2.21.2005
Happy President's Day!
Well, I (Nicholas Thompson) wish all Senators and other parties interested in running for United States President (regardless
of national origin) a wonderful day. Last week I called for a Girl Pope which is about as rebellious as I guess
one can be in this world. I'm a rebel no doubt, but am I an artist in many people's opinion right now
besides my own?!
Some people are apparently asking the same question of Jeanne-Claude's political machinations and the recent results
she's helped achieve in New York. She (otherwise known as Christo's wife) is well known for being tireless in her
efforts to get the attention of politicians, bureacrats and various other gadflys for the permission to install grand
projects that are temporary in nature. We know the recent installation in Central Park isn't going to recreated
in any meaningful way in a museum and therefore will be unavailable in that narrow way to future art historians. It
is also immune to the rules surrounding historic buildings and other objects by its inherent temporary nature.
What I think I've tried to achieve is in most ways even less of the sort of fine art one typically finds in
a musuem. However, the 3.5x5" painting/letters I intended for the Senators are real and intended
to be permanent although they're obviously mostly conceptual. Furthermore, I'm quite fortunate in that I got the
attention of powerful decision makers too although it was in quite a different way than Jeanne-Claude did.
Anyway, as you will know if you've followed this from my first post (scroll way down to INTRO if not) I am interested
in leaving some (relatively) permanent record of what I did as an artist as well as helping out some budding teenage auteur/artists.
I'm not sure what the future of myself dealing with money might be but I know that I want to get the letters intended for
Senator Byrd and many others into the hands of someone besides myself. Therefore, I'd like to know if anyone (maybe
a friend of Meg Whitman's?!) in San Francisco or somewhere easily reachable has a gallery where these letters could be displayed.
Maybe an auction on EBAY could list the "Senior Senator from West Virginia" and the letters could sit in a real gallery for
a week or so. I don't know - but please - I don't want to be Dali or something and make endless copies and money but
it would be good to verify that there were original letters which were intended for Senators written by Nicholas Thompson.
I guess a "bricks to clicks" compromise in this situation could be interesting for anyone who
wants to get involved. So, I, Nicholas Thompson wish to be contacted by anyone with an interest in this situation.
2.14.2005
Happy Valentine's Day!
Certainly a good day not to think much about art if it happens to involve politics. Thanks for being a part
of this project nevertheless. The money raised was typical for an arts organization.
So, let me wish all politicians and their families well on this day in particular. You folks are a strange breed!!
If you were offended I guess that is part of the idea but I still apologise. I would like to say to Bush that Rove may know
what he's doing in terms of pure politics (although I don't think so) but Roth is certainly a conservative Republican with
real experience in the field of pensions and other monetary reforms. He did pander a bit too much to fat cats in my eyes for
sure. His party guests also tip valet parking people like me well.
Furthermore, yes, he did get replaced by a Democrat. However, I think he did quite a bit to help the USA as a public
servant. The key, I think, is that if your retirement funds are your "personal accounts" then you can access them at any time.
Given that, how sensible is it from a conservative point of view to force people to invest the money initially in the government's
narrow set of schemes?
Well, I must admit I've been thinking often about Laura Bush's difficult plight. However, there is someone else who has
ended up as an outsider in a powerful family. His ideals are often remarkably out of synch with those of his inlaws. In fact,
quite a few of them may still be "good Catholics" and so naturally they're bracing themselves for the eventual demise of yet
another infallible leader. We all need to remember that infallibility only surrounds the interpretation of texts and beliefs for
those who are interested in those texts and beliefs. Furthermore, the next leader (woman?! - not soon) is going to take
a different tact that suits her and the times she lives in. Thank goodness I'm not a catholic priest this lifetime...
2.9.2005
Dear Senator Byrd, other Senators and allied parties:
I would make a pretty miserable Senator. For one thing I hate dealing with money so checking the crazy math of
the House and Bush XLIII would drive me nuts. In fact, I haven't even checked to see if there were any bids on EBAY
for these letters which have apparently gotten your attention. If you didn't ask to have the auctions removed this message
isn't really for you but you're certainly welcome to keep reading.
For Senator Byrd and staff in particular I'd like to say that communicating the full meaning and importance of your
tenure will be an interesting challenge for biographers. It must be amazing to come into an institution where the few
women around are assumed to be political widows and to (still) be around at a time when many expect a former Senator to be
President soon with a First HUSBAND who'll deal with the Christmas Tree or Menorah. Anyway, I'm obviously young
and ignorant about what Senate tradition has been to this point.
What I do understand is that you've been less than complimentary towards our current President in many ways and in some
senses I share your dismay and that's part of the reason I'm writing this now. I don't doubt that W's personal experiences
and the company he keeps has had a major impact globally and that it has been negative in many ways both from my
layman's perspective and from yours "in the know" in the Senate. However, it now appears that his father is trying
to rein him in a little bit and I'm sure everyone hopes they'll have a better opinion of his second term.
That said, the purpose of my little project is more to talk about how Senators may behave in the future. I
don't think the impetus for Barbara Boxer's challenge of the Ohio electors is an anomaly. I believe the types of people
who seek the Presidency are changing with the times and as a result the demeanor of Senators is going to change too(as an
aside I was in the Senate quite a number of years ago and I might mention that women are likely to be more
amiable if the washroom facilities for them have been improved).
I think the famously taciturn nature of the Senate is changing as fewer veterans and more people who've toiled
in PR firms and Hollywood take the plunge into politics and end of being more palatable Presidential Candidates. These
modern media driven types of candidates and voters don't have confidence in what goes on in Senate backrooms and so naturally
more is moving out into the open. However, you may feel this isn't being done with proper care.
Therefore, I hope that in the upcoming presidential election, which is likely to be much closer than this one, that
you'll consider the joint Session for the Electors as much an important piece of theater as the State of the Union. I
hope we'll all think of it as a formal closing of the Election Season even though we'll (probably?!) know nothing that happens
there will actually change who the next president will be. I would like to think that Florida's experience in 2000 and
Washington State's just now would encourage some sort of national standardization plan. However, I don't think you or
even our President, who is so strangely bent on imposing democracy elsewhere, has the influence to make that
happen by 2008.
Well, thanks again for caring about my thoughts however strange you might find them. I hope to be interested (even
entertained?!) by what happens early in 2009 because I think more attention by the media on the Senate will really strengthen this
somewhat fraying democracy. Just think, if W has helped improved our domestic voting system at all (yeah right...) he
might even take just a bit of satisfaction in having another Yalie succeed him!
INTRO
My name is Nicholas Thompson and I'm a nascent painter/artist/provocateur currently based in Northern California.
This project is political in nature but I certainly don't want to be known primarily as a political artist and I apologise
in advance if I've offended you politically or otherwise. However, part of the reason that I consider myself an artist
is that what I do often makes people take notice even when I'm not particularly trying to be controversial, upsetting or
even artistic. Anyway, if you help make this project successful half of the financial remuneration will benefit
San Francisco's Art And Film for Teens (
http://chaseartfilm.com ).
The interest, exposure and money will go towards helping youth make and understand films and many other art
mediums. In the past countless youths have used these experiences as prerequisites for amazing college
programs (NYU, UC, Europe, Africa etc.) and other wonderful life choices. Well, now I should tell you more about
why I did this project so that you'll get interested and perhaps even buy something!
BACKGROUND
I think US citizens and the entire world were taken aback in 2000 when Florida's voting system returned a result in the
presidential race that many people had little confidence in. Most people assumed that the 2004 race would give
a much more definitive result but I'm sad to say I've heard that a significant number of voters felt even more left out of
the process this time. Imperfections always affect both major and every minor candidate and party in US elections.
What I find most troubling is that during the 2004 election cycle people made comparisons to "Jim
Crow" and other illegal and backward practices with regard to the way minorities and other marginalized voters were
treated.
In January 2005, during the joint session of congress that officially determines the US President and Vice President,
Senator Barbara Boxer did force a debate about the veracity of Ohio's election result and the voice of the voters in
general. However, four years earlier she and her 99 Senate colleagues didn't speak up and so a president who had
lost the popular vote took office without any formal challenge from from the most elite legislative body in our country.
Whatever your individual politics may be I think US citizens usually agree that having real input from both our
supreme court and our senate is essential when deciding issues regarding the executive branch. US citizens didn't
get that in 2001 and we barely got it in 2005.
In more general historical terms what I find most troubling is that an unusual personality such as myself may be
able to weild more unchecked power in the office of the president in the future than even, for instance, Wilson and Nixon
did. This isn't to say that the League of Nations or the Environmental Protection Agency are bad historical choices
by most US citizen's estimation. What I think we can be sure of is that the darker aspects of human thought that each
one of us has to some degree would have been more evident in the Wilson and Nixon administrations had our legislature,
judiciary and other US institutions been as weak as they appear to be right now.
I'm certainly the last one to think that I can change future political events much if at all. However, I have been
compared another KAALEEFORNEEUN who has, it would seem, also temporarily adopted this state as his home. I must hasten
to say that I wholeheartedly back up initiatives of his that I agree with just as his inlaws do. Furthermore, I'm
not for discrimination based on national origin and I think the US ought to lower the voting age and change the
age limitations for other activites(dying for your country as a teenager is certainly cruel and barbaric). What I do
have respect for is the main reason I believe national origin excludes people from the presidency.
The reason, of course, is that the ideals this country was founded upon exclude the concept of a Divine Monarchy.
However, it is human nature to gravitate towards powerful dynasties and I'm sure that if my bone structure was more amenable
to body building that I'd consciously seek out US royalty too if I didn't stumble into the real thing. Anyway,
my sister Isabel was born in Abidjan (West Africa) and if she could find enough friends in 38 states I'd certainly support
her bid for the presidency.
BUY THIS ART
I don't want to say what my sister's presidency might be like but I do know that if I were president and only
one Jewish American Progressive senator complained when it really mattered this country would be in for really strange times.
That's why I'm hoping that a few of the other 99 senators I'm addressing in these paintings/letters hear of my plea and
become a bit more progressive and activist. I usually lean towards democrats politically but it wouldn't shock me to
hear Arlen Specter and some others in the majority crossing party lines more often under this particular lame duck presidency.
I don't question Bush XLIII's divine thoughts or spirituality but we as world citizens and US voters in particular need to
make sure that we don't treat him and future presidents anymore like divine monarchs than we have already.
Well, this somewhat strict vegetarian artist promises never to seek executive power over a country - and buying my art
will help keep that promise a reality. So please send some of that Terminator 3 DVD money to the little guy instead!
