Toxic CDOs
The Timberline Lodge, above, was built by the Works Progress Administration at the base of Mount Hood in Oregon between 1936-1937. Artists and craftsmen working under the Federal Art Project created art works and furnishing for the lodge.
I hesistate to say too much here, except that the current tanking of America's financial system has me thinking quite a bit about whether I should be in an MFA program right now.
I've been trying to catch up on some of the background of things like Toxic CDOs and Hedge funds, and am finding the following links informative, disturbing and entertaining in varying degrees:
BoingBoing's America's financial system was shaken to its core on Sunday
This American Life's The Giant Pool of Money
With all of this talk of another great depression, I can only hope to live long enough to see the revival of the Works Progress Administration and corresponding Federal Art Project. I better get busy figuring out what the equivalent of a large-scale mural will be by that time. Or maybe I should just start painting. I'll leave it up to the boingboingers to tell me when it's time to bury my money in jars in the back yard.
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4 comments:
nah, forget trying to get a job, you just have to learn a few diy tricks and you'll be fine.
and yes i meant diy, and not "dirty"
Im scared too. Let me know if you hear of a job for me.
Some of our most acclaimed artists from the post-war era made some of their worst work during the depression, and were paid to do so. We can only hope. Jackson Pollock apparently has some real stinkers. But they were paid by the painting because they didn't know how else to pay them, so they just turned them in no matter what they looked like. So I guess we'll just have to wait to see if the government decides to bail us out, and then make a ton of work however they want it made. There are some great examples of poorly executed depression era paintings on the 3rd floor of the Hoffman Wing at the Portland Art Museum. I've always found them to be strangely inspirational in times like this.
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