. . by Ben Bamsey in the (current) 2008 Spring issue of Artworks Magazine. Ferlinghetti's as outspoken about his art as he is about poetry and literature and Artworks prominently displays a dozen or more of his paintings along with the Ferlinghetti quote ``How long has it been since any prominent North American painter has made any important statements?'' Ferlinghetti's art is a kind of folk art, a high primitive sort of work that accompanies strong images with straightforward statements (a man in an electrice chair and the words ``This is not a man;'' a woman with head bowed and the words ``Silence is complicity''). Interesting background on him. He saw soldiers being killed during the D-Day Invasion of Normandy and the bomb fall on Nagasaki six weeks later. ``The devastation turned him into a lifelong pacifist,'' writes Bamsey.