MILEAGE TAXATION COMING?    Privacy Issues…More Money to Drive

WASHINGTON (CNN) Report — The Obama administration is not currently supporting a policy of taxing car owners based on their annual mileage, the Transportation Department said Friday after a published interview in which Secretary Ray LaHood originally called it an idea "we should look at."  The mileage tax idea involves tracking drivers through required GPS units in their cars.  In a written statement, the department later said, "The policy of taxing motorists based on how many miles they have traveled is not and will not be Obama administration policy."    The idea — which involves tracking drivers through required Global Positioning System (GPS) units in their cars — is gaining support in some states as a way of making up for a shortfall in highway funding. Oregon carried out a pilot program and deemed it "successful."

Some states are now seriously looking at the mileage tax as a way to make up revenue for their great shortfalls.   (CNN) –“Trips would be measured by a chip installed in a vehicle inspection sticker…”  States institute and regulate gas taxes and emissions controls and other car related schemes all on their own without the federal government involvement.   This tax could incapacitate those especially who drive extensively to earn a living.  It would certainly negate any “individual stimulus money” headed our way.

 PERHAPS much worse than the money out of our pockets would be LOSS of our Privacy!!  GPS in your cars can do much more than just count miles driven; they can track and store where you are, where you have been, and where you end up.  Who do you want to know this information?  Many critics of the Vehicle Miles Traveled program argue that tracking drivers with GPS devices constitutes an invasion of privacy.  “It’s outrageous,” said Massachusetts state Sen. Scott Brown to the AP.

Are you infuriated at this potential loss of personal privacy?

Do you want to allow your state government to pull this off?

How will “mileage driven taxes” affect your bottom line?    Affect your life? 

Paul Fusco

February 2, 2009

Unfortunately I can’t see good things happening on the show front. The Miami and New York Modernism shows were canceled due to a lack of dealers and interest. Now I understand that the large Boston Antique show has also been canceled due to the lack of interest. So far the Boston Modernism show in April is still a go. My brother promotes this show and he has said he is going to proceed with the show in spite of the economy. I, of course, am wishing him and his partner well. We are promoting a vintage sports card and memorabilia show in April at the Strongsville Holiday Inn. The focus of the show is pre-1960 sports memorabilia. So far, the dealer sign up for show has been slow but attendees have been calling in anticipation. What is going on with the Michigan Ann Arbor show this spring??

What is happening?  Is the NYC market strong or suffering?   Are there crowds at the auctions and shows and gallery openings?  There are a lot of us who didn’t make it to New York City this month.  Some are watching the auction sales via the internet, others are getting some word-of-mouth feedback from those of you who are there. 

Christie’s and Sotheby’s, Doyle, Outsider Art Fair, Winter Antique Show, Antiques at the Armory, TAAS American Antiques Show, and the many galleries are a mecca every January.  What has been happening?

Harri Pohjanlahti

2009/01/14 at 5:27pm

Hello from Finland. Good Luck now. I will start informing people here about Creekside Blog. Would you want the history of OLD Finnish tackle or tackle in general? I am now just finished helping Graham Turner who is writing a Collector Guide about tackle of the United Kingdom. I have a lot of items; also I do have wide area from USA, as well.

This IS now an excellent way to build the network!!
Best Regards Harri Pohjanlahti alias HARZU

Dave Malys
Submitted on 2009/01/15 at 10:41pm

I especially like Lake Chautauqua Ice Fishing decoys from Western New York. I have several good and better examples that are for sale, as well as looking to acquire more good examples for my own collection, Let me know if you have interest either way.

Ron Swanson
4:30 pm January 14, 2009

I am a fly fisherman and I like and collect trophy fish carvings. Am completing a book about them titled FISH MODELS, PLAQUES & EFFIGIES. I’m happy to blog with anyone about them.

Jim Wierzba
January 20, 2009

I look forward to a forum on fish carvings and fish spearing decoys as I collect both.  My tastes vary and always interested in discussing with others. Jim

Sotheby’s is selling about twenty lots (#248-#268) of decoys on Saturday January 24th in their annual January Americana auction.  [Sotheby's 212.606.7414 Bid Department]

Included is a very rare, early (ca 1900), and dramatic high-neck Illinois Pintail Hen; a Gus Wilson preening Hen Eider; a very rare Pair of high-neck Walter Dawson Mallards (only one dozen known); a one-of-a-kind Phillippe Sirois flying Mallard drake (purchased directly from Sirois); a pair of full-bodied Chauncey Wheeler wall plaques; shorebirds by Verity, Lincoln, Mason, Crowell and Boyd and others;  a Gus Moak hollow Canvasback drake; a pair of Hector Whittington flying Mallards; and several Crowell miniatures including three exceptional one-third size Canada Geese with three different head gestures.  Three beautiful and folky sculptural bird carvings by Frank Finney are also offered. 

Veteran collector, author and decoy expert Ronald J. Gard is the man to contact regarding decoy consignments to Sotheby’s. [Contact 214.350.2229 or 214.912.2580]

The week-long BARRETT-JACKSON COLLECTOR CAR EVENT in Scottsdale AZ has just concluded.   We’ve been watching. Is the U.S. economy, as most of us know it, affecting COLLECTOR CAR sale prices at this event? How do you think the annual New York City antique auctions and shows just starting will be affected by the U.S. economy?

Regarding decoys, which do you think is more important, PAINT or FORM ?

Fishing lures, spear fishing decoys, and trophy fish wood carvings are related collecting areas but wide ranging.   You are invited to participate in an open forum on FISH!  If you wish a specific Forum or Topic just email Kangas@CreeksideArtGallery.com

ONE BAD CAT - The Reverend Albert Wagner Story, the award winning film documentary by Thomas G. Miller and Tesseract Films of California premiered early in 2008.    It won Best Documentary at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and the Roxanne T. Mueller Audience Choice Award for Best Film at the Cleveland International Film Festival. One Bad Cat toured U.S. film festivals from coast to coast for the past year.

Ovation TV, the cable network devoted to the arts, featuring programming on visual arts, theater, opera, music and dance, purchased ONE BAD CAT  and will  premiere the film on cable television Sunday February 1st and Thursday February 5th, 2009.

Two paintings by the Reverend Albert Wagner are included in the upcoming exhibition and catalog entitled Each In Their Own Voice:   African-American Artists in Cleveland 1970-2005.  

"Last Days with Albert" and "Moses and the Ten Commandments"  are two superb works by Wagner chosen to represent him along with the works of 23 other prominent African-American artists active in Cleveland during that time period.  This exhibition is a sequel to the previous Yet Still We Rise: African American Art in Cleveland 1920-1970.  

The exhibition will be held at the prestigious Cleveland State University Art Gallery, 2307 Chester Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio January 23-March 7, 2009.   Gallery information  216-687-2103.

Before he passed on, Albert Wagner donated his seminal painting "Flee from Egypt"  to the Permanent Collection of the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.  "Flee from Egypt" was painted early in Reverend Albert’s career; and it remains his largest and most recognized canvas.  His portrait of Moses, with arms raised and outstretched, is the dominating central figure in Flee’s composition, populated with thousands of individuals who believe they are traveling to the Promised Land as they perilously cross the Red Sea that Moses has just parted. 

Albert’s daughter, Reverend Bonita Wagner Johnson, shares the story of Albert’s first brush strokes on the canvas of Flee.  He chose a large brush and dipped into his rich blue paint stroking broadly across the huge canvas.  Following that initial moment and before their eyes that first brush stroke turned from blue to red.

A major Gus Wilson retrospective exhibition of his diverse carvings is in the  preliminary planning stages. The exhibit is being organized by Gene Kangas and John Dinan in conjunction with a Maine museum. The exact place and time is yet to be determined. Your participation is welcomed. Please email either Kangas or Dinan digital photos of Gus Wilson’s decoys as well as his bird and animal carvings in your collection. The organizers are especially interested in learning of previously unpublished and undocumented examples as a first step in surveying the range of images created by Gus Wilson during his lengthy career. Contact Gene Kangas at Kangas@CreeksideArtGallery.com or John Dinan at captdinan@yahoo.com.

"F for FAKE" is a film hosted by Orson Wells (Ovation Cable programing January 2009) on the career of the infamous  El Mir, the peerless counterfeiter of great artists’ paintings.  In the film, El Mir questioned the "expertise of the experts" since time after time no "expert" could tell the authentic from the  El Mir.

FACT:  One of the early forgers of artistic works was, Michelangelo himself.  Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni^[1] (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer. (Wikipedia) 

THE PROBLEM WITH FAKES: Collectors and museum personnel have mutual interests in identifying fakes and misrepresentations.  Have any of you had experiences that you would like to share with others in an exchange of information of these topics? How do fakes affect authentic artifacts? Do fakes influence the monetary value of an entire field? How can fakes be detected? These problems are not recent. They have been going on for hundreds of years in all aspects of life – from currency to designer goods to antiques.

For example, when a significant number of fake Oscar Peterson fish decoys entered the collecting community quite a number of years ago, collector confidence in the veracity of all vintage fish decoys was shaken. Prices plummeted. Various people lost significant amounts of money. Criminal fraud was perpetrated. As a result, it has taken years for the field to begin recovering. How can real Oscar Peterson fish decoys be differentiated from fakes? 

How can fakes or misrepresentations be identified?

In your experience, how dangerous are fakes?

FOLK ART.  For the vast majority of time that humans have been on Earth, they have left evidence of their amazing creativity.  The rich arts and crafts of early humans continue to tell us much about their evolving lives. Prehistoric cave paintings and stone monuments, bone carved implements and children’s toys are some of this creativity still in evidence today.  Early tools invented by man over 2,000 years ago include fish and duck hunting decoys.  The usage of these sometimes artistic hunting devices has been handed down through the generations.

More recently institutions were established which began teaching the fundamentals of ART. Always questioning "what is art?"  As a result, academics also began distinguishing between Fine Art with a capital "A"  and the  more recently defined Folk Art.  In simplistic terms, Folk Art refers to the creative efforts of people lacking formal art education.  And more recently further distinctions or classifications have been argued that suggest sub-dividing Folk Art into numerous segregated categories such as "grass roots," "outsider," "art brut," and "intuitive" art.  At any rate, the Folk Arts in its many forms and considerations generates loads of casual conversations as well as serious dialog.

Creekside Art Gallery has specialized for decades in both Fine Art work, as Gene is a practicing artist and retired art professor, and Folk Art in our collecting, research, and writing.  Gene Kangas’ public sculptures, functional woodturning and wood sculpture, and his various Digital Print Series are highlighted at CreeksideArtGallery.com.   Our love of the FOLK ARTS run through the entire site CreeksideArtGallery.com. 

We started collecting wood molds over fifteen years ago when we first saw them at the Bouckville Antiques Fair in mid New York State, and later at Brimfield and in New York City.  We have never stopped.  There are images that appeal to most every person, some fit right into existing types of collections, many are holiday oriented, and some very special ones are knock-out sculptures that transcend the everyday appeal of the  takaan. AND, they are very affordable.

 FORUM is an invitation for anyone and everyone to initiate or participate in an open discussion of topics related to collecting interests.  Don’t hesitate to bring up a question or thought….don’t hesitate to respond to one.  Thanks!

KANGAS ARTICLES & BOOKS.  Gene and Linda Kangas have written over 160 Articles and a dozen Books and Exhibition Catalogs during the past 35 years.    We are archiving complete articles including photographs and excerpted book and catalog texts with photographs to Creekside Art Gallery Blog.   Each can be downloaded and printed out for your convenience.  Please come back to look for more on a monthly basis!

Subjects include Waterfowl Decoys, American Historic and Contemporary Folk Art, International Folk Art, Biographies of Artists and Collectors, and Contemporary and Antique Woodturning including 19th and 20th century Peaseware.

Books & Catalogs Available for Purchase:  We are happy to personalize autographed books and catalogs; most are also available discounted in multiples.

Want your book, article or catalog written?  Contact us at  Creekside Art Gallery.

WATER BOY
The Art and Life of Reverend Albert Lee Wagner

Edited by Gene & Linda Kangas

INTRODUCTION Excerpt from BOOK
by Linda Kangas

The emancipation of slaves following the end of the Civil War did not guarantee that insidious racism and bigotry were over, far from it. Southern blacks especially continued to suffer unspeakable intrusions into their everyday lives. Slavery was illegal but segregation was not. Voting and openly speaking one’s mind were not possible. Fear dictated how one acted and how one expressed him or herself. Southern black folk artists were acutely aware of the suffocating burden of these limitations, yet they bravely struggled to find a voice. To protect themselves and their families from potentially deadly reprisals, critical messages were necessarily disguised within their visual creations. Openly expressing ideas might be dangerous. Social commentary could have serious consequences. "Thornton Dial hid his work in the tool shed, he buried it in the backyard, he tore it up and made something else out of it. He was not hiding and recycling merely to appease Clara Mae (his wife). He knew somehow that whatever he was making could bring far more danger than a tongue-lashing from the wife. As his work became less practical and more aesthetic, it began to reveal Dial’s emotions about his plight and how the civil unrest around him, and these feelings — too dangerous to let escape his ever-closed mouth — now seeped from his whirring mind into his hands and out through metal and cement." (From The Last Folk Hero by Dietz p19) The "civil" war was not over. The struggle was just beginning.

As Albert Lee Wagner grew up in poverty stricken rural Arkansas, he heard horrific stories of atrocities dealt upon his people. Racism, rape, whippings and even murder were remembered as commonplace events. Unfortunately, such nightmarish memories were inescapable and were thus burned deep into his psyche to emerge much later as ingredients in his visual vocabulary. Basic life just prior to, during and following the Depression was extremely challenging for poor black folk; in 1941, Wagner and his family emigrated from desperate dead-end circumstances in rural Arkansas in search of better jobs and a new life in Ohio. The North, he pleasantly found, not only offered much better pay and greater opportunities but also previously unknown freedoms. Albert Wagner unexpectedly discovered that he could boldly speak his mind on any subject without fear of receiving a beating or worse, getting hung from a tree. Life was dramatically different in the North. Life was good. Albert Wagner was free to express his experiences and memories in any liberated manner he preferred. Freedom gave him permission to be brutally candid and affectionately picturesque. Freedom opened the exciting door to uncensored artistic expression. Freedom differentiates him from his Southern folk artist peers. Inhibiting social censorship and cultural repression were left miles behind.

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