Grass Valley Report

I am reading the New York Times coverage of the Green Convention and I sense a familiarity with the dicing of previous platforms by would be 'sage' journalists, familiar with the court rhetoric of the bicameral system we call Democracy. The Green Party's issues are being met by the vested interests of mainstream media and the same resistance to change forms the reactions of the fine art community to digital art. We (us digital artists-[click the art of Thomas Vorce]) like to say it is the same kind of resistance that painters had for photography. Digital art is undeniably stunning, intellectually challenging and the medium’s qualitative breakthroughs propound geometrically. The critics who place a value on art wish that gyclee would just, go away. This breakthrough of ingenuity and enterprise like many of the Green's party's platforms is not going to be bonafied (it's interesting, Microsoft Word's spell check does not include this word) by words in Vogue. The Greens are not going to be embraced like EST because it takes too much integrity, sacrifice and dedication to get the message in one session. Yesterday’s liberals are today’s conservatives and you have an audience that likes to play craps with loaded dice. Gambler’s odds say there is no instant replay for good intentions. We like to think history will reveal success and point out errors but we know that no one pays any attention or we wouldn't keep making the same mistakes. And power knows that it is very easy to pay public relations firms to invent biases that will make profit and benevolence synonymous . It’s like shooting peas in an ashcan; most Americans don't even know what went on in recent history let alone the distant past. Perhaps Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 911 will help to change all that.

As I collect my understandings I see this merging of digital fine art, the Internet and political honesty as the most promising occurrence I have ever witnessed. Protest in the sixties against life's inequities stopped the moment the Viet Nam war was over. In a very short period of time the old conventions of greed and single mindedness returned with a vengeance. Call it prosperity but one has to ask “What's the prize?” A lot of people grew to adulthood with no acquired tastes but claimed to be seeking the "better life." Yes there was a passion for money and often a thing was deemed valuable by how much it cost. Successful types frequently acquired art that they despised so they could drop the artist’s name and knock their prestige up a notch. Art is about discovery and digital art is too democratic for beaux arte exclusivity. After all it’s not millions any more. When you can become a billionaire you have to demonstrate baronial wealth. In this world art has become associated with convention imitation and cosmetic charity not passion or the joy of one’s good fortune in the discovery of authenticity.

Our ideal politic is about honest commitment to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. When the method to achieve these principles becomes polluted, it's time for a reevaluation of the state of our affairs. I’m heartened to see that the Greens are rising to the occasion by providing a place for courage and conviction to withstand the strip malling of America, the cabal of special interests and the collapse of good will in public service.

Hats off to the objectivity the Greens are bringing to this madness. May we come to that place where we see each other’s energies as necessary and contingent for the well being of us all and merge this unnecessary “gap” between truth and beauty that placed us, unwittingly, in this horrid mess that threatens to undermine everything we have historically stood for.