This important CSPAN coverage of the domestic drone debate [in the US] is of vital importance to people everywhere because of the lack of legal precedent with these technologies. In the University of Surrey workshop I participated in I supported discussion which acknowledged this issue using 5 paintings which ...Read more>

A preventable loss. A tragic indictment of the consequences of defensive, frightened government.  It is rare today, to find a young person who can do more than download and vomit back out someone else's ideas.  So rare to discover minds capable of helping our society, our world, move to ...Read more>

Dabashi's article " President Barack Hussein Obama - again: But the grace is gone" on Al Jazeera English perfectly expresses how I feel about Obama's victory today.  I would never have supported a Romney presidency.  I'm glad that hasnt happened. But the choice of either bad or worse, as ...Read more>

The Berkman Buzz at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society provides timely reminders on digital issues. This week they let me know (and to my surprise) about a balanced and well-reasoned article about Anonymous , the hacker-activist movement that the US military cyber-war division ...Read more>

I am attaching links to 2 completely different ways of listening to the American domestic discussion on the use of UAVs (drones) in precision strikes (targeted killings).  This is because they are a contrast which expresses the embattled conscience within the American psyche that is not ...Read more>

The United State's Attorney General Eric Holder today made a speech to justify the legal framework around targeted killings, including of a US citizen overseas.  The full text of his speech is to be found at Opinio Juris who will be publishing analysis quite soon ...Read more>

An extraordinary interview by an Australian abroad who is rarely discussed or featured in the Australian media and, I would venture to say, is rarely thought of by Australians.   The Rolling Stone  interview of Julian Assange is important, and can be read online ...Read more>

I donated to this, and hope you find the time (soon) to read and/or donate to run these ads in US newspapers before the meeting between Israel and the Obama administration in the coming days to discuss possible pre-emptive strikes against Iran.  If you cannot donate, you can ...Read more>

I want to post the release of the 22,000 word report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and analysis by highly regarded legal blog Opinio Juris about this report in its post , Chesney on Attacking Mourners and Rescuers with Drones,  ...Read more>

Within the last 72 hours, soldier's cheered the closing of the gates and the end of the Iraq War which has destroyed more than the lives of nearly 4,840 soldiers (4,500 American) plus a conservatively reported 100,000 Iraqi lives.
It destroyed our trust in our capacity to overcome our nature. ...Read more>

Without a doubt, al-Awlaki was not a man of peace. In a current Politico article on the latest targeted killing by US drones, all the questions that disturb me about drone warfare are asked, but regrettably not answered with respect to the lessons of ...Read more>

Selected articles from the 9/11 blogosphere : Memories are still vivid, but we need to declare the end of the 9/11 era by Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian UK , 06/09/11. Mark the September 11 anniversary ...Read more>

I realised that this painting has not been posted in my Visual Diary so here it is. It is a small canvas (20x20cm) called Kandahar Kandy , and is a companion piece to Nothing Like A Drone (both Feb 2011 completed). I merged a Hollywood character ...Read more>

The contemporary trend for global conflict is the dehumanisation of warfare and, in particular, extrajurisdictional killings by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs or drones). Recently The Washington Post reported on the Aspen Security Conference, where CBS News and 60 Minutes Correspondent ...Read more>

Tikkun daily ( Tikkun magazine's daily blog) interviewed me about my art and, as always with good interviews, made me think better about my painting and how (and why) I go about what I do. Please take the time to visit and read their high ...Read more>

Quite unbelievably, some people didn't know about this. It's not our best moment. I'm posting this information for anyne who's missed it. I have no other words on this one rght now, but I ask you to learn more about it.    More Studio ...Read more>

In this surreal landscape, Department of Defence (DOD) Dragonfly robots both record and control Julian Assange, our 19th century marionette-Crusader, holding his shield of digital secrets as the world redefines war in response to a man who uses celebrity brand-building in an unprecedentedly desperate way.
If the battle today is ...Read more>

I have art in the LGBT Literature Issue of Phati'tude Magazine in New York City. You can preview the issue via the link below but my image only appears in the hard copy, available from their website or Amazon.

http://phatitude.org/online/phatitude-magazine/plm-lgbt-summer-2010-preview/
...Read more>

This painting is now in week 8 of not getting past this point. It's ok, in the meantime I did a small one, Kandahar Kandy , and started some notes on a possible illustration project for a book on chanson des geste. But any ...Read more>

It is the intimate, personal, penetratingly perceptive touch,
indeed, that is equipped to furnish a chapter
that would have been missing were the camera exclusively relied upon.

--New York Times review of combat art show, 1943 One link between artists and soldiers is the promise of appreciation (immortality?) after ...Read more>

5 Years after completing the painting Viva Las Shiva and 9 years after the attacks on the World Trade Centre, I feel these images still resonate with me. This isn't a political painting. For me, it's about listening to hear the Universe when it ...Read more>

I've been finishing off the cake quartet. Where this strange analogy of the wedding cake comes into it, I have to admit to some inspired, but ultimately mysterious, source. I like that I don't always know what's happening on my canvases. I mean sure, I follow a ...Read more>

Now Available Lady Jane's Miscellany magazine features the work of critically acclaimed poets, dramatists, essayists, short story writers, artists and more!  I'm really pleased to be the featured artist for their second issue with a 7 page interview and several ...Read more>

My painting And Starring Benyamin Netanyahu as Norman Maine uses the main characters from the 1950s musical A Star is Born as metaphor for the current relationship between America (Esther) and Israel (Norman). It was very much a personal ...Read more>

Purchase a copy of Issue 9 online or at the following bookshops:
In Paris (@Librairie Les Mots la Bouche) In London (@Gay's the Word) In San Francisco (@City Lights Bookshop) I have a painting in the current issue of Chroma Journal ...Read more>

I posted a comment on CultureFuture - A blog about the future of art, the future of politics, and the conversation that makes up our culture.  On Thursday, January 7, 2010 CultureFuture wrote in Grassroots + Power VI: Separation Between Arts and State?:

"A ...Read more>

"Oh Barack, Don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars." Chick Flick: Acrylic, screenprint on 16 x 20" canvas.
This is a continuation of my using Broadway and Hollywood metaphors, in examining the US/Israeli/Palestinian relationships. 'Chick Flick' explores ...Read more>

Completed painting "Angels and Pears" [pictured]

Acrylic paint, screenprint and gold leaf on canvas. Several layers of print here. The leaf is applied on the pears and crosses.

It's part of a contemplation on the role of Spirit in the peace process that came out of several sketches I ...Read more>

These are 3 small canvases (10x10)acrylic paint, screenprint and 22k gold leaf. Not sure if they will fit together as one triptych or remain 3 separate paintings. The working title is "State of the Union".  It's looking at the legitimacy of ideas, especially how we use religious ideas to ...Read more>

A lot of the issues which have arisen since Obama's Egyptian speech reminded me of the prophetic silence of the 'Sibyl of Cumae' (Roman prophesies, Homeric stories, Virgil's Aeneid VI etc). It is exploring the role of prophesy in modern political life.

Lately I have been thinking about ...Read more>

I have just scanned and uploaded the first 3 completed paintings from my new series exploring the new US administration. I am now researching and doing sketches for some smaller canvases which look at the Israel/Palestine situation, and as you can imagine they are taking some time. The new ...Read more>

The April cover of Modern Painters came out with a cover on Art & War at the same time that US artist Steve Kurtz's case finally got thrown out of court. He was cleared of FBI suspicions of bio-terrorism for growing bacteria in petri dishes ...Read more>

  EXHIBITION - Pittsburgh, PA, USA Sept 14- Oct 20, 2007. American Caricature: An Exhibit of Political Cartoons - A World View of the United States by 34 political cartoonists. Opening Sept 14 - Oct 20, 2007, Three Rivers ...Read more>

Cover Art: Social Policy Magazine , New Orleans, USA. 2007 (Education Reform). I really found this a challenge, as I worked with a great editor, Caitlin, who sent me the complex articles on the No Child Left Behind Act which was being reviewed by Congress during ...Read more>

NEW EXHIBITION: CUNY Graduate Centre NY April 2007
 
 I will have 2 pieces in Leading labour cartoonist Gary Huck's Reflex: An exhibition of political cartoons. A world view of the United States to be launched April 26-28, 2007 at the CUNY Graduate Center, 34th Street and Fifth Avenue, ...Read more>