Warning: In this post I mince no words seeing some of my FB friends seem it necessary to obscenely express their thoughts Yet another entry from the Mad Man From Maine’s Manifesto. Well at least that is what a lot of people evidently think when they see me post. Come to find out there are a lot of narrow minded individuals that walk amongst us. People fail to see just how inclusive art is in their every day lives. Without art, there would be no creativity, there would be no news, paper or otherwise. There would be no radio because it takes creative people to bring us technology. Through out history, art has provided us with illustrations for news articles, Winslow Homer’s engravings of turn of the century events. How about Matthew Brady’s photographs, some of the earliest known of Civil War battleground scenes. What is the definition of photography…any guesses? Painting with light. Oh, wait, that makes it just a “fucking painting” then…hmmmm. One gentleman, (used very loosely) made a quote of “Its just a fucking painting, get over it..) This same gentleman proudly displays photographs of his scale model boats he builds, of which I admire because of the talent it takes to do such. Does this make them just a “f**king model”…no, and I will defend him on this point. I paint in watercolor, acrylics and oils. I do block prints, I have carved decoys and songbirds, I have worked in stained glass, I have been a photographer for over 45 years and I love making noise on a guitar. I am a creative individual and proud of it. On the other hand I have poured beer in pizza joints and wrestled with some of the same I served, I have cooked, I have worked retail, I have set tons upon tons of monument stones after being up all night helping to embalm corpses, I have dug nasty ass drunks out of wrecks and provided care and compassion to the same as an EMT and I ran a jail, which was the best education you can get. You learn that all of mankind is not popped out of the same mold, people make mistakes, good people as well. I have worked daily for the past 23 years with the elderly and disabled..my extended family. So, where do I go from this rambling diatribe…..you can blend everyday workers with the creative and be a productive society. Lets face it folks, with out art and creative individuals your lives would be snot, plain and simple and any intelligent human being arguing the point is hopeless. I pity their feeble lives and pray they see the light….it makes life worth living..try it. Peace!