When the photographer Bruce Peterson told me that his goal was to make his personal and commercial work indistinguishable, I think he was referring mostly to the visual treatment he gives the objects in front of his camera. I’ve been living with a large black and white photograph of his for about ten years that I traded for one of my prints, and there are many things I appreciate about what he does that he would probably concede are unique to his personal work.

The things that both the art images and the advertising work have in common are really wonderful: a sense of scale that forces the viewer to think differently about the subject; lighting that emphasizes an object’s three-dimensional qualities without totally eliminating its mystery; and a sharpness and focus to the images that shouts “I am!”

While he’s made some serious contributions to the visual language of advertising—much appreciated by this graphic designer—it is his own personal work that has particularly captivated me. He has said that he “tend[s] to be attracted to things that are used, or worn—unique objects that have already had a life and have some character.” What I’ve noticed is that these objects are often put into whimsical combinations which inspire serious reverie—not infrequently old toys which speak to contemporary and serious themes. In this work, too, there are no backgrounds except for the occasional shadow; the only reality are the objects themselves—divorced from a context, we conjure up stories and reasons for their existence. And finally, his placement of the subject matter within the picture plane—sometimes cropped, other times in one corner or another—plays with our own relationship to his material.

At some point, I hope that he has an opportunity to exhibit this body of work in a gallery. (He’s about to have a show within an advertising agency in Boston, but it would seem to be a private exhibition for the folks who hire him for commercial work.) For now, you’ll have to explore his portfolio.

Bumper stickers seem to live long lives. The above is an example of a bumper sticker that has a meaning completely different now than the one it was meant to convey some 6 or 7 years ago. Of course, it refers to the Patriot Act pushed through by the Bush administration and the right to protest its existence without seeming unpatriotic. Now, it sounds like a Tea Party rallying cry. Context is everything. I guess it’s time to take it off my car.

I’d like to call your attention to an era barely mentioned in any of the obituaries of the great singer songwriter Abbey Lincoln, a time when she literally found her voice. Even Wikipedia is silent on what she was doing between 1970 and 1990, but I know she was working hard, because I saw her perform in New York City five or six times in the 1980s. You may have heard the expression “command a room,” but if you did not see Abbey Lincoln sing at the Village Vanguard in those years, you do not truly understood what that means.

As for recordings, this period begins with People in Me, an album recorded in 1973 but released in 1978 on Inner City Records. Recorded in Japan with Dave Liebman, Al Foster, James Mtume and some local musicians, this was her first album since 1961’s Straight Ahead. People in Me represented her first somewhat mature steps as the artist we would come to know—wholly original poetic songs, a beautiful and fully confident voice, an approach that made no bones that she was the unquestionable “owner” of her current repertoire, and a rhythmic pulse she was unafraid to use in order to shape a song and push her fellow musicians into following her.

The next decade found her working with a range of musicians and releasing some of her most interesting recordings. Golden Lady, released on Inner City Records in 1981, features Archie Shepp and a number of compositions that would become standards in her own oeuvre: “Painted Lady,” “Throw It Away” and “Caged Bird.” This album also hints at her ability to identify material by others that she would make her own, like Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady” and Stevie Wonder’s “Golden Lady.” That same year, Maestro, an album by Cedar Walton on Muse Records, featured her vocals—her version of “In a Sentimental Mood” is so convincing that you’d swear it was written for her.

In 1984, she released the album Talking to the Sun, issued on the German label Enja. Here she was totally in charge, picking young New York-based musicians as her band and doing the arrangements. As she says in the liner notes: “Everything I sing about deals with some kind of freedom. Mostly it’s freedom of the spirit.” I’m guessing that’s what led her to record two live discs of her singing songs associated with Billie Holiday in the late 80s. Though occasionally marred by the recording and some of the playing, it is still a joy to hear Lincoln’s takes on some of these classics.

Every time I go to the post office, I’m surprised at the range of the new stamps I see for sale. It’s hard to believe that every single theme was deemed worthy of releasing as a series, but there you have it: Cowboys of the Silver Screen, Adopt a Shelter Pet, and the Simpsons. Every ethnic and special interest group appear to be quite well served with stamps enabling them to express themselves on every piece of communication they send through the U.S. Mail. Granted, we send fewer and fewer letters these days, but it does seem that stamps are the new bumper sticker, though with an audience of one: the recipient of a piece of mail.

Within a very limited piece of real estate, a message has been crafted on a every single one, the essence of which is something along the lines of “I like National Parks,” “I celebrate Hanukkah,” or “I identify with the Navy.” Because the stamp designers are acutely aware of scale, they’re able to communicate their messages efficiently in these small spaces. Sometimes they even play with scale–the Abstract Expressionist series has many different sizes, just like the paintings they represent.

The Post Office has taken the idea of personal expression to its ultimate conclusion, however. You’re now able to use an image of your choosing to create a personalized stamp. (I have to say that the examples on the USPS site are not particularly inspiring—see images to the left .)

Will we be seeing stamps soon specially concocted for elections? They certainly don’t seem to be pushing that on their website, but with this year’s Supreme Court decision to allow corporations to openly support candidates for office, it may only be a matter of time. Maybe bumper stickers are on the way out.

Puerto Rico. Palm trees. Beaches. Sun. Rum. And almost 4 million people—about 1,000 people per square mile. At the end of the Spanish Civil War, the island was ceded to the U.S., and though the people of Puerto Rico were all made U.S. citizens in 1917, they’ve lived in an incorporated territory for a long time.

There’s a bill now in Congress to authorize a plebiscite that could give voters in Puerto Rico the option to become a full-fledged state. Just how would they  bring “Old Glory” up to speed?

Hmmmmmmm……….