Someone recently asked me if I was a faith or a non faith
person. I found I had to do some deep thought and soul searching to answer that
direct question. Not every one has the same definition for faith. Some think
it means the same thing as trust. Some are thinking it pertains if one believes
in God or not, etc.
**********************
My response: I find it difficult
to answer your question concerning faith. I am a mathematician and computer scientist
and lived most of my life logically programming computers to serve human user
requirements. There are times when it is best to follow one's heart and soul
instead of one's mind. The mind is limited, the soul is not. Faith is simply a
positive assumption for what is not yet empirically knowable, what intuition and
receptivity to truth allows us to believe to make our world coherent, cohesive,
and compatible for communities to function competently.
The contractor assigned to my kitchen restoration project was
asking $1900 to paint some of the rooms in my home where the old vinyl floor
with its asbestos was removed, and I thought that charge very high but was going
to go with it anyway. My sister urged me to get some other painter’s estimates,
and so I did by calling numbers in the Home Services section of Sunday’s Arizona
Republic newspaper yesterday.
One man answered the phone and came within 15 minutes and bid
$1100.
Another responded to a message I left on his answering
machine, visited, and then said he would get the estimate to me by the end of
the day. I never heard from him and have dismissed the thought of hiring him at
any price.
The painter I chose came this morning at appointed time to
look at what needed to be painted and then told me his estimate was $830. He
gave me his business card and on it was this Bible scripture Eph. 4:1-8. After
he left, knowing I had hired him and he would start Wednesday of this week, I
looked up the scripture he thought important enough to display on his business
card. His company is Young Brothers Painting ROC#271331 License Bonded and
Insured. He only uses Dunn Edwards Paint because it saves his customers money
http://www.dunnedwards.com/ . I have
chosen Swiss Coffee (white) as my interior color. All of the different paint
brands have that color.
After I thought I had selected the painter for reasons I thought important, another painter came about 1 hr later and bid the job for $689. He also is using Dunn Edwards paint and additionally he is from Illinois, my native birth state. We talked and I signed the work order for him to begin painting Wednesday confident that I was saving money and still getting my painting work done well since this painter also was licensed, bonded, and insured. Perhaps, it was one of the gifts mentioned in Eph. 4:1-8 ...
Unity and Maturity
in the Body of Christ
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge
you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with
one another in love. 3 Make every
effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as
you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through
all and in all.
7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ
apportioned it. 8 This is why it says:
“When he ascended on high, he took
many captives and gave gifts to his people.”
When I create an art image, it is interesting
for me to analyze how it reveals my sub-conscious mind and soul, expressed in an
associative and conscious communicating way. I am finishing the Mensa Artists Owl art
image into an 18 x 24 inch print mounted on foam core board perhaps to be
professionally framed and presented to the Phoenix Artists Guild for
critiquing. Visit http://ymmartin.com/mensa_artists
A friend recently questioned why the figurine
doll was included in the graphic placed in front of the owl, and I replied: "It's a
jester entertainer, musician doll figurine, representing all performing arts
artists."
Also, my Mother’s name was ‘Doll’. The
instrument the medieval feminine doll is holding/playing is an ancient
historical trumpet, one of the oldest instruments in man’s history, and in Junior High, I studied and learned to play the trumpet (could already play the piano) prior
to playing the tenor saxophone in marching band, dance band, and state high
school musical contests. The small figurine doll (feminine) is included in the
art graphic memorializing my Mother who liked and collected curio figurines of
all sorts, the medieval music playing imp doll represents the eternal life
communicating spirit of my Mother expressed through her love of music and
dancing. The owl symbolizes my Father who taught me about owls and nature,
loved learning, revered knowledge, and was very intelligent and wise. The poem
on the graphic is titled “Not Lost In Time” and signifies the continuity of
artistic thought and achievement, timeless, being a unifying force in history
rather than being divisive. The last line of the poem says, “we’re not apart,
but whole.” conveying mother and child are never separated spiritually, more
conceptually, the artist and their art are never separated, hence the
intellectual property ownership copyright laws.
Wind instruments: Brass
The
trumpet was (and is still) a very loud instrument, which was
used for outdoor activities such as tournaments, fanfares, and in battle. Since
the technique of bending brass had not yet been applied to instruments, the
medieval trumpet was very long, sometimes even as much as six feet. The long
middle-register trumpet was known as the trompe or
buisine. The shorter, higher-pitched trumpets were called
trompettes.
For artists entering their art works to an art show, it is very helpful to know the jurors criteria used for selecting works to be included or awards made in the show.
***********************
For the 2011 Glendale Adult Center Art Show May 3rd-May 30th Larry Willis wrote the following:
First, thank you for
inviting me to jury your exhibition. I enjoyed the experience especially when I
found out there were going to be no pieces left out of the show. All I had to
do was give awards. I enjoy looking at art and those involved in the creative
process. So it is hard for me to judge harshly those who are pursuing what they
love to do. I once expressed, “Those who can - create, those who can’t - curate
and everybody is a critic.” When you are a juror you take on the last two
roles. (I’d rather be creating.) When evaluating art I look for three criteria,
(1) skill of media (technique), (2) inventiveness (originality of idea) and (3)
balance (this can be balance of design, color or both). When all of these come
together … it’s great. All of the pieces that received awards, including
honorable mentions, displayed at least one of these, many two and some all
three. (Others that didn’t getribbons
displayed some of these qualities also.)some who got honorable mentions were in the running
for higher place (it was hard to decide.)
In “A Grand Evening”, Carl Holle’s originality
was scale. Grand can mean large, but the grandeur was displayed in a small
piece. It also had balance of design, color and showed his skill as a painter.
Something to keep in mind
is that all judging of art is subjective. What I chose might have been
different from another’s choice. When I began entering my work in exhibits I
put 3 paintings before one jury and all were rejected. I entered the same three
in another juried exhibit and got 1st place in painting. This gave
me perspective so as to not take it too hard.
For the Phoenix Artists Guild 2011 Spring Exhibit at the Beatitudes Church, Juror Ruth Knowles, Arizona Artists Guild President wrote this:
Phoenix
Artists Guild Spring Exhibition
Looking at art work gives me an opportunity to see
people’s unique vision, their personal interpretation of their world.I also appreciate seeing a certain amount of
risk taking some artists take to convey their vision.Thank you.
The PAG Exhibition presented challenges for me as a juror
of awards.I selected work that
illustrated technical skill and craftsmanship in the particular medium as well
as attention to the basic Elements of Art and Principles of Design. I also considered Concept, Originality, and
Composition of each piece.Additionally,
I wanted the hand of the artist to invite me to look closer and to linger.
As a caution, I remind artists to present work as simply
as possible: neutral mats, simple frames.Try not to be influenced by a framer or a garage sale find.
“Fact is, great art comes from both the schooled and the
unschooled.
It may have more to do with the old business of "character."
In our game, character is the confluence of four virtues:
high motivation,
high curiosity,
high work habits
and high ego force.
Funnily, among the folks I compete with, those four virtues
are most often found among the unschooled.”
and he also included a John Holt quote,
"What makes people
smart,
curious,
alert,
observant,
competent,
confident,
resourceful,
persistent--
is not having access to more and more learning places,
resources, and specialists,
but being able in their lives to do a wide variety of
interesting things that matter, things that challenge their ingenuity, skill,
and judgment, and that make an obvious difference in their lives and the lives
of people around them." (John
Holt)
Robert Genn’s message content was thought provoking. The ‘high
ego force’ is a phrase I have not seen before, and yet it is so descriptive of
leaders and achievers. It is the propelling fuel of initiative overcoming the
inertia of stale mate, status quos, and apathetic, conforming acceptance of
existing environmental or social negatives surrounding us.
There exists an operative social conditioner which chastises persons for
being too egotistical, and why is that? Conceit is not a virtue, and it is
linked to being too egotistical and self centered (selfish). What is the magic
that separates high ego force from egotistical and conceited?
Perhaps Robert is linking high ego force with self esteem and belief in
one’s abilities to overcome obstacles, to be able to make productive progress by
eliminating problems? Persons who say “I can” versus those who say “I can’t”
have high ego force. The traits and attributes of achievers distinguishes them
from non achievers. Can persons achieve if not being self motivated, action
oriented, and having a strong knowledge of who they are regardless of others
preferring they be someone different, or others attempting to change either this
or that in them? It is essential to know when to listen to others, but to not
abandon self determination and personal self development as determined by your
innate self directives.
Polonius: This above all: to thine own self be true, And
it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any
man. Farewell, my blessing season this in thee!
Michael Gormley
Editorial Director of American Artist writes:
You Are An
Artist
How do you know if you are an artist? Most
children give their imaginations free reign, drawing and painting their wildest
dreams with selfless abandon. Unlike most grown-ups, who put aside their art
materials to pursue more “serious” activities, artists keep at it, committed to
preserving a childlike wonder with the world and a deep desire to express that
wonder. That’s how you know you are an artist—you need to create as much as you
need to breathe. The world calls this art, but really you’re just doing what
comes naturally.
*******************
Yolanda Martin
(editing attribution BetteLou Tobin)
What is Michael
Gormley saying?
Isn’t there more to being an artist than the uncontrollable impulse to
create? As we mature we learn to think that unless we can create what is judged
to be good art by others then we stop creating, or else we must work and learn
to improve our art so that we can continue creating art, but still seeking
approval from others as validation that we are artists so as to continue to
enjoy doing what gives us so much pleasure.
Too often, the professional
artists building their reputations in the art community emerge, separate, and
distance themselves from other nonprofessional artists, those who with childlike
wonder simply enjoy creating art and expressing themselves emotively, with
originality and sensitivity resonating with the subject being communicated. The
artists, whose priorities and motives are to make a living from their art,
create art with underlying emphases that their work must be sold, should never
feel more important or better than the artists creating art solely for the
pleasure, health, and happiness they get in the art making process.
Art is, for
the majority of artists in the world, an enjoyable, quality ’me’ time, leisure
pursuit, not a laborious, competitive business enterprise fraught with details
of marketing and commercial economics trying to obtain revenue from the art
created.
You are an artist simply because as a human being you were born
with a need to discover, to experience, and to communicate your perceptions and
life interactions, sharing those with others, affirming your realities and your
existence through your own original creations. You are an individual worthy of
enhanced positive self concept obtained through your personally chosen artistic
endeavors. You should judge your art by your own standards, and not those of
others who would discourage you perhaps only to better themselves by suppressing
your individuality and personal worth.
The world is advanced by those who
create, not by those who conform. You are an artist who can create what no other
artist can create because you, and you alone, have a right to be you, the right
to express your unique individuality. You are not a rubber stamp of another’s
thought constructs about you. No one should be allowed to oppress and suppress
your abilities and potential.
Build on your strengths, improve your
weaknesses, and create love and positive energies around you because you are an
Artist!
Jaxine Cummins is a wonderfully superior photographer and successful artist, and her husband, Chuck Cummins, currently is the webmaster for the Phoenix Artist's Guild Web Site http://phoenixartistsguild.com and also the Arizona Art Alliance Membership Chairperson .
You have seen my video and photographs of the recent PAG Artist's Reception http://ymmartin.com/2011-04-08-PAG-Spring-Exibit-Art-Show-and-Sale/ , now see what a professional photographer has done with the same subject theme. It takes a lot of time taking and finishing the photographs to present an event at this level of quality of workmanship, and it would be nice if every show received similar preservation of the event and work of the artists. http://www.phoenixartistsguild.com/last_show_photos.htm .
I believe that God, the creator, does not involve himself in our petty affairs. He is the source and intelligence of the universe and all that is in it, and by giving man choice, man is accountable for consequences for all choices made, both individually and collectively within the environment, with its ever changing variables sprinkled with constants (fate) as we know it or define it.
Prayer works because there is a collective human consciousness and higher spiritual realm, supra reality/environment, the individual spiritually influences the definition of that higher spiritual realm of alternative futures (consisting of individual destinies and unalterable fates). The individual determines their destiny via body, mind, spirit (soul), self actualized living, while coping in life with specific fate as determined by realities over which he has no choice or control (the given constants and parameters of his life). Think now of the Serenity Prayer and the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi.
IMO, Catholic confession works because it psychologically cleanses the person of guilt and re-focuses the self to living a life free of sin. It would not work for a person who has no ethics or morals, no guilt, and is remorseless, i.e. the hardened criminal or others, unless they experienced a spiritual awakening or rebirth and opened their hearts to agape love and awareness capable of feeling and knowing the difference between right and wrong.
The person confessing his sins is proactively, positively projecting a path for progress in his life, learning from his past, with or without the assist of clerical redirection. Christian ethics promotes values clarification and helps in making wiser choices in the future that attenuate sinning in one’s life. Christianity is a consequence of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. All religions known to man are consequences yielding consequences by their very existence. It is the challenge of religions and of governments to unify the family of man to achieve peace. prosperity, progress, and happiness. Whether one confesses or not, one must cope with their conscience privately, knowing where they could have made a more effective choice in the past, and how to improve their choices in the future. If they do not do that, then they are simply a mindless, uncaring, machine without a soul.
It is man’s duty to serve God, not for God to serve man either individually or collectively. God is above all that. That which we would like him to do for us, but which we should and can do ourselves, he will not and should not do for us. “One Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” says nothing about God solving our problems for us, but simply reminds us of our subordinate status to God, the Almighty.
However you may conceive or do not conceive the God concept in your mind is irrelevant. What is relevant is that you realize that we, the people, are necessarily subservient to a cohesive intelligent greater entity collective universal consciousness, the unified organization known to us as America, (of the people, for the people and by the people) is under, not over, or even equal to the synergetic whole we give strength to preserving, our Nation.
I do not agree (see below) that the churches are the least productive industry. I believe that by being morale boosters and uplifting the human spirit enabling it to work and live in harmony with one another, enabling increased productivity and better performance, that the church is possibly the most productive industry known to man and one that is supported voluntarily by its constituents unlike the government which taxes it citizens to death and beyond.
It is the church, not the government, that compassionately and ethically cares about newborns, the dying and the dead, and all in between birth and death. The church more than any other organization known to man in all of his history has promoted and preserved art and artists, and not just in any one mode of expression of art, but all art in the world.
Sex was God's gift to man, Love was God's gift to woman. (you may quote me).
Subject: Re: Art and the Church, My Photography and Video of St. Francis Xavier during Lent
Catholic churches have typically been beautiful, even ornately beautiful. The feeling was, and I think still is, that this is where a common (poor) parishioner may come and be surrounded, even overwhelmed, by beauty. It is certainly nicer looking than his often squalid home, and he forgets that he is paying for all this finery by his tithes.
Then the people who inhabit this beautiful building gather together to tell him that his common thoughts and very human actions are bad, sinful. If he has any hope of a heaven, which they promote as everlasting life in paradise, he must pray, confess his sins (of which they convince him he has many,) do penance, and tithe, tithe, tithe to support the church in the manner it would like to become accustomed.
Quoting Robert A. Heinlein The Notebook of Lazarus Long:
The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all history.
He follows this note with:
The second most preposterous notion is that copulation is inherently sinful.
FOR ART’S SAKE! GIVE YOUR ART A LIFE, LET IT LIVE.
Don’t be litigious! What is a copyright infringement and what is not, be able to discern the difference. Protecting your intellectual property rights is important, but publicity can sometimes be good or better for your career than money, below are several pointers to keep in mind about your art and the life and freedom it deserves to be enjoyed by others.
**In general, allow your art be publicized as much as possible. The more people who see it, the better your chances are for making sales. As with any other product, the higher your name recognition, the more art you tend to sell.
** The earlier you are in your career, the more inclined you should be to let other people reproduce your art at no charge assuming, of course, that they're not using it to make money. For example, if a non-profit organization asks you to provide, at no charge, a cover illustration for their brochure, you should probably give permission, and note it in your resume. If, however, a greeting card company wants to use your art on a line of cards, only give permission if they pay you.
** In certain cases where your art is being used for commercial purposes and you stand to receive a large amount of publicity or exposure, but are offered no money, consider waiving fees that you might ordinarily charge.
** When the reason for the use of your art is to draw attention to you and your accomplishments as an artist, and not to line the pockets of the parties doing the reproducing, be thankful you are admired and thought important enough be the subject of attention.
** Be supportive of the educational uses of your art, uses respecting and crediting you as the artist. It is beneficially contributing to help improve the skills, appreciation, and knowledge of others who may one day become patron of the arts or artists their selves. You and your art are valuable to the humanities and may become treasures of posterity.
** Make sure you always receive proper credit for any use of your art. Whenever possible, have the users provide contact information along with your name. This way, anyone interested in owning your art can easily get in touch with you.
** Art exhibited in an art show open to the public is meant to be seen and experienced. Viewers should be allowed to take photographs of art in a show in order to preserve their memories, to sharpen their perception and appreciation of you and your art in the show. Be understanding.
There are new buzz words in every discipline of study or profession that appear, become vogue, then die out, old and archaic anachronisms of language. Part of learning something new is learning its ever changing language.
The word “interpretative” appeals to me because it can be used broadly meaning interpretation of some subject to others by an interpreter. I happened upon the term when I was trying to figure out what my photographic collage of the Maricopa Animal Care and Control West Side Shelter was art wise if art at all. The word “interpretative floated to my mind and then I checked on the Internet and found out my intuition was correct and that I wanted to learn more about interpretative art today.
In an increasingly global culture, the emphasis is on communication. When so many people around the world speak different languages, the interpreter is all important having skills in translating one language to another. Art knows no language barriers. It is easily understood why interpretative art will ease the transition of diverse peoples of unlike cultures and origins coming together productively and peacefully.
What is Interpretative Art ....??
I believe it to be the reciprocal merging of traditional academic disciplines in such a way as to inspire and include art and artistic creative expression to motivate and educate others enhancing written text with visual imagery minimizing the words needed while increasing the positive experience of learning....
Edited by John H. Jameson, Jr., John E. Ehrenhard, and Christine A. Finn
Published by the University of Alabama Press
The practice of archaeology, as well as archaeologically derived information and objects, can inspire a wide variety of artistic expressions ranging from straightforward computer-generated reconstructions and traditional artists' conceptions to other art forms such as poetry, opera, and storytelling. Although some level of conjecture will always be present in these works, they are often no less conjectural than technical interpretations and have the benefit of providing visual and conceptual imagery that can communicate contexts and settings in compelling and unique ways. These cognitive connections between archaeology and art reflect an inductive approach in defining and explaining the resource and making it more meaningful to the public. An emphasis on artistic interpretations and narrative is consistent with a new direction in archaeological practice that challenges the positivist paradigm of processual archaeology, promotes the relevance and validity of deductive reasoning over inductive reasoning, and represents a fundamental change in how archaeologists plan and conduct research and evaluate significance.
This book examines a variety of examples of this new approach as it applies to more meaningful and effective approaches to interpretation that emphasize public awareness, access, and inspiration. The book includes case studies where archaeology has inspired artistic expression, and where interpretive art is used to inspire and educate the public.
June 2003
288 pages, 50 illustrations
6 1/8" x 9 1/4"
ISBN 0-8173-1274-9 - $29.95s paper
ISBN 0-8173-1273-0 - $60.00s unjacketed cloth
Order: U AL Press Distribution Center: (800) 621-2736 http://www.uapress.ua.edu/NewSearch2.cfm?id=132516
Great and valuable timeless art is an invaluable assist to persons in that they stimulate us to introspection, reflection, and better understanding of subject displayed either directly or abstractly, representatively, or indirectly.....
I can not imagine a full and complete person or one seeking wholeness not appreciating the value art brings to our human species globally. It is also a language that knows no language barriers provided the person is not visually handicapped either by sight or by a cognitive process inhibiting condition.
Top landscape painter, Clyde Aspevig, believes that details should be last on an artist’s checklist: “By subordinating details, creating abstractions, and employing unusual compositions or techniques, we can create more knowledge gaps. These little questions or mysteries pull the viewer into further analysis.”
Suffer the Little Children to Come Unto Me Or, Of Such is the Kingdom of Heaven
"And they brought young children to Him, that He should touch them: and His disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God" (Mark 10:13-14).
The earth is an environment that is balanced within and without, populated with living creatures. When imbalances exist, nature always must return, establish new balance. The world is just one gigantic set of systemic scales.
Man has been granted free will of choice which creates variables of his own making a world counterbalanced by other men and the environment, within and without. It is nature with its random variables and constants, its physical laws that are challenged by man and then in return challenge man.
The world and men in it are given dynamic motion and events which must not be predictable, can not be programmable, or should not be controlled other wise it would not be a suitable environment to develop the individual soul of man and his unique comprehension of his universe, his physical realm.
The world is defined to elude man’s limits of comprehension. As soon as he is satisfied he knows, he finds out he doesn’t know at all, and he is reminded that he is not God after all. After experiencing the physical realm, the spiritual realm reigns supreme for the souls that survive the suffering of life to know God and be one with him.
Suffering occurs as a result of life interactions, of opposing forces that must be free to engage randomly and variably, and not be controlled otherwise man would have no real choice to determine his destiny and develop his soul. Soldiers in military are trained using live fire, and so too, God trains living creatures with real situations that have varying circumstances randomly occurring.
Suffering in the world is the casualty losses resulting from uncertainty, uncontrollable variables that must and do exist just as variables exist in man's scientific mathematical formulas developed for generalized uses. The physical world is merely one huge mathematical formula having discretely defined randoms in it for reason, rhythm, and rhyme (rime). (Rime ... Meteorology)
God does not dish out suffering. Why suffering? One might as well ask why life at all?
There are those in life who have never suffered or at least not to a substantial degree. I wouldn’t call having a broken fingernail suffering or other such mishaps. I think that I have suffered and know others who also have suffered, but few of us have suffered to the extent that others in the world suffer mercilessly at the hands of a dictator or other misfortunes of life, or the way that soldiers suffer in battle or at the hands of their captors and die so that we can enjoy our way of life. A car pulled up in front of my home yesterday while I was “suffering” trimming the freeze damaged bushes and the man that got out was headed for the ball game across the road. His bumper sticker said “You can thank a vet for being able to enjoy your freedom”.
Suffer is a concept in need of defining it to the degree and limit you are concerned at discussing it. What is the magnitude of suffering or the scope of it? It really doesn’t matter since we all have different thresholds of pain and perception. A hangnail for some is a nail through the hand for others. What is important is how we respond to suffering that we can not avoid or escape. Fortunately, the body has various mechanisms to cope with suffering, death being the ultimate one.
Crucifixion would be the extreme example of suffering. Jesus' words from the cross, asking forgiveness for those who put him to death. More widely, of course, the plea was for all humanity. Jesus knew before hand his fate. He did not seek sympathy or rescue because he understood the nature of suffering and did not question why. We come now to one of the most poignant and important moments in Jesus’ ministry--his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, which immediately precedes his arrest. “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me . . .” Jesus is amazingly candid in expressing his fears to God. He protests, “I don’t want to do this” and he cries loudly as he protests (Heb. 5:7).
There are times in life when we must do what we do not want to do and what we fear to do even though much suffering and pain may be the consequence, but which we are ordered to do either by our moral conscience or higher authority. The life of a martyr, the bravery of firemen, the commander of an army, the future and the past is human history which is our present preparedness for the moment we might be called to serve or be served up for a cause.
It is wise to avoid risk taking that could have suffering as a consequence for self or others, and so some suffering in the world is a consequence of man's unwise choices. Man must learn from his mistakes and do better risk management. When people build houses on high risk earthquake fault lines do they not realize the risk and fate they are courting? When nuclear plants are built, do they not realize that nothing is fail safe? When hurricanes and floods destroy homes and lives, do victims not understand their vulnerability to the forces of nature?
Do you fear suffering? If you do, that is normal just as we all have a natural fear of death, the unknown. You can train a sheep to go to slaughter, but you could never educate one to so act.
Civilized society and governments are ethically and spiritually educated, trained, and expertly experienced to minimize suffering to the extent possible to identify, control, and prevent the causes of it. For the men who with malice aforethought elect the evil choice, or those who don’t know the right choice, they need to seek the wise choice or have it sanctioned upon them, hence our military, police, and justice systems.
We can not expect God to fight our wars for us. He gave us choice. He gave us life. He and he alone is beyond reproach. In God we trust for we must. If we have done all that we can do there is no alternative when there is nothing else to be done but trust in God.
What I write about suffering does not mean that God is indifferent to individual cases, but that because of the reality of the collective and the environment given to us, although he does care and is aware, he must not exempt the individual from consequences of their own choices or he must not separate individually from the collective in which the individual resides.
The Freedom of Choice granted by him to each and every soul mandates non-interference in the resulting outcome of those choices made individually, singlely, by others or in a collective community in which the individual exists. We are, if you would so think, on our own in this world that God created for us expecting us to be responsible, loving, and fully experiencing the environment partially if not totally of our own making.
The individual is accountable for his destiny regardless of what fate unfolds. It is not what we suffer or that we may suffer, but how we can prevent suffering and attenuate it wherever possible. If not possible to prevent suffering, then it is important in how we cope with it for ourselves or for others. It is not that we may have sinned, but that we learn to sin no more.
Consider the concept of guilt by association as in Pogrom. A pogrom (Russian: погром) is a form of violent riot, a mob attack, either approved or condoned by government or military authorities, directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres. The term usually carries connotation of spontaneous hatred within the majority population against certain (usually ethnic) minorities, which they see as dangerous and harming the interests of majority.
The term was originally used to denote extensive violence against Jews in the Russian Empire and a series of anti-German pogroms in Russia in 1915. Pogroms often affect members of middlemen minorities. This can, in extreme cases, result in total or partial genocide, such as that of Armenians or Jews.
God is not indifferent, but because we have Freedom of choice, we have destiny to be what we become via our choices individually and how we influence the collective in which we live. He must not interfere in any way with fate else our destiny would be meaningless and not of our own making in coping with it, admirably or not so admirably as the case may be.
If man destroys the world and all life in it, what God giveth, he does not take away, for God made man answerable, responsible, and accountable for his deeds in his life, and the keeping of his soul and salvation of it, individually and collectively.
The phrase "God help us" is oft said and is an appropriate end, but with this one last thought from Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, gave this encouraging statement: “My faith in God and in His followers rests in the fact that He is infinite good, and that He gives His followers opportunity to use their hidden virtues, to put into practice the power which lies concealed in the calm and which storms awaken to vigor and to victory” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 204).
Programming computers is similar to other styles of traditional writing having primary intent to communicate to humans, but the added difference is that in programming, there is also an intent to control as well as to communicate, to provide an user friendly interface that intelligently extends, augments, and empowers the user to participate in the control over the machine and its computer computational, communicational functioning to produce a desired outcome (and hopefully a correct one) with minimum inaccuracy, confusion, or complexities. Programs should be fault tolerant and even assume the user might be faulty in their use of the interface.
A computer program is so much more than mere rote coding. It has intelligent design and effective implementation. Creating and developing a program is creating new living and ever improving entities with forms, features, and functions, thinking out loud and assimilating corrective feedback while projecting a future that pragmatically pleases and fulfills the program's environmental purpose in life.
A work of art program is like a person, it's compatible, modifiable, and performs productively, positively, the entire duration of its presence in its host system. It consumes a minimum of resources while processing its inputs producing outputs for others.
(Yo, I'm kind of with you on this one. I never found programming to be something to be done "without thinking about it". Code in itself, well written, well designed and elegantly done, can be an art. Sure there are things which tend to be the same like the typical "file management system" for a flat file - those things I wrote a generator for but I found most programming to be very thought intensive. Of course, I was a systems designer on a PC environment type thing but that being said, I enjoyed IBM assembler and COBOL equally well.... (Sue Widemark http://healthread.net)
When artists conceive and give “birth” to their work of art (regardless of the media used), the work does assume and manifest a life of its own, and the artist interactively, with resonance, becomes the medium “whelping” in labor brings the work of art into this weird world of ours (populated with humans).
One wonders about the integrity of that life, when the creator later goes back to alter the original, even paint over it, throw it away, or even worse, someone else does. Perhaps the “medical care” of the art work requires its preservation restoration, and the alteration does not sacrifice the value of the art as originally intended.
An arti-vice is the counterfeit and forgery of art as well as the copying of valuable originals with evil intent or greedy theft in mind. To copy the masters is a learning exercise, and that activity should be allowed and encouraged so that the student may better understand and appreciate the masters and the degree of difficulty involved, but to copy with intent to deceive or cheat would be the same as avoiding the discipline of studying, working exercises, and actually circumventing learning lessons thereby cheating via various shortcuts and on the exam and review falsely earning a passing rather than what should be a failing grade.
My Father taught me drawing when I was in elementary school first having me trace over works of art of all kinds and then I used other aids to learn perspective. Sadly, so much time has passed, and I have not retained all that my Father lovingly tried to teach me.
Much of what I have dutifully studied and learned is now integrated and has lost its recall specifics, no longer recognizable, now appearing that I do not even know the basics. Perhaps it is that those “basics” were meant only to be stepping stones to what I am truly supposed to know and do now at this stage in my life believing beauty and truth are how we feel within and value those virtues, the art and the artist becoming one.
I am trying to understand why the photography art print below was withdrawn from the veterinarian art show and yet I realize it is not “fine art”, it may not even be art, but what is it? I did create something. What did I create?
There is no art so bad as to be impossible to learn something from it so that the next attempt will improve and be better. It came to my mind that this montage was in the genre of "interpretive art". The mission of interpretive art is to expand the awareness of issues affecting underserved communities.
Via cross-disciplinary art activities, medias, and interactions with real life scenarios in the world around him, an artist expresses and creates art that reflects communication messages dedicated to improving social problems. Interpretative art uses its time and space to explore cultural and political issues most relevant to their artist communities and lives. Interpretative art serves as a communication bridge for improving the health, education, and social justice issues of the underserved, underprivileged classes.
Art at one time meant communication. When entering this piece that was juried and accepted and then not hung without explanation, I realized it departed from the other entries in the show. A framed work that was finished to be hung in the show now sits as a passenger in my Toyota pickup truck, and I am perplexed what I should do with it? Maybe it was art that was meant just for me to ponder its “birth”?... and also wonder what to do if not never to allow such “art” to be reproduced or even seen, and yet what often passes as art is not art at all but simply a problem statement requiring a solution.
I felt the refusal to hang this photo montage that was accepted by the show jurors was a slap and insult in the face, unabashed, to my joy and happiness after first being notified by the jury selection committee that both of my entries had been accepted into the show. I am not upset about the poorly performing second class photography entry. It is the contradictory actions of accepting an entry then refusing to hang it that bothers me.
This montage had been entered only as a secondary spurious after thought, and at the last moment before the cut off of accepting entries expired. It was submitted as an experiment in my mind actually to see what would result with it.
I do agree that this specific art entry was a great departure from the la la other paintings in the show. I realize also those in charge of setting up and hosting the show wanted to entertain and impress with guests and the art community with “fine art”, but my reasoning in entering the montage was that the show needed an entry that truly showed how people interact with their pets and the Maricopa Animal Care and Control Shelter with its many strays and throw aways being put to death. That message deserved its historical place because of its truth. Truth is unwanted many times just like the strays that end up in MCACC.
In terms of numbers of animals and numbers of people circulating in, for, and around MCACC it represented the animal/people bond more than the many pure animal portraiture depicting no animal/people bond whatsoever and one of which (the bull's face portraiture) won first place.
If it is a show about 250th Anniversary of Veterinarian Medicine and service to people, consider then that all these years have gone by and still many people do not responsibly take care of their pets nor their selves. Veterinarian medicine has yet to create and prescribe an effective treatment for that condition.
The jurors accepted the entry and notified me it was in the show, but someone powerful enough in the show refused to hang it.
Oh well, now what do I do with it? As I said it is riding around with me in my Toyota as a passenger. Perhaps if an explanation would have been forthcoming as reasonably due, then truth and the “art” of the show would not be as “palette-able” or “palatable” as it might want to be. I wonder.
This photo work is more than montage judged fine art, it is a problem statement ongoing and moving along with me on the road. For now, I don’t know what else to do with it. So I just will think about it until I or someone else can resolve the questions that surround it.
***** I now understand why that photographic montage was not hung, but I do not understand why the jurors accepted it into the show if they were not going to hang it.
I now know that the montage is visually disturbing. That is the problem. It is a problem statement that no wants to see because it tells too much about the viewer's being either a part of the problem or a part of the solution and no in between fence sitting. In my mind, it also looks a lot like the Arizona Department of Corrections with its many inmates behind bars many who are people strays just like the canines in the MCACC are being bars. That photographic montage frightens me and perhaps that is what others see also when they look at it. The Haul-Low-Cost of man's inhumanity to man and cruelty to animals in his care and keeping. Try to not get hung up in that fact soley, for time would be better spent teaching color names to the blind.
Worry is a misuse of the imagination so I will not worry that someone may dislike me. I am art in that respect, and an art that requires a vision that most do not have nor will they ever acquire in this life.
I am an artist because I now choose to be, having aptitude, altitude, and attitude, plus ability acquired via education, training, and experience. I need no one to declare what I am if I know who I am and what I want to do with my life. Beauty and truth are how we feel within and value those virtues, the art and the artist becoming one.
I hope that you would seek to be an artist too in this life, be a work of art that would be amazing beauty and truth through and through. You can be more than you are, better than you were, and impress yourself with inner truths that can never be disparaged by me or anyone else.
Be, ... Be.!! Do not content yourself with what you are, be more than you are, positively!
Boiled corned beef and cabbage is cooking in my kitchen this morning.
I love Reuben sandwiches; the cooled and thinly sliced corned beef judiciously sassed with sauerkraut, sauced with thousand island dressing, and assisted by holey Swiss cheese, heartily hugged together, embraced both top and bottom, by two very intelligentsia Russian ryes, being hotly grilled, convincing the captive Swiss cheese to totally melt down and rye, confessing their secrets so tastefully toasted.
Enjoy with dill pickles picking the side of your choice.
A Reuben from heaven, truly ready to sensate gratify your body, mind, and soul.
About proselytizing, I don’t believe I have ever written or focused on any biblical scriptures to the exclusion of each individual living one’s life as they freely choose, exercising the choice God's word via the Bible allegedly provided man .
The bible’s many parables, psalms, and past preachings are motivations to encourage us to be morally good, to provide and give us strength to endure whatever life and death create in our environment.
I Believe
My belief is that We reap what we sow, We think and we grow, We live and we learn.
When time, a new turn, Life ends, does adjourn. Know time to move on, To journey beyond.
The words of Jesus Christ Superstar have come down through the ages through many scholarly minds who may have had their own agendas and beliefs.
I respect the bible, but respect the right and worth of an individual’s beliefs more. The stories of the bible are “social stories of the past” (literary art) created to promote social harmony and peace to conform a diverse people for their own good from an uncivilized state.
I feel I know Jesus personally, but do not expect him to be my “savior” as that would be denying me the duty and expectation of others that I be responsible for my own choices and suffering or enjoying their consequences.
How can one explain the Bible divided against itself, i.e., the Old Testament versus the New Testament with the Jewish and the Christians now in opposite camps and schools?
I believe, but I reserve the right to believe freely, to not be a victim of conditioned conformity, contradictory confusions, captive creating cultures, and chaotic consequences.
(my entry is titled "Happy To See You", a digital art photo based hybrid photography/digital painting media termed "paintography")
Subject: 250 th Veterinarian Art Show, March 3-April 3, 2011 Artists Competition Entries (246 images, painting with info card of title, artist name, media, price)
It was a challenge to see if I could write an art critique review. I did try. The link(s) are for those interested in seeing the paintings entered and a review of the show and its First Place Winner.
First Place Award Winner, Beth Hyatt-Rapp, at the Arizona Art Alliance 250th Anniversary Veterinarian Medicine Art Show and Sale, Arizona Art Alliance Gallery, exhibiting 122 Art Competition through April 3rd, 2011.
The Web Site Link given above displays photos and info cards of all the Artists Competition Entries of the 250 Anniversary Veterinarian Art Show now showing and for sale in the Arizona Art Alliance Gallery, 9011 East Indian Bend Road, Scottsdale, Arizona from March 3-April 3, 2011. 60 Artists and 122 Art Works are photo documented on the web page above. You click on the photo of interest and the larger version will then appear. Use the browser go back arrow to return to the main index page showing all the entries.
Using the photos of the Gallery Paintings, I have created a Picasa movie video and uploaded it to YouTube to be viewed worldwide by the public, or friends and family of the Artists participating in the show. It is 8 minutes and you can view it at this link
