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| 2919 "Queen of the Castle" 14x20 inches oils on a cradled smooth mahogany panel. Started January 30th, 2025 A better image is coming when I can safely handle the very wet oil panel. |
My friend John Verburg is another source of wonderful inspiration. As soon as I saw his image of sheep, I figured that it would be a fun exercise for the Singleton Studio.
John commented when he posted: "Farm Scene! So far one of my favourite shots of 2025."
I asked John to confirm that I could paint from this particular photograph. He had thought that it would make an interesting painting and wondered if I would want to do so. John's reply:
"For sure Phil! These sheep are on Amherst Island, I took the picture a week ago (mid-January 2025). I believe these are Suffolk Sheep."
Now for the other reason why these fifteen sheep touched me. I use art as a vehicle to continue to learn and not just about painting. Mostly my interest is sparked by nature and science. Sometimes I am drawn to important social events. The political climate of 2024 and the next decade are important to understand from a scientific point of view.
In this painting, one sheep, the Queen of the Ewes, climbed to the top of the round bale to get a better vantage. What was going on? The round bale was of excellent quality and intended to be their midday meal. In this case, it was used as a leg-up to better understand the world. She was looking to the right - from her perspective. Right-wing fascists are very dangerous to sheep.
Another ewe directly in front of the round bale looked intently to the left. Left-wing extremists are just as treacherous.
These two sheep suspected a sleight of hand and were rightfully wary. The other sheep were inspecting the photographer. They were entertained, simply chowing down and indifferent to everything but the "free lunch".
The sheep are wise to be wary but what do they do next. I should reread George Orwell's "Animal Farm". That book summary reads a lot like current events. Aldous Huxley also envisioned the future world. Carl Sagan made a forecast as well. There have been a lot of wise people making extremely learned and accurate predictions. The sheepy populace was not listening or reading.
Initially, I had intended to include the political "science" definitions of the various forms of governments - their pros and cons etcetera. Aside from being too long and tedious, the Earth is in the verification phase of the above forecasts of future governments. I reread many of those essays but I realized that the problem is not just the politicians. The future has arrived and the root cause can be found in the sheep.
After hard-fought battles to secure the vote, less than two-thirds avail themselves of that privilege. Some who do, are influenced by shallow slogans, sound bites and propaganda - all biased and largely false. "A Buck a Beer" is an improbable election slogan but it worked for the Conservatives in Ontario.
Those who do cast a knowledgeable vote are vastly outnumbered. The "first past the post" method of counting is inherently flawed and unrepresentative of the reality of the populace. Political platform promises to correct that obvious and tragic flaw remain unfilled.
As a result in 2025, the Earth is facing the sixth mass extinction, climate change, forest eradication and destruction of the wilderness. There is big, big money to be made by ravishing the land for fossil fuel, fish, precious metals and anything else that mankind can make a buck from in their artificial economy. Corporations continue to amass unimaginable fortunes. Even individuals are cashing in with the first trillionaire on the nearby horizon. There are a lot of zeroes in a trillion (a dozen). Imagine the madness!
Corporations can be unscrupulously ruthless in their quest for wealth and power. They have the resources not only to purchase countries but more simply and cheaper, to buy the political structures that run them. The three pillars of government include executive, legislative and independent judiciary and all have affordable price tags. The ultra-rich can acquire world domination just like "Dr. No" in the 1962 James Bond movie.
The problem remains with the sheep. We do not hold politicians accountable for their misdeeds and crimes. Oaths of office are quickly forgotten. Political platforms have become increasingly shallow comprised of mud-slinging ads and "vote for me because I'm not the other guy". Instead, world leaders are allowed to pocket envelopes of cash, determine their own compensation and accept backroom payments for following the requests of wealthy constituents. During a short term in office, ostensibly in the service of the populace, their personal wealth rockets. Upon discovery and being unelected, the criminal politicians retire to live happily ever after like fairy kings and queens on 100% plus pensions at public expense.
As a result, many former sheep seek political office not to serve and make their country and world, a better place, but for personal gain. Self-entitled, narcissistic sheep without character, aspire to become wealthy wolves. The doors to the back rooms are wide open for large corporations and wealthy individuals to buy politicians.
Finding a politician, who possesses honesty, integrity and empathy with the best interest of the sheep populace at heart would be wonderful. Sadly there is a general dearth of character. A lack of empathy has been accurately labelled as "evil". That word is not nearly emphatic enough to describe destroying the only planet we have or will ever know for wealth and power wielded by the very few. We have arrived at an Earth where the wealthiest 1% of the world's population controls roughly half of the wealth - at least the wealth defined by the artificial manmade economy.
It is therefore consistent that an oligarchy is the prevailing form of government. Absolute power rests with just a small number of people in an oligarchy. Wikipedia summarizes:
"These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, religious, political, or military control. Throughout history, power structures considered to be oligarchies have often been viewed as coercive, relying on public obedience or oppression to exist. Aristotle pioneered the use of the term as meaning rule by the rich, contrasting it with aristocracy, arguing that oligarchy was the perverted form of aristocracy."
Clearly, an oligarchy is a sinister threat to democracy.
The forecasts by Orwell, Huxley, Sagan and many others have verified perfectly more or less.
Decades were squandered. The Earth is well on its way to becoming uninhabitable reaching temperatures at least 3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2300. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirms 2024 as the warmest year on record with temperatures about 1.55°C above pre-industrial level. "One-point-five" and "net-zero" were simply hollow political shams allowing corporations to continue business as normal.
The empathy-lacking decisions were made in the Exxon Head Offices in the 1970s. James Black, company scientist for Exxon clearly stated that "uncontrolled fossil fuel use would cause a "super-interglacial" lasting thousands of years" It would take that long for nature to repair the Earth in the absence of people. (see "Big carbon's strategic response to global warming, 1950-2020") "Drill baby drill" remains the slogan of choice.
The past ten years 2015-2024 are the ten warmest years on record. Six international datasets were used to reach the consolidated WMO global figure below. 2024 was the first calendar year with a global mean temperature of more than 1.5°C above the 1850-1900 average. The impacts are now clearly observable even to the most myopic of sheep.
I apologize for this post. It is not my wish or style but sometimes the truth is ugly. I stopped giving Climate Change presentations in 2021. I started to talk about the threats to the climate using overhead transparency slides but graduated to PowerPoint in 1987. My generation of meteorologists has failed to influence world leaders. Money talks much louder than science. I was preaching to the choir and the politicians were never in the audience.
The goal of this post is to encourage the reader if there are any, to vote intelligently, read and learn and even give critical thought to what you see... it might be AI and not real.
Sadly, the opportunity to make much of a difference has been lost. There is a lot of inertia in the climate system dynamics. It would take worldwide cooperation and heroics to even alter the trajectory of spaceship Earth. Now I sequester myself within the Singleton Sanctuary while caring for nature. The real riches of Earth can be found in the forest, quietly painting and surrounded by nature.
Now back to 2919 "Queen of the Castle"...
It was another wintry day outside so I was back in the Singleton Studio. The wind chill turns my hands into white blocks of ice. The smooth mahogany plywood was cradled on a stretcher frame built by my father. My Dad built quite a stack of these stretcher frames from a pine post that had been the main support of the porch of our home on 24 East Avenue, Brockville, Ontario. Waste not and want not is an important and particularly apt adage. I hope to be able to use every one of those beautiful stretcher frames in honour of my father.
For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2025.
Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,
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