Bill Wray

I love the show Ren&Stimpy - and the paintings of Bill Wray really enhanced the show:

Bill Wray, "Ren and Stimpy in: ‘Space Madness." Cover art
He also does non-cartoon paintings like these:

Bill Wray "Michigan" Oil on Canvas, 12x12"

Bill Wray, "Sunland and San-Fern"

I like these two paintings especially - they remind me of James Howard Kunstler's work in his choice of subject matter. Both artists depict the landscape as it is, without editing out less attractive elements like McDonalds, power plants, and automobiles. These are the things that we see the most - it should seem obvious for landscape painting to incorporate these places and things. I often eliminate the excess of the landscapes I choose to paint, but I admire the honesty in these.

James Howard Kunstler, "Off-ramp at Exit 29 of Interstate 87"

James Howard Kunstler

I've noticed that lately I've been posting more about audio than painting or visual art. I suppose that is because I'm trying to finish up preparing for my show and I'm doing a lot more listening than looking right now. On last week's road trip I listened to a podcast from Humanist Network News that spoke with James Howard Kunstler about the "human habitat". He's very entertaining and informative in the interview, and I'd highly recommend listening to it:


I was especially interested in the emphasis that Kunstler made in the interview to criticize a lot of the hypocrisies or fallacies in modern environmentalist thought. In particular he notes that the current push to find new liquid fuel sources like ethanol shows the reluctance if not refusal to let go of the automobile and embrace other modes of transportation and urban planning. The description to one of his own podcasts sums this up well saying, "The problem in America is not that we're driving the wrong kind of cars, per se.The trouble in the United States is we're driving incessantly. We're driving every kind of car there is, incessantly. And we've got to find a way out of the incessant motoring and a way to live without it, and a happy way to live without it—not a punishment way to live without it, but a way to be happy and do it. And it means, really, a completely different paradigm for everyday life."

His book, The Geography of Nowhere is also highly recommended:


He's recently started his own weekly podcast called the Kunstlerkast - which you can find here.