The State of the Union
2005

 I have seen some wonderful creative music and creative artistic paintings coming from other countries other than the United States. I see these projects and programs and say, “Who did this? or “ Who created this?” or “Why didn’t we do this?” and the answer is always the same. We as a nation do not fund the arts. We operate on the notion of who pays the bills or what do the people want to do or watch? Quality painting and quality music is lost to the fluff of what makes money quickly.
If I ask the government to pay for the arts they will say, “Let it be funded by the people of the renaissance or the rich patrons of the arts.”
The wealth of the nations renaissance is lost in the red tape of bureaucracy.
People like Ronald Regan (The Conservative Christian Right Wing of our Government) tell us that someone other than the government should fund the arts. Well it’s been quite a while now since those words were spoken and the fine arts are dead in our public schools. The only positive art coming from our youth is the “garage band” created by cheap guitars and drum sets and imagination.
As a rule we have no youths that work as apprentices in the workshops of fine artists and great musicians in our public schools.  If I ask the government to pay for the arts they will say, “Let it be funded by the people of the renaissance or the rich patrons of the arts.”
The fine art that I see is coming from Europe.
There is plenty of money moving about this nation but it is used as a powerful base of green matter to stand on in our next election.
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/state/10411525.htm
 

And from Leonardo da Vinci comes this timely bit of wisdom.
“ I know that many men will say that this is a useless work. They are the ones about whom Demetrius said that he paid no more attention to the wind driven from their mouths by words than to that driven from their lower parts. They are the men who desire only material wealth and luxury, and who do not thirst after knowledge, the food and truly worthy treasure of the soul. For just as the soul is more worthy than the body, so are the riches of the soul more worthy than those of the body. And often when I see one of these men with one of my works in his hand, I am not sure whether he will put it to his nose like a monkey or ask me if it is good to eat.”
 
 

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Words & Graphics by Tomas