thank you. you are right. lets look at the real thing and not at a screen
The Eyes of the Beholder: Reality Shaping and the Work
thank you. you are right. lets look at the real thing and not at a screen
Hi,
Not sure if this place is good for this painting? Maybe. A bit fun.
Seen in light of the allegory of the Mouravieff coach.
Painter: Alexandre Josquin taken from link below:
View attachment 51592
Alexandre Josquin | A covered wagon getting stuck in the mud | MutualArt
View A covered wagon getting stuck in the mud Attributed to Josquin Alexandre; Oil on canvas; 98 x 129 cm; . Access more artwork lots and estimated & realized auction prices on MutualArt.www.mutualart.com
Is there a Lord in the Wagon? Is Peasant (Reason) aware of existance of the Master? He is so absorbed with keeping horses on the path. However the path they chose is "right" was he able to listen to the Master voice from the inside of the wagon? Looks like it is a good path. In the wagon Horseman is accompanied by woman and child. Are those his split personalities? Attachements? or Maybe woman depicts the Master? or maybe child depicts the Master? Or maybe mother and child depicts the Master? Or maybe the Master is the Love that keeps them together? It looks they go to the village. Left path is complete unknown and looks like dog (some intuition, gut feeling) is keeping the horses to stay on the straight right path, helping the reason to lead them. Good thing is that Horseman is in control and tries to keep horses in line. He is not asleep. Is he doing it for himself? For me it looks that he takes care of his family and property listening to the Love that is the Master. Horses are anxious but still on the path. Like four main emotions: anger, fear, sadness, joy. Anger would like to pull faster? Fear would like to escape? Horseman is in control thou, tries to discipline them - would he manage? Path is muddy, tiresom. They look prepared for a long way as wagon looks stuffed. Wagon got stuck a bit in the rails. Will it manage the rest of the path? Weather is not good. Stormy. Getting dark. This adds up to the drama. Village is still far away. Maybe village is final destination or only a stop by, but anyway safe heaven to wait for the night and storm to the end.View attachment 51591
what an interesting analysis. thank you.
This is interesting. I've always thought that it's incredible how no matter what I do when taking photos, they can never be as rich in colors as what I see with my own eyes. And it happens the same when I watch photos in general. Of course, pictures can be very beautiful too, but I always feel that there's some 'depth' or 'richness' missing. I really don't know if analogue/film photography can portray more colors but I also felt the change when changing from film to digital, as in missing some depth. Hard to explain, but your post brings up a possible reason for this experience, thanks!
Perhaps this is also why some of those paintings shared here are striking (maybe even more so when seen in-person and not on a screen), because some artists where able to create more colors with paints and reproduce a 'richer' image of reality?
Doesn't something similar happen to music when compressed into mp3 format as opposed to music in analogue recordings? If I remember correctly, it kind of loses some 'depth'.
And what is the impact of this compression on our general appreciation and experience of beauty? Is it even important? That is something I don't know, but it's good that you bring it up because maybe it's something to think about too regarding this topic.
Edit: clarity and spelling
Funny that you mention painting. People are freaked out by generative neural networks replacing artists. Well, so far these "AI" do not mix paint and use a brush on a canvas, and they are limited to the RGB color space. Painters have access to more colors and to texture.
There have been instances where "AI" won painting competitions. That might be because the competitions involved photos of paintings (color and texture compression) instead of paintings, the painters are incompetent, or the judges are idiots. It's not easy to know why exactly.
But, if one uses the analogy of music, what happens recently is that the general public got so used to electronic sounds and over-processed voice recordings (pitch correction and auto-tune), that they lost the appreciation of the richness of true instrument sounds and the human voice. I suspect some would find old music records to be out of tune. Someone a long time ago remarked that some people are so used to sugar that they find honey (real honey, not the industrial one) to be bitter. Maybe what's happening with music (and the sense of taste) is happening to the visual stimuli as well?
Last edited:
Bernardo GA
Jedi
Thank you very much mkrnhr for starting this extremely interesting thread.
What a great approach, and what great questions!
Then the development of the subject matter with everyone's excellent contributions, helped me a lot, and mobilized me internally. Thank you all for that.
Speaking of art, already the title of this thread seems to me inspired and inspiring.
I fully agree with what many are saying here.
I think that refinement and the ability to capture harmony and/or beauty in something that has those qualities is something natural, and most likely also progressive, in direct relation to the refinement of the being.
Contemplating true works of art, for example, contributes enormously to our progress.
In fact, it is likely that for those who are doing the work, it is essential to have assiduously the impressions caused by contact with the fine arts.
The reasons that lead me to think that this is so are strong and diverse. Perhaps if I tell you about a fairly recent experience, I could explain my thoughts on the matter a little better.
I tell you that my daughter is 23 years old and is studying at the School of Fine Arts, which currently belongs to the University, but used to be independent. I mention the latter because it is not a minor detail in my speculations.
Due to the confinement measures and so on, because of the Covid issue, my daughter during that time had all her classes by Zoom.
So my wife and I had the opportunity to learn many things by observing these classes.
It is fair to say that the knowledge and experience transmitted by the professors or teachers to the students is really excellent and the classes or workshops are very enjoyable.
Unfortunately there is one exception that tarnishes things, and that is the following:
In this institution there is a kind of subject they call "Seminar".
This is a subject that is the same and the same for all students in the school, whether someone is doing drawing and painting as in my daughter's case, or is in sculpture, photography, etc. In short, this is a subject they have in common, in addition to those that are specific to each orientation or optional path for the student.
It is in these so-called Seminars, where they formally work the most philosophical part in relation to art. Here they discuss the conceptual, the immaterial of the subjects, etc.
I mean, in a sense this is the subject that perhaps has the greatest potential for growth of consciousness, discovery, understanding what is important in life, etc.
It was very, very unpleasant to see that this is not what is happening in these seminars.
From the teaching they are diverting the students as much as they can, with an unbridled and pathetic postmodernism.
The teachers in charge of these seminars seem to have been specially chosen. It gives the impression that the authorities of the institution knew a certain dark agenda, and were aligned with it.
However, consciously or not, the fact is that they are pushing the dark agenda, with a lot of twisted and confused ideas.
Fortunately, the student group is made up of people of many ages.
This is very good, because the young kids have peers from other generations, adults with quite a lot of life experience, who cannot tolerate and accept so much conceptual garbage as if it were art.
It is true that there are also quite lucid young students, but mostly it is the veterans who provide the necessary resistance to so much nonsense. In this way, young people are not only listening to the bells of a pseudo-reality in terms of art.
I consider this point to be very relevant, because this not only affects the development of the students as individuals.
Those who are students today, are the ones who will have the title of "Licenciados en Arte", therefore, they are the ones who will have the official permission to teach in formal institutions, with all that this implies.
As I mentioned before, studying or training at the School of Fine Arts did not mean to be doing a university degree as it is now.
I remember perfectly well that before, people linked to this School were always mentioning with joy, the fact that at the end of the studies there, people did not get a university degree, academic or something of that nature. They would simply be "Graduates of the School of Fine Arts", a denomination that was seen with much respect, inside and outside the artistic environment, and internationally, because these Schools are in many countries and linked to each other. I don't know how all that is nowadays.
I am not being delusional, because I know well that for the authoritarian followers, to be before a "Fine Arts Graduate" would also be to be before an authority or something like that. But that's not the point I wanted to make at this moment.
What I am trying to point out with all this is that before, society in general, was more aware of the importance of some things, such as the integral development of an individual. Then, because this School was famous precisely for its potential for that, it was highly respected and valued.
I hope you are understanding what I mean. There has been a dramatic change in terms of values.
Getting back to the subject of the seminaries, I want to specify a little more about what is going on there.
I am struggling to find the right words, because I do not want to make unnecessary and most probably unfair judgments about these teachers, who seem to me to be good people who give their all.
But I will tell you that the one who leads the team of seminar teachers is the one who uses inclusive language the most, which wouldn't matter too much if that were all it was.
What is really important is that he seems to have declared war on objectivity.
In these seminars the concept or term "beauty" seems to be forbidden, unless it is to relativize or subjectivize it.
It is sad to see that these people have forgotten that they are in the "School of FINE! Arts", nothing less than to help others to find precisely what they are denying!
This school is not yet a madhouse, because fortunately there are also very sensible and brilliant people teaching there. These are mostly the ones who give the theoretical and practical classes, teaching in the concrete how to draw and paint, sculpture, etc. These are real artists.
It is interesting to see, that while they are transmitting their technical knowledge, they take the opportunity to communicate their own visions, as to what Art means to them.
The incredible thing is the precautions they take when they talk about these things.
They seem to be under censorship.
For example, if they want to say that Art is an activity related to the spiritual, they have to go around in circles, say a lot of things that mean that, but without saying it explicitly, directly and simply.
It seems that the only place allowed to exchange ideas freely is in the "seminars", where certain ideas are seen as old-fashioned, and are run over with the postmodernism that reigns there.
This situation had me quite upset. And to make matters worse, I could not participate in those dissertations, say what I thought about it, because my daughter was the one having her classes zoomed in, and not me. I could only observe in silence.
So, I started to write down in a draft my thoughts regarding Art, with the intention of sending it to the teachers, which I did not do afterwards.
Anyway, writing in that draft made me reflect more deeply on the subject, and meditate.
The title of this thread reminded me a lot of the reflections of that moment, that's why I wanted to tell you about it, as summarized as I can.
As we know, there is a mountain of falsehoods introduced into human society, hindering its natural development, obviously.
However, nature at the most real level, obeys an intelligent design of a higher order.
This fact, in addition to others that have not yet come to my awareness, is enough to begin to explain the guaranteed failure of attempts at total control.
Art is a beautiful phenomenon that is present in the human experience, as a kind of resource of the Divine Cosmic Mind, influencing that experience to make it viable. Obviously this is not the only divine resource, but it is one of them and an important one.
I believe that given the characteristics or circumstances given in human society, 3D school, with so many negative forces influencing it, tends to chaos.
Evidently, this tendency to chaos is being counteracted, or at least mitigated in some way, which explains why it has not yet collapsed.
I think that Art plays a fundamental role in all this, by providing a dose of harmony, order, balance, causing a regulating effect.
Something like a friction force to the tendency to chaos.
It could be said that true artists, those who manage to transmit coherence of form, harmony, etc., in other words "Beauty", are undoubtedly workers at the service of the community, whether they are aware of it or not.
As we know, while we live we are receiving impressions from the environment, of all kinds and constantly.
I suspect that without the presence of these beautiful forms in the environment, the experience of human beings living in society would not be viable.
People need to be affected by these impressions in order not to collapse psychologically. And this does not depend on people being aware of such affectation. It happens even if we are not aware of it.
It is also true that each one, according to his inclinations, will walk where he has more impressions of the type he prefers for himself, within his possibilities of course.
I have thought a lot about this restorative, healing, therapeutic aspect of Art.
That is why I saw with great sadness that the School of Fine Arts has also been contaminated, and is participating in the conformation of this reality that we are seeing today.
If you remember, I told you about the "seminar" classes, but I only said that "postmodernist" ideas are promoted there.
It seems to me that I was lazy, because I wanted to summarize so much, that in the end I did not say what those ideas were, and I only qualified them as postmodernist, as if I knew a lot.
I want to amend that, and I ask you to tell me if the term "Postmodernism" would be the correct one or not, for what I will specify now.
Basically, what I have observed is that there you are accepting without further questioning, the idea that "any creative realization, act or manifestation that expresses and/or communicates something", is Art!
I clarify that this is not a statement made by any teacher there. They are my words to try to explain what seems to me to be happening there.
Based on the subjectivity that we all have, and that we all perceive and feel differently the same things, etc., which is true, they are considering "Beauty" as an element that does not necessarily have to be present in a Work of Art.
In fact, if we look at the things they are doing out there, under the name of "Modern Art", we can see that today what is most valued in a Work of Art is the level of impact it has on the viewer, no matter what kind of impact it is.
Even if the Work is so unpleasant that it causes disturbance to the spectator, they still attribute artistic value to it, because it is something that expresses, that communicates.
From my perspective, they are considering "Art" and "Communication" as if they were synonyms!
Although true Art communicates, it does not communicate just anything.
It is all so distorted that it matches all the madness we are seeing in today's world.
At times I have the feeling of living in a world that is no longer one world.
It feels strange. It seems as if realities are bifurcating, but still interacting with each other.
However things are happening, to be aware of a reality that is more linked, connected and aligned with what is true, we cannot close our eyes, ears, mind and heart.
This implies that we must be observing everything we can, and that includes a mountain of unpleasant things as well.
Since we cannot skip the stage of deep observation of the environment, if we want to understand it, we must take precautions.
In order not to lose focus or lose reference, something that, together with networking, helps a lot, is to be in contact with the Works of Art.
It is a kind of reminder of what is coherent, which affects us for good, from the deep levels of consciousness.
That is what I meant when I said that perhaps for those who are doing the "Work", the Fine Arts, besides being beautiful, are "Necessary".
The fact that here in the Cassiopeia Forum so much importance is given to Art, with its corresponding threads and so on, is one of the factors that I have taken into account, something like a clue, when reflecting on this very relevant subject.
Fortunately, in spite of the circumstances in this complex world, challenging for discernment, good Art continues to exist, and to collaborate in the conformation of a healthier, fuller, truer reality.
I thank you for your patience in reading all this to the end, because it was long and I know that my writing is not very good.
I confess that talking about this with you has been a kind of relief for some moments.
I just hope the content makes some sense, in relation to the subject matter of this thread.
Lastly, I want to share with you a photo that I just took of a painting we have at home. It's an old magazine clipping that my wife cut out and put a frame in and it looked great. This is a painting by Norman Rockwell. It is a wonderful scene for me, in every sense. Hope you like.
Thank you guys.
Best regards
