Holy Shit, Batman: The Essay © 2018 Frederick J. Cowie, Ph.D. My mother was big on “What will the neighbors think?” and “Watch your manners?” and “Behave!” Of course one neighbor was a letch, another was a pervert; manners meant “don’t make me look like a bad mother” and “behave” meant do what the priests and nuns said. Too bad at home I wasn’t taught to be honest and straightforward; to be truly nice let others alone; and to honor and respect the humanity of other humans, and my own. Hell no! For me and my mother it was all sign-of-the-cross and sin; and salvation and heaven-and-hell; kneel-down and say-your-prayers; and salute-the-flag and join-the-war. So now I paint a lot of things that are symbolic and iconographic in what is presumptuously called “western civilization,” an amalgam of Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian, Indo-European, and Pre-Germanic/Germanic leftovers. “Why do you paint that?” they ask. I really don’t have two more decades left in my life to train people who ask that question, so I just answer, “Holy Shit, Batman, it sells!” #fredcowie #culturalhistorian #iconography #sumbols #sin #manners #meditation #relaxation #deepbreathing #exercise #yoga #professionalartist #stressmanagement #lastchancelifecoach #helenamontana