Comment: Sheila Halligan-Waltz is outraged. She's so outraged with the current administration and the War in Iraq that she's abandoned her usual happy art to paint bloody, ugly, evil, ghastly, war-ravaged art. (Am I getting repetitive lately? Hey-- I cover the San Francisco art scene, and if anti-war art is what the artists want to make, then that's the art I cover). Anyway, Halligan-Waltz and her husband, also an artist, have taken this war art along with their peacetime art, and filled a vacant gallery space at 532 Sutter Street for one month solely to make a public statement about where they believe our country, and perhaps the world, is headed.

Art is about expressing yourself creatively and sharing that expression with others. To make a series of paintings that shirtsleeve your feelings, to rent a gallery space in downtown San Francisco to show those paintings, to share your pain for one month with people you've never met, all with no intention of selling a single piece of art or making a single penny, is not only an act of bravery, but it's what art is all about at its very central innermost core. No matter what your position on the War in Iraq or the current administration, this is a unique event, and worth seeing. And if you're an artist, talk to the Halligan-Waltz's. They'll remind you why you do what you do.