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GLASCA IXL
The Great Lakes - Atlantic Stone Carvers’ Association Newsletter
April 2007
THE ART TRIAD
Art is a collaboration between your hand, your eye, and your brain, same as writing. It’s a form of communication. Writing is also an art form. Writing does not come naturally; it is taught to us, and when we first learn our strokes are tenuous. We aren’t sure how to form the letters, let alone make them into words, but with time, and practice, we not only develop attractive script, we are also able to express complex thoughts and emotions through our choice of words. Likewise, with fine art, we have to start with the basics; overcome our insecurities, and develop trust between the eye, the hand, and the brain, to build for ourselves a language wherewith we may express our deepest secrets. Once we have mastered the physical task of marking the page to communicate we may specialize and prefer to write poetry, or mathematical equations, or even music, but all still require the same collaboration of the hand, the eye, and the brain. Similarly, when we embark on our voyage of self-discovery in art, we most often choose to specialize in one or two genres, forsaking all others. One artist is a watercolourist, another is a sculptor, and yet another is a fashion designer. The title doesn’t mean they can’t engage in any other genre, only that they have a clear preference. Everything you can do in art, including writing, transfers to everything else you could possibly choose to do in art because all of it strengthens the bond between eye, hand, and brain.
In the far east, (the Biblical “Land of Nod”?) the connection between fine art and written communication is even stronger. Writing was, and often still is, done with a brush. Every stroke, jot and tittle has very specific significance, and the alphabet is radically different from what we recognize here in the west. Egyptian hieroglyphics would be another example. Even here though, there are universal rules. Different letters represent different sounds. Certain pairs of letters, called “diphthongs,” represent different sounds. Specific combinations of letters make up words. Rules of sound may even be bent under certain circumstances, such as the silent “e” at the end of many words. In fine art we call the rules “elements of design.” Perspective, size, and tonal value give us visual clues about depth when depth doesn’t actually exist at all. For as long as there have been artists there have been rules within which they consent to express themselves, but against which they have always struggled to assert their own radical, rebellious identity. Pablo Picasso created cubism to expand point of view to include more than the one dictated by “the rules.” In the early days, only saints and royalty were deemed worthy subject for artists, and the former were given stylized halos, and/or large white wings to set them apart from mere mortals. The English language is constantly evolving because writers, seeking to find new ways to express their thoughts, change the meanings, spelling, or usage of words. Once upon time a “deer” was any kind of four-legged creature, and “manure” was a verb. Letters like theta, eth, and ash got dropped out of the alphabet because the rules changed. The rules are constantly changing in all genres of art because artists are constantly conspiring to change them.
In the beginning, writing was done with sticks on tablets of clay. Now, nothing is written in stone. If we could revive Leonardo DaVinci and show him an air brush, he’d be tickled. Computer CAD programs, and motion pictures would probably excite him so much he’d need to be restrained with a straight jacket. Science fiction writers like Jules Verne, H.G.Wells, and Gene Roddenberry were thought of as beautiful dreamers in their own time, and yet each has had a hand in shaping the modern reality through their art. The first successful submarine, the Hunley was designed directly from Verne’s description in his science fiction novel, ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.’ Roddenberry’s Klingon “cloaking device” is now the U.S. military’s latest weapon. Design, and computer technology can now make an aircraft “disappear” both physically from the naked eye, and off radar. One has to wonder, how much longer will it take before someone actually builds a time machine like Wells imagined in his famous novella?
“And now nothing will be restrained from them that they have imagined to do.” - Genesis 11:6.
Interestingly, right after God made that observation He determined to come down and confound our language so that we could not understand each other. At that time, if you believe the biblical account, men were building the Tower of Babel, which would, symbolically, allow mortals to sit down with God, on His level, if not above Him, and be undisputed masters over our universe. Today, through the power of the Art Triad of hand, eye, and brain, and the unrelenting efforts of all manner of artists over the centuries breaking through the restraints imposed by rules of language, we are once again poised on the brink of the same threshold Nimrod was assailing back in the eleventh chapter of Genesis.
So perhaps for all our intelligence we aren’t as bright as we want to believe we are? Too busy talking to each other to listen to anyone else? We have come full circle, and are right back where we started. Even if you don’t believe the Holy Bible, that Nimrod ever really lived, that we all ever once spoke a universal language, that there is a Tower of Babel, or that God has promised He will return to deal with our rebellion, the truth is still staring us all in the face. We are destroying our own planet, and making it uninhabitable! How brilliant is that, Nimrod? Global warming is no idle threat.
COUNTER REVOLUTION
In the early days, artists made their own canvases, paints, and brushes. What they depicted most often had to do with their faith. Their work, very often, was not signed. Self had very little to do with it. Over time, self has crept in more and more to where art is now almost universally accepted to be a high form of self-expression. The norm once was to praise God and His works. Now it has become the norm to seek praise, and to create our own wonders. This is exactly the same rebellion that Lucifer, God’s most beautiful creation, whose position was archangel of praise, instigated among the hosts of heaven, which took down to the pit a third of the angels, as well as their leader.
“Change is the only constant.” You’ve heard it, and chances are good you’ve even said it yourself. We all see the handwriting on the wall, and we know that things must change, or we are all doomed. Most people will readily admit they don’t have a clue what to do to extricate ourselves from the mess we’ve made. Scientists, politicians, and many other types of crusaders have a lot of ideas they are perfectly willing to parade before us, and some actually make good sense, but not all.
As I see it, here’s the real problem: we don’t know the difference between “progress” and “change.” We embrace every new technology or convenience as “progress,” and once accepted, we don’t ever want to let it go. We equate modern technology with affluence, wealth, and all things good, while we see simplicity as a symptom of poverty, and we shun it. We are trapped in a maze of mirrors, and we keep trying to escape by moving forward, deeper into the morass. The obvious solution is to back up! Retrace your steps. Re-evaluate the changes you’ve made, and don’t hesitate to release the ones that have been harmful.
In the late 19th century we had an industrial revolution; inventors created machines and processes to save labour, and make things more efficient. In less than two centuries the pollution created will have destroyed us if we don’t turn it around. Near the end of the 20th century we have had a cyber revolution where now almost everything depends upon computer technology, which in turn depends upon non-magnetic power. Imagine for a moment what will happen when the sun sends out a tsunami of magnetic energy, and erases all our computers. The power grid will go down, and everything that runs on man-generated power will stop. This is not an if scenario; it’s when! God doesn’t need an asteroid. He can destroy us easily without destroying His planet. How wise are we to keep ploughing straight ahead on the same course when we know for sure it can’t lead us out of the quagmire, but rather is guaranteed to make things worse?
It’s time for another revolution! The word revolution means the overthrow of the government by the governed. If you break the word down to it’s component parts, the root is “volute”, which is a spiral, or twisting turn. In the first World War, flyers feared the tailspin because it meant certain death until someone realized that you don’t get out of it by fighting against it; you have to accelerate through it. The same principle applies on black ice; when you feel the back end of your vehicle pull out to pass, you steer into it, and accelerate. Please note, this is exactly the opposite of what instinct tells you to do!
Another word that comes from the same root as volute is “volition”, which is your ability to make your own choices. This is something we are losing, and need to re-assert. Here are a couple of illustrations of what I mean.
Once upon a time doctors made house calls. They knew their patients, not just by name, but on a far more personal level. Treatments included exercise, and diet, and they almost never involved surgery, or drugs. Drugs were the province of the apothecary, or chemist. There are still doctors who counsel patients on exercise, diet, and other aspects of their daily routine as part of their overall treatment. We have renamed them “Holistic” or “Naturopathic,” and denounced them as quacks. They aren’t covered under our much-vaunted national health care programs, but contrary to the assertions of billion dollar pharmaceutical industry, and the new breed of pill-pushing pseudo-physicians, they are still the real doctors, who treat the whole person, not just a symptom. Our healthcare has been hijacked by chemists who accept bribes from pharmaceutical companies to administer drugs, which are poisons that mask one set of symptoms and create problems elsewhere in the body that will eventually require more poisons, that cost more money, to mask those symptoms, and so on until we die, penniless. The pharmaceutical companies make billions of dollars annually, yet no drug has ever cured any disease. They advertise on television, but surely you’ve noticed the list of side-effects and possible dangers they are willing to own up to. Do you really believe drugs are the answer? Personally, I say they are the problem, and we need to tear down the health care system as it now stands, so we can reconstruct it with an eye to actually caring for our health, rather than pumping billions of dollars into the pockets of a very few chemists while they get away with murder, and call it medicine.
The automotive industry is another that needs to be made into a pariah. The original idea was to allow ease of movement. A man who owns his own car can go where he likes, when he likes, as long as there are roads to drive upon. In a little over a century automobiles have been directly responsible for more deaths than all the wars men have ever fought in total. Greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels are the single greatest factor in global warming. Paved roads have inflicted an unimaginable holocost on all animal species. The list of evils would need to be longer than the four pages I allow for this newsletter, and none of them are deniable. Before the automobile we had bicycles, which create zero pollution, or horse and buggy, which seldom collide, kill, or overturn, and which also don’t pollute. On the sea we had sails rather than smoke stacks. For the convenience of arriving at our chosen destination a little bit sooner we have sacrificed our clean air, our clean water, and very likely, our health, even our life. We’re still doing it. Cars can’t go fast enough. People routinely risk everything to pass when they can’t see far enough ahead, or race along an unfamiliar road. Then they call the inevitable result an “accident!”
“Repent!” The word means change the way you think. It’s the first step toward salvation, according to the New Testament (Acts 2:38). We don’t need to go so fast. We don’t need our cars! We have never needed them. Who is it that has been telling us we need them? Do I need to tell you why they’d lie like that?
Revolutions begin when one person decides they’ve had enough of the status quo, and determines within themselves to change it. The Kyoto Protocol is only hollow words, not if governments don’t back it, but more significantly if the governed won’t back it. Even if we all fully endorsed it, it isn’t radical enough. I hear a lot of talk but from a lot of people, but what it comes down to is very personal. Will you give up your car? Will you turn off your computer? Will you stop taking drugs, and take personal responsibility for your own health instead? Do you have any sacred cows, like our national healthcare system, that you won’t part with? Think again! Absolutely every aspect of our lives needs to be re-examined, re-evaluated, and either eliminated altogether, or re-configured if we are going to survive as a species. We either make the changes, or we die; it’s that simple.
I promised myself I wasn’t going to do this, but this is my thirty-ninth newsletter, and to me, that’s a significant milestone. I do believe in the Holy Bible; not that it contains the Word of God, but that it is the Word of God. No offense intended to any non-Christians who may be reading this, but we have come to a point where we need to make ourselves very clear, and declare whose side we are on. I do not accept the Quran, or its teachings except where they exactly echo the teachings of the Bible. I do not believe the seventh century merchant who wrote the Quran was in any way guided by God. Most importantly I do not believe God has given me, or anyone else, the right to kill anyone for any reason, least of all because that soul doesn’t believe exactly as I do. I point to the fact that Muslim extremists feel that they do have the right to butcher any infidel who doesn’t believe precisely as they do as positive proof that neither they, nor their prophet, nor their written word, are holy in any manner whatsoever. In fact, I believe it is that evil assertion that makes all those who are so deceived, regardless of their declared religious beliefs, the sworn enemies of God, and all His children.
It is my opinion that the most radical Christian sects: the Amish, the Quakers, and the Mennonites, to name just three - the ones comedians love to poke at - are closer to living right than anyone else on Earth. I don’t know them well enough to say they are right about all things, but they have got the most important things right. They live on this Earth without poisoning it. They aren’t dazzled by tinsel and flashing lights. They don’t drink every elixir the snake oil salesmen offer, and they don’t shove their philosophy down any stranger’s throat either. I know of no instance where they have ever waged a war against anyone, and I’ve never seen one yet who flaunts his wealth. They are flesh and blood, like everyone else, so no doubt there are problems, but not with their priorities. In their communities, God is God, and everyone else is smaller. God is merciful, but inflexible. His rules are His rules, and they apply to everyone equally. The law is the same for men as for women, for the rich as for the poor, for the old as for the young, for the neighbor, as for the family member, as for the stranger, and race has absolutely no bearing upon any part of it.
Since this is apt to be my last edition of this newsletter, I would like to leave you with my best wishes for your happiness. I hope I’ll be able to meet you in heaven where we can sit down and chat as long as we like with nothing to complain about. May every kindness you show be multiplied upon its return to you. Good bye.
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