Syncretism is the blending, layering and uniting of different beliefs of various schools of thought. Easter is the holiday most evidencing syncretistic thought. Mongrel Art is a syncretistic form or art. Democratic Art syncretistically involves people outside the field of art in artistic processes.

The lessons of art history are that they are lessons. That is a tautology, but an illuminating one worth elaborating upon. It is necessary to know history as personal empowerment for artists: to test the present with the often surprising facts of the past, to note how and why "official" history has often changed; second, to discover one's own personal, vital ancestry; and finally, in order to criticize and change art history.

A short Artecdote about how our time, Postmodernism, resembles and indeed IS a form of Mannerism.

A short Artecdote concerning the difficulty in teaching an overview, or intro survey to Sub-Saharan African art, plus a free art image bank to download. Image bank link: http://brandl-art-articles.blogspot.ch/2016/10/african-art-course.html

A short artecdote discussing how criticism and complaint about the moribund artworld is important, but what positive things we can do to improve the situation.

A short Artecdote illustrating how important innovation often arises in apparently unpretentious discoveries. This is exemplified by chiaroscuro, the technique in paintings of using radical light-and-dark.

Christmas time! A podcast about how Santa Claus LOOKS --- the history of his visual appearance. St. Nicholas, Thomas Nast, Fred Mizen, myths like Coca-Cola, Luther, the Orthodox Santa, "Twas the night before Christmas," and more including the Swiss Samichlaus and Schmutzli!

The question: What is the problem with Performance Art and Video Art? Are they really, as can seem, so often so bad?

Re-historicizing Pluralism in art. It is claimed to be a unique change and to reign right now, yet it is not so new and has a past. Pluralisms have occurred at least 7 times before.

The slogan of Modernism was Ezra Pound's "Make it new. " Postmodernism (supposedly) rejects this. What is its motto and what could come after that?