AL GORE and THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY   10/26/07
Taking a moment here to acknowledge Al Gore who has just won the Nobel Peace Prize. Thirteen years ago in 1994 I was asked to design the magazine cover for Electronic Directions in their flagship interview with Gore talking about The Information Highway, which was just beginning to break the existing speed limit. This was before the internet was the internet but digital dust was kicking up a whirlwind of excitement and speculation. It was the early days of the digital gold rush and I tried to convey the pumping, competitive nature that is at the heart of western capitalism... for better or worse. With leaders like Gore, we've seen what was better become better, even after being pummelled. This gives one hope in what is a dark time for our country. We must never let the darkness block out the light. Al Gore is one of our shining stars. Thanks Al.

Thanks to Roger Sperberg, an early advocate of the digital revolution, who commissioned this work for Electronic Directions.

MADELINE #11 gets THE HIGH BID   6/25/07
 Someone bid on the soft grey smudges in my back. Another went after my darker strokes. And who could resist my curling toes? Let them focus on the details. It's the unknowable that drives them to me.
Madeline #11 went for the highest bid at a silent auction for The Center Against Domestic Violence held at The Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea, May,2007. See article on the event in The Brooklyn Eagle.

Thanks to The Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation Grant, 2006 for providing the funds for this project.

ALICE NEEL AT 80 (Self-portrait)  

You front your naked self in the mirror
Making lefthandedness seem for once right;
So long as you can hold your paintbrush tight
The fallen breasts, the creased cheeks are no bother;
While your still clear blue eyes can see truly,
So what if your belly sags in old age
And one foot on earth-brown is in the grave,
As long as the left stays planted on green
And stands for lifelong talent, the leg
Still strong? Your white crown plays off the white rag
In your right hand and the white and blue striped
Throne on which you sit. Never one to kneel
To what the age demands, “This is my mien
At 80,” you declare; “I have no regrets!”

By George Held
This poem is part of an upcoming poetry chapbook, The Art of Writing and Others, by George Held, which will feature Roz Dimon's artwork on the cover. To pre-order this publication scheduled for release in September 2007, go to Finishing Line Press.

MADELINE TEACHES ME HOW TO SEE  4/16/07
Just start. Touch another human being. Get to know her. Her thigh, the universe. Her eye is no longer an eye. It's a line. Got to have this darkness. God, her hair, it's like twenty million things. Step back. I have to do this. Please don't leave. Stay. One more entanglement. Hold back. A final caress. We were together. I'll never know her this way again, as I put down my pen.

PALE MALE: A Pilgrimage   4/05/07
[Created in 2004 after an invigorating experience at The Glen Workshop, here the digital and spiritual co-join in my first DIMONscape™, a new way to share a story online and off.]

Perhaps you’ve heard the story of Pale Male, the red-tailed hawk, who made his bizarre pilgrimage to New York City and determined his perch to be directly across from Woody Allen’s Fifth Avenue balcony window. His every feather magnified in the cross hairs of an alien fan club, he ignored the applause and focused on furthering a tradition; one that proved hawk scripture amazingly adaptable.

Watching the massive steel girders of my own familiar perch ‘ping pong’ to the ground in less than an hour has led me to ponder my own life-support structures. Were they real or illusion?

Will these shoes make me an Olympic contender? Will there be love without sorrow when I adorn this new scent? Will this ‘very special’ water quench my thirst?

Such contemporary fairy tales held a strong pull; they paid my salary. However, the moments that resonate most are un-certifiable, without documentation. They connect to a larger story and erupt from the deepest recesses of the human heart where, unbeknownst to the world, a monumental life-changing response occurs.

None of these moments are recorded on my resume.

This scripture revolves around a crown whose end results, by Wall Street standards, appear rather dismal:  i.e., crucified, buried… surely a non-capitalistic experience, and yet -- one that rises high.

When confronted with such a scepter, one can retreat to familiar ground, or like Pale Male, lift your wings and with all respect to the rational universe, cross the great divide towards home.
Please contact the artist if you interested in purchasing the final still image of Pale Male: A Pilgrimage. It is in the format of a beautiful chromogenic print, framed or un-framed, avalable in 2 limited edition sizes: 18x24 or 36x48. You may also experience this work in Flash with audio voice-over at Dimonscapes.com/palemale

Dear Barry: STATE OF THE ART  3/02/07

Where is the point?

When did we lose it?

How can perfection of line, form and color cease to matter?

Who hones the message?

Who erases it?

We are at the end.

Time to begin again.

And go into orbit.

Thanks.

For seeing.

A response to Barry Gewen's essay "State of The Art" The New York Times Book Reveiw, Dec. 11, 2005.

Thanks to The Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation Grant, 2006 for providing the funds for this project.