Blogging 'Round the Globe

I'm touting a few blogs here, including a couple of my own "underground" blogs. ;-)  But no pushy-pushy expectations here or anything! ;-)

First stop: Give us This Day (our daily painting) is a blog, my blog, where I post a wide range of oil paintings and occasional watercolors by well and lesser-known painters, from ancient art to ultra-contemporary. A particular emphasis is placed on women painters. The posts are organized simply with the painter's name, dates and if known, the title of the work; as well as the genre or school or movement. I'm sure I'm not as correct as a real art historian in regard to the latter, but my three readers are welcome to correct me. I hope that if you like an image you see on This Day, you will do a little research on the artist and enjoy an art history moment on your own.

Give Us This Day is brought to you from Western Massachusetts, which makes it likely you will see photographs I've taken myself at favorite local museums. When photography is allowed, that is. I want to thank Linda of Vulture Peak Muse and Jerry of Grown Up Backwards for leaving their comments there on a regular basis. And a thanks to Jeff of Open Museum and toliwaga for following the blog and setting me straight on a recent error.

The other new blog I've been keeping sort of hidden is Chiseled. It is much newer than This Day, though similar in format. The differences are that, as its name implies, it is about sculpture. I also often post two or three images of a particular work or different works by a given artist, as I don't post there daily. I think I'm devoting about one post a week to it.

Second stop is at Forever Under Construction, authored by my Iranian blog and email pal,Homeyra. There is a lot to sink your teeth into there about peace, freedom, art and humanity.

I recently received this link from Homeyra, for a post on the work of Mona Shomali, an Iranian artist working in the U.S. I love her style - reminds me of Kirshner and Matisse all at once, but with an obvious female touch.

Mona Shomali

To Ben Heine in Belgium, I send a heartfelt congratulations on his engagement. Visit the Ben Heine site for lots of wonderful graphic art, painting, cartoons and photographs.

There is gentleman who comments here by the name of imac who blogs fantastic original photographs from his home in Lincolnshire, UK and from his travels with his lovely wife. And as he puts it "occasional insanity thrown in". Mac is a fun, happy person and a talented photographer.

Please trot on over and say hello! The world is smaller than you think!

Building Solidarity With A Blog Award

Who is Godless Liberal Homo?

He's a tireless, righteious blogger for peace and justice. One of his efforts was the Iraqi Blogswarm back in March, which was a very broad and hugely successful effort to mobilize bloggers who want withdrawal from the illegal war in Iraq.

He keeps a very focused blog with news and opinions about issues that left-of-center bloggers need to keep informed about. I know that I look to his blog for not only information but his take on it, as I trust his judgment and look to his leadership frequently. I don't know about you, but I need to feel that there are people out there whom I can look to for structure and organization. In essence, I look at Libhomo as a blog community organizer.

So when I received a comment from Libhomo that he'd given me a blog award, I wasn't surprised by his goal for doing so: he hopes that passing around this award will build solidarity between left-of-center bloggers. I've already received this award and passed it on to five bloggers. But now I have an opportunity to choose more for the sake of political and social solidarity. How cool is that?

Dianne of Forks Off The Moment
Word-wizzleler, liberal, open-minded, wonderful woman

Sherry at After The Bridge -
the sweetest Blue Collar Democrat on the web!

Homeyra at Forever Under Construction
A kind, creatively minded Iranian blogger

This photo connects to a fascinating post
Check it out!

Ben Heine

Click on the photo to connect to this stunning blog

Ben is a political cartoonist, artist and photographer blogging from Belgium

Betmo of Life's Journey
Beyond progressive into radical enough to tell the truth. Thoughtful and kind, too.

The Peace Tree

(Poetryman's blog with contributions from many tireless bloggers; in my case tired blogger ;-)

Here's the top post over at the Peace Tree
Trying to Have Hope
from the excellent blog The Intrepid Liberal Journal by Robert Ellman

Bobbie at Almost There
Family, nature, life, and paying attention to what's going on in the world
I love the photo below

Bobbie, her late husband Ralph and three of their four children. The fourth was to arrive later.

These blog recommendations represent people very different from each other in many ways but all of them having in common a desire for peace and justice for all.