In that fateful day of late 1968 when I accidently ran across the "Dali de Drager" candy cover Dali book I was completely overwhelmed with what my eyes were bombarded with. While I found the surrealist images totally amazing, it was the Nuclear Mystical and Religious paintings which had the strongest effect on my person and emotions. This continued throughout my tenure with Dali and I often brought up the subject with him often...even at one point starting on my own Nuclear Cross which I have included above. When Dali found me working on my cross he threw a fit and insisted I stop painting it and work on his assignments, as he has done those crosses, and better than mine anyway. I did stop, and the canvas remains the same as that moment today.

For my Nuclear Cross in "God is Dead" I have returned to the design I started in the 70's and decided to complete the project for both myself, and to bring a logical conclusion to Dali's religious paintings, by modernizing it to include Nietzsche's most famous maxim, "God is Dead"

The painting in my mind is divided into two sections, the Maxim(upper Cross depicting the rotting and rusted remains of a cross representing all organized religion, and the bottom beach which I call "The Proof".

Two items appear in the expanse of water that are somewhat separate, the Oil rig and leak clearly is linked to "the Proof" But the Jeff Koons balloon dog , is a statement about and against the art world which allows for the over intellectualizing of complete nonsense and sells an item like this for $53 million US dollars. Not proof that "God is Dead" but evidence that something is very wrong.

A short list of my insight into the items in "The Maxim" and "The Proof" follows

The Maxim

1. The major part of the maxim and painting is the rusting and disintegrating mechanism represented by the blocks of the cross. The blocks themselves are sheaths of metal with mechanical markings and shapes that are rusting and corroding to reveal inner blocks of lead, not the gold of crosses throughout religion. Lead that is poisoning the hearts and minds of the people who are placing their faith in the church. I see aspects of religion as machines that have been formed to generate money and power, and not for the good of man but to form boundaries that incite conflict

       1a. While my cross may look more like Dali's Nuclear cross it is actually composed of five separate Hypercubes.

2. The globe here replaces the bread, or body of christ in Dali's Nuclear Cross. It is effected by both the capitalistic drives of the church and the out of control effects of capitalism which have led to global warming and religion taking advantage of all poor nations and inflicting beliefs on native peoples. The rust is running into the ocean, spreading it to allcorners of the earth.

The Proof

1.No god would allow innocent daughters to be sold into prostitution by their poor families, or even worse, allow female babies to be murdered because of their sex. The two girls sitting in the left hand corner symbolize this tragedy

2. The whale that represented the largest idea in my painting "Only Thought can Rival Nature", is now a dead and rotting corpse representing how we humans have polluted, overfished and over hunted species in ways that make climate change only a small part of dwindling species.

3. What god would allow his so called spokesman to take advantage of children of both sexes, nuns and other adults that are somehow distressed for their own purposes sexual and financial? The Priest and alter boy represent a horror that religion spawns.

3. The recent US elections showed how social media sites have allowed not only other countries, but all sorts of advertising poison the minds of the general public. The effects are far reaching and insidious, I think there has been much more underhanded manipulation of the public than we are aware of by such sites.

4 The Russian flag is draped over the corner of the Facebook symbol for the manipulation of the public when it comes to elections. While the US election of 2016 is an obvious example but with a minimum of research I am certain we will find influences in may areas of the world and of many topics.

5. What god would allow for millions of children to die of starvation and plague with no fault of their own. Again while poor third world nations are easy to point out as examples, but as greed and short term profits, and the wealthy confiscating all the wealth, nations assumed civilized and rich have experienced through the people at the bottom of the rung, poverty that leads to malnourished and unhealthy conditions.

6. Trump WIns newspaper with dog excrement, Facebook and the Russians had a large impact on the election of Donald Trump, whom it would seem , the Russians have been grooming as a useful idiot for some time. Now the lower and middle classes that pushed the votes to elect a despot, will suffer the most as he serves the wealthy.

7. The Wall Street Bull symbolizes everything that is wrong with how capitalism has progresses. The wealthy have become more and more wealthy as short term profit is all the market reacts to. People and ethics used to mean something to industry, these have been replaced by greed and short term profit.

8. The Beach, the beach here in God is Dead is completely strewn with garbage and the plastic waste that pollutes and symbolizes the carelessness of man in relation to profit, and an uncaring attitude towards the species global warming has effected or killed.

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