Wednesday, May 7, 2014

My four year old could do this...






Why Do Abstract Artists Paint or draw Abstractly?
The paradoxical question…Can an abstract artist actually create a pictorial painting?
We’ve all heard the criticisms: “People paint abstracts because they can’t draw,” and “My four year old could have done that.”  I have fielded that questions many times over the last sixty years, my explanation always seems to generate more questions.  I often resorted to cryptic answers in order to end the circular argument.  My favorite response is “art is and I am”. Art is defined as: “The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting, drawing  or sculpture.”  Art is not limited to a particular style or subject matter..Most individuals  cannot deal with such a broad statement and they do not see art as a process but as a product. In a process oriented activity we use materials and our own thinking and problem solving skills to create something that is uniquely ours . What we are learning while doing is more important than what it looks like at the end.
Like the history of art, the process of art is linear. As our knowledge and technology grow our perception of the world changes.  Artists explore new ways of seeing and explaining the ever changing environment.  In my own work, I explore the world using symbols.It is study of the heart,soul and mind, creating esoteric connections to the universe. Without symbols our lives would be as spiritually impoverished as sleep without dreams. Our waking life is full of symbolism operating on an unconscious level. A symbol is a sign which opens up or makes transparent insights and truths that were previously hidden.

We are so captivated by and entangled in our subjective consciousness that we have forgotten the age-old fact that God speaks chiefly through dreams and visions.

The Symbolic Life (1953); also in Man and His Symbols (1964)



"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Critical thinking...



A Brief History of the Idea of Critical Thinking

"The intellectual roots of critical thinking are as ancient as its etymology, traceable, ultimately, to the teaching practice and vision of Socrates 2,500 years ago who discovered by a method of probing questioning that people could not rationally justify their confident claims to knowledge. Confused meanings, inadequate evidence, or self-contradictory beliefs often lurked beneath smooth but largely empty rhetoric. Socrates established the fact that one cannot depend upon those in "authority" to have sound knowledge and insight. He demonstrated that persons may have power and high position and yet be deeply confused and irrational. He established the importance of asking deep questions that probe profoundly into thinking before we accept ideas as worthy of belief." http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/a-brief-history-of-the-idea-of-critical-thinking/408



"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

A non-objective view...



Biomorphic landscape
a non-objective view

Landscape art can be understood as a way of composing and organizing visual space that involves the perception of relationships between images of natural form and us as viewers. Landscape art presents us with a set of concerns that involve the domain of culture as opposed to nature.  We naturalize sensations about such places—wind on our cheeks, a glimpse of sky, the smell of grass and herbs, the particular architecture of a city street—in order to keep the experience fresh. 



"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Shapeshifting...



Therianthrope


Therianthropy refers to the metamorphosis of humans into animals. Therianthropes are said to change forms via shapeshifting. Therianthropes have long existed in mythology, appearing in ancient cave drawings  such as the Sorcerer at Les Trois Frères

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Inspiration...



Solace of inspiration  


Nature has been for me, for as long as I remember, a source of solace, inspiration, adventure, and delight; a home, a teacher, a companion.
Lorraine Anderson (1952 - ) - Quoted in
The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women,  Gail McMeekin, Conari Press, 2000, p27.

Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Relationship...



Computer parasitism 


Parasitism is a non-mutual symbiotic relationship between man and computer, where one, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host.
"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Amor fati..


Amor fati
The phrase is used repeatedly in Friedrich Nietzsche's writings and is representative of the general outlook on life he articulates in section 276 of The Gay Science, which reads:

I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a yes sayer.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amor_fati


"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Life cycle...


Eternal return
life cycle



Eternal return is a concept that the universe has been recurring, and will continue to recur, in a self-similar form an infinite number of times across infinite time or space. The concept is found in Indian philosophy and in ancient Egypt and was subsequently taken up by the Pythagoreans and Stoics. With the decline of antiquity and the spread of Christianity, the concept fell into disuse in the Western world, with the exception of Friedrich Nietzsche, who connected the thought to many of his other concepts, including amor fati.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_return



"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Symbolic language...




Symbolic explanation


“Man's ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically, because symbolic  language alone is able to express the ultimate. This statement demands explanation in several respects. In spite of the manifold research about the meaning and function of symbols which is going on in contemporary philosophy, every writer who uses the term "symbol" must explain his understanding of it.” Paul Tillich Excerpted from Dynamics of Faith (New York: Harper & Row, 1957)


"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Nimble juggler...


Learning environment
“nimble juggler”


Sometimes, one must be a nimble juggler to balance the chaotic nature of real-world problems to create a productive learning environment.

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014© Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Seasons...




Sympathy with the seasons
Nature is the armory of genius. Cities serve it poorly, books and colleges at second hand; the eye craves the spectacle of the horizon; of mountain, ocean, river and plain, the clouds and stars; actual contact with the elements, sympathy with the seasons as they rise and roll.
Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888) -
The Journals of Bronson Alcott, January, p. 187, Little Brown & Co., Boston MA, 1938.


"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.