XANTHIPPE: Call it what you will –poetry, rhetoric, imitation –it is the art of appearances, of showing the world as it really seems. And since we too are appearances, it is poetry, and not philosophy, which gives the truth of our condition. Xanthippic Dialogues by Roger Scruton This quote comes from a wonderful work of […]
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Blog No. 85: The Burial of the Count of Orgaz,
I rarely comment on an image believing that it ought to speak for itself, but “God Bless Texas” was interesting because it grew after I captured the data. My original intent was to do something that would sell. I had seen an old rusty car with “Gun Bless Texas” and a couple of rifles on […]
Blog No. 84: Restore us, and regain the blissful seat
Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater man Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, Book 1, Paradise Lost by John Milton God is dead for many and dying for most. I […]
Blog No. 83, Just Whisper Entropy
There is a side of our personality which impels us to dwell on beauty and other aesthetic significances in Nature and in the work of man, so that our environment means to us much that is not warranted by anything found in the scientific inventory of its structure. An overwhelming feeling tells us that this is right and […]
Blog 82 Beauty Before Age
I’m not embarrassed or disturbed that I’ve lost so much, anymore than a farmer would be embarrassed or disturbed that the wind has blown the chaff from the threshing floor and left only the wheat. You may not understand this until you’re much older, but to people of my age it’s given, if one will […]
Blog 81: The horizon of our ability to know
In Greek mythology, Icarus is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth. Icarus and his father attempt to escape from Crete using wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. Icarus ignores his father’s instructions not to fly too close to the sun, so when he does, the wax […]
Blog No. 80: The ghost of beauty
And what was a beautiful woman? For him, beauty was something far more powerful than what fashion dictates and consensus decrees. It was both what creates love and what love creates. For Harry, because his sight was clear, the world was filled with beautiful women, whether the world called them that or not. In Sunlight […]
Blog No. 79: A few good quotes
You can’t “do” the Sistine Chapel instantly — you have to lie on your back and look up at that ceiling and contemplate. And we’ve already lost a whole generation of kids who are blind to anything constructive or beautiful, who are blind to love, love, LOVE — that battered, old, dirty four-letter word that […]
Blog No. 78: Beauty has no explanation
I asked myself, why do I love, and what is the power of beauty, and I understood that each and every instance of beauty is a promise and example, in miniature, of life that can end in balance, with symmetry, purpose, and hope—even if without explanation. Beauty has no explanation, but its right perfection elicits […]
Blog No. 87: We Are Artists in a Floating World
I have learnt many things over these past years. I have learnt much in contemplating the world of pleasure, and recognizing its fragile beauty. But I now feel it is time for me to progress to other things. Sensei, it is my belief that in such troubled times as these, artists must learn to value […]