Category Archives: Art and Culture

Art and Culture, Faith and Spirituality, Great Wheel

Not a Good Sign

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-6  68%  29%  2mph  WNW  bar30.24  steep rise  windchill-8  Winter

                              Full Winter Moon

“Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better.” – Albert Camus

When I went out to get the paper this morning, the full winter moon again hugged the horizon, this time a bright silver coin visible through the bare trees of our woods to the west.  Our paper comes, like most of us in the ‘burbs, to a rectangular box below our mailbox, perched on the road so both paper delivery and mail delivery can happen from the seat of a vehicle. 

The trash man cometh at about the same time I goeth to get the paper.  As I stood and watched, the trucks long robotic arm moved out and away from the truck, gripped our black plastic trash container, moved a bit further out, then swept up and over the truck, inverting our container in mid-air causing the lid to fly open and the trash to spill out, white plastic bags full, into the maw of the truck.  The process reversed; I waved at the trash man as he pulled away, grabbed onto the handle and pulled the container on its ridiculous plastic wheels up the 100 foot incline of our driveway.  It scrunched in the below zero temperatures as it rolled and slid behind me.

On the paper’s front page I could see a picture of our central banker, Ben Bernanke, with his head in his hands.  Not a good sign.

Though I’ve done it less than Kate in recent months, getting the newspaper in the morning is an immersion in the weather and season at a point when it all seems fresh, just as dawn begins to break.  It is a meditation, at least for me, since I do it half asleep and therefore more open to the subtle messages of partially hidden moon, the screech of snow and the bite of the wind as it blows across my ungloved hands.

This morning finds me at work on a safari tour for 2nd graders.  2nd graders are great; they respond and most without an inner censor.  I plan to use:  Moche pelican, Benin leopard, (the mummy, because the teacher wants it), the Cambodian lion, Corot’s deer nibbling leaves in a tree, Copley’s Fishing Party, Gaugin’s Under the Pandanus, Picasso’s Baboon and, perhaps the installation of children’s photographs.  Also today I’ll plan a calligraphy tour for 4th graders who’ve used ink, inkstones and brushes while learning brush painting and calligraphy.  Both should be fun.

Art and Culture, Family

The Miracle of Hydraulics

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-13  64%  19%  omph WSW bar30.43 steady  windchill-13  Winter

            Waxing Gibbous Winter Moon

Annie came over and we moved the old TV out near her car.  But, it was -10 and I couldn’t lift the damn thing into her car.  A real Minnesota moment. The air blistering cold and I’m trying lift this way too heavy TV in the back seat of a Chrysler generic car.  I’m a little guy and even when I work out I have real limits.  This was one. So.  I backed the truck out of the garage, put down the lift gate and horsed the TV onto the gate.  Lifted it up with the miracle of hydraulics and Kate will take it out to Annie on Monday.  Course, I have to secure it in their before she takes off with it.

I’ve got enough on the religion and art historical perspective to write tomorrow.  My packet for the docent book club will contain a book recommendation, James Elkin’s The Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art and an essay by Camille Paglia entitled, “Religion and Art in America.”  I’m going to summarize the beginning of Elkins because he lays out 5 different positions toward the religion and art question, each one helpful in its own way.  The bottom line appears to be the corrosive affects of modernism, seen first in what is now often called the early modern period which includes the Renaissance.  I’ll finish with this tomorrow and start work on Transcendentalism next.

This is great way below zero work. 

Art and Culture, Weather +Climate

Art’s Beginnings

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-2  46%  20%  0mph S bar 30.37 steep drop windchill-4  Winter

            Waxing Gibbous Winter Moon

As predicted the day has continued cold, thought we’ve warmed a bit from the early readings.  Still, when the high is below zero, you know you’re dealing with a bitter time.  We have the most trouble with the whippets when the temperatures drop.  They have zero body fat, so they do not like to go outside.  This increases the pressure on their bladders.  Accidents do happen.

The work of the day involves the waning religious influence on art in the modern era, though, as I’ve learned, the decline can really be seen post-Renaissance.  James Elkins makes a creditable argument for the pervasive nature of religious art during most of the millennia of human existence.  Art’s beginnings lie somewhere in our murky transition toward full consciousness, a transition accelerated when humans realized they would die.  If not in the service of the hunt, a ritual activity in its earliest form, then in the service of funeral rites, early humans drew elegant animals on cave walls and adorned their dead with red ochre, feathers and other items felt necessary to the afterlife.

This general trend continued for many cultures well into the modern era, but in the West, sometime in the Renaissance/post-Renaissance period, religious art became a particular kind of art, rather than the primary purpose for artistic work.  It was during the Renaissance that an emphasis began on the skill of the artist in addition to the importance of the subject matter rendered.  These two factors, appreciation of the talents of individual artists and the addition of subject matter like history, portraiture and mythopoetic themes opened a fissure between what had previously been art’s sole domain, the religious, and other forms of art.

More on this as it gets clearer to me.

Art and Culture, Faith and Spirituality

Buddha Natures Come Out

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-1  47%  24%  0mph WNW bar30.21 steady  windchill-5  Winter

          Waxing Gibbous Winter Moon

Today I used the Templeman Tea Service and I went in early to find the damned thing.  It was in the hall where the period rooms are, not in with the other silver.  No wonder I couldn’t find it last week.  Well, now I know.  Two very different groups: white bread Catholics from Coon Rapids (near home) and a group of African-American, African, and Asian kids, three with headscarves.  The Catholics got the highlights tour and the diverse group wanted a Taste of Asia.

The diverse group, sixth graders, had a street-wise look and I wondered if they’d pay attention at all.  Turns out I had to pry them out of the Japan galleries.  They got interested in the Buddha and then the bodhisattvas, how to identify them, what enlightenment was.  They got me off my route entirely, so we went in the Wu family reception hall and spent time figuring out Chinese families lived.  By the Shiva Nataraja, the last object, their attention had begun to wane, but they were delightful.  Both groups were wonderful.

It’s cold now, the windchill has dropped to -8 and we’ll see lows of maybe -20 by tomorrow.  This is Minnesota.

A long nap and now some treadmill time. 

Art and Culture

Warning! Radiation Hazard.

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10 59% 24% 3mph W bar30.28 steady  windchill6  Winter

            Waxing Crescent of the Winter Moon

Doing research for an article on touring and poetry, I wandered through the galleries this morning seeking out objects with poetry written on them, objects inspired by particular pieces of poetry and objects with poets.   The list is long and varied, much longer than you would think at first blush.  This suggests an intimate connection between literature and art in our collection.  The linkage goes deeper when we move beyond poetry and look at objects with, say, a biblical theme or a sutra or a story from any of the rich mythological traditions.  This area turns my crank.

The galleries have a wonderful emptiness on Mondays though there is activity.  In the Ukiyo-e gallery the scissor platform supported a cleaner taking care of a case.  In the Minnesota artists gallery crews from the registry officer had Ta-Coumba Aiken’s work down and had begun to prep the galleries for a new exhibit. The medieval gallery had lights and cameras as the staff photographer shot a madonna and child.  Most interesting, and a first time for me, was the sight of radiation hazard cones in the third floor gallery that connects the wings of the old McKim-White building with the newer building.

What were they up to?  We have a statue on a pedestal someone thinks may have an incorrect orientation.  This guy usually sits next to the elevator on the third floor, though after a long search I could find no description or name for him.  Does he really look toward the sky, rather than the northern wall?  Inquiring minds want to know so x-rays are the order.

With these exceptions, the galleries are empty and provide a kind of sanctuary filled with wonderful objects.  Sometimes I like to just browse, wait for an object to catch my eye or tickle some inner fancy, then spend time with it. 

After this, over to Common Roots for a gathering of a group interested in literature and the arts.  Sounds good to me, though the meeting reminded me of the  many I sat through with community and church groups when I used to participate in such groups for pay.  It was fun nonetheless.

Art and Culture

One Month and Three Belt Notches Later

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22  80%  28%  0mph WSW bar29.78  windchill 22  Winter

         Waxing Crescent of the Winter Moon

Fifth graders today from Harambee Community Culture School.  We marveled at Shiva’s four arms, heard a Tibetan monk who happened to be in the gallery explain the Mandala, walked through the Celebration of Bestowed Glory and looked at the four noble professions.  We investigated the scholar’s study and found implements for calligraphy, poetry, painting and music making.  We teased out differences between the Greco-Roman influenced Ghandara Buddha and the Japanese depiction of Amitbha Buddha.  Both groups were fun, responsive.  My questions helped somewhat, but generally I just went with the flow, answering questions, prodding, making linkages.  So my project manager can rest easy about this one.

Of course, there’s that highlights tour and another Asia tour next week…  But, shh.  We won’t tell him just yet.

The second nutrisystem order came. It is a sensible, straight forward weight loss program.  It works.  Don’t know how much I’ve lost but I’ve gone in three belt notches and can wear pants I gave up on long ago.  Tomorrow I plan to weigh in and take my fasting blood sugar.

Art and Culture, Faith and Spirituality

This Is Your Project Manager Speaking!

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22  78%  33%  0mph SSW bar29.74  windchill21  Winter

            Waxing Crescent of the  Winter Moon

(Moon names this year from American Colonists)

Wide awake at 5AM this morning.  Oh, man.  I really love that.

Why?  Three things rolling around.  First, I want to improve my use of the inquiry method, so I’m focusing on the questions I’ve created for the Asia tours today.  At 5AM my inquiring mind wanted to know:  what are they?  Oh, brother.  Then, as these things go, another, bigger task, more fun, but more work trundled itself forward:  What ever happened to the influence of the Judaeo-Christian tradition in modern and contemporary art?  In March I have to present a discussion on this topic to the Docent Book Club.  What will I say, my mind wondered?  As if I could think clearly enough at 5AM to solve this riddle.  As I pushed it down to later in the day, when I can read and take notes, the third item leaped up to be noticed:  Ralph Waldo Emerson: A Transcendent Unitarian.  This is also a for March project, capsulizing transcendentalism, Emerson’s role relative to it and his influence on early Unitarianism.

You might reasonably wonder why these other two projects were on my mind (in my mind?  on top of my mind?) on January 11th, 2008.  On February 6th, I leave for a retreat with my fellow Woolly Mammoths at the Dwelling in the Woods in northern Minnesota.  I leave from there for Hawai’i where I will stay until February 29th.  In my mental world that means I have a choice between finishing the Art and the Emerson projects before I leave for Hawai’i or trying to finish them as I return. 

My mind keeps a project manager running at all times.  Most of the time it works in the background, following my work, assigning priorities and evaluating progress.  Some times it moves into the foreground, like at 5AM on January 11th.

OK. OK.  I sleepily ran through the objects:  Jade Mountain, Shiva Nataraja, Gandhara Buddha, Mandala, Ceremonial Gate, Studio of Gratifying Discourse, Korean bronze Buddha, Amitbha Buddha. What were the questions for each one?  I dutiful recalled them.  When I finished, the project manager let go and slipped beneath the surface again, content to work in the background.  I went back to sleep.

Art and Culture, Politics, Woolly Mammoths

The Buddhist After-Life and the Killing Fields

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25  93%  27%  omph NNW bar 29.77 windchill25  Winter

                  New Moon

Had a summary of our gathering (Woollies) at the Istanbul Bistro, but lost in a multiple cascading of Internet Explorer browser pages.  Probably a sign I should go back to Firefox.  I used to use it, then I abandoned it, used it again, and abandoned it again.  Just like Darth Vader I keep coming back to the evil empire.

Mark, Warren, Paul, Tom, Frank, Bill and Stefan showed up.  We spoke of politics and Rome, of Green Knights present and long dead. A brief comment was made about the Istanbul not being a sportsbar, a positive.  It’s quiet and it has a round table around which this latter day collection of Knights Errant can sit.  That does mean knights in error, doesn’t it?

Mark has a gig in Bangkok designing teen sex exhibitions for Unesco/Thailand.  It’s a campaign to promote safe sex in a nation where AIDS among youngsters has become a problem again.  After that he will return to the US, then go back to Cambodia to construct an exhibit near the killing fields, one dealing with the Buddhist afterlife.  To continue the international theme Paul Strickland will host a trip to Syria in November and his organization will co-host a trip with the Hindu Temple of Maple Grove to Southern India.  Stefan chimed in with the fact that he’s taking his kids to Rome to visit a person he knows who works in the American Embassy there.  Makes for good dinner table conversation.  Those who’d been to Rome all agreed the most memorable moment was the first coffee. 

We discussed the political scene.  All of us were happy with the real choices represented by the candidates.  Of course, SuperTuesday will eliminate any chance for us to pariticipate in candidate selection and after we will have 7 months of attack ads, but right now it is glorious.  Tom wondered if any of us had supported any candidates financially.  Frank said, yes, he and Mary had sent money to Obama.

Warren reported good news about his mom and dad.    

 The retreat and a theme came up, but we put it off until Paul’s.  Mark will not attend since he’s got to be in Thailand the first week of February.  I’m leaving early for Hawai’i.  One of those years.

 Forgot to mention here I watched Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast the other night. It’s one of the Janus Films collection I got for my 60th birthday, 50 films from 50 years of their distribution of foreign films in the US.  This movie floats across the mind like a dream, a fairy tale given form and substance.  It’s images have remained with me.  It sat in my DVD player for a long time because I didn’t want to watch it; but, like each one of the films from the collection I’ve watched it had its own unique charm.

Art and Culture, Family, GeekWorld

Lovecraft Meets Sigurd Olson

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39  74%  29%  0mph NNW  bar29.59 steady 39windchill  Winter

               New Moon

New technology takes some time to absorb.  This setup has optical links, which I’ve never used before, and the cables I have don’t work with the receptacles situated on the DVD player, TV and audio receiver.  So, back to Ultimate Electronics.  Then, since I’m using an HDMI connector with the cable HD service the box Comcast has with the HDMI cable is the DVR which costs more.  Of course.  And so on into acronym chaos.

As luck would have it, however, the Woollies meet in Minnetonka tonight at the Istanbul Bistro.  The route to there from here takes me both both Comcast and Ultimate so I should have all the supplies necessary to put this puppy to bed by tomorrow.  The speaker connections are all in place, the subwoofer is ready to woof and I’m ready to hear the damn raindrops.

No joy on the Asia tour as a result though I do have a plan:  faith traditions of Asia.  I’ll hit the Ghandara Buddha, the Mandala (tour requested), Poet Contemplating the Waterfall, Confucius, Kuan Yin, Pocket Buddha, Jizo and the Divine Rainmaking Boy.  

The Gunflint story progresses nicely.  Sort of HP Lovecraft meets Sigurd Olson.

Kate’s off today.  Nice having her around.  She’s finishing up the second curtain for the living room, a red brocade with a pale gold dragon fly motif.

Art and Culture, General

The Learning Curve(s)

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28  75% 25% 2mph SSE  bar 29.78 falls windchill 27 Yuletide

            Waning Crescent of the Cold Moon

A day with two tours.  Nice kids from Island Elementary in Shoreview.  Once again my questions and preparation left me as I got on the floor.  Guess I’m gonna need to prepare cheat sheets for the questions–to review just before the tour.  I tend to remember the details about the piece, but not the questions I planned to ask. All part of the learning curve.

Listening to Tom Wolfe’s new book, I Am Charlotte Simmons. It’s about college life today.  If it’s accurate, and I don’t have any reason to doubt it is, it must be an intimidating time to be a college student.  So much sex and pressure for grades.  Oh, wait.  Wasn’t that the same college I experienced?  All kidding aside the picture it presents is drastically different in some ways, yet so familiar in others.  I’m enjoying listening to it, but I liked the Alan Greenspan book, too.