CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE COMPANY
artwork.
See It works In monkeys You're right Again But it is a thin win Man Machine Poem BreathtakeIngly The Egg Thief His wins Are thin Avocet and Peregrine Man Machine Poem Yer beauTiful Terrific Your eyes Empty Pacifics Man Machine Poem
“It’s better to burn out than to fade away.”
“So I’ll make my stand and remain as I am and bid farewell and not give a damn.”
“Imagine there’s no heaven. It’s easy if you try. No hell below us. Above us only sky. Imagine all the people living for today. Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for. And no religion too. Imagine all the people living life in peace. Imagine no possessions. I wonder if you can. No greed or hunger. A brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people sharing all the world. You may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll jo
“Ambition is a dream with a V-8 engine.”
“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.”
“Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is the best.”
“No more money. No more fancy dress this other kingdom seems by far the best. Death makes angels of us all and gives us wings where we had shoulders smooth as ravens claws. Angels dance and angels die. We live, we die and death not ends it. Cancel my subscription to the resurrection. This is the end. It hurts to set you free but you’ll never follow me.”
“You know my love for you holds on like a ball and chain.”
“I’m a king bee. Can buzz all night long.”
“I’m a hoochie coochie man.”
“The blues ain’t nothing but a good woman on your mind.”
"Tobacco is my favorite vegetable."
“With my music I create change. I am using my music as a weapon.”
"I'm gonna wave my freak flag high."
“For every prohibition you create, you also create an underground.”
“I haven’t fucked much with the past but I’ve fucked plenty with the future. The scalp inside is a scalp of a crazy and sleepy Comanche lies beneath this netting of skin. In heart I am Moslem. In heart I am an American artist and I have no guilt. I seek pleasure. I seek the nerves under your skin. I have not sold myself to God.”
“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”
“Tomorrow never happens. It’s all the same fucking day, man. I’m one of those regular weird people. Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose. It’s hard to be free, but when it works it’s worth it. Don’t compromise yourself. You’re all you’ve got. Absolute poison.”
“Lime and limpid green, A second scene, a fight between the blue you once knew, floating the sound down resounds around the icy waters underground. Jupiter and Saturn, Miranda Oberon and Titania, Neptune Titan, Stars can frighten.”
listen.
musical artists
listen.
think.
authors, poets, philosophers and inventors
inspire.
public figures
watch.
silver screen stars
think.
“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. Not till we have lost the world do we begin to find ourselves. Life is as short as ever, death as inevitable and the heavens as far off. It is safest to invest in knowledge; you can carry it wherever you go. We cannot know what we are not. You must be aware that nothing is what you have taken it to be.”
“Fuck the facts, the truth is what is important.”
“I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. Buy the ticket, take the ride. A word to the wise is infuriating. What do you say about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? Some may never live but the crazy never die.”
“Follow your inner moonlight. Don’t hide the madness.”
“How I hate those who are dedicated to producing conformity.”
“Happy, just in my swim shorts, barefooted, wild hair, in the in the red dark fire, spitting, jumping, singing, swigging wine, running. That’s the way to live.“
“Destroy my desires, wipe out my ideals, show me something better and I will follow you. Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid. The formula two and two make five is not without its attractions.”
“Could it be…that the hero is one who is willing to set out, take the first step, shoulder something?”
“In Heaven all the interesting people are missing. Is man one of God’s blunders or is God one of man’s blunders? God is dead. Thoughts are shadows of our feelings, always darker and simpler.”
“Dreams are often most profound when they seem the most crazy. Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity. The goal of all life is death. If youth knew, if age could. Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls within our instinctual desires. The first human to hurl an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization.”
“Revolutions are the locomotives of history. Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand. Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains. Religion is the opium of the masses. The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people.”
“It’s not the strongest of the species that survive nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.”
watch.
“I learn about myself. There is no self. You learn you’re not a self. You learn you’re nothing. Ultimately. Hopefully. Oh Danny Boy.”
“I’ve been on a calendar but never on time.”
“Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.”
“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. Women should be obscene and not heard. I find television very educating, every time someone turns on the set I go into the other room and read a book. Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.”
“I love to swim in the nude and roam around the house in the nude. You’re just as free as a bird.”
inspire.
limited collections.
“If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be the splendor of the mighty one. Now I am become death the destroyer of worlds.”
“I have to speak for people who are afraid.”
“Despite threats of death, I will not acquiesce to tyranny but rather lead the fight against it.”
“I have to speak for people who are afraid.”
“There is nobody I know by name who is concerned with collecting information for the Russian authorities. There are people whom I know by sight whom I trusted with my life.”
“I’ve been on a calendar but never on time.”
“Let the future tell the truth and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.”
“You can’t get something from nothing or more from less. Nature demands compensation.”
“Could it be…that the hero is one who is willing to set out, take the first step, shoulder something?”
~speech from The Great Dictator~
“Let the future tell the truth and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.”
“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate and if they can learn to hate they can be taught to love. For love comes more naturally to the human heart than it’s opposite.”
“You can’t get something from nothing or more from less. Nature demands compensation.”
“Humanity lives in the chest of us all and like the heart it prefers to be on the left side. Ya Basta!”
“Be the change you want to see in the world. Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love. God has no religion. Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need but not every man’s greed.”
"Trees are living symbols of peace and hope. A tree has roots in the soil yet it reaches to the sky. It tells us that in order to aspire we need to be grounded, and no matter how high we go it is from our roots that we draw sustenance. It is a reminder to all of us who have success that we cannot forget where we came from. It signifies that no matter how powerful we become our power and strength and our ability to reach our goals depend on the people, those whose work remains unseen, who are
“I don’t do drugs. I am drugs. Surrealism destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting your vision. Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it. Take me I am the drug. Take me I am hallucinogenic.”
“If a bullet should enter my brain let that bullet destroy every closet door.”
"Hasta la victoria siempre."
“The first duty of man is to think for himself. A selfish man is a thief. Charm is a product of the unexpected. It is a sin not to do what one is capable of doing.“
“Better now than later on Now that fear of death is gone Never mind another dawn.”
“Tune in Turn on and drop out. All dangers you have feared are unnecessary structure of your mind. Think for yourself and question authority. The universe is an intelligence test. A journey to new realms of consciousness."
“I have to speak for people who are afraid.”
“Despite threats of death, I will not acquiesce to tyranny but rather lead the fight against it.”
“I have to speak for people who are afraid.”
atomic mass.
homeland.
“We must cherish our inheritance.”
“The sun, the darkness, the winds are all listening to what we have to say. While living I want to live well.”
“The earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth.”
“It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.”
“The summit of the mountain, the thunder of the sky, the rhythm of the sea speaks to me and my heart soars.”
about.
Civil Disobedience Company produces hand painted and hand printed portraits of notable figures in society with their own words in a calligraphic style.
I am inspired by words and their connection to how they make us feel; whether it be song lyrics, poems, quotes or fragments of ideas. I want people to look at each personae apart from how they are recognized in the public eye.
By creating portraits with words, I found myself able to connect with the subject matter in a way that is unrestrained and unrefined. As such, I find it enables the viewer to look deeper into the persons whom I have portrayed, as well.
I seek to forge a bond between the words and the audience but, most importantly, I hope my work inspires people to appreciate and to celebrate each other’s lives – collectively or otherwise.
I work with a variety of mediums including drawing, painting, screen printing, installation art, textile and film.
~Gillian Blanchette