anyone remember the gulf war?

Kuwait 1990
Back in 1990 I was living in Dusseldorf in Germany (that reminds me of a Randy Newman song, but that might be another blog). As Desert Storm brewed, my German friends began to feel very anxious, as their country was about to be involved militarily for the first time since the end of the 2nd WW. They were very sceptical of the reasons for the war and worried about the military precedent for post war germany.
It inspired about 12 of us to form a group called the Montags Gruppe to meet once a week to talk about world events, share our anxieties ( a forerunner of blogging I suppose) and look at one anothers' work. We were a motely group of artists, artisans and film workers but it was a deeply formative time for me. Looking back it has influenced a lot of the approach I now have for gathering people to work together on a common goal.
The painting above was from a series I did at the time, where I was working a lot from newspaper images. The sight of all those oil fields burning seems to be a harbinger of the present day ongoing violence in the Gulf.
Interesting history link if you follow the title link....