SYMBOLS OF THE GREAT STATE OF ART

 

The Art State Flag

A hybrid design of the Arizona flag with the star replaced by the Utah skep (beehive).

 

 

 

The State of Art Location

“If not Arizona, then a land not too far away where all parents are strong, wise and capable and children are happy and beloved. I don’t know, maybe it was Utah.” Ethan and Joel Coen - from Raising Arizona.
 

The Art State Seal

A palette, a thin board on which an artist mixes his/her paints.
 

The Art State Motto

“Art for Art’s Sake” (L’art pour l’art). From a lecture by Victor Cousin at the Sorbonne in 1818.
 

The Art State Talisman

The imitation pearl, a glass or plastic bead coated with a preparation made from fish scales.

 

The Art State Bird

The Pterosoara, thought to be extinct, which has been soaring thermals in this region since the Mesozoic era of geologic time.

The Art State Grass

There are 3500 species of the Art State Grass growing, none of which are artificially cared for.
 

The Art State Fossil

The Dragonfly, sometimes called the devil’s darning needle, which has four membranous wings. The remains of one more than two feet long were found recently within the state lines.
 

The Art State Plant

The Cannabis Sativa, also known as hemp, a tall annual herb used for cordage, paper, cloth, and oakum for caulking ships. Hemp has large, digitately divided leaves with slender segments and can be found growing wild.

The Art State Animal

Is the Lupis, commonly known as the wolf, is encouraged to reside in the State of Art for the purpose of killing the sheep and cattle who trespass on Art grounds.
 

The Art State Insect

The mosquito, member of the fly family. The female pierces the skin, spits, and then sucks blood, leaving the victim with malaria.
 

The Art State Rodent

The Rat, brought to our shores by Christopher Columbus when he discovered Antigua in 1492. Epidemics of typhus, bubonic plague, rat-bite fever, tularemia and rabies spread by rats continue to devastate the human population. Rats immigrated to Art for the purpose of consuming food scraps and other things not removed by visitors.
 

The Art State Fish

The “Fizzgiggious Fish, who always walks about
upon stilts.” Edward Lear.
 

The Art State Tequila

Herradura Gold. “On the high plains of Jalisco at the foothills of the majestic Sierra  Madre Mountains you will find the Herradura estate. It is here that Herradura has been produced and bottled by the Romo family for five generations.  Herradura is made 100% from blue agave, all naturally with no additives. Only the finest blue agave, harvested at their prime after nine to ten years of careful cultivation, are used in Herradura. As a result, only a limited amount of Herradura can be bottle each year to maintain this standard of excellence.”
 

The Art State Quotation

“One thing leads to another.”
 

The Art State Aviation Organization

Top Pilots, the Get High and Stay High Soaring Society.
 

The Art State Critic

H.L. Mencken, who observed when describing the death of many historical gods that they were “all gods of the first class, not dilettanti.”
 

The Art State Aviation Pioneer

Gustave A. Whitehead, born Gustav A. Weisskopf in 1874 in Leutershausen, Germany. He immigrated to America and on August 14, 1901in Bridgeport, Connecticut flew his bat-winged, twin-propellered airplane he called Number 21under controlled and sustained flight.

The Art State Surrealist

CPLY (William Copley), “CPLY” explained as being necessary to avoid confusion with America’s 18th Century Copley. When asked in 1966 to jury a show, he declined saying, “most of us surrealists prefer to spin a bottle.” Walter Hopps commented: “among CPLY’s key images one invariably finds naked nymphs and overdressed males who disport themselves in chases, embraces, guilts, in an ongoing narrative dance of joys and sorrows.”
 

The Art State Pianist/Aviator

Roland Garros, Frenchman born in 1888, in the town of St. Denis on the island of Reunion, a speck of land in the Indian Ocean. He became a flying student of Alberto Santos-Dumont who was impressed with his fine hands. Among other major aviation accomplishments and glory, Roland toured the American Southwest flying his Santos-Dumont designed  Demoiselle monoplane.
 

The Art State Flour

Is of the genus Triticum of the grass family.
 

The Art State Religion

Moderation and Toleration in all things. Therefore, visitors to Art are free to practice beliefs/non-beliefs from Atheism to Zionism.
 

The Art State Bee

Apis Mellifera, more commonly known as Africanized honeybees, African-derived bees, New World African bees, Neotropical African bees, Brazilian bees, or South American bees. Whatever we call them, they produce two or three times more honey (up to 300 pounds a year a hive) than European bees. But, they’re more nervous, quicker, jumpier, more defensive, and much quicker to sting,  They attack in overwhelming hordes and are apt to chase you for up to one-half mile, whereas European bees drop out after only 100 yards.
 

The Art State Flower

The Sego Lily (Calochortus nuttallii), a symbol of peace and also the state flower of Utah, selected in 1911 by consensus of the state’s school children. Early Mormon settlers to this region ate Sego Lily bulbs when other foods were scarce.  

 

The Art State Beehive

The skep. The Art State Philosophy is skepticism, “which denies the ability of man to know all and the ability of his reason to penetrate everything. It is loosely defined as any questioning attitude.” Democritus, Protagoras, Gorgias, Pyrrho, Arcesilaus, Montaigne, Charron, Pascal, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Reith, and Reagan were all bee keepers and skeptics.

The Art State Tree

The Sagetree, name for several species of Artemisia, used in Art by visitors as a remedy for its use as a tonic mixed with gin. The seeds were used by early Mormon pioneers for food when Sego Lily bulbs were dug-out.
 

The Art State Fruit

The fully developed seed-producing organ of a flower, is the Frijole. Botanically it is the ovary of the pistil, the central    object in the flower and  the female reproductive organ. Many food fruits are popularly called vegetables.
 

The Art State Reptile

The flying Nyctosoarus, with a membranous wingspan of seven feet, is better adapted to soaring than  flapping flight.
 

The Art State Official Language

Esperanto, created by  L.L.Zamenhoff (1859-1917), of Bialystok, Poland. This universal  communication is basically Latin-type grammar and European vocabulary. It can be learned in a quarter of the time needed to learn a national language. For more information please call (619) 528-0880 or write to the Esperanto League for North America, PO Box 1129, El Cerrito, CA. 94530.

 

The Art State Motion Picture

Robert Altman’s “Brewster McCloud” with actors Bud Cort, Shelly Duvall, Karen Black and assorted ravens.
 

 

 

Art’s Jazz Musician and Jazz Composition

Slim Gaillard  and his “Cement Mixer, Putti, Putti”.  

 

 

Art State’s Nigenarian Artist

Jon Serl, a painter who lived and worked in Elsinore, California. He painted to the age of 95.
 

The Art State Rock

Red sandstone, grains of sand cemented together with calcium carbonate, iron oxides or silica. Beehive Monument in Art’s Monument Valley is a good example of how erosion affects the different hardnesses of sandstone.

The State’s Opera

Antonio Gioacchino Rossini’s Semiramide, with Marilyn Horne in the role of King Ninus’s son Arsace. King Ninus is poisoned by his wife Semiramide & her lover Assur. 15 years later, as queen, she declares Arsace (not knowing he is her son) the new king & her new husband. The spirit of King Ninus appears & demands a sacrificial victim for the treachery. Arsace slays his mother and Assur is executed.
 

Art’s Bard

Antoine de Saint Exupery, French author & aviator. Southern Mail, 1929; Night Flight, 1932; Wind, Sand & Stars, 1939; Flight to Arras, 1942; and The Little Prince, 1943.

The Art State’s Only Recognized Political Parties

The Progressive Bullmoose Party, Prohibition Party, Libertarian Party & the Green Party. Although political debate is encouraged in Art, No solicitation of funds or voting will be allowed.

The State of Art’s Environmentalist

Edward Abbey. “The army made an anarchist out of me and what with one thing and another I’ve been living off the government ever since.” Author of Desert Solitaire & The Monkey Wrench Gang.
 

The State of Art Official Union

The American Civil Liberties Union, which defends the civil rights of everybody---even those who do not believe in civil liberties and those who cannot recognize the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
 

Art’s consumer Advocate

Robert ‘Bob Butt’ Pagani, founder and president of C.R.A.Y.O.N., the Commitee to Re-establish All Your Old Norms. Bob “helped” Binney & Smith Co., makers of Crayola to return, if only temporarily, eight original colors retired from crayon boxes 15 months ago. If you care, you can call Binney & Smith at 800-CRAYOLA. The official  & only authorized  State umbrella is the model (yellow or blue) made by Cristopher & Company in Transylvania.

 

The State of Art Aircraft

Alberto Santos-Dumont’s 14 bis, which in 1906 set the world’s aviation records in distance and duration, with Santos-Dumont standing at the yoke.

 

 
 

The State of Art’s Roving Ambassador to Fredonia, Arizona & Kanab, Big Water, & Colorado City, Utah

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Charlene Lindblade, who lives with her husband Morrow & their four children in Fredonia. Fredonia, Kanab & Art have a fascinating symbiotic relationship. Fredonia provides an industrial employment base while Kanab provides goods and services. Both towns have their own school districts but phone calls between the two are billed as local. The State of Art was inaugurated in Fredonia. Kanab was known locally as “Little Hollywood” because so many western movies and TV series have been made here. The Parry Lodge has been host to most of the actors and crews. One morning a maid walked-in on an uncovered and naked Sammy Davis Jr.. That incident has turned-out to be “The Greatest Story Ever Told” in local lore.

The State of Art’s First Ban

Is on all weapons and the hunting of wild creatures. Visas to visit Art will not be issued to members of the National Rifle Association.

One of Art’s Recognized Environmental Organizations

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Is the “Great Old Broads for Wilderness”. With over 1,000 members already, the group recently met in Eldorado, Colorado for their First Annual Wilderness Conference. Their first major project is a Colorado Wilderness policy. The canyon country surrounding the State of Art will undoubtedly get their attention.

Art’s First Position

Was to oppose World Odyssey’s project for a movie theatre to show to tourists its Ultra 70-milimeter, IMAX-like format, film Treasures of the Gods just outside the south entrance to Zion National Park. Ted Williams wrote in Audubon recently, “Treasures of the Gods will be very entertaining, and it will be educational as well. It will teach that nature is something passive and prepackaged that one goes indoors to see. And, if everything about the analogue of reality is breathtaking and spectacular--as it surely  will be--then many young viewers are going to find the reality disappointing and probably not worth protecting.” The theatre is now just outside the south entrance to the park.

 

Art State’s 1991 Demagogues of the Year

Were Senators Orin Hatch, Alan Simpson, Howard Metzenbaum and Arlen Specter for their unethical, ugly, outrageous, rude, despicable, fowl  and unconscionable questions, statements, utterances, accusations and opinions made during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings related to the confirmation of Judge Clarence Thomas.

The Other Art Environmental Organization

Is the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "SUWA is giving the people and the land of Southern Utah a voice in deciding the fate of one of America’s most magnificent landscapes---the wild and unspoiled Colorado River Plateau. We speak out against short-sighted resource exploitation schemes--strip mines, forest chaining and clear cutting, dams, power plants, and industrial tourism’s endless paved highways through the wilderness. And we speak out for the yet wild lands of southern Utah’s unparalleled canyon country.”

 

 

Art State’s “Whistle-blower” of the Decade

Was Chuck Hamil. Alyeska, a consortium of oil companies who make billions of dollars running the Alaska Pipeline, has been fined hundreds of millions of dollars by the U.S. for pollution violations, due to Mr. Hamil and anonymous employees of Alyeska who provided our government with the evidence.

Epitaph for our Planet

“it overgrew”.

Illustrations by anonymous French and American artists.

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