borrowing to finance speculative investments; and gross conflicts of interest on the part of insiders who stood to profit from flim-flams. When the speculative bubble burst in 1929, sellers overwhelmed buyers, many investors were wiped out, and the system of credit contracted, choking the rest of the economy.

In the 1930s, the Roosevelt administration acted to prevent a repetition of the ruinous 1920s. Commercial banks were separated from investment banks, so that bankers could not prosper by underwriting bogus securities and foisting them on retail customers. Leverage was limited in order to rein in speculation with borrowed money. Investment banks, stock exchanges, and companies that publicly traded stocks were required to disclose more information to investors. Pyramid schemes and conflicts of interest were limited. The system worked very nicely until the 1970s -- when financial innovators devised end-runs around the regulated system, and regulators stopped keeping up with them.

But beginning in the 1980s, regulators who didn't believe in regulation either allowed explicit waivers of some aspects of Glass-Steagall or looked the other way as commercial banks and investment banks became more alike. By 1999, when Citigroup had jumped the gun and assembled a supermarket that included a commercial bank, investment bank, stock brokerage, and insurance company, Glass Steagall was so hollowed out that it was effectively dead. The coup de grace was its official repeal, in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. That's Gramm as in former Sen. Phil Gramm, a deregulation zealot and top adviser to John McCain.

What all of these sins had in common was that they led financial markets to misprice assets. In plain English, that means buyers were purchasing securities based on bad information, often with borrowed money. When firms started losing money on sub-prime in mid-2007 and other owners decided it was time to get their money out, the whole miracle of leverage went into reverse. And it spilled over into other securities that had been mispriced thanks to all the conflicts of interest tolerated by regulators.

That's why, no matter how much taxpayer money the Federal Reserve and the Treasury keep pumping in, they can't turn dross back into gold. The next administration and the Congress need to return the financial economy to its historic task of supplying capital to the real economy -- of connecting investors to entrepreneurs -- and shut down the purely casino aspects of the system that have only enriched middlemen and passed along huge risks to everyone else.

We're talking about a Roosevelt-scale counterrevolution here. But nothing less will prevent the financial collapse from cascading into Great Depression II. And the public should never again forget that this needless collapse was brought to us by free-market extremists.

Now that you've read the clips, please go read the article for the one-two-three steps to survival: Only a Roosevelt-Scale Counterrevolution Can Prevent Great Depression II
by Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect

Privatize the Profits, Socialize the Risk?

2008-09-17T07:43:00.010-05:00

This article by Naomi Prins pinpoints, in simple terms, exactly what economic lynchpin was pulled, and why the economic cart has stopped moving and the wheels are falling off, while the Fed and shadowy economic powers that be keep adding more cargo to the stranded wagon instead of lightening the load. We're going to be looking at a bunch of kindling instead of a vehicle unless Washington is smart enough and brave enough to do heavy lifting right now. Not after the election. Now.

This crash began in 1999 with the killing of the Glass-Steagall Act. We just didn't notice, but it's getting louder every day now. Here's a brief history, from the article:

In 1932, three years after the 1929 stock market crash, the banking system last stood at a brink of implosion. Franklin Delano Roosevelt zoomed past Herbert Hoover into the White House. The country was struggling through a Great Depression unleashed by the forces of unregulated economic greed. FDR stood up to the unrestrained power of Wall Street and contained it. The resultant New Deal included a stoplight at the heavy intersection of financial capital and unregulated greed, called the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933.

Decisively, the Glass-Steagall Act forced institutions within the banking community to pick a side. If you want to deal with the population at large, take their deposits, give them a safe place for their savings and make reasonable loans for which you are as responsible as the borrowers -- terrific. As a commercial bank, you will have the newly established Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) backing your depositors. We, the federal government, will regulate you.

If you want to raise capital through speculative investors at home or overseas -- fine. But as an investment bank, you don't get our backing and you don't get to mix it up with citizens' lives or use their capital to fund your trading activities.

That simple premise, the pristine logic of the Glass-Steagall Act, not only kept consumer and speculative capital from intertwining within the same institution; it simplified the ability to understand the activities of all financial organizations. Transparency was not perfect, but it was more easily accomplished.

Things are about to get worse.

The Fed wants to avoid another huge failure in Merrill Lynch by pushing it under the rug of Bank of America. That is bad policy. Bank of America cannot possibly have a clue about the extent of Merrill's potential losses. This commercial bank taking over a speculative giant is much more dangerous than Lehman Brothers tanking. The Fed was within all of its rights and sanity to say no to Lehman's plea for a bailout. But it won't be able to do the same thing with Bank of America, which, unlike Lehman or Bear, is responsible for the accounts of millions of customers -- real people with real money on the line.

Please read the whole article at the link. But in case you don't click, here's the punchline:

There is no easy answer, but there is only one solution -- and it lies polar opposite to the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch merger logic. The only real way to stabilize the financial industry is to take it apart, quantify and separate its risks, and begin again. We can do this. FDR did it. The market is larger now, and more global. That is not an excuse for inaction; it belies a screaming need for useful action and meaningful regulation. Period.

Two plans for change

2008-09-15T15:24:00.002-05:00

Quoting the Washington Post story here:

Obama and McCain Tax Proposals
According to a new analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain are both proposing tax plans that would result in cuts for most American families. Obama's plan gives the biggest cuts to those who make the least, while McCain would give the largest cuts to the very wealthy. For the approximately 147,000 families that make up the top 0.1 percent of the income scale, the difference between the two plans is stark. While McCain offers a $269,364 tax cut, Obama would raise their taxes, on average, by $701,885 - a difference of nearly $1 million.

Free of History...

2008-09-14T22:21:00.007-05:00

Op-ed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune
Hope you'll click the link to read this in its entirety

Free of history, GOP runs against itself

By Garrison Keillor

So the Republicans have decided to run against themselves. The bums have tiptoed out the back door and circled around to the front and started yelling, "Throw the bums out!" They’ve been running Washington like a well-oiled machine to the point of inviting lobbyists into the back rooms to write the legislation, and now they are anti-establishment reformers dedicated to delivering us from themselves. And Mayor Giuliani is an advocate for small-town America. Bravo.

They are coming out for Small Efficient Government the very week that the feds are taking over Fannie and Freddie, those old cash cows, and in the course of a weekend twenty or fifty or (pick a number) billion go floating out the Treasury door. Hello? Do you see us out here? We are not fruit flies, we are voters, we can read and write, we didn’t just fall off the coal truck.
more

The Brighter Shore - new painting

2008-09-12T21:15:00.002-05:00

The Brighter Shore
oil on canvas
40 X 60 inches
©2008 Genie Maples

Bird Watching in my Front Yard

2008-09-12T21:07:00.002-05:00

Remembrance and honor

2008-09-11T06:52:00.007-05:00

This morning, I woke with an instant awareness of the date (rarely happens) and the sentence in my head, "9/11 changed everything."

That sentiment has always bothered me. It's repeated over and over as a justification for the intentional erosion of the foundations that this wonder of a country was built upon: the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the brilliant and evolved ideas, principles, hopes, and dreams of the founding fathers (and mothers). Their insistence that a more perfect union should at least be attempted. Their reasoned audacity to believe that this union was possible, that this ideal which had not even yet been achieved was worth dying for, worth risking everything.

If 9/11 had changed everything, the goals of the terrorists would have been achieved. What did they want but the destruction of the ideal that America represents? The goal was the destruction of this nation by the means of financial ruin brought about by the continuing reverberations of terror.

I saw the Towers fall again, graphic footage broadcast on TV at a political event, thrust at me without warning the form of a video montage. An intentional reverberation.

And I thought, what an obscenely perfect image of the goal of the terrorists that visual was. A strike to the heart of this nation, right at the spot that would cause the internal beams we assumed were impervious to buckle, leaving this nation to collapse under the weight of its own greatness, for everything that we and those who have come before us have built floor by floor with hope and faith and honor and intellect and sweat and blood and tears and love... to bring that Great Experiment in an instant to dust, with the floor beneath our feet literally falling away. It was a horrific image to see again, and it was a horrific metaphor to follow through to conclusion.

I traveled to Ground Zero after the rescue efforts were complete, but when there were still flames rising from below, when the dust of destruction and human flesh was still in the air. So many people did. Because we wanted to know. We wanted to witness the reality. We wanted to mark what had happened. We wanted to honor and remember.

I choose to honor by continuing to hold to the foundation, to have faith that it has not buckled, that the greatness of this nation is not something that can be destroyed by a physical act. By rejecting the assertion that the event of 9/11 changed everything. It did not, unless we as a nation turn away from the ideals that made us great. Unless we assist in that destruction.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, we were one nation, in a way that we have not been in my lifetime. Since then the cry of 9/11 has been used to chip away at the structure and ideals that define us, the foundation that was still standing on 9/12.

Someone I love suggested that I delete political or controversial references from my blog because it might cost me sales. This economy has hit all but a few in this country hard. I don't think speaking what I believe will cost me financially, but if it were to, the future of this nation matters more to me than holding on to the immediate tenuous financial security my little family is trying to protect. There is something greater, not out there somewhere in the ether, but beneath our very feet. The ideals the Founding Fathers wrote about so eloquently, the foundation they laid for us to build upon are not some pie-in-the-sky dream I can brush away. It is the ground my family walks on. If we lose our house, there is the possibility of building another. If we lose the ground under our feet, if we lose the essential liberties and ideals that are this nation, what will we have?

9/11 did not change everything. Not yet.

I love this country. So I speak. I remember. I honor what is best about us. And I have faith that what is solid and real and great still stands. I mourn. I remember. And I hold to what still stands. So far.

The Kitchen Table - Visit this Blog

2008-09-08T08:52:00.004-05:00

Co-bloggers Melissa Harris-Lacewell and Yolanda Pierce have an insightful discussion going on. Readers are asked to invite more visitors. Drop in -- they will add a leaf to the table for you.

Yolanda Writes:

And Melissa, like you, the issues of suffering, torture and McCain's experience as a POW powerfully draws my attention to ALL those who have suffered, bled, and died for this country. McCain was not the first, nor will he be the last. The blood of black men and women is soaked into the soil of this country. The blood of black men who died overseas, fighting a war for a country that would not allow them to vote or march in a parade with their uniforms, is also an American story. McCain fought for a cause in which he believed and a country that he loves. Black people have done the same, and they have done it for a country that often hasn't loved them in return.

You see, if John McCain or if anyone in the Republican Party had any knowledge of any religious traditions besides their own white, conservative evangelicalism, they could have used McCain's experience to tap into something powerful for black Americans: the intimate identification with suffering. Our songs and our spirituals ask a central question: were you there? Were you there when they crucified our Lord? Were you there when they nailed him to the cross? These songs, this theology set to music, aren't about the actual crucifixion. In many ways, these songs are not even about Christ or religion. These songs are about the ability to stand in witness and in solidarity when someone else suffers unjustly, for righteousness' sake. Were you there when black folks were swinging like strange fruit? Were you there when grandmothers were attacked by police dogs? Were you there when the hurricane destroyed both a family's home and a family's hope?

Melissa writes:

I appreciate the depth of sacrifice that John McCain made for our country. He is a man of great valor to have endured so much. But he is not alone. Soldiers in uniform do not have a monopoly on making sacrifices to keep Americans free. The black men and women whose bodies were broken to redeem America's sins are soldiers in the war for this country's soul. Their sacrifices bought my freedom and my opportunities. I am a 34 year old black girl who can write anything she wants on an internet blog. I can criticize powerful white men in public and then I can walk safely to my job tomorrow morning. That freedom was bought at the price of their lives and sacrifice.

Patriotism is not just the red, white, and blue of the stars and stripes. Patriotism is the black and blue of broken bodies that wore the stripes of lashings and abuse. My America was bought with precious blood spilled in the small towns and backwoods that were so pompously celebrated these past few days.

No, John McCain. You do not get to claim it all. Many, many, many have sacrificed. We know that a president needs more than a broken body. A president needs a clear vision.

There's much, much more meaty discussion at this table. I'm so glad to be welcomed to the feast. I don't want to walk away with my pockets full of fresh bread, so head on over yourself, and read the wonderful post that led me there, Melissa's op-ed in the Chicago Tribune.

New work

2008-09-06T00:48:00.001-05:00

At the Edge
44 X 44 inches
oil on canvas
©2008 Genie Maples

detail images below.

New work

2008-09-05T00:12:00.006-05:00

Airscape -- After Turner
30X30 inches
oil on canvas
©2008 Genie Maples

The first image is the full painting, followed by some detail shots to show more of the paint surface.

While I was in Southampton for my Chrysalis Gallery show, I sneaked an afternoon in NYC to have an all-too-quick look at the Turner exhibit.

Both the process and effect of this painting are of course different, but Turner's gorgeous surfaces influenced my choices here.

Right Now

2008-08-30T22:37:00.003-05:00

Maybe McCain should have watched the video before using the tune without seeking permission.

At 1.45: Right now maybe we should pay attention to the lyrics.

And right now, maybe we should all pay attention to what's behind the words and the choices being made. For us. By us.

Right now matters, maybe more than it ever has before.

New York exhibition

2008-08-13T13:45:00.002-05:00

Chrysalis Gallery
Southampton, NY
reception Saturday, August 16, 6-9 pm

This looks to be a very successful show -- some pieces of mine have already pre-sold, like the one below. This painting will also be featured as the centerpiece of a BloombergTV commercial, airing in the Asian market. The ad shot last week, but I hear production will take about a month. When it's ready, I'll upload the ad here.

Love! this. ad.

2008-07-28T12:39:00.001-05:00

New Small Painting - Ribbons 2

2008-07-14T07:55:00.003-05:00

Ribbons 2
6X6 inches
oil on canvas

I'm working to bring the depth and substance of recent paintings together with the movement of my previous work. This little study is a step in that direction.

In Progress - As It Stands

2008-07-14T06:30:00.000-05:00

Here's the painting detailed above, as it currently stands. I'll show this one again when it's finished.

As It Stands
60 X 60 inches
oil on canvas
(a work in progress)

Two new small paintings

2008-06-16T21:27:00.002-05:00

Each 12 X 12
oil on canvas

New oil painting

2008-06-09T02:57:00.001-05:00

36 x 36 inches
oil on canvas

New oil painting

2008-06-09T02:56:00.003-05:00

From Mine to Yours
40 x 40 inches
oil on canvas

New Oil Painting

2008-05-13T20:39:00.000-05:00

untitled
24 X 24 inches
oil on canvas

New oil painting Book of Dreams

2008-05-13T20:29:00.001-05:00

Book of Dreams
oil on canvas
40X40 inches

New oil painting - Internal Landscape Series

2008-05-13T20:23:00.000-05:00

The Other Side
oil on canvas
40X40 inches

New small painting - Internal Landscape Series

2008-05-13T20:16:00.002-05:00

Sunday
oil on canvas
12X12 inches

Made some changes to this painting, finally got the photo updated.

Reception next week

2008-05-10T12:29:00.004-05:00

Sirus B CD release party May 3

2008-04-29T08:00:00.005-05:00

Hope to see you there! Tickets are only $8, and there's a teaser burlesque show... here's a link to buy either tickets or a cd. Tix are cheap at $8 in advance, $10 at the door. I hear drinks are cheap.

You won't find more absurdist bang for your buck anywhere, not to mention more gypsy folk punk funk!

Obama at Independence Hall

2008-04-20T08:18:00.000-05:00

Madonna of the Totems

2008-04-16T22:10:00.000-05:00

40 X 10 inches
oil on canvas
©2008

Another Internal Landscape

2008-04-13T20:58:00.007-05:00

Half a Day
40 X 40 inches
oil on canvas
©2008

details below:

One more landscape-y abstract

2008-04-13T20:58:00.006-05:00

The Single Pool
12 X 12 inches
oil on canvas
©2008

detail images below.

New Internal Landscape Painting

2008-04-13T20:48:00.002-05:00

Bill Moyers speaks the truth yet again

2008-04-12T07:29:00.005-05:00

The job of trying to tell the truth about people whose job it is to hide the truth is almost as complicated and difficult as trying to hide it in the first place. We journalists are of course obliged to cover the news, but our deeper mission is to uncover the news that powerful people would prefer to keep hidden.

Read the rest of Moyers' acceptance speech for the Ridenhour Courage Prize here.

The quintessential lesson of my life came from another Texan named John Henry Faulk. He was a graduate, as am I, of the University of Texas. He served in the Merchant Marines, the American Red Cross and the U.S. Army during World War II, and came home to become a celebrated raconteur and popular national radio host whose career was shattered when right-wingers inspired by Joseph McCarthy smeared him as a communist. He lost his sponsors and was fired. But he fought back with a lawsuit that lasted five years and cost him every penny he owned. Financial help from Edward R. Murrow and a few others helped him to hang on. In the end, John Henry Faulk won, and his courage helped to end the Hollywood era of blacklisting. You should read his book, Fear on Trial, and see the movie starring George C. Scott. John Henry's courage was contagious.

Before his death I produced a documentary about him, and during our interview he told me the story of how he and his friend, Boots Cooper, were playing in the chicken house there in central Texas when they were about 12 years old. They spotted a chicken snake in the top tier of the nest, so close it looked like a boa constrictor. As John Henry told it, "All of our frontier courage drained out of our heels. Actually, it trickled down our overall legs. And Boots and I made a new door through the hen house." His momma came out to see what all of the fuss was about, and she said to Boots and John Henry, "Don't you know chicken snakes are harmless? They can't hurt you." Rubbing his forehead and his behind at the same time, Boots said, "Yes, Mrs. Faulk, I know, but they can scare you so bad you'll hurt yourself."

Solid Ground

2008-04-10T21:54:00.001-05:00

Breach in Blue

2008-04-10T21:51:00.002-05:00

30 X 30
oil on canvas

This piece is on its way to Chrysalis Gallery in Southampton, NY.

The Red Rises

2008-04-10T21:49:00.000-05:00

New Painting - Untitled (so far)

2008-03-29T14:23:00.002-05:00

24 X 24
oil on canvas

The Open Book - full image

2008-03-29T14:21:00.000-05:00

The Open Book
60 X 80 inch diptych
oil on canvas

Boundary

2008-03-25T11:41:00.000-05:00

Boundary
36X48 inches
oil on canvas

As It Opens

2008-03-24T23:10:00.000-05:00

As It Opens
40X40
oil on canvas

A Bridge Adrift - new oil painting

2008-03-24T21:03:00.003-05:00

18 X 36 inches
oil on canvas

This piece is currently in my studio, but if it doesn't sell within the next week, it will probably be going out to either New York, Pittsburgh, or a new (to me) gallery in South Carolina. So hurry by if you're interested!

I love this piece. It's very peaceful.

detail of today's work

2008-03-23T14:34:00.001-05:00

Edges

2008-03-22T10:31:00.013-05:00

Lines, boundaries, where you begin and I end.

When I first started painting, six or seven years ago, moving the colors around was about tactile pleasure, visual stimulation, physical movement.

I worked a lot. A Lot. I painted and sold over a thousand paintings between 2002-2006. For the first few years, creating meant opening, getting my ego and conscious thought to move out of the way so unexpressed emotion (and something more I can't categorize without diminishing it) could flow through me onto the canvas.

But there came a time when I needed to bring more of myself back to that process, to bring my mind and conscious intention more intimately into the work.

It has been a struggle. Thinking too analytically can be constrictive. But there is another kind of mental process that incorporates heart and soul with a different kind of thought that comes from a deeper more connected place. It can be intended and tended, but not controlled.

Anyway, this piece is still in progress, but nearing completion. What interests me in this painting is the corners, the edges, the lines that separate what is on this side, what is on that... which by defining, make this "this" and that "that."

You can see the whole painting in the studio image below:

The Open Book
Diptych
oil on canvas
60 X 80 inches

And here's what the rest of the studio looks like, as I paint and prepare for upcoming shows.

New work

2008-03-22T09:16:00.000-05:00

No title yet.
This one's still wet.
30X30 inches
oil on canvas

and one more finished

2008-03-22T06:07:00.001-05:00

I've been working on this little piece for quite a while.
No title yet. I'll have to contemplate it for a few days.

20X16
oil on canvas

He's so fine, there's no other way to vote

2008-03-21T11:04:00.000-05:00

My upcoming New York show

2008-03-20T12:26:00.003-05:00

Just got word that I'll have 6-10 pieces included in Chrysalis Gallery's August Abstract show, featured along with three other artists. The show starts August 16, and I'll write more here as the time approaches. In the meantime, I do already have a few pieces hanging at Chrysallis, and will be sending a few more up as a teaser for the show, so if you are in the neighborhood, please drop by the gallery.

This will be my first New York show, and I'm very excited about the opportunity!

The piece depicted in this blog is "I Remember West," one of the pieces currently at Chrysalis.

New Prints

2008-03-19T22:14:00.011-05:00

I have archival giclee prints of many images available now. Lots of my paintings have been archived for later printing, but this is the first time I've actually made many giclees available. The price of my original paintings risen enough that I think it's time to offer a very affordable alternative.

I've listed a number of prints on canvas on my website already, and will be working up a pricing structure for prints on paper as well soon for people who want the more traditional look of a framed print. The paper prints have a beautiful, traditional look when framed, but the canvas prints retain more of the flavor of my originals, since the are stretched and ready to hang unframed.

Here's a link to the prints I've made available so far. I'll be adding more as time allows, so keep checking back, or ask if there's a particular image you're interested in. I can also have prints made in different sizes.

Pictured here: Love and Vertigo, Echo, Hope

You can read more about the process of giclee printing and the quality of the images here on my printmaker's website.

Worth Watching in its Entirety -- beyond the soundbite

2008-03-18T11:56:00.001-05:00

Some old paintings from my representational days

2008-03-16T23:23:00.004-05:00

These are tiny images, but unfortunately I didn't save large pix of all my oldest pieces.

They Open from the Side You're On

2008-03-16T22:38:00.003-05:00

48X36 inches
oil and pencil on canvas

I've showed a detail of this piece before, but not the whole image.

A Tranquil Page

2008-03-16T13:32:00.003-05:00

Click on the photo to see a larger image with more detail.

This is one of my favorite pieces, another exploration of white, with subtlety and sophistication.

A Tranquil Page
6X4 feet
oil on canvas

Available for viewing in my Asheville River Arts District Studio.

Places I've Been

2008-03-09T12:47:00.004-05:00

Not a new painting, but one I've finally gotten a good image of. (Click on the photo to see a larger image with more detail.)
4X5 feet
oil on canvas,
heavily layered, sanded, relayered glazes.

Detail from new White Series painting

2008-02-25T16:47:00.004-05:00

As much as I love color, I've wanted for years to experiment with subtle variations of white. Here's a detail of my new piece (scroll down to see a small image of the full painting.)

My galleries keep asking me for more colorful pieces because they sell well, but life has thrown so much at me over the last few years, it finally feels like time to sink into light, like crisp white sheets... like clouds in these gorgeous ever-changing mountain skies.

Purity. Something clean. Simplicity.

My first real ventures into the veil of white came around this time last year, as I was feeling worn down by ongoing cold, both physical and metaphorical. My Winter paintings came out of that:

Understandably, last year's whites were crammed full. I do still love these pieces, but right now, for me, both of them feel like a year's worth of details, a year's worth of paintings, incorporated onto one canvas, as if I was so stunned by death around me that I needed to fit in as much as I could while I could... a sort of odd, inverted sense of scarcity.

This time around, I've wanted to focus on one detail at a time, to savor it, and create a sumptuous, clean beauty. I think if I could, I would showcase one exquisite painting at a time in my studio/gallery, rather than full walls, just one sumptuous piece like this new one, on a clean blank wall. One perfect gift.

Here's the full piece on the wall:

Rest
40X40 inches
oil and pencil on canvas

Atlanta Show this week

2008-02-18T12:32:00.001-05:00

I'm participating again in Trinity School's "Spotlight on Art," sale featuring over 1700 pieces of original art. I have dozens of pieces available at the show, ranging from tiny collectible 4X4 paintings to a 48X48 inch diptych.

I'll be at the reception tomorrow (Tuesday 2/19) from 6-9, so stop by and say hello. The paintings will be on display through Saturday.

Visit this link for more information.

2008-02-14T13:27:00.000-05:00

10X40 inches
oil on canvas

Paradise Again - mixed media

2008-02-14T12:22:00.000-05:00

12X12
oil and paper on canvas

New oil painting - in progress

2008-02-14T12:21:00.002-05:00

48X48
oil and graphite on canvas

john.he.is

2008-02-11T11:51:00.001-05:00

"Will.i.am totally stole this idea from us, we've been thinking for a long time that earnest people reacting to a candidate is the future of music video."

Yes We Can Obama Song by will.i.am

2008-02-10T20:27:00.001-05:00

new small painting

2008-01-25T21:02:00.000-05:00

12x12 inches
oil on canvas
$350

Diptych

2008-01-18T12:16:00.000-05:00

Diptych
2007
48 X 48 inches

This is a piece from the last quarter of 2007. It feels big and bold to me right now. The work I'm doing now is more of a whisper.

Today I'm listening to David Gray, speaking quietly, attending to murmurs of my heart.

New painting -- Beyond the Mountaintop

2007-12-29T12:21:00.000-05:00

Beyond the Mountaintop
12X12 inches
oil on canvas

The Small Door

2007-12-29T10:21:00.000-05:00

The Small Door
24 X 24 inches
oil on canvas

Simpler Times

2007-12-10T11:12:00.000-05:00

There's a sweet transparency in this version of Dylan's performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964. Can't help but feel through to simpler things in my own life when I listen.

New tiny oil painting -- Her Heart

2007-12-01T18:55:00.000-05:00

Her Heart
6X6 inches
oil on canvas