Saturday, April 09, 2011

Camille Rose Garcia draws great, paints great, went to Disneyland a lot as a child, and has noticed that humans are kill the other live beings on Earth. The Tragic Kingdom, a collection of reproductions of her paintings, includes Cherrygirls vs. Contaminatron, where doll-like women wearing on their heads marachino cherries slightly smaller than their heads are dancing on the back of a giant black slug-like being who is floating on sick-looking water. The Tragic Kingdom: The Art of Camille Rose Garcia by Susan Landauer also includes Black Swan Breakdown, where who Boldis dancing and who is being still is reversed. The big, beautiful black swan has fallen in a position where it looks like something is very wrong--not only death, but death in a way that should not be. A couple of grey poison bottles are dancing on the swan. One of the bottles is smirking. In Arctic Cavern Hideaway, a line of four polar bears, with a human woman in the middle, has reached the edge of the ice where the water starts. Maybe it's not supposed to be water at this place at this time of year. The polar bear at the end of the line nearest the viewer is crying many black drop shapes--tears maybe and maybe the oil that has escaped into all living things and which has caused the polar bears' problems. The Tragic Kingdom, came out of a show at the San Jose Museum of Art. It is a relief to look at because it is accurate. Yes, this is happening. Yes, there is beauty in the Earth's life as we destroy it, and beauty in these painting. Yes, it seems too late to turn back the destruction. Can the Cherrygirls beat Contaminatron? How can they? How can we not? In Arctic Cavern Hideaway as reproduced inside the book, the polar bear who is crying is crying black tears. In the same painting reproduced ib tge cover of The Tragic Kingdom, the tears being cried are gold. Maybe if we let our broken hearts flow, there's some treasure of wisdom in there that might get out and let us really help.