A walking bass line was used extensively in Baroque era music, but is also used in Jazz. It is a bass line that moves steadily in a rhythm contrasting harmonically to that of the melody. Baroque variations use the walking bass line to establish the aural foundation of the piece which is then used to […]
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Blog No. 95, Wabi Sabi
An image I recently added is entitled “Old iron, dead leaves and limestone;” it is a wabi sabi subject. I recently began to investigate wabi sabi, a Japanese-Zen approach to art that I find very attractive. It emphasizes the beauty of the plain and old, reflecting an appreciation of the ultimate lightness of being and […]
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BLOG 94: We who choose to see the beauty
“Some people choose to see the ugliness in this world. The disarray. I choose to see the beauty. To believe there is an order to our days, a purpose.” Dolores Abernathy, Westworld The above quote is Dolores’ base code in the series Westworld. Dolores is an android in the series who evolves from a simple […]
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Blog 93, Thoughts on an Image
After the image has been painted, we can think of the relation it may bear to ideas or words. This is not improper, since images, ideas, and words are different interpretations of the same thing: thought. However, in order to state what is truly necessary about an image, one must refer exclusively to that image. […]
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Blog 92: Transfiguration
Blog 92, Transfiguration All great art is religious, an act of homage before the glory of what exists. Where the religious dimension disappears the homage degenerates into something that is merely attractive and pleasing…. The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics, Vol.4: The Realm of Metaphysics in Antiquity By Hans Urs von Balthasar Transfiguration […]
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Blog No. 90, Suffering creates self-consciousness
I have a theory about the self. Assume that you are under two years old, which is to say that “you” do not exist as a distinct, self-conscious entity because the body that will become you has not distinguished itself from the natural world it perceives. Imagine also that your body exists in a world […]
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Blog No. 89, Is the natural world knowable?
Is the natural world knowable through the use of human reason? This is a foundational question. Many questions come to mind immediately. Do things exist simply because the force of the physical world “wills” it in the sense that there is no reason for existence? What is the difference between a universe without god and […]
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Blog 88: I was not wrong
I’ve argued here and elsewhere that a man-made thing that deals with beauty in some manner is art; the more serious the engagement the more serious the art. Things that failed to engage beauty were something else, e.g., political statements. I recently engaged with Van Gogh’s ‘The Night Café. Compare his “Café Terrance at […]
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Blog 97: We see what we understand
Our thoughts are prisons. Our brains are too simple for reality, so we need icons as a crutch. Words are those icons. But we forget that words are boxes that we add up to build castles. But, what is a castle? It is something that locks things out and in. If we forget that, we […]