LEONARD CLARK BEARDSLEY - 2014 ART: ¨It's the way that we see things that makes the world be things¨

Oversized painted apaste/ceramic 

Greetings to friends, collectors and visitors to Antigua/Guatemala,

¨Convite¨ (costumed street dance) 4´x 4´

I have been working as hard as I can at the foot of the Volcan de Fuego/Guatemala on another collection of art work for me and for you.  

Fuego #1, 4´x 5´ (painted on panel)

During the past year(s) I´ve had several eye surgeries and they scared me. I was afraid that I would lose my eyesight, or have it so lessened, and  I may not be able to continue doing the art that seems to spill from my heart as it gives me great pleasure. Having had seperated retinas in both eyes, different times, was a little daunting. However, I am glad, grateful and plain amazed that I was able to continue to work in my studio between surgeries, post surgeries and during the various times of healing.  I have a very capable assistant, H. Leonardo M., who keeps both keen eyes on me and my sometimes smudges  

Oversized ceramic pot, painted/polurethaned

Helping me see was/is a very good and kind thing and I now have a greater appreciation for the challenges that many with sight-problems face...a very brave lot they are!

¨Carnival¨  4´ x 8', painted on panel

I was helped by several dear friends as my last surgery, past November, was done in a up-to-the-minute fully equipped eye clinic in Northern California. 

Painted table, Orchid chairs

Big thanks to my niece, Jennifer Fisher, for being such a great nurse, eye specialist (bravo Dr. Wendel) locator and  hostess who offered reassurance, transportation and extra comfy accommodations to the coward in me. Thanks to Laura Fisher for being a great companion, chef and personal shopper and thanks to FENIX the giant dog who guarded my bed. Thanks to my longtime friend Kelsie Reed in Orlando who aided me from afar as well as many of you here in Guatemala who helped me during my time of urgency: Elizabeth Bell travel arrangements, Burt Pasternak got me to the airport shuttle and Juan Carlos Castillo, Mark and Illsy Creelman helped me, with eyes dialated, get up to ¨emergency speed¨ organized, packed and up, out and ready for travel!  

Maya Geometric lamps, handmade lampshades

Mil gracias!

Lamps, Wall decor, High table/chairs (set of three), bench

A few weeks ago I was able to get a new pair of glasses, my third  pair, since the eye problems began. I am relieved, and very happy, to report that my corrected vision is better than it has been for quite a long time.  I can see better, work better and my close up work is better than before.  Thank you for your support, each of you and thanks to Letty Manne and Burt Pasternak for the welcome home from surgery party in December!

¨Saints and Sinners¨

Fiesta, lamp and handmade lampshade
(featuring the ¨Gossip Lady¨ and the ¨Mostess Hostess¨

In the past year, at the request of a friend, I revived a style that I once called Maya Cubism.  This collection  largely represents the Maya world around me from several personal views...lots of spiritual and emotional REAL goings on that weave their way, like the vivid tapestries created and merged into my life in Guatemala.  There are many colorfilled cultural, and vividly costumed, customs that are downright dazzling in Guatemala. Most everything here is laced with passion, color and creativity. Among the most exciting folklore events are the carnivals, rituals, shaman ceremonies and ¨convites¨ that are held in many of the villages on a regular calendar for each place.  

36¨ high, ceramic ¨water saver´ painted/urethaned

I witness joyous and festive parades, street parties, costumed/orchestrated street dances and processions often that are complete with bombastic fireworks and color-extravagant ¨fuegos artificiales¨ , incense, drums, flutes and sometimes full fledged marching bands.   

4´ Bench

I believe I have captured much of the mystery, vitality and passion that touches my life in Guatemala with the Maya Cubism and Maya Geometric collections. The pictured pieces are either ¨in work¨ or ¨finished art¨ and I have many others too.  If you would like to see photos just ask.

Looking from above:  Coffee table/round, Ceramic apaste

I am continuing with my ¨pointalism¨  painted furniture (both custom or displayed in the studio as finished), painted ceramics and table decorative accessories plus  NEW lamps (gorgeous new lamps with all custom shades).  I  paint in all the styles I have developed for decades including various landscape texture ideas with all the geometric style accents that people/yo enjoy.  

4´ x 4´ Volcan de Fuego #4

Inspiration appears daily before me thanks to the lushness of the landscape and hospitality of the people in Guatemala. My inspiration comes from all the people, what they do, how they celebrate and cultivate their land and lives in Latin America.  The people of Guatemala and Latin American countries are amongst the ¨happiest people in the happiest countries in the world¨ according to recent surveys...with good reason. 

The Bar, five bar stools, on rollers/moves easily, fully fitted with wine rack, inside/back

Enjoy!

Large Rolling Table (table top view)

This is the update on some of my work.  If you have questions telephone me at country code 502 and cell number 56 56 82 95.  My most longtime email, santosiempre at yahoo dot com and/or  leonardoricardosanto at gmail dot com  (or leave a comment/message here at the blog and I will read it when ¨moderating¨comments).

Leonard Clark/LeonardClarkBeardsley aka Leonardo Ricardo and Len

4´x5´ Volcan de Fuego #5

RIGHT WING WATCH: Paranoia-Rama - How Common Core Will Turn Kids Into Gay Muslim Communist Slaves

RWW’s Paranoia-Rama takes a look at five of the week’s most absurd conspiracy theories from the Right.

It seems President Obama will stop at nothing in his effort to destroy America, as he attempts to diminish the military, turn kids gay through Common Core, kill America’s livestock, blackmail the Supreme Court and grant himself a third term.

Of course none of this is actually going on, but that is just a dose of what you will find this week in the land of right-wing conspiracies.

- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/paranoia-rama-how-common-core-will-turn-kids-gay-muslim-communist-slaves#sthash.0LVYgCN6.dpuf

THANKS TO RIGHT WING WATCH, SIDEBAR
THANKS TO BRIAN TACHMAN

Attn ++JUSTIN WELBY -- IT´S NATURAL: ¨I always knew I was Gay¨ Andy Cohen with Larry King (video)

Thanks to On Top Magazine, sidebar 
Thanks to Larry King 
Thanks to Andy Cohen

UPDATED - LET US STOP PLAYING ¨ANGLICAN PRETEND¨ WITH THE ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY AND YORK (When celibate is not enough assurance of priestly purity vs. heterosexual sexual bliss)

The Archbishops of York and Canterbury, Church of England
Ebor and Cantuar tickled Pink?

I think it is just plain stupid...++Justin and ++John lead the pack of the ¨sheltered/worse¨ who live in a world of such DENIAL, POSTURING and PRETEND. It  is a wonder they can find their way out from under any dilemma without DEMANDING that God issue special tablets of Gold with their personal names on them!

I think, I truly do, that God wants me, a member of the LGBTI community, to be the authentic person that God created me to be..self accountable and responsible in all my affairs..I almost killed myself trying to deny my basic moral decency, or adhere to their kind of appropiateness for my being..I WILL not allow my silence as EBOR or any of the THOUGHTLESS and brutal GLOBAL SOUTH/GAFCON archbishops set any religiouslike standard that endorses the TORMENTING of fellow human beings at Church. 

Archbishop Justin Welby may be bordering on passive/masochistic-aggressive or is plain dim-witted/ego-protecting but that will NOT excuse the harm he does.  ++Justin  ought quickly speak out about the  full-fledged validity and worthiness of (equal to heterosexual) LGBTI Anglicans at all levels of churchlife.

Imagine the lifetimes of prejudice/discrimination he endorses by doing his current jig of prancing Lambeth Palace dance of death (on the misery and graves of LGBTI Anglicans). Of course I have little respect for those who make lives living HELL for LGBTI Anglicans/others,..respect is earned and I have little for neither self-righteous bigots, hatemongers, cowards nor thieves/greedy grandstanding *leaders* at Church. Leonardo Ricardo/Len

Stop the denial !

¨The Church of England has announced that it will support civil parnerships for gay priests, as long as they don't have sex for the rest of their lives.  Here Richard Haggis, a practising priest and homosexual, calls for his superiors to see the error of their ways...¨

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jul/26/gayrights.religion

THANKS TO THE GUARDIAN, UNITED KINGDDOM

THANKS TO RICHARD HAGGIS, PRIEST, CHURCH OF ENGLAND

THANKS TO JANE MASON, SOUTH AFRICA

UPDATED ON WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON - CENTRAL AMERICAN
 TIME

SORRY ARCHBISHOP, 

THIS WILL NOT DO

http://thewoundedbird.blogspot.com/2014/05/sorry-archbishop-this-will-not-do.html

THANKS TO WOUNDED BIRD, sidebar

Getting Real
¨The leadership in the Church of England is in the difficult position of wanting to oppose homophobia while retaining a doctrine that gives homophobia its underpinning. They ran into a similar bind when, in an effort to scuttle last year’s changes in civil marriage, they tried to pretend (contrary to the facts) that they had been supporters of the alternative of civil partnerships. Until the church can free itself both from mendacity and illusion, it will make little progress...¨

http://jintoku.blogspot.com/2014/05/getting-real.html

Thanks to ¨In A Godward Direction¨, sidebar

GUATEMALA: The World around us truly astounds us (don't miss this video)...Leonardo

TOXIC CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISM: ¨ The lies Christian fundamentalism taught me ¨ Christy Cain

We recently published here a piece called Getting Over “Get Over It,” in which Sylvie King Parris asked the question:

How does one “get over” discovering that everything they’d been taught about God and religion since childhood was a lie?

Since then we have received comments challenging the idea that so much of what Christian fundamentalism teaches is, in fact, a lie. We’ve also been asked why some people can’t simply stop believing what they were taught as children. As one commenter to Ms. Parris’s piece put it on our Facebook page:

Everything they’ve been taught is a lie? Who has the authority to say this? … We CHOOSE what we believe – all of us.”

I was raised a fundamentalist Christian. Here is some of what we were taught, both explicitly and in a million different little ways, every single day of our lives:

• You are worthless.
• God hates you, unless you love him.
• Obedience is love.
• Punishment is love.
• The Bible is infallible and not to be questioned.
• The pastor is infallible and not to be questioned.
• Our interpretation of all Scripture is without error and not to be questioned.
• Outside the church bubble waits evil.
• Everyone who is different should be feared.
• Bad things happen to you because God is trying to teach you a lesson.
• Bad things happen to you because God let Satan tempt you.
• Bad things happen to you as a punishment for disobedience.
• Depression is a sign of sin in your life.
• To resist what you are taught is to rebel against God.
• Women have to cover themselves so as not to tempt men.
• If a man lusts after a woman it’s her fault.
• Women need to submit to male authority over them.
• There are many things girls can’t do.
• Men are more important than women.
• A woman who is raped must forgive her rapist and not report it to the authorities, in order that the rapist, his family, and the church remain protected from outsiders.
• Children are to be seen and not heard.
• Children need to have their will broken through painful “child-training” and punishment.
• A child who is not hit until he or she screams will not learn.
• Our church is the only true church; all others churches are filled with Christians who are untrue and destined for hell.
• Catholics aren’t Christians. They are idol worshippers.
• You are so full of sin God can’t even look at you.
• When the Communists take over America and force us to burn all of our Bibles, you’ll need to have memorized it so they can’t take away what is written on your heart.

Those are lies. And they are deeply damaging.

And if you are unfortunate enough to be raised a Christian fundamentalist, you have no choice but to believe those lies until, because you are very lucky and/or very strong, you break free from the controlling, brainwashing environment in which you and your family exist. Yours is a world in which not only all outsiders, but all television, music, movies and books are shunned. So what you are taught is literally the only truth you know.

And that is why, as toxic and harmful as they can certainly be, whenever I deal with Christian fundamentalists I bear in mind Jesus’ “Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do.” Because I know how true that is.¨

Thanks to The Lies of Christian Fundamentalists

Thanks to Christy Cain

UnChristianFundamentalists: Above All Love

Thanks to Jane Mason, South Africa

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistchristians/2014/05/the-lies-christian-fundamentalism-taught-me/

HAPPY BIRTHDAY and HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to The Kossoy Sisters, Irene Saletan and Ellen Christenson, BRAVA/BRAVA!

The Kossoy Sisters

The Kossoy Sisters
Traditional and original songs
The Kossoy Sisters, Irene Saletan and Ellen 
Christenson, performed at the first Newport 
Folk Festival, sang in the original 
Production of Woody Guthrie's Bound for 
Glory, and recorded their legendary Bowling 
Green for Tradition Records. They are 
known for their clear bell-like harmonies, 
which have inspired and influenced other 
singers. Although they sing mostly southern 
mountain songs, they have also adopted 
other traditional and contemporary songs, as 
well as written some of their own.

Irene and Ellen began singing in harmony at the age of 8 or 9, singing mostly what they
heard around the house: songs of the 20's and music hall songs. In their early teenage
years, they became immersed in traditional songs and became part of the music scene in
Washington Square in Greenwich Village. By the age of 20, they had performed widely
in New York.

In addition to Newport, the Kossoy Sisters performed at many other festivals and coffee
houses, including the Fox Hollow Festival, University of Chicago Folk Festival, and the
Eisteddfod in eastern Massachusetts. In 1997, Bowling Green was reissued as a CD by
Rykodisc. The Kossoys resumed performing for the Folk Song Society of Greater
Boston, the Folklore Society of Greater Washington, the Pinewoods Folk Music Club of
New York, and participated in the Truly Acoustic Folk Festival in Cambridge, MA and
the Summer Solstice Festival in southern California, among others. In 2001, the Coen
Brothers included the Kossoy Sisters' version of “I'll Fly Away” in their movie, O
Brother, Where Art Thou. Their CD, Hop on Pretty Girls, produced by Living Folk, Inc.
was released in the fall of 2002.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY FROM GUATEMALA (we realize you are hanging out in Boston with your *other* family, oh well)

Calvin (not Klein) de las Gemelas

Coban de las Gemelas

To contact the Kossoy Sisters, visit their web site at www.kossoysisters.com