Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2000)
7 liai The CI ac I camas P rint mongst students, faculty, community s e Town hall style forum... it to hear from the artizt/ | “This is part of a series of attacks on Catholic celibacy and the papac$^ ”U/ don't- \A, >doesjirt have to ve a redeeming "Academic freedom quality?" rity’s interest onsidered.” is a sacred trust, but not limitless" W in plance.” [otti anà rospo [r to comma' . When art is ropagânda, priate in an J” I r they thought of "Two popes how they responded... “I thought itwas kind of wei rdlooking.” Ryan Rudge, ^£mergency^iedical ■ Technician Other works from the "Hey 1 cracked my Knuckles" series. The following was written by an English instructor while visiting an art show with her class This Piece Removed from the Exhibit Due to Complaints Regarding the Misuse of Fruit Imagery (Sign found above a blank, white space) The bolts remain, and the white wall, and the absence of misused fruit. The watermelon whose insides were scooped was seedless to be gin with. Not fair for us to view the green cave that was all the artist left. Pharmacy And the cantaloupe has gone roll <| “1 wouldn’t consider it art.” Jeff Meuser/C 1 » PHOTOS BY SAtENAiDÉL^CRUC Gene Flores is a south Texan artist, art instructor at El Paso's Univer sity of Texes and creator of the "Hey I cracked my Knuckles" series displayed in the Pauling Gallery Feb. 13-17. The series contained the piece "Two popes boinking" responds to the controversy in a statement sent via e-mail to David Anderson, art instructor. “Hey I cracked my knuckles” is a series based on the blind “faith” that many of us follow in daily routine. Cracking one’s knuckles means I have had enough of following a path and following all the rules that had been placed by others upon me. The faith that I refer to is in no sense a biblical nor religious one, but rather one in which we place pur emotions, trust and feelings into another’s control and hope that they do the best for us. We follow whatever they may want, blindly at times and take it for granted that all they have chosen for us are the right choices. I am in the midst of following my own path, one I have set for myself. Unfortunately it has placed others at arms length, and others have become defen sive that I have chosen to speak for myself. Here is where the true essence of my work lies. I speak for myself riot others. I do not wish to place my thoughts nor ideas upon others, for by doing so, I will become all that I am rebelling against. I do my works knowing that some people will not appre ciate what I am portraying, but that is out of my control. If people become offended I cannot, and will not allow myself to bend my ways to please them because doing so I will inevitably offend oth ers. It is a lose-lose situation. “Popes Boinking” and “The Pope is Telling Them Off for Boinking Little Boys” is not an attack on the Catholic Church nor on any other religious beliefs. It is a play on words. Once again the word “pope” is something that we all have an association with, one that has been placed and imbedded into our thoughts by outside forces. By using that term, I am aware that people will associate it with die religious icon that it represents, but it goes far beyond that. The term pope refers to a spiritual head of any various non-Chris- tian religions, or peoples of knowledge, i.e., schoolmasters, profes sors. I am using that term of the pope to portray instances in my "The pope is telling them off for . life where I have felt betrayed by these people. “Popes Boinking” boinking little boys" shows the constant conflict between my new path and the path that was chosen for me. It is a personal struggle, I feel that I am .screwing myself over by being so bullheaded!! “The Pope is Telling Them Off for Boinking Litde Boys” tells the story of a person in authority using people that are dependent (i.e. children) on others to place himself as a person to be wor shipped. The spider reference to the icon represents his spinning his web of lies and deceit to capture his “prey”. The hats worn by these people do resemble papal headdress but also refer to the hats worn by many during the Spanish Inquisition. Crosses, not cruci fixes, are a Native American symbol, they also represent the handle of daggers, and lastly the crossroads that I am headed in. Deci sions that we all have to make in our daily lives. Decisions we make, not ones that are made for us, is what life is all about. Free "Virgin of Marmusetta1 dom to make our own choices. By Diana Averill way of expressing 'Bims^elÓ^ Fawnia LeDuc, ? ■ Artist's Statement... ing somewhere in the sky, but the viewer shouldn’t worry. It’s happier as the fifth moon of Jupiter. Only the apple, discolored, bruised, definitely misused^ is to be pitied. It hides its starry, black be ginnings from those who want it only for its beautiful gold skin. Someone disliked how the grapes hung, . how they invited mouths to cover their green nipples. Before the removal of the fruit there was no reason for guilt. After the misuse of removal, the fruit imagined its roots, regenerated in other paintings and hung itself, not in despair, but, yes, in secret. All over the city, fruit crept into other paintings. Raspberry juice dripped from a watercolor brush. Figs, peeled down to their inner chambers, shrugged off one acrylic attempt to cover them with their own leaves. Arms blossomed. Artists marveled at their originality as the fruit reasserted its origins. Sculptures became fruit orchards, producing cherries even the most cranky of complain- ers would not hesitate to keep, though perhaps disguised in pies.
