Two Exhibitions Highlight the Environment

These exhibitions are a response to our government's censorship and misrepresentation of urgent environmental issues.

To listen to an interview conducted by Eric Klein for 'Radio Chronicles' on KPFA while I painted 'Fire over Water' , click the link below. There is a slide show of photos by Justin Beck that accompanies this interview.  The Censored Climate Change Streetscapes of Anthony Holdsworth

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'Lawrence Ferlinghetti at the Trieste' 2011, oil/canvas, 30" X 45"  at Caffe Museo SFMOMA  June 2 - July 13

'The Climate Change Quartet'

and Recent SF Cityscapes

June 2 - July 13:  Caffe Museo at  SFMOMA

151 3rd St., San Francisco

My reception for this exhibition on June 2nd was attended by over 100 people. Among the many distinguished guests was Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti who posed in front of the painting  that contains him seated at the Trieste.

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The Caffe and Museum are closed on Wednesdays.

The Censored Paintings

and 'Season of the Sunflower'

May 27: The Schoolhouse,

1592 Market , San Francisco

Reception Friday, May 27  7- 9 PM

The events at the Schoolhouse are now over. I will be embedding a youtube video of these events soon.

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'Season of the Sunflower' & video at the Schoolhouse May 27

Jerry Brown on Broadway

A couple of months before Jerry Brown took office as mayor of Oakland an aide asked me if I'd be interested in depicting Jerry on the streets of Oakland for possible use as a book cover.

I began a panoramic painting at 14th and Broadway that was so large ( 40” x 84”) I had to paint it in two sections. I placed Jerry stage left, lit by afternoon sunlight, as if by a floodlight, facing city hall. I would later place myself in the shadows, stage right.

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Three activists from the arts community, Sonny Lee, Randolphe Belle, and Tomyé, all of whom had met Jerry, posed in dialogue  with him.

I joke that Jerry was my most difficult model. Jerry, who is born the same day as me (several years earlier), is as impatient as I am. He had trouble standing still and disappeared about halfway through the session. He wanted to see if De Lauers was carrying his most recent book. I had some trouble getting him back in position. I joke about this, but I was, and am still, impressed that a political figure of his stature would pose on a corner for a street artist.

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The painting accurately represents a phase of Jerry's career which began when he moved to Oakland and hosted his popular program “We the People” on KPFA. His command of progressive thought, his accessibility and enthusiasm are all evident in this work – as is a certain unconscious, patrician demeanor.

Jerry is governor once more. The 'era of limits' that he prophetically proclaimed in his first administration is upon us with a vengeance. No one is better qualified to take on the challenge.

Since his last administration, national wealth has migrated to the top. Today one percent of the country holds 24% of the wealth. We have not seen such a disparity since the beginning of the Great Depression. It is a principal cause of our financial crisis. Higher taxes on the wealthiest individuals and corporations, including oil corporations and banks, would help to rectify this situation. The wealth could be redirected into emerging green technologies as well as into our threadbare educational and social programs. If done right this might jump start our moribund economy. Jerry is one of the few politicians with the courage to do this, but only if ' we the people' can deliver him a voter base that will agitate for and support this policy.

The book for which I created this painting never materialized.

Sometime later, local poet, critic and radio host, Jack Foley, chose it as the cover of his ambitious and engrossing  work "Foley's Books: California Rebels, Beats & Radicals published in 2000 by Pantograph Press.

Last Sunday Exhibition: K.P.F.A. & Pacifica

It's KPFA's sixtieth birthday in April.  I went out on the street this last week and painted a small canvas of the headquarters appropriately located at 1929 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Berkeley. (Martin was born in 1929 and this first listener supported station in the world was founded  by pacifists.)

I will be donating 50% of the sale price of this painting as well as 10% of all sales for the next three Last Sundays to KPFA. My next three Last Sunday exhibitions are March  29, April 26 and May 31. Also, I will donate 10% of sales from this website for the next three months.

Please pass by. I will be serving wine, cheese and cappuccinos, showing new work and I'm sure we will  share some lively conversation.

Like most institutions these days, KPFA is having financial difficulties though they do not appear to be anywhere near as grave as those facing mainstream media. As an artist and a progressive I find it impossible to imagine the San Francisco Bay Area without KPFA. Would we have some of  the largest political demonstrations in the country without this institution as a cataluyst??

The arts, especially music and literature, would suffer without this eclectic public forum for writers and musicians.

Sculptors, painters, graphic and conceptual artists would find their silent studios bereft without the disquisitions on science by Dr Michio Kaku, the exposition of the Middle Eastern conflict by our generation's most dedicated and eloquent journalist, Robert Fisk, the smorgasbord of literary luminaries like Isabel Allende, and Alice Walker who appear on Cover to Cover... well,  I could go on and on. Those of you who  listen to KPFA are already  aware of these riches.

Those of you who aren't familiar with KPFA should tune your radio dial in Northern California to 94.1 FM or listen online at KPFA.org. What you hear will amuse, shock, irritate and enlighten you as no other radio station can, because this is the voice of our community by turns brilliant, informative and just plain crazy.

When the  history of our time is written, KPFA and the national network Pacifica, will emerge as one of the most important forces of this period. With public radio and television severely compromised by corporate underwriters, KPFA , and the Pacifica network which it spawned, are a principal independent source of news and culture - an essential nerve center for activism and the arts.