anna missed

2009, 18″ x 20″ x 2″, oil paint on wood  (click on image for enlargement)

2009, 30″ x 37″ x 2″, oil paint on wood (click on image for enlargement_

All images can be enlarged by clicking on image. Further detail, very close, can be had by clicking on + icon.

2009, 16″ x 17″ x 2″, oil paint on wood, (click on image for enlargement)

2008 – revised 2009, 14″ x 15″ x 2″, oil aint on wood, (click on image for enlargement)

2009, digital image, (click on image for enlargement)

2009, digital image , (click on image for enlargement)

2009, digital image, (click on for enlargement)

2009, 32″ x 33″ x 2″ oil on wood, (click on image for enlargement)

I saw some of General McChrystal’s testimony before the Senate today on the television. And every time I see one of these spectacles, it just further confirms my sense that what we’re living in is some sort of twisted and endless Dickens novel. What, with a name like McChrystal, what more could you expect from a new commander on Capital Hill, but more meth for sale to sooth the disenfranchised and war weary. But here he is.

And he obviously doesn’t need any Cialis, unless he’s been eating the stuff by the fistful with every meal, because the man’s body (if facial expressions are any guide) looks like he’s literally made of some kind of hard mineral. So while it’s to be expected, it’s probably a good thing he’s in the army and doesn’t need to telegraph with any kind flexibility, the  feelings and emotions we usually find indispensable to our all too human lives – because surely, if he were to say, cracked a smile or lower a brow,  he would  explode into a million little obsidian sharp edged shards, and maybe hurt someone.

I don’t know why they keep parading these stone faced  bejeweled uniforms up in front of the congress and the American people. They always look the same (and in this case more so), act the same (always in their best robot, or is John Wayne,  imitation), and say the same thing (the next up coming  period will be critical). You’d think that after 8 years of this rowing backwards in Afghanistan and Iraq that this vaudeville act would have jumped the shark by now. Or more importantly, it would have become painfully obvious that this clever plan to assign these occupation wars to the commanders and away from the civilian government, is innately  flawed, and by its essential nature, destined to fail. Because to expect a general to solve delicate cultural, social and political problems is  like hiring a drug dealer to do marriage counseling. Where the problems are instigated, perpetuated, and inflamed by the remedy.