Art and Life II

Realpolitik, Reform and Reconciliation

It's Election Day tomorrow, here in Canada (Monday April 28^th); and I get my life back. In anticipation of this, I wanted to follow up on an email I sent to my regular mailing list last week: ‘The Truth Revealed?’ We wait with bated breath now, to see if those indoctrinated by the left-wing media can break free of their programming. We’ll have an answer in a few short hours of course. And I had to include a photograph I took while canvassing yesterday — a message, taped to a door:

It's funny how each side comes to regard the other in these struggles. A joker friend of mine suggested that maybe the person who wrote this was actually a Peoples Party supporter. I do know some pretty stubborn Conservatives (too) come to think of it ;-)

The battle will continue of course, because the media (public or corporate) will continue to ‘massage’ opinions (as McLuhan warned). And when a right-wing administration takes power, what remains of the state media (if the CBC isn't privatized) will probably change its tune, and deliver whatever ‘massage’ it is given. Otherwise, as I suggested before, our future entertainment and fake news will be ‘Brought to you by Pfizer’. . . so don’t expect much to change.

He who pays the piper always calls the tune.

Apparently, a lot of people still haven't learned this basic life lesson. Or maybe that ‘collective amnesia’ we complain about, really is accelerated Hippocampal decline (discussed in my earlier post ‘The Hippo in the Room’). In which case, we may be fated to spiral down into technocratic authoritarianism, like that of Sir Keir Stasi's not-so United Kingdom. . . or worse.

Right after I posted my last piece, on ‘Vote Splitting’ (or not), our monetary reformer friend Adam Smith sent me his latest political commentary (just posted at the time), which I know you'll enjoy: Libs vs Cons 2025

“It makes no difference who you vote for, either way your country is doomed. . . Doomed”

Everything needs to be reformed today: the media, the electoral system and, of course, the monetary system. To begin with, we must free ourselves from this old left vs right trap; which entails completely ignoring the media (just as the media ignores the PPC, and literally changed the rules so that Maxime Bernier could not share his ideas with a larger public). Thank you to Tucker Carlson, Matthew Ehret and others, for getting the word out (what an indictment this is of those bureaucratic, wannabe authoritarians, who are already restricting free speech in Canada). And “nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care.” The vast majority of Canadians are entranced by the theatre; or forced, out of fear, to vote the way those old Kingmakers (behind the scenes) want them to vote.

Herbert Marcuse's book, One-Dimensional Man, has never been more relevant. I know, a lot of folk will say: “Oh, but he's one of those Frankfurt School Hegelian Marxists.” To which I reply, “it’s better to know your enemy” (if this is what they are). Marcuse is 100% correct in this assessment however; it's the reason many people (still) cannot see through the illusions, the gaslighting and the lies (no matter how obvious), and remain just as susceptible to advertising and propaganda as they ever were. Fortunately, you always know when you’re talking to the indoctrinated: they have no depth of understand, and keep repeating whatever they just heard on the television.

And speaking of knowing your enemy, I stumbled across the following a few days ago, from Jordan Peterson:‘Reaction to Imminent Liberal Victory in Canada.’ I believe this is more an ‘imagine if’ scenario, but the thought of such an outcome certainly grabbed my attention — It's hard to remain dispassionate when so much is at stake. A lot of people like to call Jordon Peterson, Tucker Carlson and others, ‘controlled opposition’ — and who knows? (anything is possible) To avoid falling into that old left vs. right trap though, we mustn't assume that because one side is obviously corrupt, that the other is going to save us. But this can keep for another day, as we hold the Conservatives to account (in turn).

Peterson's characteristically animated delivery aside, he “did the work” and read Carney's ‘manifesto’ Values; which most of us would not have the patience to do. The ‘values’ outlined here are Carney's guiding principles — his raison d'être no less — and we (at least) won’t forget this, as he cynically (and temporarily) reduces the carbon tax to zero, and says what he thinks he must to win over the One-Dimensional among us. Peterson presents some important observations here, along with a history most people have forgotten (or never knew).

So let me diverge here for a while, on this rambling journey of art and life — politics, money and art, in all its forms.

I have followed our erstwhile Governor of the Bank of Canada since my currency trading days. A bizarre (pre)occupation, for an artist, that began in the Gerald Bouey years 1973–1987 (in my case 85–87), and continued on through John Crow 1987–1994, Gordon Thiessen 1994–2001, David Dodge 2001–2008, right up to the term of Mark Carney 2008–2013. Appropriately, this was the year I shut down my trading account at Friedberg Mercantile (which had been my clearing firm since I first stepped onto the trading floor, at the beginning of 1985). I traded Stock Index Futures at that time (and was licensed to trade bonds). Later I became more interested in commodities and currencies, and if you're going to trade currency futures, you probably want to keep an eye on what those central bankers are up to.

My experience as a futures trader (though I didn't see it this way at the time) seems more like a kind of ‘performance art’ now (reminiscent of the London Regionalists, who started their own political party, or Toronto's artist collective, ‘General Idea’ pretending to be business men and doctors — except, I wasn’t pretending). So the comparison (with General Idea at least) ends here (the London Regionalists however, theoretically, might actually have won a seat). Whatever this experience was, it did give me certain insights, and it continues to informed every aspect of life, including my art.

‘Exchange II’ Acrylic on Canvas 42" x 90" 2016

The cover of my 2013 book, Time Enough: An Amoral Tale, features a chart of the British Pound, along with moving averages, and other indicators a technical trader should (also) keep an eye on:

This account of 16 years, during which I visited the island many, many time (for the reasons explained therein) is particularly relevant today; following Mark Carney's (now revealed) curious, and most dubious, connection to the offshore world. A friend sent me this Rebel News report a couple of days, filmed in the Isle of Man, where Brookfield (apparently) has set up a fake business head office. You can judge for yourself:

‘BREAKING: the trail of Mark Carney’s money-laundering scheme’

The Isle of Man has long been my Home away from Home, and now, bizarrely (small world that this is) my old pal ‘Andy’ — from this story (that I might best describe as Dave and Andy's ‘Excellent Adventure’) — lived just up the hill from this address on Belgravia Road!  Sadly, Andy is not the ‘beneficial owner’ of Brookfield IOM, but he and I have walked past Mr. Cummins’ place many times.

Returning to the heart of the financial world though, for a moment. In my twenties, I did make a little money as a trader (nothing like these central banker politicians of course, and a probably a lot more honestly). Much of this, sadly, I gave back when my own greed (and cockiness) got me into trouble on Black Monday, Oct 19, 1987. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 22.6% that day, and the TSE, 11.32%. It's an interesting moment to revisit: CBC Archives: Market Crashes, 1987

I was ‘bailed out’ (shall we say) by a friend at one of the big trading firms (totally kosher of course). I caught his eye in the frenzy (I probably looked a little like the young guy ‘watching the developments’ in the ‘Black Monday’ article above) and he bought my two contracts before the market could go limit down.

This isn’t the exact ticket (I wish I’d kept this now), but I was getting out of a long position here too, sometime early 1988 by the looks of it. I usually made more money selling short (I seemed to have an instinct for that). It was the gambler in me . . . and I feel the old bug coming back just looking at this. It was a bit of an addiction really.

But I was already feeling a kind of emptiness. The excitement of the casino soon wore off (though I had more fun than I can tell you about here, for a couple of years). I didn't aspire to live the lives of the guys around me though. “Get out now, while you still can,” was the advice from one of the crusty old traders. You can’t get more direct than this. . . messengers visit us (at various times in our lives) and we must heed their words.

I was painting even then, of course, and I'd sold work to a few of the guys on the floor. I even traded three paintings for a car, back in 1986, when Sid B. moved to Australia to take a bond trading position at the Sydney Stock Exchange. My first real series of paintings emerged from a road trip that summer to Nova Scotia — in the ‘Sid Mobile’ (as my friends affectionately called her).

Ah, Free at last: The 1978 Pontiac Grand Prix. The most ‘comfortable ride’ I ever owned — white walls and all. Forget snowmobiles (kid’s stuff) we’re talking automobiles now. Isn’t she a beauty?

All of my Nova Scotia work sold immediately, and my art began pulling me into a very different world — especially when I started to make more from painting than I did trading. It was a more predictable income too, which says something (about trading) as anyone who has tried to make a living from their art will understand.

There are so many stories I'd like to share though; among them, the excitement of being on the floor the day the DOW hit 1200. People invariably correct me when I tell this story: “You mean 12,000.” No, I really do mean 1200 (one thousand, two hundred), in January, 1985. The way history is compressed these days, so that it feels as if 1985 were just a few months ago, is absolutely bizarre; maybe that's what it is to have a few decades of perspective on this crazy world (speaking as an artist, of course). We've all been encouraged to live ‘in the moment,’ and so we still get caught up in the moment; and this, of course, serves those with a long memory well.

So I escaped that blood curdling debacle on Black Monday, with a loss that took me pretty much back to where I started, two years earlier. Things never really improved, though I never took any more big losses either. I've often likened myself (since then) to that ‘break even guy’ from the ‘Even Steven’ episode of Seinfeld.

Though I never particularly liked this humour (which seemed designed to diminish everything to some meaningless cliché) but this scenario, at least, summed up my own experience of life — monetarily speaking.

The life of an artist though, is ‘rich’ in other ways, and when I left the floor of the Toronto Futures Exchange in 1988, I never looked back. Though I continued to trade futures for many years after this (over the phone) art has continued to been my livelihood (such an appropriate word) for over three decades now.

The main reason I finally left the financial world however, was not a bad day in Oct 87, but an incredible experience in Haida Gwaii, in the summer of 1988. I'd like to share more on this as well, but for now, you may enjoy this short documentary from my 2016 trip (with artists from across the country, and a couple of our Haida friends) — Braid Films: Eyes of Society

My connections here have only deepened over the years, and I've done more paintings from this place than any other. Five of these works are now in the Crown Collection. One — ‘Spirit of the Hills’ — recently appeared in a group picture on Pierre Poilievre’s Instagram (in a weird overlap of art and politics), above the mantelpiece in Stornoway, when former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney passed away. I'll share more of these works (from various public collections) in a future piece, but for now, returning back to the real world, let me share with you, The Woodshop.

Although this piece hasn’t yet sold, it did inspire a major commission request, which is to include the Reconciliation Pole itself, as a work-in-progress, just outside the Woodshop. The two boats here are elements of that work (as you will see if you click on the link above) by artist and chief James Hart. They are meant to symbolize our two cultures, sailing into the future together. I’ve prepared a canvas already (20” x 28”) and the first splashes of paint will go down tomorrow, appropriately, when I return from the polls.

It's been another long day (distributing the last of the fliers) and I’ve been rushing to organize my thoughts here. History is unfolding around us, and I hope you’ll join me again, as we sail into the future together.

Thank you for your interest and continuing support,

David