The eighteenth and nineteenth century tradition of bovine portraits came to America with English and Germanic settlers and remained in both fine and folk artwork through the twentieth century.  The immortalization of an award-winning bull or cow through a painted portrait was a way to show pride in the abundance of your personal property  –cattle grew strong because of the richness of your land.

Andy Warhol commented on this tradition, transforming the bovine portrait into a wallpaper pattern, acknowledging that society had changed from killing the fatted calf for a special feast to a hamburger shop on every corner, meat for every meal.

However, the bull or cow as a symbol of the “fat of the land” has changed.  It is the raising of cattle that caused the great forests at the heart of America to be razed, the reason the rain forests of Brazil are today being burned.

Meat consumption is a greater component of global warming than automobiles.

It takes ten times more land to sustain a meat-based diet than it does to sustain a vegetable-based diet.   Additionally, a majority of the beef produced in modern, commercial farms is unfit for human consumption.  As a global society, we are finding new and varied ways to poison ourselves and the planet.

One entire pencil was used on this painting  –akin to one tree cut down or burned down for the raising of cattle–  the graphite/charcoal (carbon) of a pencil referencing the American barbeque as well as the carbon footprint produced by the raising/consumption of meat.   Ironically, all life is carbon-based and the production of carbon  –the carbon footprint–  will be the end of all life on this planet.

The image is a milk cow  –a female kept pregnant so she produces milk–  alluding to our actions regarding Mother Earth herself:  a disrespectful, small-minded attitude of self-service and commercialism.

Roy Anthony Shabla

Untitled Painting for Earth Day

2014

6’ x 5’

Paint, Pastel, Pencil, on Canvas

$4000

blesstheworld.com glossary

Zen ~ the aspect of Buddhism focusing on silent meditation and liberation. There are several schools of Zen, some of which de-emphasize the connection to the religion of Buddhism. See eating God and nevertheless art.

blesstheworld.com glossary

Yoga ~ the yoking of the physical life to the spiritual life. While “yoga” usually refers to physical exercise, it also pertains to meditation, diet, volunteer/charity work, and inter-personal relationships, et cetera. There are various schools of yoga, especially different forms of physical exercise. See (PEACE) WORDS.

graffiti info

black & white ~  rainbow  ~  blue  ~  coffee

return to peace shirts

This is the first and most resonant image in the (PEACE) WORDS series. It speaks deeply to people over and over.

"Great minds think alike and fools seldom differ" is attributed to the great Anonymous but the word "dream" alludes to the collective unconscious in which we all participate and its substitution into the shortened phrase brings peace into the inherent being of all.

As a t-shirt, the rainbow version of GREAT MINDS on a black field is the most significant, describing the commonality of the human race in the great void of existence. A rainbow is not meant to depict diversity, not meant to show how different we humans are; a rainbow is meant to symbolize the bridge between differences ~ it denotes harmony. Coupled with the peace symbol and the words, "dream alike", that particular t-shirt resonates to the core of the issue. It stimulates the emergence of the deep-seated quest for peace within us all and lights that quest with honor.

Wearing a GREAT MINDS t-shirt on a plane always provokes a positive response. Sometimes I sport a wild appearance ~ maybe people are relieved I’m not a terrorist! Revolutionary, yes. Terrorist, no. One man told me "great minds think alike…" were his grandmother’s dying words only a couple weeks earlier ~ they would always be special to him. Most people just smile and nod approvingly. Sometimes they ask as to where they too can get a t-shirt.

As graffiti, GREAT MINDS DREAM ALIKE has been seen in large and small formats for years. I have had a banner on the front of my house long enough to be the "crazy guy in the neighborhood" but one neighbor told me he instructs his daughter to read it every morning on her way to high school. I have left GREAT MINDS up for years with the thought that it may be the only reading she does all day.

The original idea for GREAT MINDS was to write a book of short biographies (two to three pages each) of the recipients of the Nobel Prize for Peace. That would be a powerful and inspiring collection to compose. Hopefully, it will manifest soon.

In my mind, whenever I see this image, I picture Einstein. But it could as easily be Buddha or Gandhi or Martin Luther King. Or (insert your favorite peace revolutionary here)!

I’m not sure if I would have continued the (PEACE) WORDS series if GREAT MINDS hadn’t affected me so deeply. It continues to affect me after all these years.

blesstheworld.com glossary

Yin and Yang ~ Usually thought of as opposites, yin and yang are merely opposite poles of the same discreet whole and describe an exchange of energy (chi) within that whole.

Consider wind blowing from one end of a hallway to the other. The hall itself is the discreet whole; the end of the hall where the wind begins is yang, dynamic, masculine; the end of the hall where the wind arrives is yin, receptive, feminine. Yin and yang merely describe the flow of energy in the hall; they are not features of the hall itself. The door or window where the wind enters the hall is yang in relation to the hall but yin in relation to the outside ~ it receives the wind into the hall (yin) but is also the dynamic force that originates the wind in the hall (yang). It is a matter of perspective. The flow of energy can also change under other conditions. Understanding the principles of yin and yang are the basis of martial arts and all Eastern philosophy.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that yang energy is more powerful than yin. The I Ching, the Book of Changes which proposes the foundation of yin and yang, feng shui, and all relationships states clearly that the yin triumphs over the yang by merely allowing the yang to exhaust and defeat itself. (Do not confuse this with yin feng shui which pertains to graveyards. The principles of yin feng shui are not pertinent to houses of the living.) Yin-energy treatments have less potential for creating karma than yang-energy treatments. However, in many instances, only yang treatments will be effective. See Feng Shui Every Day.