Some time between 1980 and 1981, when I first became aware of Nicaragua, I started leafing through this book that I saw many fellow students carrying around with them. It was the text for a course I was not taking, but maybe that was for the better. The short bursts of exposure to the explication of “the new” in art were probably all I could handle while being shocked by everything else, all new too.
By the summer of 1981 I had dropped out of college, and away from all that other too new stuff, and began apprenticing with a blacksmith. It was a reaction to the news about Nicaragua, in part. Today’s news reminded me that in the ensuing 30 years answers have not gotten any clearer, or easier.
I do not have any photographs from my time as would-be artisan, which was short-lived. I have visual and sensory recollections of it, including my first listening to Blood On The Tracks and long motorcycle rides through the blue grass hills of northern Kentucky and southern Indiana. And through my nose I can recall the smithy coal fire and grunting leather bellows, food cooked over a wood fire, and Sunday morning folks in clean clothes on church pews. Continue reading
When I send emails to friends, colleagues, and others about this website, and the objectives of Raxa Collective, I normally add links to a few posts that I think are representative.
Organikos 