Go South & East in Art

Dad
May 16, 2003

DFO 155526/6/83

—More Southerners & Orientals!

1. I THINK ABOUT HALF OF THE BODIES IN OUR PIX OF HEAVEN OUGHT TO BE DARKER! That's a very important point, because the people that get our lit in the South & East & who are Southerners & Easterners outnumber the North Westerners now about three-to-one! So I think they're going to feel quite left out if nearly all of our pictures contain almost nothing but pictures of North Westerners. We don't want this to look like a strictly North Western publication!—90% of our folks are in the South & East!

2. WE'VE GOT TO DRILL IT INTO OUR ARTISTS SOMEHOW THAT THEIR ART HAS GOTTA BE AT LEAST HALF EASTERNERS! In fact, I'd recommend two-thirds of those bodies ought to be darker! Four-fifths of our people are dark-skinned, from black to brown‚ & they're going to feel bad if they keep seeing these pix with nothing but White people in them, obviously Western people with Western faces. Our artists can draw Eastern faces‚ & they've done it before. Why don't they make more of those faces Easterners?

3. Where they ever got the idea the Japanese & Chinese were yellow-skinned‚ I don't know!—Some crazy concept of somebody that apparently never met one! Because all the Japanese & Chinese I have seen & in our videos & movies & in person are about as white-skinned as any Westerner! But they have one unique feature, they definitely tend to have those Oriental eyes!

4. THERE IS A TERRIFIC MIXTURE OF BOTH JAPANESE & CHINESE IN THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRIES due to both the occupations of War & decades of commerce, in fact‚ eons of commerce! The Chinese & Japanese, being very strong on commerce & trade, etc.‚ have saturated the Southeast Asian area for Millenniums!—So that there are people who look Chinese & Japanese throughout the entire Orient, including the Southeast Asian countries. Nearly all of them have very Oriental-looking eyes, but not even all Chinese or Japanese have the very accentuated type of Mongolian eye. Take a look at some of our own videos. Some of those Japanese gals—maybe some are Eurasians or Amerasians—but you can hardly tell the difference between them & a Latin American beauty!

5. OUR ARTISTS NEED TO LOOK AT MORE EASTERN VIDEOS TO SEE THE REAL JAPANESE & THE REAL CHINESE! There are all kinds & varieties of people within these areas, but basically they all look pretty much the same—Oriental!—Except that many of the Southerners of the Orient are a little darker-skinned. But even that doesn't always hold true by any means. Some can be as white as you & me‚ & some almost as black as Negroes!—But a happy medium is brown.

6. THERE'S ONE OTHER VERY DISTINCT TYPE OF EASTERNER THAT WE SERVE & IN WHOSE AREA WE WORK, & WHERE WE HAVE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE READING OUR MATERIAL—INDIA!—And the Indians look completely different from the Oriental Chinese, Japanese & Southeast Asians. The Indians of the higher castes, the wealthiest & the most educated, etc., are frequently much lighter–skinned & have very, what you call, fine Aryan features. The castes almost go by the colour of the skin, with the lowest castes being almost black. They look a little more like some Southeast Asians‚ very dark.

7. MANY OF THE INDIANS LOOK JUST LIKE WESTERNERS, BUT [DARKER]!

9. [W]e should [include Blacks and] lots of Orientals & not have every single picture all white Westerners! I don't mean they should just throw in a dark skin once in awhile, & once in awhile throw in an Oriental. I mean they should make at least half of them dark-skinned Southerners or Orientals! Now I mean it!

10. PEOPLE ARE WHAT REALLY LIVEN UP THE PICTURES, LET'S FACE IT! Like the old joke, people are more interesting than anybody! I spent half my life taking pictures of my travels & scenery & making up photo books, I used to have dozens of'm & a whole lot of work & captions & blah blah, & to my amazed disappointment, when people looked through my photo books they'd just leaf through the pages of scenery! They weren't the least bit interested in looking at the scenery, all they wanted to see was the people!

11. THE MINUTE WE SHOW OUR LITTLE KIDS THESE PICTURES, THE FIRST THINGS THEY SEE & THE FIRST THINGS THAT INTEREST THEM ARE THE PEOPLE! They hardly give the buildings a second look! So after all, the people are the main attraction, & people are our business! This Heavenly mansion is the first building we ever built! We're not in the business of building buildings.—In fact, I'm against it! You know that! We are in the business of building people, & people are our main interest! So the people are the most important part about these pictures! That's why I insisted on putting in more people! You artists are good at drawing people! Excellent! I mean, you've proven that by lots of lovely figures, & they're beautiful!—But you just need to have more Southerners & Orientals! I told you once when we had those girls with that jet-black hair that I like that!—But they still look like Westerners.

12. I KNOW IT'S ALMOST A PSYCHOLOGICAL WRENCH & IT MAY BE A LITTLE TRAUMATIC FOR THEM & THEIR ART, HAVING ALL THEIR LIVES DRAWN NOTHING BUT WESTERNERS, but they're just going to have to remember that at least four-fifths of the Family are not Westerners, they are Southerners & Easterners! Believe it or not! And either our pictures are going to show that we are integrated & we are at least half or two-thirds Southerners & Easterners, or these people are going to feel left out!

13. THAT HAS BEEN A FAULT WITH WESTERN ART FOR CENTURIES!—THEY HAVE MADE ALL THEIR PEOPLE LOOK LIKE WESTERNERS & NO SOUTHERNERS OR EASTERNERS! But we are not that way! We are very unusual & at least four-fifths of our following are Southerners & Easterners, Latin Americans & Orientals, I'd say with at least half of them with darker skins.—Including the Indians & the Southerners & Orientals. In my mind, Oriental means Southeast Asia‚ Japan, China & the Pacific. But I think of the Indians as distinctly Indians, really. Of course, they were Easterners to the Westerners, & I don't know whether the Indians consider themselves Easterners or not, I guess they do. They're further East than West anyway! So we've got to have more of them in our art.

14. MAYBE THE ARTISTS NEED TO STUDY SOME OF THE PHOTOS IN OUR MAGAZINES & PUBLICATIONS, VIDEOS & LIBRARIES & STUDY THAT TYPE OF ART! In fact, we had a whole book of Oriental & Chinese types, a beautiful book, excellent book, made for artists, showing the various kinds of Chinese types.

15. BUT ANYWAY‚ WE'VE JUST GOT TO HAVE MORE SOUTHERNERS & ORIENTALS! I've spoken of that a couple of times now about several darker ones, etc.‚ but I guess I'm just going to have to be specific. I've hinted at this gently several times, but if they don't get the hint, I've just got to lay down the law! We just cannot have these pictures with nothing but Northwesterners! In fact, I've been looking at so many Southerners & Orientals lately in various videos, that when I look at you North Westerners you look kind of monstrous & washed-out to me! You don't look very colourful! You look like big white washed-out giants! Ha! GBY!

16. SO I'M NOT ALL THAT HOT ON NORTHWESTERNERS! You know me, I'm pretty sick & fed up with the Northwest myself! I want to see our art thoroughly integrated & to have more of our folks looking like Easterners! Let's have'm at least half darker-skinned & black-haired & with Southern or Oriental features! Our pictures are supposed to show a cross-section of all of us! If it's a story that's strictly Western & something that happened in the West & only Westerners are characters in it, well‚ then you can make them all look like Westerners. But if it's a story in the East & there are only Orientals in it, then they all ought to look like Orientals! But if they're pictures that are supposed to be representative of a cross-section of all of us, like Heaven, then for God's sake, let's make at least half to two-thirds of them look Southern or Oriental & dark-skinned!

17. IT PAYS TO BE SPECIFIC WITH PEOPLE! We've made a lot of mistakes by not being specific enough with people about things. I've been real specific with these pictures of Heaven, as you can see! I'm sorry to have to be so particular, but I am! I lost a cook once because I was so particular. Well okay‚ I'm particular!—Now I've got a particular cook! I don't usually like to give orders, I just drop hints. If they don't take the hint, then I make a suggestion. But if they don't take the suggestion, then I give an order!

18. THE ARTIST IS THE DOCTOR WHEN IT COMES TO DOING THE ART ITSELF, BUT ON BASIC PRINCIPLES LIKE THIS, I HAVE GOT TO INSIST THAT WE MAKE OUR ART MORE REPRESENTATIVE OF ALL OF OUR PEOPLE & the people with whom we are working, & the people to whom we're trying to appeal, not just a bunch of all-white Northwesterners! The Northwesterners are the ones that are wrecking the World today!—Why should we promote & exalt them & make them look like they're not only the leaders of this World, but the leaders of Heaven too? My Lord!

19. I THINK A LOT OF WESTERNERS ARE GOING TO GET A TRAUMATIC SHOCK WHEN THEY GET TO HEAVEN‚ a real culture shock, when they find out probably most of the people there are not Westerners!—I hope! After all, most of the people in the World haven't been, although they have been of other religions, but we're working hard on trying to change that. So for God's sake, let's change our pictures & our concept of Heaven! It's not just a bunch of Northwesterners! We hope to have as many, if not more‚ Southerners & Orientals There than Westerners! Amen?

20. I WANT TO SEE MORE PEOPLE! I realise they're harder to draw, but they're certainly more attractive than buildings & floor plans! I want our Heavenly Mansion to look like it is full of people & there's a lot of life & activity going on, because that's what our little kids are going to look at, all those happy people! And they're also going to notice what kind of people they are. Let's knock the wind out of some of these Northwesterners by showing them that all the people in the World & in Heaven are not Northwesterners! That's been the trouble with Western art, its content has all been Westerners, but we are international & we come from over 100 different countries with four-fifths of us in the South & East!

21. SO FOR GOD'S SAKE, LET'S MAKE AT LEAST HALF OF OUR PEOPLE LOOK LIKE SOUTHERNERS & ORIENTALS! We should get more used to drawing them than Westerners! Now don't go to the opposite extreme & make it hard for us to find a Westerner! Give credit where credit is due‚ they got things rolling in our Family & they are the predominant so-called Christian cultures, but we're trying to change that. So we want our pictures to appeal to the vast majority of the World's population, & the vast majority of our population, & the vast majority of people we're trying to reach.

22. IT'S IMPORTANT! I WANT THEM TO KNOW WE'RE NOT LEAVING THEM OUT, & I WANT THE WORLD TO KNOW WE'RE NOT ALL NORTH-WESTERNERS!—In fact, very few of us are Northwesterners! I think about the only difference you see between the South American Latin types & a lot of the Easterners is maybe a moustache!—And a lot of Easterners have moustaches & even some Latins don't! Even some of them ought to look a little dark, although the dark-skinned Latin people are not actually the predominant type of Latin American. That's another U.S. conception of the Latins, that they all look like Mexican Indians, which they don't! And they're not all brown-skinned either. But we at least need a mixture, if nothing else!

23. I REPEAT A LOT‚ BUT MAYBE THAT HELPS YOU REMEMBER! I go over the same thing from a different angle like an artist sometimes: This angle‚ that angle, the other angle, just like I've done on these Heavenly Mansions!—Side view‚ top view, front view! That's the way I like to look at women, from all angles, because I appreciate their beauty. But I like to attack a subject from all angles, especially if I'm making a case—including women! And I've just done it with you! I guess you figure I'm some case! But I've said what I've said, praise God! Lord help us to have more Southerners & Orientals in our art!—Amen? GBY!