AXE NOT
AXE NOT is a 12x6 multi-media work on 3/4 inch wood covered with canvas and painted with acrylics. A 6.5 by 3 inche antique glass axe is adhered to the painted surface. The axe is comprised of clear and reddened glass. The work is framed in black and ready to hang.
I have an axe to grind. The guvment is spending billions on weapons. I want our sorry reps to hack away at the costs of those weapons. And the wars they are used in. Enuf already.
This artwork started because of that antique glass axe in my pile of stuff. If we had glass weapons, I thought, we’d have fewer wars. Best not to axe for a fight if you’ve got a glass weapon.
I thought of JFK and the Ask Not what your country can do speech. I thought maybe we should axe not. I thought about the chopping up of forests and think we should axe not. And so on.
So with these ideas in mind, I made a simple 12x6 multi-media work on 3/4 inch wood and painted with acrylics and sacrificed my beloved antique glass axe. Axe not why.
What? No, axe is not an incorrect use of English. Axe meaning ask has been in the English language since the 14th Century and Chaucer’s Tales. Axe also popped up in 1535 with the publication of the Coverdale Bible. It’s a word tangled up with the Germanic axe which means sharp and before that with the Latin word ascia, or cutting tool. How’d it come to mean pose a question? It’s complicated.
The Old English verb Āscian/Āxian evolved over the years to axe/ask. Don’t axe me why. Maybe it’s the pointed nature of a question.
In England it became the verb ask. But a branch found its way to the Caribbean and became the word axe or aks, a staple of the African American vernacular.
In pop culture Pink Floyd warns someone named Eugene to be careful with that axe. And The rapper Jace! sings a song called AKs&Ars. As used they mean what they mean. In one case axe. In the other ask. Clear as glass. #axe #weapon #ask #aks #african_american_vernacular #glassaxe #workonwood #mixedmedia/axe #savetheforest #defensebudget #warfighter #jfk #asknot #coverdalebible #peterjketchum #ketchumart
I have an axe to grind. The guvment is spending billions on weapons. I want our sorry reps to hack away at the costs of those weapons. And the wars they are used in. Enuf already.
This artwork started because of that antique glass axe in my pile of stuff. If we had glass weapons, I thought, we’d have fewer wars. Best not to axe for a fight if you’ve got a glass weapon.
I thought of JFK and the Ask Not what your country can do speech. I thought maybe we should axe not. I thought about the chopping up of forests and think we should axe not. And so on.
So with these ideas in mind, I made a simple 12x6 multi-media work on 3/4 inch wood and painted with acrylics and sacrificed my beloved antique glass axe. Axe not why.
What? No, axe is not an incorrect use of English. Axe meaning ask has been in the English language since the 14th Century and Chaucer’s Tales. Axe also popped up in 1535 with the publication of the Coverdale Bible. It’s a word tangled up with the Germanic axe which means sharp and before that with the Latin word ascia, or cutting tool. How’d it come to mean pose a question? It’s complicated.
The Old English verb Āscian/Āxian evolved over the years to axe/ask. Don’t axe me why. Maybe it’s the pointed nature of a question.
In England it became the verb ask. But a branch found its way to the Caribbean and became the word axe or aks, a staple of the African American vernacular.
In pop culture Pink Floyd warns someone named Eugene to be careful with that axe. And The rapper Jace! sings a song called AKs&Ars. As used they mean what they mean. In one case axe. In the other ask. Clear as glass. #axe #weapon #ask #aks #african_american_vernacular #glassaxe #workonwood #mixedmedia/axe #savetheforest #defensebudget #warfighter #jfk #asknot #coverdalebible #peterjketchum #ketchumart