Smart kids

 

“The smartest kid in class, by contrast, is not an expensive problem. A boy or girl who finishes an assignment early can be handed a book and told to read quietly while the teacher works on getting other children caught up. What would clearly be neglect if it happened to a special-needs child tends to look different if the child is gifted: Being left alone might even feel like a reward, an acknowledgment of being a fast learner.”

When I came across that in a recent Boston Globe pieceon educating gifted kids, I had to laugh. Having once been the smartest kid in my public school class, I was anything but a cheap problem to fix; in fact, my parents ended up sending me to a private school to finish high school. I’m a great example of high intellect swamped by low expectations.

Fast-forward a generation to my own kids’ educations. You would think it would be better, but it’s not. Gifted and talented programs—all the rage before No Child Left Behind—have (if they still exist at all) become shock troops in the military boarding school approach to education we’ve adopted. More seat work, more homework, no time for things like art and music.

Busy work is the bane of the bright child’s existence. It teaches him to blow off his homework and rely on test-taking skills to get by. Moreover, it ignores developing the synthetic, intuitive parts of his brain, which are developedby studying art and music, and, yes, by daydreaming.

I have a friend who’s a classicist, living in penury as an adjunct professor. I’ve often thought that our school district should send three kids to her and pay her the roughly $65,000 it gets for educating them for a year. After four years, they would know history, music, the arts, Greek and Latin.

And before you tell me that’s not enough, America was built by people with exactly that education.

Message me if you want information about next year’s classes and workshops.

Will your neighborhood art historian be replaced by a robot?

The most expensive painting on record is currently Paul Cezanne’s The Card Players, which sold for an estimated $259 million in 2011. (The exact price is unknown.)

In a paper entitled Toward Automated Discovery Of Artistic Influence, Babak Saleh and his Rutgers team claim to have used imaging software and ‘classification systems’ to automate the process of identifying artistic influences.

Last week, Apollo Magazine askedwhether robots can indeed replace art historians. They reached the same conclusions as did I—nope—but for different reasons.

The second most expensive painting on record is currently Jackson Pollock’s No. 5, 1948, which sold for $140 million in 2006.

The international art market moved $66 billion last year, so the experts in authenticating and analyzing paintings are valuable. And when they work at museums and galleries, art history majors are not badly paid. In 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, museum curators and archivists made slightly more than $45,000 a year.

But the rub is when art historians enter the academic stream. While post-secondary teaching jobs are expected to growin the next decade, even the BLS admits that many of these jobs will be for adjuncts, or part-timers. In fact, more than ¾ of college professors are adjuncts, and their wages are abysmal: between $1000 and $5000 per course. As Salon pointed out this month, that leads to professors with PhDs earning the same amount as the average full-time barista—who’s not expected to do curriculum development or grade papers on his own time.

The third most expensive painting on record is currently Willem de Kooning’s Woman III, which sold for $137.5 million in 2006.

Why does the United States tolerate a system where university educations are obscenely expensive at the same time as they’re being provided by slave labor? Beats me. But there is no reason to automate intellectual disciplines when we pay them atrociously. Your art history degree is safe for now.

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Consolidation Loans With Bad Credit: 3 Ways They Can Improve Your Financial Position

As debt mounts, the pressure to repay them increases dramatically. But while the simple solution is obvious, the reality is that the ability to pay lessens as debts rise. The most practical solution? A consolidation loan, with bad credit borrowers getting the funds needed to clear their debts in one go.

Of course, there are other ways to get rid of debt, but not all of them have a positive outcome. Filing for bankruptcy, for example, can see the debt lifted with the minimal settlement payment made (often nothing paid) but it can affect your credit rating for up to 10 years. With the right debt consolidation program, however, the consequences are all positive.

There are several aspects to getting a consolidation loan that must be addressed if the program is to be as effective, but the advantages are significantly greater than any compromise that may have to be made. Here are just 3 of them.

1. A Clean Slate Through Consolidation

Consolidation is not about getting off paying your various individual debts, but is really about replacing them with a more manageable single debt. To this end, taking out a consolidation loan with bad credit is the most practical way to clearing the credit slate and starting again.

For example, if a person as 5 individual loans to repay each month, they have to manage 5 different repayment schedules, 5 different loan balances at 5 different interest rates. This can be a nightmare to manage, but with a debt consolidation program, everything is melted into one payment on one repayment schedule.

And with the slate cleaned, the pressure is lifted for the long term with the only obligation being to repay the consolidation loan each month, over the duration.

2. Free Up Extra Cash

It is one thing to lift the pressure of repaying mounting debts, but it is another to improve the living standards for the borrowers themselves. But even when securing a consolidation loan with bad credit, this is the outcome. How? Because it also frees up extra cash.

Typically, the problem with repaying the original loans is that there is not enough cash to hand to make the repayments. As the arrears build up, the situation worsens and eventually no payments can be made at all. Through a debt consolidation program, the total debt is restructured to lower the monthly obligations.

For example, if repayments on 5 loans amounted to $1,000, the lower interest rate and longer repayment term on a consolidation loan can see the obligation fall to just $500. That leaves an extra $500 to hand every month to cover other bills and expenses.

3. Restore Credit Reputations

While effective debt management is the key purpose behind consolidation, there is another positive consequence – restoring your credit reputation. This occurs because by securing a consolidation loan with bad credit, your credit scores rise.

Unlike other debt management initiatives, a debt consolidation program buys out all of the debts so they are marked down as having been repaid in full. This fact means that your credit score is increased, thus moving the borrower into the good credit range.

Perhaps more importantly though, the reduction in debt repayments means the debt-to-income ratio is improved too. And since this is the key factor in all loan approval processes, the consolidation loan can make a huge difference to future loan applications too.

How To Identify The Best Colorado Mortgage Companies

Several places are available for obtaining mortgage rates from different Colorado Mortgage companies. Look at the ads or scour the advanced engines online and you will find many companies offering different rates in your area. Try to find one in the state of Colorado when you are looking for the best Denver refinance rates. The homes in and around Colorado are unique and offer homes that range from modest to luxury.

First, try to find a Mortgage company that offers quotes that spell low interest rates. However, just because the company offers low rates does not mean that they are the best. It is important to ascertain that they have a reputation in the area and are not out to take your money by luring you with false quotes. You should start by examining the fees charged for the mortgage loans. Each company offers different closing costs which you should note. The terms and condition of Colorado Mortgage companies differ and therefore you should be able to make your final decision after studying these points and making comparative notes. The company you select should have excellent customer service and answer all your queries. They should be experienced in the field and help you understand the rates and quotes that are offered.

Refinance is the term that refers to the replacement of a current home loan debt with another obligation of debt with different terms. People do this to either extend the length of the repayment period or to change the existing parameter. People may prefer to pay the Denver refinance rates if their present agreement involves adjustable interest rates. Due to various reasons such as economic turmoil, the interest rates may fluctuate and this affects the mortgage interest rates. This may cause someone in Denver to refinance the adjustable rate mortgage and make it a fixed rate to enable them to pay the amount determined beforehand on the mortgage.

If you plan to live long in your current home in Denver, then you can use this option of refinancing. Call your mortgage counselor and ask them for their valued advice and guidance. They will explain the benefits and disadvantages and help you make the right decision. People in Denver are now refinancing their mortgages in the hope of getting a lower rate. Some people may use their mortgage on their property in Denver to consolidate debts. They may be able to transfer their debt from a high interest rate to a lower interest rate and save money.

There are many reasons to refinance the mortgage but it is important to know the different options and consider the pros and cons when taking one on the Denver home. Beacon Financial is a private company that arranges for loans, using money of others. They offer exceptional service and great rates including low closing costs. This is why you should select one of the best mortgage companies in Colorado to help you make a vital decision on Denver refinancing.

Creativity

Maternity, Mary Cassatt, 1890. Cassatt never married nor had children. It would have been impossible in her era to mix her career and a family.

Sorry about the delayed post. I was busy caring for a baby.

Actually, I’m not all that sorry. After all, all other creativity derives from this fundamental beginning of life. The word “create” derives from the Latin creare: ‘to make, bring forth, produce, beget,’ and is related to crescere: ‘arise, grow.’ My etymology dictionary also links the latter to the Greek kouros (boy), and kore (girl), but I’ll take that with a grain of salt.

Most of the artists I know are childless, and the ones who do have children struggle to resolve the demands of their careers with the demands of parenting. Not that this isn’t true of all careers, but there’s something about the creative impulse that seems to channel in one direction or another. I’m an outlier because not only do I have kids, I have a lot of them.

Breakfast in Bed, Mary Cassatt, 1897. 

My daughter had a difficult delivery and I’m back in Pittsfield helping her until I’m sure she’s recovered.

We Americans have a weird attitude toward parenting. In trying to give women equal access to the marketplace, we’ve relegated parenting to the status of a hobby or a part-time job. Done right, it’s difficult work, demanding high levels of organization, energy, intelligence and time. My daughter is a well-paid professional, and I don’t want to see her dump her career to stay home. But having worked through my own parenting years, I also don’t want to see her wandering around in a fog of exhaustion, either.

But enough of this. Junior needs changing and his mom needs her meds before we start the round of doctor’s office, visiting nurse, visiting specialist. This baby stuff is a lot of work.

Baby Reaching For An Apple, Mary Cassatt, 1893

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How Unsecured Credit Card Debt Can Be Cleared Through Consolidation

There are plenty of things we would rather do than worry about loans and bills. It might be vacationing through Europe, or charity work in Africa, or hitting the road on a coast-to-coast tour of the USA. But whatever it is, the debt we have built up is ruining such plans. Clearing debt, especially unsecured credit card debt, is possible, and consolidation offers the best solution.

It never fails to amaze people how easily credit cards bills can get out of control, creating a debt that is nothing short of crippling. But it is comforting to know that it is possible to alleviate the situation regardless of how bad the situation has become. Even getting debt consolidation with bad credit is a realistic target.

And with unsecured credit cards providing the majority of debt in the typical American household, the most positive impact that can be made on debt management is a consolidation loan that replaces the troublesome terms with something far more manageable.

What Is Consolidation

Consult the dictionary and consolidation is explained as the bringing together of a number of elements in order to create a stronger position. It depends on the context, but the concept is there. When it comes to clearing unsecured credit card debt, it is a matter of bringing all of the individual card balances together so as to pay them off in one go.

With the average American having 4 credit cards, and combined credit limits of $30,000, the job of managing these credit cards can be a serious task. Each card has different interest rates, and different late fees, so the size of the debt can become large very quickly.

Even when opting for debt consolidation with bad credit, it is possible to get a fixed sum of $30,000 to pay off the debt created by the unsecured credit cards in one simple payment. And replacing it with a single loan repayment over a longer term makes the debt easy to pay back.

Advantages Consolidation Provides

There are several advantages to using consolidation loans to clear unsecured credit card debt, not just the fact that the debt is removed in one go. For a start, the credit rating of the debtor is immediately improved.

Another is that the job of repaying the new consolidation loan is made easier by the terms of the loan. For example, the debt may still be $30,000, but the sum can be repaid over 10 years. This means that monthly repayments of just $265 are needed to pay off the sum. So, even when opting for debt consolidation with bad credit, the financial pressure is alleviated greatly.

However, the advantages enjoyed depend on the terms secured, the total debt to be cleared and the source of the debt consolidation loan. This means that despite the benefits of paying off your unsecured credit cards, there are some issues to consider.

Your Consolidation Source

There are two main sources of a consolidation loan: firstly, a general loan provider, whether traditional or online; and secondly, from a dedicated debt consolidation company. When considering the best to use to clear your unsecured credit card debt, it is important to understand the difference.

From a regular lender, a consolidation loan is usually available at competitive terms but when trying to get debt consolidation with bad credit, there may be issues over the size of the possible loan. This creates a problem if the debt is very high.

However, a company will take on larger debt on you have, and even negotiate a final settlement sum with your creditors. In return, they will charge a fee as well as accept monthly repayments at a competitive interest rate. Either way your unsecured credit cards are paid off and your financial status improved.

New drug boosts creativity, cures hypertension, depression, and diabetes... and it's free!

A young walker in the Duchy.

A Stanford studyearlier this year found that walking boosts creativity. This is a real-time effect, and it lasts during the time you’re walking and for a short while thereafter. It gives legs to the idea that we get our best ideas while walking.

This will come as no surprise to people who walk regularly. I have no idea how it motivates the circuitry of one’s brain (any more than I understand how it massages the gut or how it strengthens back muscles) but as a lifelong walker, I’m convinced it works. It certainly reduces anxiety. I’m finding myself walking upwards of six miles a day this month, and it’s done much to assuage my grief and worry over the upheavals in my personal life.

Walking every day has the perverse effect of making me like winter more, although I'm not always keen on the way sidewalks are maintained here in Rochester.

Although I’ve been a dedicated walker/runner/hiker my whole adult life, about five years ago my doctor started making noises at me about cholesterol and high blood pressure. I realized that I needed to ramp up the pace. Now it’s the first thing I do every day, and I’m willing to spend at least two hours a day exercising.

The biggest objection people make to walking is, “I don’t have the time.” On the other hand, the average American watches five hours of television a day.

I’m self-employed, so I can set my own schedule. I walk my husband to work every morning. Most married couples have very little time to talk to each other; we are guaranteed the better part of an hour together. (Since the average car in the US costs more than $9000 a year to own and operate, we save a lot of money, too.)

Later in the morning, I walk with a small posse. Who shows up varies by the day, but we’re all self-employed or telecommuters.

Walking is gentle on the environment. This is the annual salt collection at the side of our street after the snow melts. It's a miracle anything grows here.

It’s paid off: I’m apparently the only middle-aged American who isn’t takingsome kind of prescription drug. Nearly 70 percent of Americans of all ages are on at least one medication, and more than half take two or more. Among women in my age cohort, a stunning one in four are taking antidepressants.

Walking is cheap. It makes you creative, it makes you happy, it gives you great gams, and it mitigates many diseases of aging like diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol. Why doesn’t everyone do it?

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Philistines, everywhere

Graffiti on the Colby Street pedestrian bridge in Rochester. I trudge over it daily, so I can certainly relate to these two flipper men doing endless laps on the bridge.

Being a believer in private property rights, I’m generally not amused by graffiti, but last Friday when I came across two swimmers on the Colby Street pedestrian bridge, I genuinely LOLed. The pedestrian bridge does kind of look like a 50-meter lap lane, and because it’s a regular part of my route, I often feel like I’m swimming mindlessly back and forth across it.

Meh. Not as witty as the first graffiti-artist, but at least he was trying.

Periodically, people commit acts of art on the pedestrian bridge (usually involving arrangements of found objects). They seldom last more than 24 hours before some Philistine knocks them apart. So I wasn’t surprised to walk by on Monday and see the poor swimmers defaced with a second layer of graffiti. It wasn’t nearly as witty, but at least the poor anonymous second writer tried.

But then comes the inevitable and predictable impulse to destruction. Really makes you despair for the human race.

Tuesday, the whole thing was scrubbed out by a third graffiti artist, whose only goal was to deface the message that preceded him.

It’s a great metaphor for the forces of creation and destruction that coexist in the human heart. In my current bleak mood, it makes me wonder why artists even try.

My young friend Serina Mo reminded me of this recently by mentioning the aged enfants terrible of the British art scene, Jake and Dinos Chapman. In their massive work of destruction, Insult to Injury, they defaced a rare folio of Francisco Goya’s Disasters of War.

From Insult to Injury, 2003, by Jake and Dinos Chapman. The Chapman brothers added nothing to Goya's work. I hope they fade into obscurity, taking their micron pens with them.

In the short run, it made them famous. It tore at notions of preciousness and art. In the long run, it made the tremendous presumption that modern sensibilities and intellectualism are superior to the pain and suffering drawn by Goya. If nothing else, the world should know by now that rich, silly ninnies are transient, but war and death are eternal verities.

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Everything I know about cleaning

Hercules rerouting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus to clean the Augean stables, Roman mosaic, 3rd century AD. The Fifth Labor of Hercules was intended to be humiliating and impossible, since the livestock were divine and produced enormous quantities of manure. No metaphor there.

I am trying to put my house and studio in order after months on the road.

There are those who might think this should be blank, because I don’t know anything about cleaning, but they would in fact be wrong. Most orderly people don’t need to think about how they keep things up; I have to think about it a great deal.

1. Be driven by process, not results: King Augeas' stables are very dirty and if you’re not Hercules, the only way to get them clean is to plug along despite how little progress it appears you are making. Yesterday I managed to get half a room finished; I was stalled by the piles of receipts and bills that needed attention on the dining room table. I can either be driven nuts by this, or I can just plug along until I finish.
2. Actually put stuff away. That really slows you down—especially if you think the stuff has no place—but in the end it’s far more effective than moving piles of stuff from point to point.
3. Or get rid of stuff. We 21st century Americans are drowning in material goods. To me there’s energy and potential in open space.
4. Clean the perimeter first, starting at one point and working your way around the room. I read this in a book about professional cleaning, and it really works. I think it’s a continuation of point #1: if you’re looking at the walls, you can’t be driven nuts by your current lack of results.
5. Don’t clean what isn’t dirty. Don’t straighten what isn’t messed up.
6. Do all cleaning in a single pass. I am lucky enough to have modern windows, and I clean them whenever I clean my rooms. It’s dumb to pull the furniture out to vacuum and then not do the crown-molding, the windows, and the chair rails.
7. Once you get one corner of your space clean, protect it; it’s a place to retreat when you lose your mind. Normally, this is the second floor of my house, which I generally keep pretty tidy. However, my peripatetic paintings from the RIT show seem to be wandering around up there looking for a home. So for now, I’m taking solace in the fact that my freezer—which was full of ice because someone had neglected to pull the door totally closed—is now immaculate. Even that small rectangle of order is enough to prevent me from losing my mind.

Hercules takes a break, Attic black figure skyphos, c. 500 B.C. The goddess Athena is pouring him a cup of wine. (Mount Holyoke College Art Museum)

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Mastering chaos

Francis Bacon is the icon of messy-studio advocates. He was renowned as much for the awful state of his studio as for his brilliant painting, but he did occasionally attempt to clear it. Electrician Mac Robertson was working at Bacon’s studio when he saw the artist disposing of ephemera. He asked to keep it, and thirty years later, sold it for more than a million dollars. There's a lesson in that, but I hardly know what it is. 

For the first time since June I am home without another trip (planned or emergency) on my immediate horizon. It’s autumn and my favorite season to paint, and I will get outside to do that, but my primary goal has to be to pull my studio and home in order for fall.

There is a myth that creatives enjoy working in chaos, but that isn’t true. All people tend to create messes when in the throes of work, but most of them understand that when they are finished, they need to clean them up. Creating order doesn’t come easily to me, but as an adult I’ve learned it’s the only way I can be productive.

Contemporary Australian painter McLean Edwards continues the Bacon tradition in his Sydney studio. If I were his mother, I'd tell him to clean that mess up, and to stop drinking while painting.

I think this idea of the messy artist is a continuation of the myth of artists-as-geniuses, and it actually stops many people from being as productive as they might otherwise be. The vast majority of us do not thrive in chaotic working and living conditions. I’ve been in many of my peers’ studios, and most of them are sensible, organized workrooms. (In some cases, what an outsider perceives as clutter is actually just order in a very small space.)

I would normally “reset” my studio and workshop in the early fall anyway—go through my stock, winnow supplies, and reorganize shelves. For me, chaos effectively blanks out all thinking, and I like the idea of spring and fall cleaning.

To the contrary, note that Jackson Pollock's chaos was pretty much confined to his canvases. 

This year, it’s worse, because my RIT show was pulled for being obscene, and the work ended up stacked in the middle of my studio floor. At a loss about how to put it away in a hurry, I moved it to my bedroom, where it’s still in the way. Until I get it properly stored, there’s no easy living in my house.

On top of that, there are three months of mail to go through, and three months of dirt to vacuum. (My family did a decent job of maintaining order, but the finer points of housekeeping are beyond them.)

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Debt Settlement Programs Or Bankruptcy: How To Choose Wisely

When managing debts becomes too much, a choice needs to be made. Should a file for bankruptcy be made, or should one of the debt settlement programs be applied for? This is a choice that needs to be thought over deeply before any move is made.

The reason this decision is not that simple is that there are serious repercussions to choosing bankruptcy, and even if that is the only logical option, there are a number of bankruptcy chapters under which debtors can file. Increasingly, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan is becoming the preferred option, but other chapters are 7, 11, 12, and are just as efficient in ridding oneself of debt.

However, while debt settlement is more expensive and less damaging to credit histories, they do not always turn out to be the saving grace that applicants would like them to be. So, when clearing existing debts, which of the two is the right one to choose?

Check Your Own Status

The first step in ascertaining the best choice is not to look at the options, but to look at yourself. Depending on your credit and financial status, either bankruptcy or a debt settlement program will provide the most effective solution. And reading your credit report is the starting point.

Once the true extent of your debt problem is confirmed, it is possible to work out what the right debt relief option is, based on what kind of deal is affordable. When debts are slightly greater than income, then a Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan is likely to be the right choice. When it is very much greater, Chapter 7 might be the most plausible choice.

However, if there is still some income more than debts, then a settlement deal is likely to be affordable. The complication is that, while a settlement involves clearing existing debts for a fraction of their worth, it still requires a lump sum payment to complete the deal. Saving up that lump sum is the problem.

Terms of Bankruptcy Chapters

There are four chapters to the Code of Bankruptcy that any bankruptcy case can be filed under: chapters 7, 11, 12, and 13, The key differences between them relate to the extent of the poor financial situation an applicant has, and the likelihood that a debt settlement program cannot be approved.

Chapter 7 is filed by those seeing liquidation or straight bankruptcy where debts are completely written off. The other options relate to reorganizing debt, with Chapter 11 filed by businesses seeking to reorganize their debt, but not to liquidate. Chapter 12 is applicable to family farmers seeking to reorganize.

However, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan is sought by individuals who earn the average income or higher in the state the case is filed in. The court decides on the terms of the debt reorganization, and continuously monitors the repayment progress. So, clearing existing debts is done under strict conditions.

Bankruptcy or Settlement?

The basic deciding factor is cost, with the fees associated with a debt settlement program almost double that of the costs of filing for bankruptcy. But there is also the matter of monthly repayments and other terms associated with the type of bankruptcy. If the Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan is more affordable than the settlement plan, it makes sense to choose the former.

But the consequences of the decision need to be considered too. For example, clearing existing debts through a settlement plan will reduce a credit score by around 50 points, but bankruptcy cuts it by a minimum of 200 points. And it will be on your record for 10 years, while with a settlement plan, credit is returned after 2 years.

The Glasgow Boys

A Hind's Daughter, James Guthrie,1883

Quebec has tried twice and failed to secede from Canada. The referendum of 1995 was considered a foregone conclusion by pollsters; commentators breathlessly discussed whether the Maritime Provinces—separated from the rest of Canada—would ask to join the United States. However, the polls were wrong and although the Parti Québécois remains a political force, the idea of Quebec separatism is spent.

Yesterday Scotland also ignored the polls and voted to stay in the United Kingdom. Hopefully, the Scottish separatist movement will go the way of the Parti Québécois. In honor of that, let me give you a tiny bit of Scottish painting.

The head of the Holy Loch, George Henry

The Glasgow Boys are called the Scottish Impressionists, but they’re more similar to the Australian Heidelberg School painters in their sentimental attachment to their history. Their painting was done en plein air with free brush work and an emphasis on the play of light. But they were not interested in modern life—as were the French Impressionists—but in the romance of Scotland’s rural past.

Considering the blanket of pollution over 19^th century Glasgow, the workers packed into its tenements, and the befouling of the River Clyde, that made sense. What rich industrialist wanted a painting of the environmental and social mess his new-found wealth had helped create?

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Why are art babies so ugly?

The Haller Madonna, Albrecht Dürer, 1498

We interrupt this regularly-scheduled programming to address the age-old question of why babies in paintings are often deformed, distorted, and generally ugly. (And, BTW, this phenom isn’t limited to Renaissance babies, no matter what the current meme says.) It isn’t because the artists can’t draw; I’ve included examples by superb draftsmen.

There are a lot of theories about this, covering context to symbolism to the possibility that earlier babies just were not that good looking in the first place.

The Baby Marcelle Roulin, Vincent van Gogh, 1888

Having had several babies myself, and having done a lot of figure painting, I think the answer is much simpler: babies make lousy models. They squirm and howl when they’re uncomfortable, and they won’t hold a pose. They have no muscle tone and very little neck, and they wobble. Pre-photography, the best the artist could do was limb in a few lines and return the pathetic little creature to its mother’s arms.

The Three Ages of Man, Titian, 1511

On the other hand, I’ve always wondered why so many Renaissance infants are pictured wearing jewelry. Didn’t they get the memo about choking hazards?

Newborn Baby in a Crib, Lavinia Fontana, c. 1583

Enough of this. I have a new little grandson to go visit. He arrived squalling into the world last night, and I haven’t yet begun to paint his portrait.

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Debt Consolidation Loans With Bad Credit: Solving Financial Woes In One Fell Swoop

The pressure created through quickly mounting debts can cause real chaos. It does not take long for creditors to begin to demand payment, and unless something is done to deal with the problem, bankruptcy becomes a real possibility. So what is the solution? Well, it is not difficult to secure a debt consolidation loan with bad credit, and to clear the troublesome debts in one go.

The challenge of clearing existing debts, and lifting the weight that can cripple even the hardest working of us, is no light matter. It usually requires great discipline to take control of debts, making it extremely difficult to achieve independently.

A precisely tailored consolidation plan can make a real impact, and a debt consolidation loan provides the means to restructure the money owed into something that is manageable to handle. But how is this possible, and what are the terms that should be sought?

How Consolidation Is The Answer

Applying for a debt consolidation loan with bad credit is a good decision, but it may seem strange that a new loan can actually make your debt situation better. Knowing how consolidation works is the best way to ascertain the effectiveness of the strategy. In its simplest form, consolidation replaces multiple debts with a single loan, thereby removing the complexity and lessening the burden.

The biggest problem with multiple loans and debts is that they each have their own terms. So, 5 loans will have 5 different interest rates and 5 different repayment dates. That means the amount of interest is higher than it needs to be, but clearing existing debts with a single loan means a single interest rate is paid.

And even the principal if the debt consolidation loan is $50,000 to buy out the individual loans, the terms can be much better than those original debts combined, making it much more affordable than the original deals.

What Terms Should Be Sought

Of course, applying for a debt consolidation loan with bad credit is one thing, but securing terms that make it worthwhile is another. By and large, lenders offering consolidation packages are willing to offer very flexible terms, but the key issues are the interest rate and the loan term.

The interest rate can be quite low, but what is most important is that the rate is significantly lower than the average rate charged on the existing loans. That way, clearing existing debts and replacing them with a new loan can be accomplished while making savings - as much as 50% on monthly repayments.

Crucially, however, it is the size of the loan principal that makes the biggest impact, and this is where the loan term comes in. With 5 loans to pay each month, the total sum could easily reach $1,500, but even a $50,000 debt consolidation loan repaid over 10 years could be half that amount. The longer the lifetime of the loan is, the lower the required monthly repayment.

Considering a Consolidation Company

When it comes to applying for a debt consolidation loan with bad credit, there are two chief options. The first is to approach a lender (traditional or online) and apply for a loan large enough to clear existing debts. While securing a large loan might be difficult usually, if the purpose is known to be debt consolidation, approval is more likely.

However, there is no guarantee of approval and this means that the problems might only persist. Another option is to approach a debt consolidation company, professional service providers who will buy out your debt and then receive monthly repayments directly.

Of course, this option is a little more expensive as there are fees to pay on top of interest on the debt consolidation loan. Still, the cost is manageable, and progress in lifting the debt is certain to be made.

By: Mark Venite

Color and meaning (color temperature, part 2)

Composition VII, 1913, by Wassily Kandinsky.

Three artists arrived at the idea of pure abstraction at roughly the same time: Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, and Kazimir Malevich. This was not coincidence; all three believed in the spiritual properties of abstraction, an idea they got from the rich stew of spiritualism swirling around turn-of-the-century Europe.

One of the chief promoters of the Fourth Dimension was Pyotr Demianovich Ouspenskii, a follower of G. I. Gurdjieff. Ouspenskii believed our consciousness was evolving, which would ultimately lead us to perceive the fourth dimension, and that art and music were the path to this evolution.  In the fourth dimension, reality and unreality were reversed, and time and motion were revealed as illusions.

Theosophy was Madame Blavatsky’s occult movement. She described it as “the archaic Wisdom-Religion, the esoteric doctrine once known in every ancient country having claims to civilization.” Madame Blavatsky taught that color had spiritual vibrations which would awaken the dormant spirituality within a person, and that art should begin in nature, a nature that would be found in a world-birthing apocalypse.

A fully realized theory must include the proper colors for shapes. The passive and dull circle deserves a correspondingly dull blue. The energetic triangle ought to be rendered in a dangeresqueyellow.

Rudolph Steiner's spin on theosophy was called Anthroposophy.  This postulated the existence of an objective spiritual world accessible through inner development of the clairvoyance and intuition that modern man had lost as he developed rational thought. Steiner focused on the symbolic and synesthetic properties of color.

And then there are angles, which should be matched in aggression with their colors.

Kandinsky’s Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1912) is both turgid and broad-ranging. Let me just hit his major points about color:

• Colors evoke both a purely physical effect on the eye and a vibration of the soul or an “inner resonance.”
• The elements of color are warmth or coolness, and clarity or obscurity. 
• Warmth means yellow, and coolness means blue, so yellow and blue form the first great contrast. Yellow has an eccentric movement and blue a concentric movement; a yellow surface seems to move closer to us, while a blue surface seems to move away. Yellow is a terrestrial color: mad, disturbed and violent. Blue is a celestial color, deeply calm but sinking toward the mourning of black. The combination of blue and yellow (green) yields total immobility.
• Clarity is a tendency towards white, and obscurity is a tendency towards black. White and black form the second great contrast, which is static. White is a deep, absolute silence, full of possibility. Black is nothingness, an eternal silence without hope (death). 
• The mixing of white with black gives gray, which possesses no active force and is similar in tonality to green. Gray is frozen immobility; dark grays tend toward despair, but even lightening gray yields very little hope.
• Red is a warm color, forceful, lively and agitated. Mixed with black it becomes brown, which is a dull, hard, inhibited color. Mixed with yellow, red gains in warmth and becomes orange, which irradiates and energizes its surroundings. When red is mixed with blue it moves away from man to become morbid and mourning purple. Red and green form the third great contrast, and orange and purple the fourth.

In short, Kandinsky's color theory is a magnificent exercise in hooey. Still, it has had a long-reaching influence, with overtones in fashion, industrial design, and every other area that touches our lives.

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Color Temperature, part one

The idea of “warm” and “cool” colors was first posited by the English miniaturist and teacher Charles Hayter. The illustration is from his treatise, Perspective, published in 1813.

The way we perceive color is greatly influenced by our experience. We all know that fire is hot and ice is cold, so we perceive reddish orange as a “hot” color and blue as a “cold” color. This association is so strong that painters, photographers, interior designers and fashion designers can all use it color temperature as emotional shorthand.

This association actually flies in the face of physics. While we call colors over 5000K cool, and colors below 3000K warm, the actual physics of the matter are exactly opposite—the shorter the wavelength, the higher the temperature.

Goethe's color wheel, 1809.

That “warm” and “cool” are subjective is demonstrated by the fact that different painters learn the hottest and coolest points differently. I understand blue-violet as the coolest color, while one of my painting students—an art teacher herself—learned blue to be the coolest tone. And look at this attemptto quantify color temperature by a Chinese-American painter; he seems to be putting aqua at the coldest point.

The first color wheel we know of was created by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the first of a long line of philosophers to concern themselves with the meaning of color. He wrote: “The chromatic circle... [is] arranged in a general way according to the natural order... for the colours diametrically opposed to each other in this diagram are those which reciprocally evoke each other in the eye. Thus, yellow demands violet; orange [demands] blue; purple [demands] green; and vice versa: thus... all intermediate gradations reciprocally evoke each other; the simpler colour demanding the compound, and vice versa…”

The “rose of temperaments” (1798-99) by Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, matched human occupations and character traits to colors. I don’t read German, but I swear my red couch qualifies me to be a tyrant.

So far, so awesome. Unfortunately, Goethe also included aesthetic values in his color wheel, titling them the “allegorical, symbolic, mystic use of colour.” That was an idea that developed a life of its own.

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Living With Bankruptcy In Connecticut

It can be extremely stressful when people find themselves strapped with so much debt they can't function well. As each have their own set of rules, there are a number of ways to deal with your debt depending on your overall financial situation. Declaring bankruptcy in Connecticut is just one of the many avenues you can take to being able to breathe again and not feel a cloud of dread descending over you every time the phone rings or you go to check the mail. The stress involving financial problems can be eliminated and your debt dealt with by filing for bankruptcy.

The first thing you should understand about bankruptcy is there are two types: reorganization and liquidation. Filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy falls in the liquidation category. With this solution, you can sell your items in order to knock off some of your debt. You will be permitted to keep certain items as mandated under state laws which provides protection for specific valuables. If you apply for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Connecticut, you’ll be filing for reorganizational bankruptcy. Chapter 13 is probably the most well-known of the reorganization bankruptcy. You’ll be able to keep everything that you own and instead of selling off your assets you will make monthly installments over the next three to five years to either repay all of the debt you owe or some of it.

Chapter 7 bankruptcy generally lasts three to six months, and any debt that remains after you’ve sold your property becomes unsecured debt. That unsecured debt will then be wiped out. Based upon your equity level, items you're able to possibly keep include clothing, furnishings and any vehicle you own. If you have any secured debts, like car loans, you can either let the creditor repossess them, keep paying for the item, or give the creditor enough money to equal the actual replacement value of your secured debt. For those who do file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, there are particular secured debts that can be eliminated. When it comes to Chapter 7 bankruptcy however, something to bear in mind is not everyone is able to qualify. If your disposable earnings are enough for you to qualify for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you won’t be allowed to file for Chapter 7. Chapter 7 bankruptcy also won’t do you any good if you owe tax debt, child support, or spousal support.

Before being allowed to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Connecticut, you’ll have to have a reliable source of income. A repayment schedule will have to be established that spans a three to five year period. Minimum monthly amounts is decided by how much your debt is, the amount of money you make and the amount of money you would have paid your unsecured creditors had you filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy instead. There are federal limits set in place for Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Right now, you can’t have more than roughly $1,011,000 in secured debt and about $337,000 in unsecured debt. Before your creditors are permitted to take action against you, you will be allowed to make up any missed payments for your secured debts.

Look into bankruptcy options if you want to get a handle on your finances. It can definitely be worth considering even if it is not your very first option. Carefully look into your finances, research your options and think about the amount of debt you owe when attempting to make the best decision possible for any kind of bankruptcy.

So you can't draw a straight line, redux.

Martha's first painting. And for those who know us too well, let me say up front that that's not a whisky bottle.

You may remember my friend Amy telling me last summer that she couldn’t draw a straight line, and me challengingher to let me teachher. Her sister Martha was in town this week, and she asked me if she could come to my painting class on Saturday.

Like Amy, Martha has a doctorate from a prestigious American university. She also recently went back and got an MS in landmark preservation from an art school. However, the last time Martha actually took a hands-on art class was when she was a freshman at Brighton High School. (By my calculations, that must have been at least twenty years ago.)

Her sketch for the same.

Here is her drawing, and here is her painting—both done in a single three-hour class.

“This is some kind of parlor trick,” my daughter Laura told me afterward. “You take people who ‘can’t do art’ and in three hours prove to them that they can.”

Well, duh, honey. Most people believe the lie that art is magic, rather than craft. And the methodology for teachingdrawing and painting has become impossibly corrupted in modern America (with a few notable exceptions). Yes, I'm repeating myself here, but I'll continue to do so as long as people believe the lie that they can't draw.

If you’re interested, there is more information on my fall classes here.

Message me if you want information about next year’s workshops.

Debt Consolidation Loans For Bad Credit Borrowers: Viable Solutions To Real Problems

At some point, we all have to deal with stressful financial situations. As time goes on, our creditors become more demanding, and the added interest on late loans and credit card payments, build up to a level that makes it even harder to stay on top of things. But with the availability of debt consolidation loans for bad credit borrowers, there is a viable escape.

The chief problem for anyone with financial difficulties is cash flow, with repayments falling behind only because the cash was not available at the required time. The logical solution, therefore, it to restructure debts to ensure the repayment schedule is simpler. This can be done by clearing existing debts with a single loan, then repaying it.

And that is exactly what a debt consolidation loan is for – buying out the balances of existing debts to allow the overall debt to be restructured into something more manageable, and more affordable. But is the deal really as viable a solution as it seems?

Consolidation As A Solution

The good news when seeking debt consolidation loans for bad credit management is that opting for consolidation offers more benefits than simply buying out existing debts. In reality, the chief motivation when seeking these loans is to clear debts, but there is also an opportunity to set things up for a better financial future.

For example, since all of your debts have been brought together and bought out, it means they have been paid off in full. This fact is noted in your credit report, thus ensuring that your credit score is increased. So, as well as clearing existing debts, consolidation ensures better loan terms in the future.

Also, while all debts are basically replaced by a debt consolidation loan, the new structure should mean that the size of monthly loan repayments falls significantly compared to the combined repayments of the original loans. This means that the debt-to-income ratio is improved too.

The Consolidation Terms To Seek

So what are the terms that should be secured to make the whole exercise worthwhile? Actually, besides the usual interest rate concern, there is only one real issue when applying for a debt consolidation loan for bad credit borrowers to consider carefully.

The term refers to the lifetime of the loan, with the basic idea being the longer the term the smaller the size of the repayment each month. For example, the number of repayments in a 3-year loan is 36 (36 months), to the principal borrowed is divided by 36. If the term is 5 years, the principal of divided by 60.

If the debt consolidation loan sum is $10,000, the difference is $110, which is a significant sum to free up, thus lowering the pressure to make the necessary repayments. So, clearing existing debts and saving money can actually be done simultaneously.

Where To Get A Consolidation Loan

A key part to securing the maximum benefits from a debt consolidation loan for bad credit borrowers to enjoy is to approach the right lender. Like all financial products, there are different terms available from different lenders.

Most lenders offer some kind of debt consolidation loan, but the interest rates are usually quite high and the loan limit is fairly low. This is because the applicants are bad credit borrowers. Online lenders will offer better terms than a traditional lender, but the same restrictions apply.

A professional debt consolidation company is ideal when the size of the debt is very high. They take the task of clearing existing debts into their hands, and in return they withdraw set payments from your account over an agreed period of time. They will charge a fee, but they also take control of finances, so the risk of failure is practically nil.

A personal aside

Selbstbildnis, mit der Hand an der Stirn (Self-portrait, hand at the forehead), etching, 1910, by Käthe Kollwitz,  

Forty-five years ago, I was at a school pool in Niagara County, New York, when my sister had a brain bleed. She died. With us were my friend S. and her mom, although at the time they seemed tangential to the tragedy that engulfed my family.

It was compounded four years later when my brother—who happened to be S.’s classmate—was killed by a drunk driver.

Sorrowful old man, pencil, black lithographic crayon, wash, white opaque watercolor, on watercolor paper, by Vincent Van Gogh, 1882

We move on. Our flock tends to be made of birds of the same coloration. And I think I’m probably an unmotivated intellectual. Why, just yesterday, I was discussing Steiner and Kandinsky and their daft color theories with three dear friends. This is fun, it’s fluff, and no more or less meaningful than talking football is for other people.

I haven’t seen S. in years, but through the miracle of Facebook, we’re in loose contact.

Last evening, my mom died. I refuse to discuss my grief with anyone, but it is substantial.

And then S. posted this video:

For the first time I understand what it meant to praise God from the depths of grief. That’s wisdom, and it’s a far greater thing than knowledge.

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Itinerant painters (2 of 2)

This version of The Peaceable Kingdom, from the mid-1840s, includes William Penn negotiating with Native Americans. He often included this in the paintings as an example of how disparate peoples could work together in peace.

Perhaps the most famous early American itinerant painter was the Quaker pastor, Edward Hicks.

Hicks was born in 1780 to Anglican parents, but his mother’s early death resulted in him being raised in a Quaker family.

An earlier iteration shows the influence of decorative painting on Hicks' canvas work. We call him 'primitive' but his interest in design over realism actually seems very modern in retrospect.

At the age of 13, Hicks was apprenticed to a coach-making firm, where he learned the craft of decorative painting. He stayed there for seven years before moving on as a journeyman coach and house painter. He was accepted into the Society of Friends in 1803 and married a fellow Quaker that same year.

By 1813, Hicks was traveling as an itinerant preacher. Like St. Paul supporting his ministry with tent-making, Hicks supported his ministry with decorative painting. This, unfortunately, annoyed some of his Quaker brethren, who felt that decorative painting was at odds with Quaker principles. He gave up painting in favor of farming, but that decision was a financial disaster.

This version of The Peaceable Kingdom, from 1829-30, includes Quakers bearing banners.

Unlike St. Paul, Hicks had a growing family. Necessity forced him to resume decorative painting. He reeled off the first of many copies of The Peaceable Kingdom by 1820. Ironically, most of his canvases were not done for money, but for the edification of friends and family. In his lifetime, he was known as a preacher, and his living came from painting decorative objects.

Hicks painted an astonishing 61 iterations of The Peaceable Kingdom, which illustrates Isaiah 11:6-8:

The wolf will live with the lamb,
    the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
    and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
    their young will lie down together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
    and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

That he painted it over and over tells us much about his intention, which was to share and teach the Bible. It was a humble aspiration in opposition to his contemporary art scene (which I wrote about in a series of posts starting here).

The Cornell Farm, 1848. Hicks may not have had the classically-trained artist's ability to render spatial depth in a landscape, but he sure did understand animals. 

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