THE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 4

 A young fella.. 18 just.. 

He is sitting on a park bench in Bangor, County Down.

It is dawn and the sun is rising on the rest of his life.

A rabbit sits nearby as they often will in the early hours.

It seems like the Garden of Eden.

or is it the Garden of Gethsemani?

He has been staying with friends ten years older than himself.

They are Hippy-ish veterans of early LSD and jaunts in Canada and Mexico.

He is really only here because his girl friend has gone home to parents in Jamaica for the summer holiday.

We view him from behind his back so that we can see the vista..

You might think of Casper David Friedrich.. 

"the celebrated German Romantic painter who is best known for Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer, or The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. Painted in 1818, it is an image that evokes the full repertoire of themes we associate with European Romanticism: loneliness, sublimity, and the transformative encounter with spiritualised nature. It shows an unknown man whose back is to the viewer – a Rückenfigur, or figure from behind – a posture that draws us into the landscape that is spread out before him. Poised upon a rocky precipice, the Wanderer gazes down into a chaotic landscape of tempestuous clouds – a sea of fog that is pierced by jagged rocks."

Our guy today is dressed in his Civil Defence greatcoat that he got fro the army surplus store. He has long hair and flared trousers because this is 1970.

He looks out on a fractured dawn skyline as if the world is coming apart at the seams. The painting is on a tarpaulin which is stretched across another canvas painted with the universe or the stars at night. The tarpaulin is coming apart and is held together only by string. The seam where the tarpaulin is stitched together dissects the cavas diagonally. Reinforcing the idea of stress. The young fella has had an interesting night and all his certainties have gone awry.

Whilst the events depicted happened overlooking Belfast loch we see instead a fractured 

Mountains of Mourne.

The Artist In Residence is coming of age.

His world has fallen apart and must be remade..

The painting is called 

'All You Need is love'

because love is all you need..

isn't it?

and because he and his friends sang that song from the trailer pulled along behind a tractor whilst on an adventure to collect and bring back turf for the fire at the farm near Ballycastle.

ROXY MUSIC

"I've been going along for a long time now, hoping help will come from above...."

Well... we are all wet with excitement here in the loft. The unfinished magnum opus is collecting dust on the easel as we sit glued to the screens. The stock market is spiraling down ...
"its a f***ing waterfall". "look out below". "May Day, May Day" SOS.

The Wizard of Oz has been found out and ... BREAKING NEWS ...Financial rocket scientists have diplomas instead of brains... Medals instead of courage... and worst of all No hearts! - just tickers!

"What does it all mean Peter?" asks Opkins (the mouse)
"looks like it's back to the 70's.
- Unions are bringing their members out on strike - their pay is failing to keep up with inflation.
- Oil is rocketing in price.
- House prices are going through the roof.
- There's a banking crisis.
- Pay rises are running into double digits.
- Interest rates reach 15%. "

"Yo! - painter dude, slow down man. House prices aint risin, they fallin man!" - (its Spider) he's been on the web checkin out Nouriel Roubini.

Seems like this time it's different!
Pay aint rising for the workin stiffs, real estate sucks, interest rates is low.
It aint inflation man! - it's deflation, comin to get ya from Japan. seems like they've had it for yonks and yonks.

They had a property boom/bust and then Zombie banks. It was all covered up...swep under the carpet instead of bein busted out and started over. Looks like thats wot they tryin here now.

"Spider yo full o shit man. yo aint nuthin but a poxy spider anyway.
And that web o yorn is just bollocks dude."

Wait a minute guys (it's the mouse!) This swot in America (Rogof) has got a interestin take on this...

THE global economy is a runaway train that is slowing, but not quickly enough. That is what the extraordinary run-up in prices for oil, metals, and food is screaming at us.

The spectacular and historic global economic boom of the past six years is
about to hit a wall. Unfortunately, no one, certainly not in Asia or the US, seems willing to bite the bullet and help engineer the necessary co-ordinated retreat to sustained sub-trend growth, which is necessary so that new commodity supplies and alternatives can catch up.

Instead, governments are clawing to stretch out unsustainable booms, further pushing up commodity prices, and raising the risk of a once-in-a-lifetime economic and financial mess. All this need not end horribly, but policy makers in most regions have to start pressing hard on the brakes, not the accelerator.

Don’t look to the US for leadership in a presidential election year. On the contrary, the US government has been handing out tax-rebate cheques so that Americans will shop until they drop .....

Get the rest @ http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/article.aspx?ID=BD4A797286

Shit man! I don't geddit! is they is or is they aint no deflation comin?

Is they is or is they aint no inflation comin?

Seems like up here in the loft us chickins got to dig a little deeper.