sparking imagination
We visited the exhibit “Monet to Matisse” at the San Diego Museum of Art in July. It contained examples of Les Nabis, a group of artists in the late 1880’s, which affirmed the idea that art was not only a visual or sensory phenomenon, but primarily an intangible experience aided by the artist’s creation.
I’m reading Teilhard de Chardin’s The Phenomenon of Man (1955) in which he describes life transforming to more and more complexity and shows that life continues to grow beyond the outward form. As a prominent paleontologist and naturalist as well as Jesuit priest he believed life sciences should explore not only the outer forms – the skeletons that remain, the physical effects, the material world – but include the “within” – the imagination, consciousness, the spiritual.
It seems with our current capacities to observe the vast universe as well as impossibly tiny particles, that people have never before been so aware of our ambiguous status in reality. To the vast universe we are impossibly tiny. To … Continued
Breaking out of our limits has been a primary passion of humanity since prehistory. Artists appreciate limits for the liberating revelations they give. Before the Big Bang there was a yearning to be known and to fellowship. The Yearning manifested … Continued
We are created to grow: plants, beasts, humans and the universe. Optimism is the gardener’s viewpoint when planting a seed, repotting a plant, pruning limbs, and mulching the roots; long term, patient optimism about life progressing. That’s one of my … Continued
If you want Christmas to be more than an expensive and exhausting shopping-decorating-partying-cooking marathon ending with just one evening and a day, I invite you to join me in these six stanzas. Contemplate with me some of the profound claims … Continued
Reading about Johannes Kepler’s given circumstances (1571-1630), buildings blocking his astronomical observations, having to move repeatedly to find new accommodations conducive to his work (Prague, Linz), the coming and going of his employers (government changes and rulers), troubles of warring … Continued
