Marilyn Mellencamp's Fine Art Legacy

I was told this afternoon that it is the one year anniversary of Marilyn Mellencamp's death and am sad that I did not have the opportunity to know her, as I have had the remarkable opportunity to come to know some of her beautiful and talented family. A feature, which includes a look at the visual art of her son, John Cougar Mellencamp as well as of Cameron Bentley, (who has inherited both her talent and her paint), is coming soon to 'Fine Art Magazine' but I wanted to both share some of her work with you and begin to introduce you to her family in hopes of making a dim day brighter. From what I have come to know, she seems to have gone through life making days like that.

Marilyn Mellencamp

by Cameron Bentley

Some of her art:

Man in a Red Shirt

by John Cougar Mellencamp

The Next Generation of Mellencamp Artists With Marilyn's Paint:

Stay tuned for more in Fine Art Magazine.

For more info re art by Cameron Bentley, contact Eric Mellencamp on Facebook.

An Inauguration Day Defense of President Jefferson, In His Own Words

As a Virginian descended from the mind behind the Constitution and a former employee of Obama's Chicago law firm, where I daily participated in the defense of it, I was sad to see Jefferson dismissed at today's inauguration. I hope that, upon reading some of what he said and thought, you'll be sad about that too:

I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.  

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country. 

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.  

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear. 

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.   

A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference. 

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. 

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. 

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. 

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.  

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. 

I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance.

I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too. 

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.  

Fine Art: Ella Darr and Jonathan Wagner

J.P. Wagner Fine Art

Gallery 532
532 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10011
www.jonathanpaulwagner.com

Gallery Hours: 12pm – 9pm daily

Ella Darr & Jonathan Wagner
Sunday, Jan 20 – Monday, Jan 21
An opening reception will be held on Thursday, May 22 at 7pm.

Gallery 532 is pleased to present an exhibition of lithographs and paintings by New York artists Jonathan Wagner and Israeli born Photographer/model Ella Darr. The collection taps into the psyche, exposing the depth of human emotion that lurks beneath the surface. Working with contrast, each artist uniquely exploits boundaries few dare to cross. Wagner and Darr bring into focus the dark horrors of loss, the ecstasy of passion and the continuum of expression that exists between. Each collection portrays, through enigmatic faces, a fall from grace and the pure, unbridled joy of renewal.

Jonathan Wagner throws his creative weight into the art of detail. Through the minutia of physical expression, he demonstrates his insights into the vulnerabilities of his subjects. Delving into genres ranging from pop art to expressionism, Wagner is at home in the intensely personal, often only visible in an ephemeral glance. Wagner currently resides in Hackensack, New Jersey and is the Founder of IST Art Group. He recently presented "Psychology, It's More Than You Think," a touring solo exhibition sponsored by the American Psychological Organization and appeared in the Internationalist’s “Seven Deadly Sins” in January. Wagner earned his BFA at Virginal Commonwealth University, School of the Arts.

Israeli born photographer, Ella Darr, channels her vibrant, yet deeply tragic past to create works that challenge conventional notions of her collective experience. 

This retrospective of her last decade of work chronicles her personal and artistic journey,. Darr, injects herself into her paintings, conjuring not only her subjects, but herself, an artist, a model, and a member of fashion’s elite. Darr lives and works in New York City.