Human Rights Day

In honor of International Human Rights Day (December 10th), here are some images from my series of artworks inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). You can see all of them, plus other pieces at www.udhrart.org.

UDHR Powerpoint Slideshow

I would just like to point out, with Human Rights Day (December 10th) very near, that my Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) artwork is available in digital format. Below is a screenshot of the opening image. It's available for non-profit (i.e. educational) or for-profit purposes. For more details, please go to:

udhrart.org/news.html#slideshow

UDHR 5 on Silvia Scarpa Human Rights book

Special thanks to Silvia Scarpa in Rome, Italy, for sending me her book (& matching bookmark) with the painting of UDHR Article 5 prominently featured. The book looks very good with its matte varnish cover & I like the way the designer used the image with the title, etc.

An Introduction to International Human Rights Standards for Law Enforcement Authorities, by Silvia Scarpa, Universitalia 2012.

Silvia teaches various Human Rights courses at John Cabot University in Rome.

UDHR Article 5 on Human Rights book cover

I just received the final layout today from author Silvia Scarpa in Rome (thanks to Universitalia for the wonderful layout) for her new book, An Introduction to International Human Rights Standards for Law Enforcement Authorities, which features my 1991 painting of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) Article 5 on the cover. You can see my UDHR art series here.

The book can be purchased here.

Above: front cover & spine.

Above: front & back cover.

Artworks with a strong, positive message

I got a comment a couple of postings below complimenting my work, but asking if any of my work has a positive message, as much of it seems to be dark. Well, I am in the midst of a series of drawings called the Entropy Series, which depicts the world literally falling apart into disorder, but I believe I have created a number of works which have a positive message for humanity:


The Golden Age, 2004. This is not necessarily a nostalgic piece looking back to a long-lost utopian state for humankind. I believe we are on the cusp of a new golden age, we just have to realize it.


To Life, 2005. Private collection. Just before I had done this painting, I had created another image entitled "Empire of Death", which I thought was fairly self-explanatory. This was the antidote I created to that image. It does look a little melancholy, but is suffused with light, and life.


The Lovers, 2006. The power of love to illuminate the darkness.


Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 6, 1991. The UDHR series focuses on the rights & freedoms that should be enjoyed by all people, everywhere. Most of the images have a strong, positive message. Of course, some, such as the image depicting torture, do not have such an upbeat message, but I felt it would be irresponsible of me not to depict that. And so on. From a series of 30 images, viewable at www.udhrart.org.

So, I think that makes it reasonably clear that, while much of my work deals with a negative message (yet still seeks to find light in the darkness, I hope) there are at least some images which are very positive. When I'm done with my current preoccupations, I'd like to make some more conventionally "beautiful" images...

UDHR drawing Article 6

"Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law." This was always one of my favorite UDHR images -- the iconic figure & "vessel". The painting was used as a poster in Spain in 1992 for the Expo-related shows.


Pencil & ink wash on paper, 1990, 16.5" x 12" approx.

And here is the poster in question, for the Seville human rights show:

New UDHR Image: The Vessel

This small painting is the first UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) image I've painted in around 16 years, I think. As this is the upcoming 60th anniversary of the UDHR, I thought I'd maybe revisit some of the images & themes.


Acrylic on board, 10" x 8", 2008.

The name, "the vessel" was coined by a Brooklyn (at the time) friend, Jeanne C. Finley. The vessel itself is a symbol that appears & morphs throughout the UDHR series. It is simultaneously a scroll, a beacon, an eye, the letter "i", a symbol of hope & human rights, and probably many other things.

B/W Study for UDHR Article 20

Here's another of the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) studies -- pencil & ink on paper, from 1991. Size is A3 paper, which is 11.7" x 16.5".


Click for larger version.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Short UDHR paintings video

I put this short video of still images together on the computer. Just the 30 images in sequence, no sound. It's simple but effective, I think. Several years ago, a friend put together a more professional version of the images. If I can, I'm going to get it converted from videotape to be uploaded to YouTube, etc. In the meantime, this gives some idea of the series of Human Rights paintings.

UDHR Art dot Org

I'm putting up a new web site for the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) artwork, done in the early 90s & exhibited & reproduced extensively. This year is the 60th anniversary of the signing of the UDHR, so I'm hoping to make the images more visible & available for reproduction & distribution. The site is currently still coming together (or "under construction", to use a kind of obsolete phrase), but will feature the 30 color paintings, as well as the original 30 b/w studies for the paintings, as well as the almost-never-seen Spanish versions of the paintings. The Spanish paintings were done in 1992 while I was living in Sevilla, Spain, for a couple of months while the exhibit toured the province. There was quite a bit of down-time between openings & events, so I passed some of that time away by creating an updated series of the paintings with the text in Spanish inscribed at the top of each piece. The original idea was that the paintings should stay in Spain. That didn't quite work out, so a couple of years later, I had them back. I need to take or have decent photos taken of those works, meanwhile, here's one of the original color paintings series:


UDHR Article 7, 1991

UDHR Article 5 Study

Another in the series of b/w studies for the UDHR paintings. The studies were done in 1990 (December, as I recall), the paintings were done in 1991. This is Article 5:



"No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

You can see the painting that resulted from the drawing in the October 24th entry of this blog.

UDHR Article 12 Study

This is another of the pencil/ink wash studies for the UDHR series from 1990 (see also below):



"No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks."

UDHR Article 4 Study

Here is one of the original pencil & ink wash drawings for the UDHR series, done in 1990:



"No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms."

Trade Imbalance in Shrink-Wrap

The book with UDHR Article 23 "Everyone has the right to work..." just arrived via FedEx. My first "real" book cover image:



Thanks to Cambridge University Press for sending that along.

I haven't managed to force myself to tear off the shrink-wrap yet, as you can see.

The colors have come out slightly lurid because of my scanner. It's a little more muted than this in actual fact. Especially the green.

I found out the other day that the book has a web site here.

UDHR at Middlebury

I have a show of the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) paintings that I did back in 1991, at Middlebury College in Vermont, starting in a couple of days. The 60th Anniversary of the UDHR is coming up, which explains the renewed interest, I guess.

Here's Article 5:


"No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

You can see the complete set of 30 UDHR paintings here. You can use the arrow buttons to navigate through the paintings.

You can also see them here. This web site didn't ask permission, but if it's for a good cause & not-for-profit, I don't mind. A link to my own site would have been nice, if only so that interested parties could book the show, etc...

UDHR Article 23

Here's a painting I did years ago:



From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights series, done in 1991. The exhibit toured around Europe (England, Holland, Spain) in the early 90s & the USA in the late 90s (Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Washington DC & New York) for the 50th anniversary of the UDHR. The image depicts the right to work. I just licensed the image as a book cover for an academic publication. I'll post more details (inc. the cover?) here later...

You can see the rest of the series here.