Elleboogkerk, Amersfoort: Web - 01.02.2025 — 04.05.2025

Especially for this unique location, Hatoum created the installation Web (2025), a large-scale constellation of delicate, transparent glass spheres connected by steel wires, forming a spider's web. The seemingly precarious web, which hangs overhead and stretches almost across the entire space, is both fascinating and ominous.

Web can be seen as a net descending from above, heralding an oppressive, threatening confinement, but can simultaneously be experienced as a "home" or a place of safety. This reminds us that spiders spin their webs to capture and ensnare their prey. For Hatoum, the web also symbolizes the interconnectedness of things. The glass spheres sparkle like dewdrops on the web, which is paradoxically both seductive and terrifying. Web is a stark yet poetic reminder of the physically and psychologically constricting "webs" we must navigate in life. Hatoum has used the web motif, in various materials, throughout her oeuvre to explore themes of neglect, inaction, mobility, and control.

This major retrospective—the first to be organized by a US institution in 30 years—builds on the wealth of new research, scholarship, and perspectives that has emerged since Andy Warhol’s early death at age 58 in 1987. More than 400 works offer a new view of the beloved and iconic American Pop artist, not only illuminating the breadth, depth, and interconnectedness of Warhol’s production across the entirety of his career but also highlighting the ways that he anticipated the issues, effects, and pace of our current digital age.

Warhol gained fame in the 1960s for his Pop masterpieces, widely known and reproduced works that often eclipse his equally significant late work as well as his crucial beginnings in the commercial art world. This exhibition brings together all aspects and periods of his varied and prolific career and includes paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, videos, archival and printed material, installation, films, and media works. By showcasing the full continuum of Warhol’s work, rather than focusing on a certain period, this presentation demonstrates that the artist didn’t slow down after surviving the assassination attempt that nearly took his life in 1968 but entered into a period of intense experimentation.

Warhol, with obvious self-deprecation, described his philosophy as spanning from A to B. As this exhibition decidedly proves, his thinking and artistic production ranged well beyond that, but his true genius lies in his ability to identify cultural patterns and to use repetition, distortion, and recycled images in a way that challenges our faith in images and questions the meaning of our cultural icons.

This exhibition was organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Exploring a new trail is always an adventure, even if that trail is short and close to town. In this case, we had driven north on the North Klondike Highway (aka the Mayo Road) about 19 kilometres to a site just before the Takhini Road exits the highway. Here, there’s a 248 hectare area of forest known as The Gunnar Nilsson and Mickey Lammers Research Forest. Established in the early 1970’s, the area has been used for forest research, education, and recreation pretty much ever since.

There are a variety of native and non-native trees in the forest which are monitored for growth, resistance to insects and all sorts of things. School groups visit the forest from time to time to learn about boreal ecology and animal species, while people like me go for the recreational aspects, looking for a good hike, and some inspirational natural beauty. Fortunately, the area is large and the people using it are relatively few, so most days you will hike around a trail and never encounter another person. Except for the very occasional trail post, this place is very much a wilderness.

While Joanne and I have walked the trails out here on many occasions, there are so many paths through the forest that you could probably spend a lifetime in this area alone, and never feel that you’d seen it all. It’s an ideal place for a new adventure every week. Take this photo as an example.

On the day I took this, we decided to head down a path that we hadn’t done before. It meandered in a great loop all over the forest before finally entering a straight cut that continued almost back to the parking lot. While there was no magnificent and expansive view of a hidden valley, there were the colours. One of the things that was impossible not to notice on this path were the burnt reds of the forest floor. All the dried leaves and the recently deposited conifer needles were defining those reds. The fact that recent rains had made everything wet just added saturation to those colours. What’s more, those reds contrasted perfectly with vivid greens from the abundant mosses and lichens beside the path. As I was walking along thinking about this, I spotted this broken mushroom right in the middle of the path. I didn’t move it there, or adjust its position in any way. It’s colours seemed to mimic those in the needles and fallen leaves, which had presumably been supplying it with the nutrients it needed in life, and yet here it was lying with its food supply and adding to the richness of the view.

I had taken other photos to highlight the green and red contrasts off the trail. This one was all about that mushroom, its gills were intricate and beautifully aligned not only in terms of colour but also in their linear aspect with the pine needles all about, and the path ahead. This simple discovery, in itself, and the macroscopic world it represents tells you that adventure and discovery lie everywhere, and usually quite close at hand. I think this image speaks to the interconnectedness of all things, not only in life but also in death. The decaying forest that nurtured the mushroom, would now in turn be nurtured by the mushroom. The relationships are obvious, and to make that discovery in a research forest just extends the the idea into the human realm as well.

Photo taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 and M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro. All raw conversion and post processing was performed in DxO PhotoLab.

Anand Varma never set out to become a photographer. At least, not at first. He was training to be a scientist—field biology, to be exact—and spent his early twenties trekking through cloud forests in Panama, patiently tracking parasitic birds and amphibians that whispered the secrets of evolution in their skin and feathers. But somewhere along the way, he realized that telling the story of those creatures—their struggles, their intricate lives, their astonishing beauty—moved him more deeply than collecting their data.

He picked up a camera not as a tool of art, but of communication. It quickly became both.

Today, Varma is one of the most singular visual storytellers of the natural world. His images, many published through his long collaboration with National Geographic, are not just beautiful. They are transformative. They show us the unseen—the sliver of time between a bee’s pupal sleep and its emergence into the light; the inside of a hummingbird egg as life begins to stir; the complex, alien architecture of the brain of an octopus. Through Varma’s lens, nature is neither quaint nor remote. It is intimate, strange, and breathtakingly alive.

I photographed Anand at WonderLab in Berkeley, where he had transformed a portion of the space into a kind of living studio—a hybrid between a laboratory, an art studio, and a cabinet of curiosity. A National Geographic film crew was there, quietly orbiting him as he adjusted a microscopic rig or repositioned a translucent insect under a halo of LEDs. There was a feeling in the room—a kind of reverence. Anand works with the precision of a scientist, the patience of a monk, and the sensibility of an artist. It’s rare to see someone so wholly in their element.

His background in science is not ornamental—it’s foundational. He earned a degree in integrative biology from UC Berkeley, and that early scientific training informs not just what he chooses to photograph, but how. He builds many of his own tools: custom lighting rigs, time-lapse systems, and high-speed setups that allow him to peer into timeframes our eyes were never meant to access. A single Varma image might require weeks or months of preparation—cultivating insect colonies, calibrating microscopes, rehearsing the choreography of emergence. But the result is not sterile. It’s magic.

What makes Anand’s work so moving is not just that it’s technically brilliant—it’s that it’s full of feeling. There’s a deep curiosity, even love, in his images. He treats each life form—whether it’s a parasite, a jellyfish, or a pollinator—with the same quiet reverence. It’s the kind of gaze you’d expect from a poet or a philosopher. He invites us to see these creatures not as “other,” but as fellow travelers, each of them navigating the same strange universe we are.

And he’s more than just an image-maker. He’s a bridge—between the scientific and the aesthetic, the seen and the unseen. He speaks about complexity with clarity, about biology with wonder. His TED talks, his essays, his collaborations with other scientists and artists—they’re all part of a larger project: to reconnect people with the hidden beauty and interconnectedness of the world around them.

In person, Anand is thoughtful and self-effacing. He listens more than he talks. There’s a quiet intensity to him, but also a calmness, as if he’s always slightly tuned in to a slower rhythm than the rest of us. A rhythm more in sync with metamorphosis, decay, and bloom.

It’s hard not to feel changed after spending time with his work. It makes the invisible visible. It slows you down. It stirs awe.

And perhaps that’s the point. In an age when attention is fractured and nature is under siege, Anand Varma offers us a different kind of vision—not just to look more closely, but to feel more deeply. To remember that the world is full of wonders, if only we have the patience to see them.

Wat Plai Laem is a breathtaking Buddhist temple complex located on the island of Koh Samui in Thailand.

This stunning sanctuary is a true feast for the senses, blending awe-inspiring architecture, vibrant colors, and a serene atmosphere that leaves you appreciating the scale of the enterprise. The finesse in details is wanting when you compare it to other statues and buildings that you see in Thailand or Srilanka or India.

The main highlight of Wat Plai Laem is the iconic 18-armed statue of the Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin, that is not in the picture though.

The temple's design incorporates elements of Chinese and Thai traditions and was in part designed by distinguished Thai artist Jarit Phumdonming with a whole lot of help from the Chinese community.

Had posted an image a few days ago of the inner doorway detail and here is the front of the same. A broader view withe Bhav Chakra was posted immediately before this on.

Koh Samui is serene., At the Wat Plai Laem one is reminded of the profound teachings of Buddhism

Perchance, we can contemplate the interconnectedness of all things and the importance of finding balance and harmony in our lives.

_DSC4843 nef

The work of art "Mountains Walking" by Leidy Churchman seems to be about the same size and angles aa Monet's Water Lily Triptych at MoMA.

The plaque besides Mountains Walking mentions Monet's Water Lilies but also ties in a 13th century book "embraces the interconnectedness evoked in Ei Dogen’s Mountains and Waters Sutra. The classic thirteenth-century Zen text describes reality as interdependent and permeable."

I could spend hours looking at "Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond." On my next visit to MoMA I will be searching for clues to tie in "Sansui kyō."

Big Blue at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum

Blue whales are the biggest animals that have ever lived on earth — longer than the longest known dinosaur, and much more massive. They inhabit every ocean on the planet, and travel from frigid polar waters, where they feed, to warm tropical waters, where they give birth to their calves. They can be as long as 33 metres (108 feet). Females are, on average, 3 m (10 feet) longer than males. To put it in perspective, they are longer than two buses parked one behind the other. Their hearts are the size of a car, and the arteries connected to the car-sized heart are large enough that a human baby could crawl through them.

For decades, these ocean giants were hunted without restraint, and their numbers dwindled from 350,000 to 1000-2000. The blue whale hunt peaked in 1931, with a take of over 29,000 animals. In 1966, the International Whaling Commission banned hunting of blue whales, and today their numbers are estimated at 4,500. They are an endangered species.

In 1987, on a remote coast of Prince Edward Island, a 26 m long, mature female, blue whale died and washed ashore. She was removed from the beach and buried. In 2007 researchers started the process to exhume her, and in 2010 her skeleton was put on display at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC in Vancouver. She was a magnificent animal, whose story shows us the interconnectedness of all living things.

beatymuseum.ubc.ca/whats-on/exhibitions/permanent-exhibit...

observe the leaf not in its aerial dance with the wind but rather in a state of repose against the void, reminiscent of a celestial body suspended in the cosmos. The darkness that surrounds it is like the infinite expanse of space, cradling stars, planets, and nebulae in its vast embrace. The leaf's veins are like the branching arms of a galaxy or the intricate network of cosmic filaments that bind the universe together. Its warm, amber glow evokes the fiery heart of a star, a solitary beacon in the dark, casting light upon the mysteries of existence. It is a microcosm of the cosmos itself, a reminder that the same patterns repeat from the atomic to the astronomical scale, a symbol of the interconnectedness of all things. In the intricate map of its veins, we can trace the journeys of stardust, the very material that constitutes this leaf and every one of us, a testament to our shared origins in the hearts of ancient stars.

One of the most important themes of the holiday season is exemplified within one of Macy's windows…the idea of spending time together. This concept is illustrated by silhouettes staged within a “Family Tree” each highlighting different displays of human interaction and affection. This window not only symbolizes the connections and relationships between loved ones, but also the interconnectedness of nature, with the trees and the branches flowing through and into one another with a crystal forest illuminated against the night sky.

The transient beauty of the coast is intricately intertwined with the captivating patterns that emerge in the sand, crafted by the relentless forces of wind and wave. These natural sculptors shape the shoreline, leaving behind ephemeral masterpieces.

As the tides ebb and flow, they orchestrate a delicate dance with the sand. With each advancing wave, the water gently caresses the shore, carrying particles of sand along its journey. As the wave recedes, it relinquishes its cargo, depositing the grains in a meticulous arrangement. This cyclical process, repeated countless times, creates intricate patterns that stretch along the coastline.

The patterns left behind by the retreating tide mimic the ebb and flow of life itself. Swirling ripples, reminiscent of a miniature desert landscape, emerge as the water recedes, their graceful curves and undulating lines transforming the beach into a living work of art. The patterns are at once orderly and chaotic, with intricate geometrical formations intermingling with whimsical curves and asymmetrical shapes.

The wind, a silent artist in its own right, adds its touch to the sculpting process. As it sweeps across the coast, it whispers secrets to the sand, coaxing it to dance in its invisible embrace. The wind's gentle touch lifts fine particles from the beach, carrying them aloft in an intricate ballet. It sculpts the sand into delicate ripples, resembling the soft undulations of fabric.

The interplay between the wind and the tide results in an ever-changing landscape. The patterns shift and evolve, shaped by the combined forces of these elemental sculptors. Ripples become miniature mountains, rising and falling in a transient topography that mirrors the larger contours of the surrounding coast. Each gust of wind and every advancing or receding wave leaves its mark, etching new patterns and erasing old ones, in an eternal cycle of creation and destruction.

These ephemeral patterns serve as a reminder of the impermanence of existence and the transient nature of beauty, as each passing moment alters the landscape, erasing what once was and creating something new. The sands become a canvas for the symphony of time, a tangible reflection of the ever-changing nature of our lives.

The beauty of these fleeting patterns lies not only in their visual allure but also in the emotions they evoke. They inspire a sense of wonder and awe, inviting us to pause and appreciate the intricate designs that nature creates with such effortless grace. The patterns speak of the interconnectedness of all things, the harmonious interplay between the elements, and the constant flux that defines our existence.

In these patterns of nature, we find a profound lesson: that life, like the shifting sands, is ever-changing, and that true beauty lies not in permanence but in the appreciation of the fleeting moments that grace our journey.

Another sculpture in the 2014-2016 Vancouver Biennale. This one located in the Olympic Village on the southeast shore of False reek in Vancouver BC.

Drawn to Olympic Village, where Vancouverites worked together to forge one of Canada’s greenest communities from an industrial lot, American sculpture Jonathan Borofsky personally selected the site for the latest sculpture in his celebrated Human Structure series. In keeping with this location, and with the 2014 – 2016 Vancouver Biennale theme “Open Borders/Crossroads Vancouver”, Human Structures Vancouver focuses on the notion of humanity working together to build our world.

This sculpture, comprised of a series of brightly-coloured interconnected figures, conveys a sense of universal connectivity. The distinctive shape of the galvanized steel plates refers to pixels, the base unit of computer imagery, and comments on the structural connections in our digital world.

For Borofsky, the organic, modular structure of Human Structures Vancouver suggests an ongoing process of building and learning. In the artist’s own words, “we are all constantly in a process of connecting together to build our world…Humans use structures to build our world, not only architectural, but psychological and philosophical structures.”

While previous works in the series have consisted of a single tower of figures, Human Structures Vancouver marks the artist’s first realization of multiple groupings. As the central structure stretches up to the sky, two smaller configurations form preliminary foundations, alluding to a continuous cycle of growth. Through this sculpture, Borofsky seeks to nurture a sense of public positivity.

Medium: Painted and molded galvanized steel

Size: 287 x 201 x 201 in/ 730 x 510 x 510

Weight: 5,644 lb/ 2560 kg

The Vancouver Biennale Organization:

Vancouver Biennale Public Art Exhibition 2014-2016,Open Borders/Crossroads

“Starting later this month, about 20 public art sculptures will be installed throughout parks and open spaces in Vancouver and another 10 in New Westminster, North Vancouver and Squamish. The biennale will feature works by other big name artists that include Vic Muniz from Brazil, Jonathan Borofsky from the U.S., and Andy Goldsworthy from the United Kingdom.”

Byline: Kevin C. Griffin, Vancouver Sun

Images: uncredited Click here for the full story

The next Vancouver Biennale exhibition begins Spring 2014. We’re expanding to new cities, broadening our program to include a wider range of artistic disciplines, and inviting an unprecedented mix of famous and emerging artists from around the world to participate in a two-year celebration of great Contemporary art, freely accessible to people where they live, work, play and transit.

The curatorial theme of the exhibition is Open Borders / Crossroads Vancouver. Unique in the world for its natural beauty, Vancouver becomes the international hub where artists from all nations, cultural backgrounds, political histories and artistic disciplines gather to celebrate art in public space. Together we inspire creativity, transform thinking and find our interconnectedness as global citizens through art.

The Organization

The Vancouver Biennale is a non-profit charitable organization that celebrates art in public space. The exhibitions are unique in the world in that feature sculpture, new media, film, music and dance. They transform the urban landscape into an Open Air Museum, creating unexpected and globally inspired cultural experiences where people live, play, work and transit.

Each exhibition demonstrates that great public art is an economic driver by creating magnetic cultural attractions for visitors, and foundational to creating livable, creatively inspired communities where installations become a social bridge for people of all ages, cultural backgrounds, educational levels and financial wherewithal to come together as neighbours to explore, learn, dialogue and imagine.

The Vancouver Biennale (Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale/Biennale Internationale de la Sculpture de Vancouver) is funded through grants, corporate sponsorship, gifts in-kind, philanthropic donations and supplemented by the sale of art after each exhibition. 100% of the net profits from the sale of Biennale artworks are used to fund the exhibitions and programmes.

Acrylic on board. (13x20 in.)

www.dustofamerica.tumblr.com

E X T I N C T I O N

In the grand lie of existence, whispers of extinction echo through the corridors of time. It's not merely a notion reserved for civilizations, species or ecosystems; it extends to the fall of the ego, the dismantling of greed, and the unraveling of injustice within the human experience.

In the quiet collapse of ego, we find liberation. Shedding the layers of self-importance, we discover a profound interconnectedness, a recognition that our destinies are woven into the collective fate of all living things.

Greed, a voracious specter, crumbles under the weight of empathy. Injustice, a dark cloud, dissipates in the light of fairness. As we dismantle these pillars of societal discord, we unearth the essence of our shared humanity.

There is no predetermined destiny etched in the stars, but rather, the occasion becomes our destiny. In the dance of moments, we find purpose. Each decision, each action, shapes the narrative of our existence, a narrative not governed by fate, but sculpted by conscious choices.

In embracing the transient nature of life, we recognize the impermanence of destiny. We become architects of our own journeys, navigating the terrain of possibilities with intention and mindfulness. The occasion becomes the tapestry we weave, the story we tell, an ode to the power we hold in every breath, every heartbeat.

So, in the face of extinction's whisper, we stand not as passive subjects but as active participants. We choose unity over ego, compassion over greed, and justice over injustice. Our destiny is not written; it's a blank page awaiting the strokes of our courage, resilience, and humanity.

by me

Water-mixable oil and gouache paint on canvas 60x60cm.

Here we behold an emerald cathedral, its pillars stretching upwards, bending the very fabric of the sky into a verdant vortex. It is a visual symphony that speaks of the primordial forces that shape not only the heavens but also the Earth. This perspective is a paean to the interconnectedness of all things, a single tree merging with its brethren to create a tunnel that transcends the terrestrial, reaching towards the celestial.

It is as if we are gazing through the lens of time, witnessing the curvature of space and nature intertwined. The leaves form a mosaic as intricate as the swirling galaxies in the night sky, each leaf a star, contributing to the grand design. The trunks, warped by this spherical perspective, evoke the gravity wells of massive celestial bodies, distorting spacetime around them.

The light that filters through this natural kaleidoscope is dappled with the cosmic dust of pollen and life, each photon a messenger of the sun’s fiery crucible. As our eyes travel up the trunk and spiral into the canopy, we are reminded that just as trees reach for the light, we too are explorers, yearning for the stars, driven by an insatiable desire to understand our place in the universe. This image is a reminder that within every aspect of our planet's nature, there are echoes of the cosmos, a testament to the awe-inspiring reality that the universe is not only around us—it is within us all.

The transient beauty of the coast is intricately intertwined with the captivating patterns that emerge in the sand, crafted by the relentless forces of wind and wave. These natural sculptors shape the shoreline, leaving behind ephemeral masterpieces.

As the tides ebb and flow, they orchestrate a delicate dance with the sand. With each advancing wave, the water gently caresses the shore, carrying particles of sand along its journey. As the wave recedes, it relinquishes its cargo, depositing the grains in a meticulous arrangement. This cyclical process, repeated countless times, creates intricate patterns that stretch along the coastline.

The patterns left behind by the retreating tide mimic the ebb and flow of life itself. Swirling ripples, reminiscent of a miniature desert landscape, emerge as the water recedes, their graceful curves and undulating lines transforming the beach into a living work of art. The patterns are at once orderly and chaotic, with intricate geometrical formations intermingling with whimsical curves and asymmetrical shapes.

The wind, a silent artist in its own right, adds its touch to the sculpting process. As it sweeps across the coast, it whispers secrets to the sand, coaxing it to dance in its invisible embrace. The wind's gentle touch lifts fine particles from the beach, carrying them aloft in an intricate ballet. It sculpts the sand into delicate ripples, resembling the soft undulations of fabric.

The interplay between the wind and the tide results in an ever-changing landscape. The patterns shift and evolve, shaped by the combined forces of these elemental sculptors. Ripples become miniature mountains, rising and falling in a transient topography that mirrors the larger contours of the surrounding coast. Each gust of wind and every advancing or receding wave leaves its mark, etching new patterns and erasing old ones, in an eternal cycle of creation and destruction.

These ephemeral patterns serve as a reminder of the impermanence of existence and the transient nature of beauty, as each passing moment alters the landscape, erasing what once was and creating something new. The sands become a canvas for the symphony of time, a tangible reflection of the ever-changing nature of our lives.

The beauty of these fleeting patterns lies not only in their visual allure but also in the emotions they evoke. They inspire a sense of wonder and awe, inviting us to pause and appreciate the intricate designs that nature creates with such effortless grace. The patterns speak of the interconnectedness of all things, the harmonious interplay between the elements, and the constant flux that defines our existence.

In these patterns of nature, we find a profound lesson: that life, like the shifting sands, is ever-changing, and that true beauty lies not in permanence but in the appreciation of the fleeting moments that grace our journey.

A Southern California bush rabbit, photographed in San Diego's Los Peñasquitos Canyon Reserve, displays the beauty and challenges of life in the wild. The visible ticks in its ear are a reminder of the interconnectedness between wildlife and human health, as these parasites can carry diseases like Lyme disease and rabbit fever.

My new collaboration project with ConstructiviST Solo @ UWA UTSA Art Collab

This exhibit is a collaborative project that began with a conversation about circles as they are part of the human experience in distinct contexts: mathematics, mechanics, and as metaphor in various cultural settings.

By no means is this exhibit intended to be comprehensive; it can't be. However, we hope that the visitor will come to the recognition that there is an overarching interconnectedness not only between science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, but that this interconnectedness, this fabric of that which is and that which makes up the human experience, very much also includes the social and behavioral domains.

ConstructiviST Solo

In the crisp autumn air, a busy bee diligently gathers nectar from flower to flower.

Its hard work brings the flowers to life with shimmering petals and sweet fragrances, a celebration of nature's bounty. A reminder of the interconnectedness of all living creatures, the bee plays a vital role in the ecosystem, ensuring the continuation of the cycle of life.

Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning ‘humanity to others’. It also means ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’.

Ubuntu is the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality "Ubuntu" you are known for your generosity.

We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity..

(***This strange mix of tiger ASIAN and this child AFRICAN has a behind meaning maybe only to me. As I lived in Asia and Africa and learned so much in these two places, UBUNTU)

#UBUNTU

Photo: Wellington Arruda

This sculpture (Bird Wrap by Canadian artist Ivan Eyre), is one of the Vancouver BC 2014-2016 Biennale outdoor installations. It is located in Thornton Park across from Pacific Central Station (Transportation Centre).

BIRD WRAP:

Over the course of Ivan Eyre’s celebrated career, he has returned time and again to certain graphic motifs, a visual shorthand through which he explores deeply personal notions of self and identity. Central among these motifs is The Birdman, a figure Eyre remembers studying through “scores of drawn self-portraits with bird headdresses [which] became regular subjects in the studio.”

Translating this figure into three-dimensional form represents a significant conceptual leap for Eyre, who first garnered critical acclaim as a painter. The rendering of a man cloaked in the visage of a bird stands 2.4 meters high, welcoming visitors to Thornton Park as it towers above. Eyre has always drawn deeply from legend and archetype, and indeed this uneasy union of man and beast harkens back to timeless mythological creatures, as well as to the great bronzes of antiquity and more recent masterworks of abstraction.

Bird Wrap serves as one of the first major works installed as part of the Vancouver Biennale

IVAN EYRE:

Ivan Kenneth Eyre was born in Tullymet, Saskatchewan in 1935. Mentored by Ernest Lindner and Eli Bornstein, Eyre graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of Manitoba in 1957 and spent the following year at the University of North Dakota. Eyre was appointed Full Professor (Painting and Drawing) at the University of Manitoba where he worked until his retirement in 1993.

For more than five decades Eyre has produced an incredible body of work comprised of paintings, sculptures and drawings. Most commonly known for his paintings, Eyre has painted figurative work, still lifes, personal mythologies, figure silhouette/landscapes, portraits, and panoramic landscapes.

Ivan Eyre is considered a living national treasure. Eyre was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1974. He received the Queen’s Silver and Gold Jubilee medals, the University of Manitoba Alumni Jubilee award, and the Order of Manitoba.

In 2010, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario unveiled a sculpture garden consisting of 9 large scale bronze sculptures produced by him. In 1998, the Pavilion Museum was opened at Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg where the entire third floor was dedicated as the Ivan Eyre Gallery. Eyre gifted 200 paintings, 5000 drawings and 16 sculptures to the museum, which are on display.

Eyre’s artwork has been exhibited in more than 65 solo and 250 group exhibitions across Canada and around the world. His works have been acquired by numerous public, private, and corporate art collections throughout Canada. Over 33 museums and galleries have shared some 420 paintings and over 3000 works on paper.

Institutions exhibiting Eyre’s artwork include the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the 49th Parallel Gallery in New York City, the Frankfurter Kunstkabinett in Frankfurt, Germany, the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris, Canada House in London, UK. Currently his artwork is on display at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

VANCOUVER 2014-2016 BIENNALE:

The 3rd Vancouver Biennale exhibition began Spring 2014. We’re expanding to new cities, broadening our program to include a wider range of artistic disciplines, and inviting an unprecedented mix of famous and emerging artists from around the world to participate in a two-year celebration of great contemporary art, freely accessible to people where they live, work, play and transit.

The curatorial theme of the exhibition is Open Borders / Crossroads Vancouver. Unique in the world for its natural beauty, Vancouver becomes the international hub where artists from all nations, cultural backgrounds, political histories and artistic disciplines gather to celebrate art in public space. Together we inspire creativity, transform thinking and find our interconnectedness as global citizens through art.

The 2014 – 2016 Vancouver Biennale will feature diverse works by both breakthrough and established artists, in keeping with the theme Open Borders / Crossroads Vancouver. The 2014 – 2016 participants include globally-recognized figures ranging from Ai Weiwei, Vik Muniz, Andy Goldsworthy to Os Gêmeos.

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Permission to use photo:

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30 May 2015.

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Vancouver Biennale

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Hey Ted Mcgrath,

I've been tasked with searching the web for excellent photos of Vancouver Biennale public art works. We are interested in possibly using your photo of Bird Wrap by Ivan Eyre​ for our catalogue with full credit going to you. Would you be interested in supplying a high resolution image? How would you like to be compensated?

Thanks,

Maks Fisli

VANCOUVER BIENNALE

OPEN AIR MUSEUM

Ph: (604) 682-1289

Website / Facebook / Twitter

#VANBIENNALE

Hey Ted,

Great! Please send it to ashleigh@vancouverbiennale.com

With the subject: Catalogue Photo Call Out.

Cheers,

- Maks

23 June 2015

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Vancouver Biennale:

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Hello Ted,

We really appreciate your photograph of Bird Wrap (flic.kr/p/pLzUM4) and your permission to use it in our upcoming catalogue. Can we have permission to use the same image on our website? www.vancouverbiennale.com/artworks/bird-wrap/

If so, we will post the image with a watermark giving you credit for the shot.

Also, I've noticed other great photographs of Vancouver Biennale artwork:

flic.kr/p/rGuoMq

flic.kr/p/qc7Dnc

Would you be able to send high resolution images of those two as well for use in the catalogue and our website? If so, please send them to info@vancouverbiennale.com via www.wetransfer.com/ with the subject "Catalogue Photos". I am especially impressed with your photo of Amazing Laughter.

We would like to give you a heads up when new artworks are installed by the Vancouver Biennale. Is your email tedmcgrath4319@yahoo.ca a good way to reach you or would a phone number be better?

Also, if you are not already aware, here is a map of the current artwork around the metro Vancouver area that may serve as new subjects for your photos:

www.vancouverbiennale.com/exhibition-map/

Thanks again,

Maks Fisli

VANCOUVER BIENNALE

OPEN AIR MUSEUM

Ph: (604) 682-1289

info@vancouverbiennale.com

An upward view of a towering tree captures the essence of life's journey, where each branching path represents choices, challenges, and growth. The climb to the highest branches reflects the ultimate spiritual pursuit—a testament to resilience, perseverance, and the beauty of striving toward the light.

I consider that the natural biological manner of living is constitutively aesthetic and effortless, and that we have become culturally blind to this condition. In this blindness we have made of beauty a commodity, creating ugliness in all dimensions of our living, and through that ugliness, more blindness in the loss of our capacity to see, to hear, to smell, to touch, and to understand, the interconnectedness of the biosphere to which we belong. We have transformed aesthetics into art, health into medicine, science into technology, human beings into the public, ..., and in this way we have lost the poetic look that permitted us to live our daily life as an aesthetic experience. Finally, in that loss, wisdom is lost. What is the cure? The creation of the desire to live again, as a natural feature of our biosphere, the effortlessness of a multidimensional human living in a daily life of aesthetic experiences.

—

Humberto R. Maturana,

from The Biological Roots of Reality and Humanness:

An Invitation to Freedom

This simple view, portrayed in a photograph, because, well the real thing is too big for the gallery space, was taken by Max Dupain in 1977. It depicts the Giralang Primary School, another of Enrico Taglietti's commissions. In typical Dupain style, it is peerless.

Don't know about Max Dupain? Shame on you! This Photostream has oblique references to Dupain via his first wife, Olive Cotton, and his father George Dupain. To my shame, I should do better!

Olive was an accomplished photographer in her own right and inspired a little COVID creativity. There was more in her portfolio!

George Dupain founded the Institute of Physical Education and Medical Gymnastics where Emmeline Freda du Faur enrolled to train for her mountaineering exploits. It was here she met her lover and lifetime partner Muriel Cadogan.

Fun fact: Olive Cotton's uncle Frank Cotton invented the G-suit or as he called it: the "Cotton aerodynamic anti-G flying suit".

I really don't need my television, refrigerator, telephone or watch talking to each other. But I'm quite glad that these talented people all bumped into each other in the small pressure cooker that was Sydney, and then later as Canberra grew beyond a sheep station with a Parliament, such matters continued.

Here's a hint of the interconnectedness: Freda du Faur's father married the daughter of the first principal of Sydney University. Freda gained an independent income in a legacy from her Aunt, her mother's sister, which enabled her to travel and pursue her mountaineering; that put her in the same circle as Muriel. George Cotton was a physiologist at said Sydney University, and Olive's uncle Carl was in business with, that's right, Max Dupain's father, George. Olive's father, taking up the photography thread, had used his skills with a camera on the Shackleton expedition to Antarctica before becoming Professor of Geology at Sydney Uni… Max studied at the Julian Ashston Art School, and Freda's father became entangled with the Art Gallery of New South Wales where his influence was exerted over those fantastic bronze friezes on the façade…

Around we go! I'm getting giddy. Time to leave. Just let this be a reminder to you: wherever there is genius and creativity, you'll never be far away from someone with a camera.

This may happen to a lot of people in society nowadays. Day after day.

Royalty free music from CCMixter.org:

"And I wish" by Loveshadow featuring Urmymuse.

ccmixter.org/files/Loveshadow/52178

A hoop dancer displays remarkable skill while performing at the First Nations Parade during the Calgary Stampede.

"Indigenous hoop dancing holds profound spiritual significance for the performers and their communities. It represents the cycle of life, the interconnectedness of all beings, and the harmony between humans and nature. The circular shape of the hoops symbolizes unity, eternity, and the never-ending cycle of creation and rebirth."

(nativetribe.info/enchanting-indigenous-hoop-dancing-in-ca...)

5 in 1, a large NYC public art piece dating back to 1973 is a work by Tony Rosenthal. The five interlocking discs represent the interconnectedness of the City's Five Boroughs, Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island.

Butterfly effect is the concept in chaos theory that suggests small changes can have large effects over time. It is often metaphorically described as the idea that the flapping of a butterfly's wings in one part of the world could eventually cause a hurricane in another part of the world. This concept highlights the interconnectedness and sensitivity of complex systems, where small initial variations can lead to significant differences in outcomes.

"It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world" -

The Misunderstanding of Arbitrary Rules and Their Gift of the Moment (there's a question at the end and I want to know what you think)

Before I did this full time I had a mode. Go make, write it up and post. All on the same day.

Between sleeps it made the day alive. Being drawn into the moment right at the beginning of the process and then grabbing threads and tying them all together into a complex cat's cradle of interconnectedness.

Well, boy, that sounds mighty grand but is it?

It was with a reflective mood that I went up to Baines Crag today. I had begun the day listening to a programme on the radio where a group talked about the self and what it is.

A psychologist talked about how our sense of self is an illusion and it is all hastily spun together in the moment and that concept I can very much believe.

I think that a lot of what we think we are and what we think happens to us is an illusion and when I say that some people think that I am denying the magic of our existence.

Nope, very much the contrary.

Fate, coincidences, serendipity, synchonicity or just plain optimism and luck are great things to believe in and in fact enhances one's life if you do. Perhaps this is the principle behind religious faith. But here's the crux and the paradox too. I do believe in those things but I don't think they are true.

I don't think the universe conspires to provide me with good luck or moments of artistic serendipity where I can see through the layers and perceive the joins between seemingly unconnected things. And yet when I go out and do my thing, teaching others or stacking ice balls into pyramids my experience is chock full of little coincidences and clarifying connections. And the real magic is that there is no-one or nothing making those things happen and my human experience is blessed with a feeling that all those connections are coming together in that moment just for me and yet it is just a happy accident. That is the real magic of our existence and I am forever in its awe. In the midst of my insignificance amongst the vastness of this universe I have been granted the pinnacle of gifts which is life and the health and fortune to experience it.

If the precious moments of life are not transient then what is their value? The gift of life is that it does not last, ephemeral nature art is a celebration of all of that.

Which leads me to another question. Having seemingly answered the question you did not ask before you didn't ask it: What is ephemeral nature art, land art, earth art or whatever you want to call it?

I've been thinking about that after seeing a comment somewhere where someone stated "this is not land art, it is nice but it is just a drawing on sand" so it begs the question what is it then?

Let's get the easy answers out of the way first. It's not any old picture of a landscape or something interesting in nature. The groups on Facebook and every other place I have posted are riven with photos of views of nature that have had no input from an artist other than to press a button on a digital gadget. It's why I don't get involved in groups much anymore and why I've stopped hosting my own.

But that's not really relevant here so what does it mean to me? My own particular passionate portion I describe as ephemeral nature art. A study in the short-lived, the transient and interconnected.

I'm always being told what the rules are and what I should or should not be doing. Don't use this tool or that, don't move anything from one place to another, that validity only comes from complying with the rule setters opinions on what is aesthetic, or expected, has earned x number of likes or shares or that the eco-jury deem you to have not created any undue impact on the environment within which you created something. The irony of being told that by someone communicating with you from many miles away on a device swaddling a squadron of precious metals dug from the ground in a war zone is not lost on me but has obviously gone astray somewhat at the other end of the line.

We are in the midst of a very cold snap here in the UK as is much of Europe. A meterologist expounded on the radio about how the jetstream has split and a blocking high is drawing in winds and cold from Siberia and the warming currents from the Atlantic are being kept at bay. It was in 2010 when we last had something similar, consistently low temperatures for several days and to experience it more deeply I made ice sculptures that took several days to prepare. When the temperature does not go above freezing for several days it means that I can make things that don't melt during the day. It is a rare opportunity.

I have a few different modes when I make things all designed to draw me into the moment. Sometimes I use no tools, sometimes I use a one or two, often times I use ony what I find in one place, occassionally I collect from a number of places and bring together into one. A painter may seek to master their art by limiting their tools to oils, brushes and canvas and through attempting to master those objects come to learn whatever it is they are seeking. It does not matter what the arbitrary rules are as it is just a route through which you can understand a little of what you are doing. Most often my rules are: one or two tools, use only natural materials you find, no photoshop trickery or cheating and write as long and boring an essay as possible to see how many people can read to the end ;-). Are you still here?

I began with 'before I did this full time I had a mode' and now I am full time I have a different mode which consists of 10 hours a day in front of a screen doing admin, responding to emails and PR on social media, if you want to put food on the table there's little time to actually do any art! So the moments when I can are precious and to return to the mode of between sleeps is a very joyful thing. So here it is, I made this this morning when some of what you see here is from the past.

Ice at this latitude is the very definition of transient and so in the low temperatures we are having I've been making ice balls with moulds. Is that cheating? Is that what you are thinking? Perhaps but as I said it's how you use the rules that is important not what they actually are. I don't often use things like that but I say so when I do, I am interested in exploring this cold snap and what it makes me feel and think and not what rules I should be following this time around. Ice balls are fun after all and I haven't worked out how to make them free hand just yet ;-).

I only have a few moulds so I have to make them a few at a time and by doing this my experience is of the cold snap, how it is lasting and how quickly and slowing things are freezing and how the temperature fluctuates in a full day. Now that is what nature art is about. Not the tools, not the internet-eco-jury rules, but the connectedness with nature.

I took my balls up the hill, some of them colder than others ;-) and looked across to the opposite hill where game keepers were burning the heather. They do this to keep the shooting tips young so that the grouse can eat them and in turn people with a lot of money can shoot them. It's a pretty expensive way of conjuring up Sunday lunch but I'm told that grouse are the best for shooting at as they are difficult to hit and this is seen as a challenge for people who think it is a sport. Vast swathes of northern England are managed for this purpose with much else not useful shot, poisoned or exterminated and the ground grazed to ensure that no trees grow creating run off problems and subsequent flooding. It's fine though as they insist that they are managing the land on our behalf, the land they fought tooth and nail to keep us from acccessing. They were burning the heather in the same spot where I last made something a couple of weeks ago, the same place where I sought permission to make things a number of years ago and was told I would detract from the 'wilderness' which was fair enough as the mono-culture desert just for grouse and shotgun touting hoorays, complete with wartime artillery range and quarry is certainly the very definition of wilderness. (You can see the smoke from the burning in the background).

Err, ahh, ahem, any of you still with me?

As I constructed my self in those moments sat on the rough rock of the crag, selecting slabs to base out the pyramid then stacking my ice balls, I pulled together a whole myriad of memories and moments, thoughts, feelings and reflections. This cold snap has been accompanied by strong easterly winds and despite the ground being frozen solid, it's not white and there was very little snow aside from a few flakes in the air. The wind has kept the white frost at bay. I hadn't been back to this spot for many years and as I selected a flat spot I noticed that it was the same spot a displayed another sculpture probably at least 10 years ago. Because I spent connected time there a decade ago I remembered it when I've already forgotten what I ate for breakfast.

I gazed across to the heather burning and was struck by all the times I had spent over there, what I had been doing and all the feelings I had had. My connection with that landscape and how it was where it all began for me and how it is intricately entwined with the moment mid-life where everything changed. I remembered back to the other cold snap like this we had had 10 years ago and to the conversations we had on my workshop on Saturday where we talked about grouse moors, heather burning, interconnectedness and coincidences. How here as everywhere the elements are all connected and flowing as one: the cold, the ice, the fire and smoke, the sky and the sea and me. For me this image encapsulates all of that and more, it is an expression of the cold, the wind, the memories, the managed landscape and how simple things like how the ground is not white but should be is juxtaposed against the glowing ice.

In those joined instances as I drew an outline around my inner self and coloured it in with the feelings of the moment I felt like I was standing in the middle of experience and was simply tying together all those strands into a single knot of my perception.

It didn't take long to construct but it managed its mission to draw me into the moment. The temperature was a little above freezing so frozen things weren't destined to stick to others just now, but this is just the beginning of this big freeze and of what I want to try out this week. So just a doodle to start with, let's see what time hovering around water's freezing point will bring. At least before I fly to Texas this weekend for the Llano Earth Art Festival and some welcome warmth, hooray!

What is land art? It's gardening, it's fishing, it's standing and simply being. It's using found tools such as thorns and other times made tools such as knives. It's being a creature that disturbs a habitat just by existing while being cogniscent of that is what you are while trying to be minimal in your impact. It's life and connections, sometimes being pure, sometimes less so. But above all it is authentic and real, and really how it was in that moment, there's no cheating or trickery if you are honest about what you do. Set the rules and use them as tools but dont judge what others are doing. While you are doing that you are missing out on your own opportunities.

What is your way to the truth? What do you think nature art is?

Maarten (28) is a kind dutchman and diver and skier. As we were running around Sukhothai his ear was constantly dripping from his diving accident. I had such a fun time with him.

Maarten loves social media and selfies especially, but pssst don't tell anyone!

This series is called Interconnectedness and portraits Travelers and Locals in South East Asia alike. Everybody is the same but then again everybody behaves differently and lives in a different "bubble".

There is much more to come!

I invite you to press "L"

The "Arc 217.5 x 13" by artist Bernar Venet, was named as such for the degree of the curve of each of the 13 iron arcs. It supposedly symbolizes the interconnectedness of math, nature, the universe and life. That or you can just enjoy the sunset.

15. Cryo Unit: Threatened to overwhelm me

As the de-adenosine sequence reached its apex, a cosmic symphony of dissolution began. The last, fragile barriers of selfhood, meticulously constructed over a lifetime, crumbled into stardust. The rigid distinction between my physical body and the intricate machinery that now sustained me, between the ephemeral nature of thought and the overwhelming, external chaos, bled away with an exquisite, agonising slowness. It was as if a dam had burst, unleashing a torrent of pure, unadulterated consciousness. The shimmering nebula of my mind, once a mere poetic metaphor, materialised into my literal form, an ethereal cloud of pure energy. I became an observer, detached yet intimately connected, as currents of vibrant, cosmic colour flowed through what were once my limbs. Brilliant hues, reminiscent of a newborn star's fiery birth, filled the space where my heart had once pulsed with the organic dread of mortality.

That primal fear, a constant companion throughout my existence, dissolved into nothingness, replaced by an unsettling, almost serene acceptance. The very logic that had anchored my understanding of the universe evaporated, leaving behind a profound sense of interconnectedness. My companions, once loaded with personal history and emotional resonance, became faint, distant stars in the swirling, luminous galaxy that was now my mind. They were memories, yes, but memories observed from an impossible distance, devoid of their former grip.

I was a ghost in a bottle, adrift in a tear in reality, a rift in the fabric of spacetime itself. The chaos that had once threatened to overwhelm me from the outside no longer felt like a menace, but rather a profound, encompassing presence, a silent witness to my transformation. And in the quiet, vibrant heart of it all, a powerful, inexplicable pull emerged. It was not the familiar, gravitational tug of a celestial body, but rather a profound sense of purpose, an undeniable calling. A silent invitation, emanating from the sentient whispers of survival and the tantalising promises of ultimate transformation, drew me deeper into the cosmic dance. I was no longer merely existing; I was becoming.

Podcast:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXaHuXMcUMrhIzfjKlj9clJCOf...

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www.facebook.com/watch/100063480315046/1020837046583872/

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Mário Silva is a contemporary Portuguese painter known for his works (AI) that depict scenes from Portuguese rural life.

His paintings (AI) are often characterized by their earthy color palette and attention to detail.

Silva is particularly known for his paintings of women, who are often depicted in traditional activities such as weaving, spinning and cooking.

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The painting "Woman preparing woolen threads for weaving" depicts a woman in a country house, preparing woolen threads for weaving on a loom.

The woman is sitting on a bench, with threads of wool spread around her.

She is using a spinning wheel to spin the wool and a bobbin to wind the threads.

The painting also includes other elements of the rural scene, such as rustic furniture and household items.

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The painting "Woman preparing woolen threads for weaving" can be analyzed in many different ways.

A possible analysis could focus on the role of women in traditional rural society.

The woman in the painting is performing an essential task for the production of clothing and other household goods.

Her image can be seen as a symbol of the strength and resilience of rural women.

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Another possible analysis could focus on the relationship between women and nature.

The wool used in the painting comes from sheep, which are animals raised by the same woman.

The painting can be seen as a celebration of the interconnectedness between humans and the natural world.

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Finally, painting can also be analyzed in terms of its aesthetics.

The earthy color palette and attention to detail in the painting are characteristics of Mário Silva's style.

The painting can be seen as an example of the artist's (AI) ability to capture the beauty of Portuguese rural life.

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Text & Painting (AI): ©MárioSilva

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FINDING PEACE AMIDST MANY WARS.

A One Picture Story

by

Richard Hatch

While it may be easy to see peace and contentment in this image, one has to stop and look deeply to see the many wars.

The chair Jasmine is sitting on is a family heirloom. When I was a child it was in my mother's parents house. Along with my grandparents William and Ida, Ida’s mother Louisa Arnreich (Mama Lou) and Louisa’s brother Homer lived in the house. I refer to the chair as "Homer's Chair" as my memory or perhaps memories of stories have him sitting in this chair. He was a short man and very quiet. At a very young age he went off to fight at some front in some foreign country in the Great War (it was only during or after World War II that it became known as World War I). He was single and had no children. Some stories suggested he drank too much. It is likely he suffered greatly from the experience. These days he would probably be labeled with PTSD but back then they referred to it as "shellshocked". Searching and learning about my ancestors I found out Homer had a younger brother Ferdinand who spent many years in a state hospital for the insane and eventually died there. I don’t know if Ferdinand also fought in the Great War but he clearly suffered through many personal wars.

The beautiful dress Jasmine is wearing was made by Chinese garment makers. It was likely they were paid very little and lived in poverty. The label declares "Made in British Crown Colony of Hong Kong". It was made in the 1950s-1960s. The garment makers and needleworkers who touched this fabric were most likely female. It is possible they or their parents were in Hong Kong when the Japanese invaded and took over Hong Kong on the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. They may have carried the suffering of their ancestors who were present during the opium wars of the 1800s. Some of their ancestors may have been enslaved and sent to Peru or Cuba to work in horrendous conditions. The journey on sailing ships leaving China to many parts of the world, sometimes referred to as the Pacific Passage, is described as being as dangerous and inhumane comparable to the notorious Middle Passage of the Atlantic slave trade. It was common for 30 out of every 100 enslaved Chinese to die on the trip alone. It is also possible the women who made this garment had ancestors who were brought to the USA to work on the first transcontinental railroad. (Coolies)

The oil on canvas that Jasmine is holding so gently depicts a Zen like image of a lady pouring tea. The painting was given to us by a friend who was running short on time. Dyck Dewid had a terminal illness. He was sharp as a tack while his wife Lynda was suffering from advanced dementia. He knew he would not be around to take care of her so he was busy preparing for her future well-being. They had a house full of memories and art and were rapidly downsizing to move into an assisted living facility. He was a very intelligent active outspoken activist. He was energetically involved in his local Occupy movement. During his fight with time and making arrangements to make sure his wife would be cared for after his passing, he embraced the experience. He planned in depth his "green" funeral. The coffin he was to be buried in was made of simple pine wood and was disassembled and tucked neatly under his bed during his final weeks. He had great peace despite the multiple wars he was fighting. According to his wishes and plans, at his wake using paints and markers we wrote messages, drew pictures and painted images on his coffin while he laid in full view. Songs were sung, music played and dancers danced.

Before he died, Dyck gave the painting to Karen to keep for whatever time she thought was right but with the instructions she had to pass it on before she died. He knew the artist who painted the picture. She was busy fighting emotional and financial wars of her own. He knew she needed money so he paid her to make a painting for him. This was the last painting she made before she took her life. Perhaps it was the only peace she could find amidst her wars.

Jasmine is 20 years old. She is attending school in New York City working on her BFA. She is a dancer. She has trained with many talented famous dancers. I have taken pictures of her, her brother Chris, her sister-in-law Katie and Katie and Chris’s daughter Charlotte. However, I do not know her story. I do not know details of her ancestors. I do know from experience it is likely many have suffered greatly.

A week prior to the photo shoot when I made this picture I purchased the brown backdrop. It has a tag with the word “India”. There is a fabric manufacturer in Kanpur which is about 200 miles from where the Buddha was born (Siddhartha Gautama born 600 BCE in Lumbini-now modern day Nepal) It is possible the fabric was made there or in many other places in India. Maybe the fabric workers’ ancestors of many generations ago heard of the Buddha or perhaps listened to him or even touched him.

The fabric was likely shipped overseas in a container, one of thousands, on the deck of a ship exposed to the elements traveling countless miles across open oceans. Shipping being what it is, the ship was flagged in some country other than the USA. This way the shipping company can have more leeway to control how crew is treated and paid so they can increase profits. The typical crew on such a ship is rarely going to be allowed to set foot on the shore of countries they deliver their goods to. Sometimes they spend years crossing the globe before they can make it back to their homeland and see their families.

I was born in 1957, two years after the start of the “Vietnam War”. Most of what I learned about the war was from the news on one of 3 channels on a black and white TV. The wars and protests and riots in the streets of Baltimore in the 60’s were only a handful of miles away but somehow they never seemed to interfere with my life as a kid. By the late 60’s and early 70’s we were writing letters in school to POW’s and wearing bracelets with their names on them. I don’t recall much if any talk of the people in Vietnam suffering. The news was all about body counts of US soldiers and winning and losing.

I bought my first camera in 1973. (I saved up 215 dollars working in a grocery store run by Morris and Lisa Zolteck who were Polish immigrants.) That was the year Nixon announced "the day we have all worked and prayed for has finally come" as the US withdrew its troops to “end the war and bring peace with honor.” By 1975 I was busy fighting personal wars and what was outside didn’t seem to matter. While I don’t think I won any of those wars, (there are no winners of war) I survived long enough to find healing and to begin to understand how we are all connected.

I have just passed on in my own words what I have learned from many wise people: Looking deeply, interbeing, interconnectedness and deep listening and mindfulness come to mind. I have learned that suffering and happiness are connected. Happiness can not exist without suffering. Where you find one, you can find the other.

If you look deeply at peace you can find war and in the midst of great wars you can also find peace.

In the tranquil embrace of Portugal's Mondego River, a picturesque spectacle unfolded as I witnessed a graceful dance of nature. ️ A captivating Little Egret emerged from the reeds, its snow-white plumage contrasting beautifully against the verdant backdrop. With patient steps, it navigated the shallow waters, its slender figure a testament to nature's artistry.

As I stood in awe, the air was filled with a sense of anticipation – the river's rhythm and the egret's presence in perfect harmony. It was a scene frozen in time, each ripple on the water's surface mirroring the egret's deliberate steps.

In an instant, the egret's keen eyes locked onto its prey beneath the water's surface. With a lightning-quick strike, it plunged its dagger-like beak into the depths, emerging victorious with a glimmering fish clutched tightly in its grasp. A master of patience and precision, the Little Egret demonstrated the timeless dance of predator and prey.

The sun, now casting a warm golden glow, illuminated the egret's every move. Every feather seemed to radiate with a luminous energy, turning an ordinary hunting moment into a work of art. I couldn't help but marvel at the delicate balance of nature's forces – survival, beauty, and the interconnectedness of all living things.

As the egret took flight, its wings spread wide against the azure sky, a sense of gratitude washed over me. In this fleeting encounter, I had been granted a glimpse into the hidden world of the Mondego River, a world where the delicate grace of a Little Egret could paint a story of life's unending cycle.

#NatureMagic #MondegoElegance #WildlifeEncounters 🌍📷

Focus stack of four photographs.

"Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."

Attributed to Chief Seattle

There is a lot of confusion about the origin of the second quote. Did Chief Seattle really say this in mid 1850s or it was by a man by the name of Tod Parry who wrote it in 1970s. No confusion about the first quote though. It was by Sir Walter Scott and I must admit that I have taken it a little out of context.

Let us leave aside the origin of these quotes for the moment. I find the statement that we humans are just a part of a complex whole and that our actions have implications beyond what we can readily see as very profound. It is more and more aligned with the evolving wisdom of the human race in general. Less and less anthropocentric. More and more inclusive. Heisenberg makes more and more sense. In short, we are becoming less and less cocky.

Earth is not the centre of the solar system any more; our galaxy is not the centre of the universe any more; and humans are not the privileged children of the cosmos any more. While this may seem as comedown, actually it is a sign of our growing more mature as a race.. It is as if the child grows up and recognises that it is not dependence or independance but interdependence which matters.

But more than all this abstraction, I find the statement holding a lot of practical value for us in the way we live our lives and look at problems. Our problems today have arisen with our solutions yesterday. It is said that many people thought in the early 20th century that problems of pollution in the roads because of horses were going to be wiped out with the advent of automobiles!

We are also discovering interconnectedness more and more. Many school children today understand the oil politics and economics. When I was in school I never knew what snakes had to with people. I did not know what it means have tigers in the forest.

We are seeing beyond the strands and looking at the web more today. And what a tangled web we see.

Nawal Al Saadawi Speaks on Intellectuals, Politics, and Sexuality.Nawal el-Saadawi remains one of the most famous Arab feminists. By the same token, many consider her one of the most radical and uncompromising activists. Her radicalism spans a wide range of issues, including women’s sexuality, the circumcisions of young girls, and, perhaps most irritating to Arab governments, her insistence on the interconnectedness of sexuality and politics, a perspective which leads her to conclude that they need not be separated.

By Elie Chalala

www.aljadid.com/content/nawal-al-saadawi-speaks-intellect...

Woke up in the middle of the night and decided to take the trash out. The sky was cloud- covered, not a single star to be seen. The street was empty and I felt a slight longing for something I couldn’t put my finger on so I switch on the computer, make of cup of ginger tea and play with some art. Cued on my listening list is a video by Shoshana Zuboff, author of “Surveillance Capitalism”. I take a deep breath in and began to loosen up and let myself go on another artistic voyage.

Since 1978, Shoshana has been studying the dawn of the “Digital Age”which was going to usher in a golden time of global collaborations to solve great world challenges like disease and hunger. Now 43 years later, she published a book to warn us to reclaim the liberties taken by those who have hijacked the digital domain and who mine insane amounts of data from an unsuspecting user base. She says that F.Book, for example, extracts 3 trillion bits of information and spits out 6 million human behavioral predictions per second. (My image takes on this idea of separating: The metal bars, the surveillance camera, the projected image and the artist protagonist who sings and dreams and holds on the beauty of her own created thought world.) Shoshana says that these human predictions are bought and sold like wheat or oil or minerals and companies compete to have access to the most accurate outcomes of these behavioral forecasts. This is the most lucrative and substantial real-estate of the modern age. We are not the customer, we are simply a resource…being fed into algorithims which are then studied and sold back to us in the form of everything from political leanings to personalized selections of consumer goods and lifestyle choices. She says that facial recognition technology can now even detect fear and there is a sound device that can pick up your surroundings so a targeted ad can be sent to you in a vulnerable moment and be designed in such a way that you give in.

I think of this invasive siphoning as a kind of instrumental colonialism confiscating our private thoughts and feelings in order to take ownership of them. Roshana urges us to keep asking three key questions: Who is in the Know? Who decides who will be in the Know? Who decides who decides who will be in the Know? (Two hands represent this chasm …) The increasing divisiveness in the climate, health, technology and religious debates seems to support this idea. (The projected image on a laptop appears. What is real and what is not real?) She ends the talk on a hopeful note saying that even the industrial revolution had to hammer out human rights issues and this is the time to bring the digital frontier into the so called “house of democracy”. She said that cyberspace is only made of data, capital, machines and people. She emphasizes that these are unprecedented times and we need to be vigilent. We need to keep asking questions.

It’s almost noon now as I lean back and stretch. My heart scans the artwork as the images dance, rearrange in a new ways to interpret the interconnectedness of thoughts and things; the maco and micro worlds are always in synch. Vibrational differences give the illusion of separation while the giving and taking hands are the polarities that move and shake this existence with masculine and feminine givng and receiving aspects. The musician reclaims her songs and pulsates with rhythms through endless wave form patterns. When we remember who we are, we can take charge again. We make better choices. We are not the bystander but pioneer new visions with the perspective that the digital world offers new tools of collaboration and engagement with cutting edge of possibilities. In this refiguring, there is joy, freedom and deep reverence. We take care of ourselves, each other and the earth because we know we are all part of a great Love Story. We all write the story together.

“Though free to think and act, we are held together like stars in the firmament with ties unseperable. These ties cannot be seen, but we can feel them. We are all one.”

-Nikola Tesla

Here is the video this writing refers to:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm2i4OlW3sM (Shoshana starts 8 minutes in…)

This is a beautiful mural but it feels like something is missing. It may be a matter of the focal point like the moth was on the left. Possibly the window or window treatment interrupts the flow. Or, maybe there is no flow or interconnectedness. Maybe the items need to be somehow intertwined- it’s just a feeling.

This photograph beautifully captures a moment of serene harmony in the wild, where a diverse group of animals peacefully shares a vital resource. A graceful deer stands by the water's edge, its presence a quiet anchor in the scene. Nearby, several kinds of birds—perhaps a majestic heron, a flock of smaller sparrows, or a vibrant kingfisher—have gathered, each in their own world yet united by their need for water. The image is a powerful reminder of nature's interconnectedness, where different species, with their unique needs and behaviors, come together at a shared sanctuary, illustrating a universal truce in the face of a common necessity.

(French follows)

Toronto Island Park is a peaceful escape just a short ferry ride from downtown Toronto, offering a refreshing contrast to the city's buzz. Spread across several interconnected islands on Lake Ontario, the park features scenic beaches, lush gardens, bike paths, and picnic spots. It’s popular for family outings, romantic strolls, and serene sunrises, where skyline views meet soft waves and willow trees.

Toronto Island Park, Ontario, Canada

*************

Le parc des îles de Toronto est une évasion paisible à quelques minutes en traversier du centre-ville, offrant un contraste rafraîchissant avec l'effervescence de la ville. Réparti sur plusieurs îles interconnectées du lac Ontario, le parc offre des plages pittoresques, des jardins luxuriants, des pistes cyclables et des aires de pique-nique. Il est prisé pour les sorties en famille, les promenades romantiques et les levers de soleil sereins, où la vue sur la ville côtoie les vagues et les saules.

Parc de l'île de Toronto, Ontario, Canada

See also Agata Olek talks about her 100% Acrylic Art Guards (Flickr 720p HD video)

Agata Olek (Flickr)

100% Acrylic Art Guards

"I think crochet, the way I create it, is a metaphor for the complexity and interconnectedness of our body and its systems and psychology. The connections are stronger as one fabric as opposed to separate strands, but, if you cut one, the whole thing will fall apart.

Relationships are complex and greatly vary situation to situation. They are developmental journeys of growth, and transformation. Time passes, great distances are surpassed and the fabric which individuals are composed of compiles and unravels simultaneously."

Agata Olek Biography. The SPLAT! of colors hits you in the face, often clashing so ostentatiously that it instantly tunes you into the presence of severely cheeky humor. A moment later the fatigue of labor creeps into your fingers as a coal miner's work ethic becomes apparent. Hundreds of miles of crocheted, weaved, and often recycled materials are the fabric from which the wild and occasionally wearable structures of her fantasylands are born.

Olek was born Agata Oleksiak in Poland and graduated from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland with a degree in cultural studies. In New York, she rediscovered her ability to crochet and since then she has started her crocheted journey/madness.

Resume sniffers may be pleased to know Olek's work has been presented in galleries from Brooklyn to Istanbul to Venice and Brazil, featured in "The New York Times", "Fiberarts Magazine", "The Village Voice", and "Washington Post" and drags a tail of dance performance sets and costumes too numerous to mention.

Olek received the Ruth Mellon Award for Sculpture, was selected for 2005 residency program at Sculpture Space, 2009 residency in Instituto Sacatar in Brazil, and is a winner of apex art gallery commercial competition. Olek was an artist in an independent collective exhibition, "Waterways," during the 49th Venice Biennale. She was also a featured artist in "Two Continents Beyond," at the 9th International Istanbul Biennale.

Olek herself however can be found in her Greenpoint studio with a bottle of spiced Polish vodka and a hand rolled cigarette aggressively re-weaving the world as she sees.

agataolek.com

agataolek.com/blog

13th annual D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge Festival® (Sept 25 to Sept 27, 2009)

www.dumboartfestival.org/press_release.html

The three-day multi-site neighborhood-wide event is a one-of-a-kind art happening: where serendipity meets the haphazard and where the unpredictable, spontaneous and downright weird thrive. The now teenage D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge Festival® presents touchable, accessible, and interactive art, on a scale that makes it the nation's largest urban forum for experimental art.

Art Under the Bridge is an opportunity for young artists to use any medium imaginable to create temporary projects on-the-spot everywhere and anywhere, completely transforming the Dumbo section of Brooklyn, New York, into a vibrant platform for self-expression. In addition to the 80+ projects throughout the historical post-industrial waterfront span, visitors can tour local artists' studios or check out the indoor video_dumbo, a non-stop program of cutting-edge video art from New York City and around the world.

The Dumbo Arts Center (DAC) has been the exclusive producer of the D.U.M.B.O Art Under the Bridge Festival® since 1997. DAC is a big impact, small non-profit, that in addition to its year-round gallery exhibitions, is committed to preserving Dumbo as a site in New York City where emerging visual artists can experiment in the public domain, while having unprecedented freedom and access to normally off-limit locations.

www.dumboartscenter.org

www.dumboartfestival.org

www.video_dumbo.org

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'#interconnectedness' 2018 #seotus #studying #synergy #students #threads #stringart #installation #blue #architecture #indoor #estonia #tallinn #contemporaryart #art #АЪ EKA81 2018-107 17.12.2018 (2)

If the gods of time are multiple like Aïon (that of eternity), or Chronos (the god of time, the son of Ouranos), to differentiate from his homophone Cronos (the equivalent of Saturn, who devoured his children), there is one that invites us to seize the moment, opportune, ephemeral...": Kaïros. A mythological figure close to Hermes and Eros, he is a true gift for feeling "the right moment". Unlike that of the Devil ("dividing one"), the function of Kaïros comes under the symbol ("putting together"), allowing to evaluate very quickly what presents itself and what should be done. Because it provides a disposition to discernment, to work in multiple fields (medicine, navigation, rhetoric, etc.), it allows to make a decision, quickly and well, among multiple possible ones. Few iconographic representations have illustrated him: he was a young man whose only tuft of hair on his head had to be grasped when he passed by... in order to seize the opportunity! Without seeing it or doing nothing, we passed by... Relevant to both secular decisive time and sacred time, it has the particularity of being in relation to synchronicity, synchronizing two events without causal link between them where time and action combine. The difficulty is to seize this time in a timely fashion, this time just right. Symbolic tools can help us, such as images, dreams, archetypal representations or other media, such as astrology or tarots. Kaïros is no stranger to astrology, an area that Jung also looked into at the beginning of his research. Thus in Paracelsica, or The Roots of Consciousness, Jung evokes the possibility of raising the patient's theme during his cure. The celestial symbolism of the birth theme can prove to be a formidable road map of the psyche's time. But Kaïros, god of the "right moment", can also be compared to the Tarots de Marseille, whose cards - in a particular draw - present the constellation of the "moment" for whoever consults them: is it time to seize or not what is presented? Far from the predictable linear physical time (Chronos), Kaïros acts on temporality, it mobilizes our ability to evaluate the circumstances in order to act neither too early nor too late. Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment). The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos referring to sequential time, and kairos, a moment of indeterminate time in which events happen: mood of universal destruction and renewal...has set its mark on our age. This mood

makes itself felt everywhere, politically, socially, and philosophically. We are living in what the Greeks called the kairos- the right moment- for a "metamorphosis of the gods,"

of the fundamental principles and symbols. We are living in what the Greeks called the kairos- the right moment- for a 'metamorphosis of the gods', of the fundamental principles and symbols. This peculiarity of our time, which is certainly not of our conscious choosing, is the expression of the unconscious man within us who is changing. This peculiarity of our time, which is certainly not of our conscious choosing, is the expression of the unconscious human within us who is changing. Coming generations will have to take account of this momentous transformation if humanity is not to destroy itself through the might of its own technology and science....So much is at stake and so much depends on the psychological constitution of the modern human.

C. G. Jung

“…what is time? Who can give that a brief or easy answer? Who can even form a conception of it to be put into words? Yet what do we mention more often or familiarly in our conversation than time? We must therefore know what we are talking about when we refer to it, or when we hear someone else doing so. But what, exactly, is that? I know what it is if no one asks; but if anyone does, then I cannot explain it.”

-Saint Augustine, Confessions (book 11, chapter 3) (~400CE)

One thing is for sure, whatever the ego thinks time is—whatever spell it tries to cast with its alphabetic magic to capture it—it will almost certainly miss the mark. Whatever time is, we should admit we are mostly unconscious of it. In fact, it seems to me that there is an intimate connection, perhaps even an identity, between time and the Jungian notion of the unconscious, a connection that archetypal cosmology obviously substantiates. Despite time’s unconscious depths and ineffability, I am after all a philosopher, and we love nothing more than to try to “eff” the ineffable.

In the 15 brief minutes I have with you, I want to introduce, with help from the Ancient Greek language, 3 different modalities of temporality, or rather, I want to introduce you to 3 Gods, each with a powerful hand in shaping our experience of time: Chronos, Kairos, and Aion. In concrete experience, each mode appears to me at least to be co-present and interwoven; I only separate them abstractly to help us get a better sense for the anatomy of time. Of course, we should remember all the while that “we murder to dissect” (Wordsworth).

I therefore humbly ask for the blessing of the Gods of time as I embark on this short journey into their meanings. May you grant us entry into your mysteries.

A Brief History of (the Idea of) Time:

1. Plato suggests in the Timaeus that time is brought forth by the rhythmic dancing of the Sun, Moon, and five other planets then known upon the stage of 12 constellations. Through the cooperative and friendly circling of these archetypal beings, eternity is permitted entry into time. Time, in other words, is said to emerge from the harmonious or regular motion of the heavens—motion regulated by mathematical harmonies. Plato’s ancient vision of a perfect cosmic order had it that the motion of the 7 known planetary spheres was in mathematical harmony with the 8th supraplanetary sphere of fixed constellations, that the ratios of their orbits added up to one complete whole, finding their unity in what has been called the Platonic or Great Year (known to us today as the 26,000 year precession of the equinoxes). This highest of the heavenly spheres was the God known to the ancients as Aion.

2. Aristotle critiqued Plato’s idea of time as produced by motion. Aristotle argued that time couldn’t possibly be produced by motion, because motion itself is something we measure using time. Motion can be fast or slow, he argued, but time always flows at the same rate. Time is simply a way of measuring change. Aristotle’s conception of time, then, is chronic, rather than aionic. His was the beginning of the scientific view of time as a merely conventional measurement, rather than a cosmic motion, as with Plato.

3. Galileo’s view of the universe was, on the face of it, a complete rejection of Aristotle’s physics. Remember that Aristotle still held a teleological view of chronological time: an apple falls to the ground, for Aristotle, because it desires to do so, because earth is its natural home; for Galileo, nothing in the apple compels it to fall, it is simply a blind happening working according to mechanical laws. Galileo, like Newton and Descartes, rejected the idea of purposeful, meaningful time. Time became for them merely a function in a differential equation. In a sense, then, though the early scientists rejected Aristotle’s view of teleological time, they only further formalized Aristotle’s view of time as a measure of motion. Time became t, a variable quantity used to calculate the precise velocity of material bodies through space. 4. Einstein’s theory of relativity revealed how time and space are intimately related, since, strange as it may seem, as speed increases, time slows. But still, time is understood not on its own terms, but is reduced to a linear, easily measurable and quantifiable function. The reduction of time to Chronos may have begun with Aristotle, but was carried to new extremes by modern materialistic science. 5. Today we know things are quite a bit more chaotic than earlier thinkers, including Plato, let on: we live in a chaosmos, not a perfect cosmos; an open spiral not a closed circle. The orbital periods of the planets shift ever so slightly as the years pass, and the “fixed” stars are actually not fixed at all. Our universe is very strange, and measuring time is no easy matter. Even merely chronological time is extremely counter-intuitive: A day on Venus, for instance, is longer than a Venusian year. Everything is spinning around everything else. Time is then not a moving image of eternal perfection; rather, time is what happens when divinity loses its balance and gets dizzy. But don’t worry, there is nowhere to fall over in the infinite expanses of space. What is happening when referring to kairos depends on who is using the word. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative, permanent nature. The union of kairos and logos is the philosophical task set for us in philosophy and in all fields that are accessible to the philosophical attitude. The logos is to be taken up into the kairos, universal values into the fullness of time, truth into the fate of existence. The separation of idea and existence has to be brought to an end. It is the very nature of essence to come into existence, to enter into time and fate. This happens to essence not because of something extraneous to it; it is rather the expression of its own intrinsic character, of its freedom. And it is essential to philosophy to stand in existence, to create out of time and fate. It would be wrong if one were to characterize this as a knowledge bound to necessity. Since existence itself stands in fate, it is proper that philosophy should also stand in fate. Existence and knowledge both are subject to fate. The immutable and eternal heaven of truth of which Plato speaks is accessible only to a knowledge that is free from fate—to divine knowledge. The truth that stands in fate is accessible to him who stands within fate, who is himself an element of fate, for thought is a part of existence. And not only is existence fate to thought, but so also is thought fate to existence, just as everything is fate to everything else. Thought is one of the powers of being, it is a power within existence. And it proves its power by being able to spring out of any given existential situation and create something new! It can leap over existence just as existence can leap over it. Because of this characteristic of thought, the view perhaps quite naturally arose that thought may be detached from existence and may therefore liberate man from his hateful bondage to it. But the history of philosophy itself has shown that this opinion is a mistaken one. The leap of thought does not involve a breaking of the ties with existence; even in the act of its greatest freedom, thought remains bound to fate. Thus the history of philosophy shows that all existence stands in fate. Every finite thing possesses a certain power of being of its own and thus possesses a capacity for fate. The greater a finite thing’s autonomous power of being is, the higher is its capacity for fate and the more deeply is the knowledge of it involved in fats. From physics on up to the normative cultural sciences there is a gradation, the logos standing at the one end and the kairos at the other. But there is no point at which either logos or kairos alone is to be found. Hence even our knowledge of the fateful character of philosophy must at the same time stand in logos and in kairos. If it stood only in the kairos, it would be without validity and the assertion would be valid only for the one making it; if it stood only in the logos, it would be without fate and would therefore have no part in existence, for existence is involved in fate.What are the deep stirrings in the collective psyche of the West? Can we discern any larger patterns in the immensely complex and seemingly chaotic flux and flow of our age? Influenced by the depth psychology tradition founded a century ago by Freud and Jung,and especially since the 1960s and the radical increase in psychological self-consciousness that era helped mediate, the cultural ethos of recent decades has made us well aware how important is the psychological task of understanding our personal histories. We have sought ever deeper insight into our individual biographies, seeking to recover the often hidden sources of our present condition, to render conscious those unconscious forces and complexes that shape our lives. Many now recognize that same task as critical for our entire civilization. What individuals and psychologists have long been doing has now become the collective responsibility of our culture: to make the unconscious conscious. And for a civilization, to a crucial extent, history is the great unconscious- history not so much as the external

chronology of political and military milestones, but as the interior history of a civilization: that unfolding drama evidenced in a culture's evolving cosmology, its philosophy and science, its religious consciousness, its art, its myths. For us to participate fully and creatively in shaping our future, we need to better understand the underlying patterns and

influences of our collective past. Only then can we begin to grasp what forces move within us today, and perhaps glimpse what may be emerging on the new millennial

horizon. I focus my discussion here on the West, but not out of any triumphalist presumption that the West is somehow intrinsically superior to other civilizations and thus most worthy of our attention. I do so rather because it is the West that has brought forth the political,technological, intellectual, and spiritual currents that have been most decisive in

constellating the contemporary world situation in all its problematic complexity. For better or worse, the character of the West has had a global impact, and will continue to do

so for the foreseeable future. Yet I also address the historical evolution of Western consciousness because, for most of us reading these words, this development represents

our own tradition, our legacy, our ancestral cultural matrix. Attending carefully and critically to this tradition fulfills a certain responsibility to the past, to our ancestors, just as

attempting to understand its deeper implications fulfills a responsibility to the future, to our children. A paradox confronts every sensitive observer about the West: On the one hand, we cannot fail to recognize a certain dynamism, a brilliant, heroic impulse, even a nobility, at work in Western civilization and in Western thought. We see this in the great

achievements of Greek philosophy and art, for example, or in the Sistine Chapel and other Renaissance masterpieces, in the plays of Shakespeare, in the music of Bach or Beethoven. We see it in the brilliance of the Copernican revolution, with the tremendous cosmological and even metaphysical transformation it has wrought in our civilization's

world view. We see it in the unprecedented space flights of a generation ago, landing men on the moon, or, more recently, in the spectacular images of the vast cosmos coming

from the Hubbell telescope and the new data and new perspectives these images have brought forth. And of course the great democratic revolutions of modernity, and the

powerful emancipatory movements of our own era, vividly reflect this extraordinary dynamism and even nobility of the West. Yet at the same time we are forced to admit that this very same historical tradition has caused immense suffering and loss, for many other cultures and peoples, for many people within Western culture itself, and for many other forms of life on the planet. Moreover, the West has played the central role in bringing about a subtly growing and seemingly

inexorable crisis on our planet, a crisis of multidimensional complexity: ecological, political, social, economic, intellectual, psychological, spiritual. To say our global civilization is becoming dysfunctional scarcely conveys the gravity of the situation. For humankind and the planet, we face the possibility of great catastrophe. For many forms of life on the Earth, that catastrophe has already taken place. How can we make sense of this tremendous paradox in the character and meaning of the West? If we examine many of the intellectual and cultural debates of our time, particularly near the epicenter of the major paradigm battles today, it is possible to see looming behind them two fundamental interpretations, two archetypal stories or metanarratives, concerning the evolution of human consciousness and the history of the Western mind. In essence these two metanarratives reflect two deep myths in the collective psyche- and let us define myths here not as mere falsehoods, nor as collective fantasies of an arbitrary sort, but rather as profound and enduring patterns of meaning that inform the human psyche and constellate its diverse realities. These two great myths in the collective psyche structure our historical self-understanding in very different ways. One could be called the myth of progress, the other the myth of the fall. The first, familiar to all of us from our education, describes the evolution of human consciousness, and particularly the history of the Western mind, as an extraordinary progressive development, a long heroic journey from a primitive world of dark ignorance,

suffering, and limitation to a brighter modern world of ever increasing knowledge, freedom, and well-being. This great trajectory of progress is seen as having been made possible by the sustained development of human reason, and above all by the emergence of the modern mind. We recognize this view whenever we encounter a book or program whose title is something like "The Ascent of Man" or "The Discoverers" or "Man's Conquest of Space," and so forth. The direction of history is seen as onward and upward. Humanity is here often personified as "man," and imaged, at least implicitly, as

a solar masculine hero of Promethean character: bold, restless, brilliantly innovative, ceaselessly pressing forward with his intelligence and will, breaking out of the structures

and limitations of the past, forever seeking greater freedom and new horizons, ascending to ever higher levels of development. The apex of human achievement in this vision

begins with the ascendance of modern science and individualistic democracy. The view of history is one of progressive emancipation and empowerment. It is a vision that emerged fully in the course of the European Enlightenment, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, though its roots are as old as Western civilization itself. In many respects our modern consciousness is so fully identified with this myth that it has become our common sense, the lineaments of our self-image as modern humans.The first, familiar to all of us from our education, describes the evolution of human consciousness, and particularly the history of the Western mind, as an extraordinary progressive development, a long heroic journey from a primitive world of dark ignorance,suffering, and limitation to a brighter modern world of ever increasing knowledge, freedom, and well-being. This great trajectory of progress is seen as having been made

possible by the sustained development of human reason, and above all by the emergence of the modern mind. We recognize this view whenever we encounter a book or program whose title is something like "The Ascent of Man" or "The Discoverers" or "Man's Conquest of Space," and so forth. The direction of history is seen as onward and upward. Humanity is here often personified as "man," and imaged, at least implicitly, as a solar masculine hero of Promethean character: bold, restless, brilliantly innovative, ceaselessly pressing forward with his intelligence and will, breaking out of the structures and limitations of the past, forever seeking greater freedom and new horizons, ascending

to ever higher levels of development. The apex of human achievement in this vision begins with the ascendance of modern science and individualistic democracy. The view

of history is one of progressive emancipation and empowerment. It is a vision that emerged fully in the course of the European Enlightenment, in the seventeenth and

eighteenth centuries, though its roots are as old as Western civilization itself. In many respects our modern consciousness is so fully identified with this myth that it has become

our common sense, the lineaments of our self-image as modern humans. The other view, whose presence has become much stronger in our cultural discussion in

recent years, though it was always present to one extent or another as a compensatory countercurrent to the progressive view, describes this story in quite opposite terms. In the

form this myth has taken in our era, the evolution of human consciousness and the history of the Western mind are seen as a tragic story of humanity's radical fall and separation

from an original state of oneness with nature and with being. In its primordial condition, humankind had possessed an instinctive knowledge of the profound sacred unity and

interconnectedness of the world; but under the influence of the Western mind, and especially intensifying with the ascendance of the modern mind, the course of history has

brought about a deep schism between humankind and nature, and a desacralization of the world. This development has coincided with an increasingly destructive human

exploitation of nature, the devastation of traditional indigenous cultures, and an increasingly unhappy state of the human soul, which experiences itself as ever more

isolated, shallow, and unfulfilled. In this perspective, both humanity and nature are seen as having suffered grievously under a long domination of thought and society associated

with both patriarchy and modernity, with the worst consequences being produced by the oppressive hegemony of Western industrial societies empowered by modern science and technology. The nadir of this fall is seen as the present time of planetary ecological disaster, moral disorientation, and spiritual emptiness, which is the direct consequence of human hubris as embodied above all in the structure and spirit of the modern Western mind and ego. Here the historical perspective is one which reveals a progressive impoverishment of human life and the human spirit, a fragmentation of original unities, a ruinous destruction of the sacred community of being.

cosmosandpsyche.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/revision-rite...

Un circuit familial de 4,2 kms dans la La tourbière des Saisies qui doit son originalité à sa grande surface de milieux tourbeux, mais également à la présence de nombreuses tourbières de pentes, qui sont des formations rares et originales à l’échelle européenne.

Les tourbières de pente correspondent donc à des tourbières limnogènes (formées à partir d’un lac) dont les extrémités ont été reliées entre elles afin de ne former plus qu’une immense tourbière.

Le plus souvent, la dynamique d’une tourbière est de disparaître pour laisser place à une forêt. Mais dans l’ordre des choses, une tourbière qui disparaît à un endroit est compensée par la formation d’une autre tourbière ailleurs.

Malheureusement, ce cycle naturel est fortement perturbé par l’Homme et son emprise sur la nature. Des tourbières disparaissent bien naturellement aujourd’hui, mais elles ne sont plus remplacées du fait des aménagements, de la pollution, …

Tout l’enjeu de gestion de la tourbière des Saisies est donc de préserver les milieux naturels rares et de plus en plus menacés à l’échelle locale, nationale et même mondiale.

A family circuit of 4.2 km in the La Tourbière des Saisies which owes its originality to its large surface of peaty environments, but also to the presence of numerous bogs of slopes, which are rare and original formations on a European scale.

The slope peat bogs therefore correspond to limnogenic peat bogs (formed from a lake), the ends of which have been interconnected to form an immense peat bog.

Most often, the dynamics of a peat bog is to disappear and give way to a forest. But in the order of things, a bog that disappears in one place is compensated by the formation of another peatland elsewhere.

Unfortunately, this natural cycle is strongly disturbed by man and his grip on nature. Peat bogs disappear naturally today, but they are no longer replaced due to development, pollution, ...

The challenge of managing the Saisies peat bog is therefore to preserve the rare and increasingly threatened natural environments at the local, national and even global levels.

Adventure in Seeing - #44 The Ripple Effect

"Each moment transforms us. and we in turn transform each moment. There is also a ripple effect that follows as a result. It is part of a web of interconnectedness." from the book Adventures in Seeing by contemplative photographer Kim Manley Ort.

Please spare a minute to view large on black, just press L on your keyboard or click here.

Taken in Wentwood just outside Newport. It's a single exposure made with the camera on tripod pointing straight up at the canopy. A twist of the camera halfway through the exposure gives the circular, rippled effect. I was thinking along the lines of the interconnectedness of the spinning of the Earth, it's celestial flight path around the Sun and the changing of the seasons and turning of the leaves that accompanies the slow slide into Autumn. That and I liked the pretty colours.

by Kobra

beyondsquarefootage.com/beyondsquarefootage/2019/8/30/mou...

"Kobra's kaleidoscopic technique, blending intricate patterns with an explosion of colors, brings forth a fresh perspective to well-known portraits. The Mount Rushmore mural, a symbol entrenched in American history, undergoes a profound metamorphosis as the faces of four trailblazing artists emerge from the stone.

Jean-Michel Basquiat:

Basquiat, the prodigious street artist turned art-world luminary, is portrayed with his trademark crown and graffiti-inspired style. His raw, thought-provoking art challenged societal norms, delving into themes of race, identity, and urban life.

Andy Warhol:

Warhol, the visionary synonymous with Pop Art, embodies the convergence of consumer culture and artistic expression. His enigmatic presence within the mural echoes the dynamism of his work, challenging conventional art norms by exalting everyday objects and popular culture.

Frida Kahlo:

Kahlo's visage, adorned with vibrant hues and floral motifs, signifies resilience and a deep-rooted connection to her Mexican heritage. Her art, often a reflection of her tumultuous life, explores themes of identity, pain, and the female experience, resonating profoundly across global audiences.

Keith Haring:

Haring's exuberant lines and bold colors encapsulate the spirit of the '80s New York art scene. His iconic figures, pulsating with energy and dance, represent his fervent advocacy for social causes, notably AIDS awareness, and his belief in the transformative power of public art.

Unity of Icons: A Cultural Mosaic

Kobra's decision to showcase these diverse and pioneering artists on a reimagined Mount Rushmore transcends traditional confines. It's a powerful statement, uniting individuals from varied backgrounds and artistic movements, symbolizing the intricate tapestry of art and culture shaping our world.

This mural serves as a testament to the profound impact these artists had on shaping not just the art world but also society at large. Each face narrates a compelling story, encouraging viewers to delve into the depths of creativity, individuality, and the interconnectedness of artistic expression across time and space.

Influence on NYC's Art Scene

Installed in a vibrant corner of New York City, the mural has transformed into a hub for art enthusiasts, tourists, and locals. Beyond its visual allure, it stands as a testament to the city's diverse cultural milieu and its unwavering support for artistry in public domains.

Kobra's creation not only pays homage to these artistic trailblazers but also sparks conversations about the significance of public art in fostering cultural discourse and inclusivity. It beckons viewers to engage with art in unconventional settings, dismantling barriers and making creativity accessible to all.

Eduardo Kobra's Mount Rushmore mural featuring Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, Keith Haring, and Basquiat transcends conventional boundaries, amalgamating diverse artistic legacies in a kaleidoscope of colors and ideas. In a city characterized by towering skyscrapers and bustling streets, this mural stands as a beacon of creativity, celebrating the richness of art and culture that defines New York City and extends its influence globally."

My art practice investigates the interconnectedness of making interior spaces. These works in clay are processual in nature, developed by a need to demarcate and fold material into spatial forms and volumes.

3 Compositional Forms.

270mmx230mmx70mm

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