| kas-art.com https://kas-art.com Artwork by Kate Swol Mon, 05 Oct 2026 11:48:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.2 Onward and Upwards https://kas-art.com/onward-and-upwards/shadowy-circumstances/ Wed, 30 Sep 2026 21:14:53 +0000 https://kas-art.com/?p=37279

Light and shadow and the writing on the wall. MEN MEN TEK UP Progress clambers upwards from Paleolithic bone calendars to AI. But the shadows censor half the message, which, if the past is anything to go by, will not be heeded in time anyway. MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIM — Weighed in the balance and found wanting. The seed of destruction lies at the heart of the wildest success.

Our technical wish granting wand, having fulfilled most basic human needs (and I thank it for the fridges, washers, flush toilets and electricity!), now panders to every mere whim or desire, but mostly to the wishes of the rich for more riches and the wishes of everyone else to be rich. The reality is that you can’t ever really get something from or for nothing, but we always believe in the wand wavers. Clap your hands.

Ever since a human picked up a stick to help them dig or help them walk or help them kill we have been climbing onward and upwards with our tools and our toys. The old warrior has spurred a lot of the changes, the sword then the bomb, the stirrup then the assembly line and the boardroom, forcing a competitive attitude into even the sciences and the academy. No wonder some of us paranoid and cynical fellow travellers on this Staircase of Invention don our tin foil helmets thrown together from flimsy rationalizations, and try to block out what we feel are maddening and malevolent influences (which ARE out there!).

Going onward and upwards on this particular staircase is leading us into a dead-end room. Depending on brain power and technology alone we will never evolve, because it won’t entail reaching the top of a cerebral pyramid, but going deep into the impulses that make us human, into the warm heart at our center. An enantiodromia. We don’t need to compete with each other, or with AI if what we strive for is mutual support and a state of ultimate stability on our only planet rather than dominance of one man or clan over another. Empathy, no matter what Elon Musk calls it, will be our salvation, not just a hindrance to business as usual. The choice is not either/ or. I don’t believe we have to accept oligarchs to have Progress. We can secure our comforts and be cured of our ailments in a sustainable way instead of in a way that favors what the Tao Te Ching calls “those who already have too much”. We must work now to make it through The Great Filter, and not be destroyed by having the flaws of human nature magnified by technical Prowess labeled as Progress.

Why are we paying with our planet for what the rich want?

?

]]> Melania’s Crown https://kas-art.com/melanias-crown/protest-signs/ Tue, 26 May 2026 12:41:32 +0000 https://kas-art.com/?p=37071

Acrylic paint on Foamcore board. Protest sign from the June 19, 2025 No Kings Protest in Northampton, MA.  

]]> Let Them Eat Cake https://kas-art.com/let-them-eat-cake/protest-signs/ Mon, 25 May 2026 12:35:17 +0000 https://kas-art.com/?p=37153

Acrylic paint on Foamcore board. Protest sign from the Oct. 18, 2025 No Kings Protest in Northampton, MA.

]]> Cheesecake https://kas-art.com/37259-2/protest-signs/ Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:29:19 +0000 https://kas-art.com/?p=37259

Acrylic paint on Foamcore board. Protest sign from the Mar. 28, 2026 No Kings Protest in Northampton, MA.

]]> Sunpower https://kas-art.com/37252-2/protest-signs/ Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:24:51 +0000 https://kas-art.com/?p=37252

Acrylic paint on Foamcore board. Protest sign from the Mar. 28, 2026 No Kings Protest in Northampton, MA.

]]> We Me https://kas-art.com/we-me/protest-signs/ Sun, 05 Apr 2026 18:12:39 +0000 https://kas-art.com/?p=37231

Acrylic paint on Foamcore board. Protest sign from the Mar. 28, 2026 No Kings Protest in Northampton, MA.

]]> A Little Night Skating https://kas-art.com/37199-2/color/ Mon, 22 Dec 2025 18:28:30 +0000 https://kas-art.com/?p=37199
]]> Tax the Rich https://kas-art.com/tax-the-rich/protest-signs/ Mon, 20 Oct 2025 12:38:34 +0000 https://kas-art.com/?p=37164

Acrylic paint on Foamcore board. Protest sign from the Oct. 18, 2025 No Kings Protest in Northampton, MA.

]]> Chaos Kings https://kas-art.com/chaos-kings/protest-signs/ Fri, 26 Sep 2025 12:40:31 +0000 https://kas-art.com/?p=37080

Acrylic paint on Foamcore board. Protest sign from the June 19, 2025 No Kings Protest in Northampton ,MA.

]]> A Little Light From The Landing https://kas-art.com/a-little-light-from-the-landing/shadowy-circumstances/ Fri, 26 Sep 2025 00:32:51 +0000 https://kas-art.com/?p=37098

It’s a dark place. As eyes adjust to the gloom we see the band of bros, the movers and shakers, thinking outside all the boxes, not seeing that they’re caught in one themselves. But look! A little light from the openning door (a door with no inside handle), seeps in. A waft of air stirs dust into a random and momentary (but in no way supernatural or alien) manifestation of the real spirit presiding in the room. It is not hope for a sustainable future, it is not a vision of human cooperation in the stewardship of resources to preserve them for ourselves and the future. No, the spirit in this closed room is just one bald word — greed. That poison has already killed these guys, whether anyone is observing it or not.

]]>