Updated 20230224:

Images of this object in an alternate narrowband palette can be found at the link attached here - www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/52708453617/

With the start of the new year today and the skies in our area remaining cloudy, I thought I'd make some time to process my first 'proper' image from a recently acquired ASI2600MC Pro one-shot-color cooled astronomy camera and an applicable narrow-band filter.

Although I still have a variety of data to process, including some globular clusters I shot last summer, previously I did manage to make the time to process the 'first-light' short test exposures from this camera that can be found at the link attached here -

www.flickr.com/photos/homcavobservatory/52566000859/

Given the object's proximity in our skies at the time (in addition to being 'relatively' bright), although it only covers approximately one-sixth the available field-of-view, and thus would benefit from a longer focal-length; I decided to try the first long exposure on the Pacman Nebula (NGC 281).

Object Details: NGC 281 is an emission nebula which can be found glowing at magnitude 7.4 in the constellation of Cassiopeia. it spans just over 1/2 degree in our sky (e.g. slightly larger than the apparent diameter of the full moon), and although visible in binoculars under a dark sky, it's a stunning object when viewed in larger instruments.

Known as 'The Pacman Nebula' due to it's resemblance to the video game character, it lies approximately 10,000 light-years from Earth in the Perseus spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy and is about 80 light-years in diameter.

Embedded within the nebula, and providing the energy which causes the nebula itself to glow, is the young open star cluster IC 1590. The very dark areas visible within the nebula are known as 'Bok Globules' (i.e. relatively small, dense, dark clouds of dust and gas in which stars may be forming), examples of which are shown as 2x enlargements via the insets at lower left and right.

Image Details: The data for the attached image were taken by Jay Edwards on October 16, 22 & 29, 2022 using an Orion 80mm f/6 carbon-fiber triplet apochromatic refractor (i.e. an ED80T CF) connected to a Televue 0.8X field flattener / focal reducer and an IDAS NBZ dual band filter which has narrowband passes centered on the emissions of Hydrogen-alpha (656.3 nanometers) and Oxygen III (495.9 & 500.7 nanometers) on an ASI2600MC Pro cooled astronomical camera.

The 80mm was piggybacked on a vintage 1970, 8-inch, f/7, Criterion newtonian reflector and was tracked using a Losmandy G-11 mount running a Gemini 2 control system and guided using PHD2 to control a ZWO ASI290MC planetary camera / auto-guider in an 80mm f/5 Celestron 'short-tube' refractor, which itself was piggybacked on top of the 80mm apo.

The image consists of five hours of total integration time (not including applicable dark, flat and flat dark calibration frames) and was constructed using a stack of one-hundred 3 minutes sub-exposures. Although I am still working out an applicable workflow for this new camera, the data were processed using a combination of PixInsight and PaintShopPro. As presented here it has been cropped to a 2160 x 3840 resolution (approximately one-third the camera's field-of-view) and the bit depth has been lowered to 8 bits per channel.

Given that this data was taken using a dual-band filter; I'm hoping to split out the H-alpha & OIII data, synthesize a third channel and recombine them to produce a 'Hubble-palette' like version of this object in the future.

Wishing everyone clear, calm & dark skies; and of course a Happy New Year !!!

Meghan Duncan - Photography by: Alex Gonzalez of VPXSPORTS.COM

Visit us at www.vpxsports.com

Shop at shop.vpxsports.com

Ego psychology is a school of psychoanalysis rooted in Sigmund Freud's structural id-ego-superego model of the mind.

An individual interacts with the external world as well as responds to internal forces. Many psychoanalysts use a theoretical construct called the ego to explain how that is done through various ego functions. Adherents of ego psychology focus on the ego's normal and pathological development, its management of libidinal and aggressive impulses, and its adaptation to reality.[1]

Contents

1History

1.1Early conceptions of the ego

1.2Freud's ego psychology

1.3Systematization

1.3.1Anna Freud

1.3.2Heinz Hartmann

1.3.3David Rapaport

1.3.4Other contributors

1.4Decline

2Contemporary

2.1Modern conflict theory

3Ego functions

4Conflict, defense and resistance analysis

5Cultural influences

6Criticisms

7See also

8References

9Further reading

History[edit]

Early conceptions of the ego[edit]

Sigmund Freud initially considered the ego to be a sense organ for perception of both external and internal stimuli. He thought of the ego as synonymous with consciousness and contrasted it with the repressed unconscious. In 1910, Freud emphasized the attention to detail when referencing psychoanalytical matters, while predicting his theory to become essential in regards to everyday tasks with the Swiss psychoanalyst, Oscar Pfister.[2] By 1911, he referenced ego instincts for the first time in Formulations on the Two Principles of Mental Functioning and contrasted them with sexual instincts: ego instincts responded to the reality principle while sexual instincts obeyed the pleasure principle. He also introduced attention and memory as ego functions.

Freud's ego psychology[edit]

Freud began to notice that not all unconscious phenomena could be attributed to the id; it appeared as if the ego had unconscious aspects as well. This posed a significant problem for his topographic theory, which he resolved in his monograph The Ego and the Id (1923).[3]

In what came to be called the structural theory, the ego was now a formal component of a three-way system that also included the id and superego. The ego was still organized around conscious perceptual capacities, yet it now had unconscious features responsible for repression and other defensive operations. Freud's ego at this stage was relatively passive and weak; he described it as the helpless rider on the id's horse, more or less obliged to go where the id wished to go.[4]

In Freud's 1926 monograph, Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety, he revised his theory of anxiety as well as delineated a more robust ego. Freud argued that instinctual drives (id), moral and value judgments (superego), and requirements of external reality all make demands upon an individual. The ego mediates among conflicting pressures and creates the best compromise. Instead of being passive and reactive to the id, the ego was now a formidable counterweight to it, responsible for regulating id impulses, as well as integrating an individual's functioning into a coherent whole. The modifications made by Freud in Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety formed the basis of a psychoanalytic psychology interested in the nature and functions of the ego. This marked the transition of psychoanalysis from being primarily an id psychology, focused on the vicissitudes of the libidinal and aggressive drives as the determinants of both normal and psychopathological functioning, to a period in which the ego was accorded equal importance and was regarded as the prime shaper and modulator of behavior.[5]

Systematization[edit]

Following Sigmund Freud, the psychoanalysts most responsible for the development of ego psychology, and its systematization as a formal school of psychoanalytic thought, were Anna Freud, Heinz Hartmann, and David Rapaport. Other important contributors included Ernst Kris, Rudolph Loewenstein, René Spitz, Margaret Mahler, Edith Jacobson, and Erik Erikson.

Anna Freud[edit]

Anna Freud focused her attention on the ego's unconscious, defensive operations and introduced many important theoretical and clinical considerations. In The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense (1936), Anna Freud argued the ego was predisposed to supervise, regulate, and oppose the id through a variety of defenses. She described the defenses available to the ego, linked them to the stages of psychosexual development during which they originated, and identified various psychopathological compromise formations in which they were prominent. Clinically, Anna Freud emphasized that the psychoanalyst's attention should always be on the defensive functions of the ego, which could be observed in the manifest presentation of the patient's associations. The analyst needed to be attuned to the moment-by-moment process of what the patient talked about in order to identify, label, and explore defenses as they appeared. For Anna Freud, direct interpretation of repressed content was less important than understanding the ego's methods by which it kept things out of consciousness.[6] Her work provided a bridge between Freud's structural theory and ego psychology.[7]

Heinz Hartmann[edit]

Heinz Hartmann (1939/1958) believed the ego included innate capacities that facilitated an individual's ability to adapt to his or her environment. These included perception, attention, memory, concentration, motor coordination, and language. Under normal conditions, what Hartmann called an average expectable environment, these capacities developed into ego functions and had autonomy from the libidinal and aggressive drives; that is, they were not products of frustration and conflict, as Freud (1911) believed. Hartmann recognized, however, that conflicts were part of the human condition and certain ego functions may become conflicted by aggressive and libidinal impulses, as witnessed by conversion disorders (e.g., glove paralysis), speech impediments, eating disorders, and attention-deficit disorder.[5]

Through Hartmann's focus on ego functions, and how an individual adapts to his or her environment, he worked to create both a general psychology and a clinical instrument with which an analyst could evaluate an individual's functioning and formulate appropriate therapeutic interventions. Based on Hartmann's propositions, the task of the ego psychologist was to neutralize conflicted impulses and expand the conflict-free spheres of ego functions. By doing so, Hartmann believed psychoanalysis facilitated an individual's adaptation to his or her environment. Hartmann claimed, however, that his aim was to understand the mutual regulation of the ego and environment rather than to promote adjustment of the ego to the environment. Furthermore, an individual with a less-conflicted ego would be better able to actively respond to and shape, rather than passively react to, his or her environment.

Mitchell and Black (1995) wrote: "Hartmann powerfully affected the course of psychoanalysis, opening up a crucial investigation of the key processes and vicissitudes of normal development. Hartmann's contributions broadened the scope of psychoanalytic concerns, from psychopathology to general human development, from an isolated, self-contained treatment method to a sweeping intellectual discipline among other disciplines" (p. 35).

David Rapaport[edit]

David Rapaport played a prominent role in the development of ego psychology and his work likely represented its apex.[5] In Rapaport's influential monograph The Structure of Psychoanalytic Theory (1960), he organized ego psychology into an integrated, systematic, and hierarchical theory capable of generating empirically testable hypotheses. According to Rapaport, psychoanalytic theory—as expressed through the principles of ego psychology—was a biologically based general psychology that could explain the entire range of human behavior.[8] For Rapaport, this endeavor was fully consistent with Freud's attempts to do the same (e.g., Freud's studies of dreams, jokes, and the "psychopathology of everyday life".)

Other contributors[edit]

While Hartmann was the principal architect ego psychology, he collaborated closely with Ernst Kris and Rudolph Loewenstein.[9]

Subsequent psychoanalysts interested in ego psychology emphasized the importance of early-childhood experiences and socio-cultural influences on ego development. René Spitz (1965), Margaret Mahler (1968), Edith Jacobson (1964), and Erik Erikson studied infant and child behavior and their observations were integrated into ego psychology. Their observational and empirical research described and explained early attachment issues, successful and faulty ego development, and psychological development through interpersonal interactions.

Spitz identified the importance of mother-infant nonverbal emotional reciprocity; Mahler refined the traditional psychosexual developmental phases by adding the separation-individuation process; and Jacobson emphasized how libidinal and aggressive impulses unfolded within the context of early relationships and environmental factors. Finally, Erik Erikson provided a bold reformulation of Freud's biologic, epigenetic psychosexual theory through his explorations of socio-cultural influences on ego development.[10] For Erikson, an individual was pushed by his or her own biological urges and pulled by socio-cultural forces.

Decline[edit]

In the United States, ego psychology was the predominant psychoanalytic approach from the 1940s through the 1960s. Initially, this was due to the influx of European psychoanalysts, including prominent ego psychologists like Hartmann, Kris, and Loewenstein, during and after World War II. These European analysts settled throughout the United States and trained the next generation of American psychoanalysts.

By the 1970s, several challenges to the philosophical, theoretical, and clinical tenets of ego psychology emerged. The most prominent of which were: a "rebellion" led by Rapaport's protégés (George Klein, Robert Holt, Roy Schafer, and Merton Gill); object relations theory; and self psychology.

Contemporary[edit]

Modern conflict theory[edit]

Charles Brenner (1982) attempted to revive ego psychology with a concise and incisive articulation of the fundamental focus of psychoanalysis: intrapsychic conflict and the resulting compromise formations. Over time, Brenner (2002) tried to develop a more clinically based theory, what came to be called “modern conflict theory.” He distanced himself from the formal components of the structural theory and its metapsychological assumptions, and focused entirely on compromise formations.

Ego functions[edit]

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Reality testing: The ego's capacity to distinguish what is occurring in one's own mind from what is occurring in the external world. It is perhaps the single most important ego function because negotiating with the outside world requires accurately perceiving and understanding stimuli. Reality testing is often subject to temporary, mild distortion or deterioration under stressful conditions. Such impairment can result in temporary delusions and hallucination and is generally selective, clustering along specific, psychodynamic lines. Chronic deficiencies suggest either psychotic or organic interference.[11]

Impulse control: The ability to manage aggressive and/or libidinal wishes without immediate discharge through behavior or symptoms. Problems with impulse control are common; for example: road rage; sexual promiscuity; excessive drug and alcohol use; and binge eating.

Affect regulation: The ability to modulate feelings without being overwhelmed.

Judgment: The capacity to act responsibly. This process includes identifying possible courses of action, anticipating and evaluating likely consequences, and making decisions as to what is appropriate in certain circumstances.

Object relations: The capacity for mutually satisfying relationship. The individual can perceive himself and others as whole objects with three dimensional qualities.

Thought processes: The ability to have logical, coherent, and abstract thoughts. In stressful situations, thought processes can become disorganized. The presence of chronic or severe problems in conceptual thinking is frequently associated with schizophrenia and manic episodes.

Defensive functioning: A defense is an unconscious attempt to protect the individual from some powerful, identity-threatening feeling. Initial defenses develop in infancy and involve the boundary between the self and the outer world; they are considered primitive defenses and include projection, denial, and splitting. As the child grows up, more sophisticated defenses that deal with internal boundaries such as those between ego and super ego or the id develop; these defenses include repression, regression, displacement, and reaction formation. All adults have, and use, primitive defenses, but most people also have more mature ways of coping with reality and anxiety.

Synthesis: The synthetic function is the ego's capacity to organize and unify other functions within the personality. It enables the individual to think, feel, and act in a coherent manner. It includes the capacity to integrate potentially contradictory experiences, ideas, and feelings; for example, a child loves his or her mother yet also has angry feelings toward her at times. The ability to synthesize these feelings is a pivotal developmental achievement.

Reality testing involves the individual's capacity to understand and accept both physical and social reality as it is consensually defined within a given culture or cultural subgroup. In large measure, the function hinges on the individual's capacity to distinguish between her own wishes or fears (internal reality) and events that occur in the real world (external reality). The ability to make distinctions that are consensually validated determines the ego's capacity to distinguish and mediate between personal expectations, on the one hand, and social expectations or laws of nature on the other. Individuals vary considerably in how they manage this function. When the function is seriously compromised, individuals may withdraw from contact with reality for extended periods of time. This degree of withdrawal is most frequently seen in psychotic conditions. Most times, however, the function is mildly or moderately compromised for a limited period of time, with far less drastic consequences' (Berzoff, 2011).

Judgment involves the capacity to reach “reasonable” conclusions about what is and what is not “appropriate” behavior. Typically, arriving at a “reasonable” conclusion involves the following steps: (1) correlating wishes, feeling states, and memories about prior life experiences with current circumstances; (2) evaluating current circumstances in the context of social expectations and laws of nature (e.g., it is not possible to transport oneself instantly out of an embarrassing situation, no matter how much one wishes to do so); and (3) drawing realistic conclusions about the likely consequences of different possible courses of action. As the definition suggests, judgment is closely related to reality testing, and the two functions are usually evaluated in tandem (Berzoff, 2011).

Modulating and controlling impulses is based on the capacity to hold sexual and aggressive feelings in check with out acting on them until the ego has evaluated whether they meet the individual's own moral standards and are acceptable in terms of social norms. Adequate functioning in this area depends on the individual's capacity to tolerate frustration, to delay gratification, and to tolerate anxiety without immediately acting to ameliorate it. Impulse control also depends on the ability to exercise appropriate judgment in situations where the individual is strongly motivated to seek relief from psychological tension and/or to pursue some pleasurable activity (sex, power, fame, money, etc.). Problems in modulation may involve either too little or too much control over impulses (Berzoff, 2011).

Modulation of affect The ego performs this function by preventing painful or unacceptable emotional reactions from entering conscious awareness, or by managing the expression of such feelings in ways that do not disrupt either emotional equilibrium or social relationships. To adequately perform this function, the ego constantly monitors the source, intensity, and direction of feeling states, as well as the people toward whom feelings will be directed. Monitoring determines whether such states will be acknowledged or expressed and, if so, in what form. The basic principle to remember in evaluating how well the ego manages this function is that affect modulation may be problematic because of too much or too little expression. As an integral part of the monitoring process, the ego evaluates the type of expression that is most congruent with established social norms. For example, in white American culture it is assumed that individuals will contain themselves and maintain a high level of personal/vocational functioning except in extremely traumatic situations such as death of a family member, very serious illness or terrible accident. This standard is not necessarily the norm in other cultures (Berzhoff, Flanagan, & Hertz, 2011).

Object relations involves the ability to form and maintain coherent representations of others and of the self. The concept refers not only to the people one interacts with in the external world but also to significant others who are remembered and represented within the mind. Adequate functioning implies the ability to maintain a basically positive view of the other, even when one feels disappointed, frustrated, or angered by the other's behavior. Disturbances in object relations may manifest themselves through an inability to fall in love, emotional coldness, lack of interest in or withdrawal from interactions with others, intense dependency, and/or an excessive need to control relationships (Berzhoff, Flanagan, & Hertz, 2011).

Self-esteem regulation involves the capacity to maintain a steady and reasonable level of positive self-regard in the face of distressing or frustrating external events. Painful affective states, including anxiety, depression, shame, and guilt, as well as exhilarating emotions such as triumph, glee, and ecstasy may also undermine self-esteem. Generally speaking, in dominant American culture a measured expression of both pain and pleasure is expressed; excess in either direction is a cause for concern. White Western culture tends to assume that individuals will maintain a consistent and steadily level of self-esteem, regardless of external events or internally generated feeling states (Berzhoff, Flanagan, & Hertz, 2011).

Mastery when conceptualized as an ego function, mastery reflects the epigenetic view that individuals achieve more advanced levels of ego organization by mastering successive developmental challenges. Each stage of psychosexual development (oral, anal, phallic, genital) presents a particular challenge that must be adequately addressed before the individual can move on to the next higher stage. By mastering stage-specific challenges, the ego gains strength in relations to the other structures fothe mind and thereby becomes more effective in organizing and synthesizing mental processes. Freud expressed this principle in his statement, “Where id was, shall ego be.” An undeveloped capacity for mastery can be seen, for example, in infants who have not been adequately nourished, stimulated, and protected during the first year of life, in the oral stage of development. When they enter the anal stage, such infants are not well prepared to learn socially acceptable behavior or to control the pleasure they derive from defecating at will. As a result, some of them will experience delays in achieving bowel control and will have difficulty in controlling temper tantrums, while others will sink into a passive, joyless compliance with parental demands that compromises their ability to explore, learn, and become physically competent. Conversely, infants who have been well gratified and adequately stimulated during the oral stage enter the anal stage feeling relatively secure and confident. For the most part, they cooperate in curbing their anal desires, and are eager to win parental approval for doing so. In addition, they are physically active, free to learn and eager to explore. As they gain confidence in their increasingly autonomous physical and mental abilities, they also learn to follow the rules their parents establish and, in doing so, with parental approval. As they master the specific tasks related to the anal stage, they are well prepared to move on to the next stage of development and the next set of challenges. When adults have problems with mastery, they usually enact them in derivative or symbolic ways (Berzhoff, Flanagan, & Hertz, 2011).

Conflict, defense and resistance analysis[edit]

According to Freud's structural theory, an individual's libidinal and aggressive impulses are continuously in conflict with his or her own conscience as well as with the limits imposed by reality. In certain circumstances, these conflicts may lead to neurotic symptoms. Thus, the goal of psychoanalytic treatment is to establish a balance between bodily needs, psychological wants, one's own conscience, and social constraints. Ego psychologists argue that the conflict is best addressed by the psychological agency that has the closest relationship to consciousness, unconsciousness, and reality: the ego.

The clinical technique most commonly associated with ego psychology is defense analysis. Through clarifying, confronting, and interpreting the typical defense mechanisms a patient uses, ego psychologists hope to help the patient gain control over these mechanisms.[12]

Cultural influences[edit]

The classical scholar E. R. Dodds used ego psychology as the framework for his influential study The Greeks and the Irrational (1951).[13]

The Sterbas relied on Hartmann's conflict-free sphere to help explain the contradictions they found in Beethoven's character in Beethoven and His Nephew (1954).[14]

Criticisms[edit]

Many[who?] authors have criticized Hartmann's conception of a conflict-free sphere of ego functioning as both incoherent and inconsistent with Freud's vision of psychoanalysis as a science of mental conflict. Freud believed that the ego itself takes shape as a result of the conflict between the id and the external world. The ego, therefore, is inherently a conflicting formation in the mind. To state, as Hartmann did, that the ego contains a conflict-free sphere may not be consistent with key propositions of Freud's structural theory.

Ego psychology, and 'Anna-Freudianism', were together seen by Kleinians as maintaining a conformist, adaptative version of psychoanalysis inconsistent with Freud's own views.[15] Hartmann claimed, however, that his aim was to understand the mutual regulation of the ego and environment rather than to promote adjustment of the ego to the environment. Furthermore, an individual with a less-conflicted ego would be better able to actively respond and shape, rather than passively react to, his or her environment.

Jacques Lacan was if anything still more opposed to ego psychology, using his concept of the Imaginary to stress the role of identifications in building up the ego in the first place.[16] Lacan saw in the "non-conflictual sphere...a down-at-heel mirage that had already been rejected as untenable by the most academic psychology of introspection'.[17] Ego psychologists responded by doubting whether Lacan's approach is ever applied to clinical work with real patients who have real illnesses, specific ego functions mediating those illnesses, and specific histories.[18]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_psychology

McDowell County, NC.

Synthesized IRG-->RGB cross-sampled image from a single exposure. Converted camera, Tiffen #12 filter. Reprocessed with WavelengthPro.

Anglerfish specimen @ THE DEEP, ArtScience Museum Singapore

Anglerfishes are fish that are members of the teleost order Lophiiformes /ˌlɒfiːəˈfɔrmiːz/. They are bony fish named for their characteristic mode of predation, in which a fleshy growth from the fish's head (the esca or illicium) acts as a lure.

Anglerfish are also notable for extreme sexual dimorphism seen in the suborder Ceratioidei, and sexual parasitism of male anglerfish. In these species, males may be several orders of magnitude smaller than females.

Anglerfish occur worldwide. Some are pelagic, while others are benthic; some live in the deep sea (e.g., Ceratiidae) while others on the continental shelf (e.g., the frogfishes Antennariidae and the monkfish/goosefish Lophiidae). Pelagic forms are most laterally compressed, whereas the benthic forms are often extremely dorsoventrally compressed (depressed), often with large upward-pointing mouths.

Evolution

A mitochondrial genome phylogenetic study suggested the anglerfishes diversified in a short period of the early to mid Cretaceous, between 130 and 100 million years ago.

Ranging in color from dark gray to dark brown, these carnivores have huge heads that bear enormous, crescent-shaped mouths full of long, fang-like teeth angled inward for efficient prey grabbing. Their length can vary from 8.9 cm (3.5 in) to over 1 m (3 ft) with weights up to 45 kg (100 lb).

Classification

FishBase, Nelson and Pietsch list 18 families, but ITIS lists only 16. The following taxa have been arranged to show their evolutionary relationships.

- Suborder Lophioidei

- Lophiidae (Goosefishes or monkfishes)

- Suborder Antennarioidei

- Antennariidae (Frogfishes)

- Tetrabrachiidae (Four-armed frogfishes)[7]

- Brachionichthyidae (Handfishes)

- Lophichthyidae (Boschma's frogfish)[7]

- Suborder Chaunacoidei

- Chaunacidae (Sea toads)

- Suborder Ogcocephaloidei

- Ogcocephalidae (Batfishes)

- Suborder Ceratioidei

- Centrophrynidae (Prickly seadevils)

- Ceratiidae (Warty seadevils)

- Himantolophidae (Footballfishes)

- Diceratiidae (Doublespine seadevils)

- Melanocetidae (Black seadevils)

- Thaumatichthyidae (Wolf-trap seadevils)

- Oneirodidae (Dreamers)

- Caulophrynidae (Fanfin seadevils)

- Neoceratiidae (Needlebeard seadevil)

- Gigantactinidae (Whipnose seadevils)

- Linophrynidae (Leftvent seadevils)

Anatomy

"Esca" redirects here. For the grapevine disease, see Esca (grape disease).

"illicium (fish anatomy)" redirects here. For the plant genus, see illicium.

Most adult female ceratioid anglerfish have a luminescent organ called the esca at the tip of a modified dorsal ray (the illicium, or "fishing rod"). The organ has been hypothesized to serve the obvious purpose of luring prey in dark, deep-sea environments, but also serves to call males' attention to the females to facilitate mating. The source of luminescence is symbiotic bacteria that dwell in and around the esca. In some species, the bacteria recruited to the esca are incapable of luminescence independent of the anglerfish, suggesting they have developed a symbiotic relationship and the bacteria are unable to synthesize all of the chemicals necessary for luminescence. They depend on the fish to make up the difference. Electron microscopy of these bacteria in some species reveals they are Gram-negative rods that lack capsules, spores, or flagella. They have double-layered cell walls and mesosomes.

In most species, a wide mouth extends all around the anterior circumference of the head, and bands of inwardly inclined teeth line both jaws. The teeth can be depressed so as to offer no impediment to an object gliding towards the stomach, but prevent its escape from the mouth. The anglerfish is able to distend both its jaw and its stomach, since its bones are thin and flexible, to enormous size, allowing it to swallow prey up to twice as large as its entire body.

Behavior

Swimming and energy conservation

Many anglerfish species are deep-sea dwellers, which poses a challenge to ecologists who hope to study and observe the fish. Anglerfish morphology reflects the value of energy conservation for these organisms which often live in extremely prey-scarce environments.[9] Some researchers suggest this is why many ceratioids minimize their energy use by remaining lethargic and using a lie-and-wait hunting strategy.

Anglerfish are particularly well suited to conserve energy because they are able to hunt and forage while remaining lethargic, devoting just 2% of energy intake to swimming.

In one rare ROV observation of an in-situ anglerfish, researchers observed several rapid swimming and avoidance behaviors. In 74% of the video footage, the fish was observed passively drifting. Occasionally, it would also exhibit rapid burst swimming. While drifting, the fish weakly beat its pectoral fins in a behavior known as sculling. The sculling behavior observed is suggested as necessary to keep the fish in a neutral position in the water and to counteract any displacing currents. The bursts of fast swimming typically last less than five seconds. The swimming behavior in this video is similar to that seen in other in-situ footage of a ceratioid anglerfish.

Another in-situ observation of three different whipnose anglerfish showed unusual upside-down swimming behavior. Fish were observed floating upside-down completely motionless with the illicium hanging down stiffly in a slight arch in front of the fish. Notably, the illicium was hanging over small visible burrows. The observers suggested this is one effort to entice prey and is another example of low-energy opportunistic foraging and predation. When the ROV approached the fish, they exhibited burst swimming, still upside-down.

Predation

The name "anglerfish" derives from the species' characteristic method of predation. Anglerfish typically have at least one long filament sprouting from the middle of their heads, termed the illicium. The illicium is the detached and modified first three spines of the anterior dorsal fin. In most anglerfish species, the longest filament is the first. This first spine protrudes above the fish's eyes and terminates in an irregular growth of flesh (the esca), and can move in all directions. Anglerfish can wiggle the esca to make it resemble a prey animal, which lures the anglerfish's prey close enough for the anglerfish to devour them whole. The jaws reflexively shut upon contact to the tentacle.

Some deep-sea anglerfish of the bathypelagic zone emit light from their escae to attract prey. This bioluminescence is a result of symbiosis with bacteria. Although the mechanism by which they are harnessed by ceratioids is unknown, the bacteria have been speculated to enter the esca from the seawater through small pores. Once within it, they can multiply until their density is such that their collective glow is very bright.

Because anglerfish are opportunistic foragers, they show a range of preferred prey with fish at the extremes of the size spectrum, whilst showing increased selectivity for certain prey. One study examining the stomach contents of threadfin anglerfish off the Pacific coast of Central America found these fish primarily ate two categories of benthic prey: crustaceans and teleost fish. The most frequent prey were pandalid shrimp. Interestingly, 52% of the stomachs examined were empty, supporting the observations that anglerfish are low energy consumers.

Reproduction

Some anglerfish, like those of the ceratioid group (Ceratiidae, or sea devils), employ an unusual mating method. Because individuals are locally rare, encounters are also very rare. Therefore, finding a mate is problematic. When scientists first started capturing ceratioid anglerfish, they noticed that all of the specimens were female. These individuals were a few centimetres in size and almost all of them had what appeared to be parasites attached to them. It turned out that these "parasites" were highly reduced male ceratioids. This indicates the anglerfish use a polyandrous mating system.

In certain ceratioids, parabiotic reproduction is required. Free-living males and non-parasitized females in these species never have fully developed gonads. Thus, males never mature without parasitizing a female and die if they are unable to find one. At birth, male ceratioids are already equipped with extremely well-developed olfactory organs that detect scents in the water. Males of some species also develop large, highly specialized eyes that may aid in identifying mates in dark environments. The male ceratioid lives solely to find and mate with a female. They are significantly smaller than a female anglerfish, and may have trouble finding food in the deep sea. Furthermore, the growth of the alimentary canals of some males becomes stunted, preventing them from feeding. Some taxa have jaws that are never suitable or effective for prey capture. These features necessitate that the male quickly find a female anglerfish to prevent death. The sensitive olfactory organs help the male to detect the pheromones that signal the proximity of a female anglerfish.

However, the methods by which anglerfish locate mates are variable. Some species have minute eyes unfit for identifying females visually, while others have underdeveloped nostrils, making it unlikely that they effectively find females using olfaction. When a male finds a female, he bites into her skin, and releases an enzyme that digests the skin of his mouth and her body, fusing the pair down to the blood-vessel level. The male becomes dependent on the female host for survival by receiving nutrients via their shared circulatory system, and provides sperm to the female in return. After fusing, males increase in volume and become much larger relative to free-living males of the species. They live and remain reproductively functional as long as the female lives, and can take part in multiple spawnings. This extreme sexual dimorphism ensures, when the female is ready to spawn, she has a mate immediately available. Multiple males can be incorporated into a single individual female with up to eight males in some species, though some taxa appear to have a "one male per female" rule.

Parasitism is not the only method of reproduction in anglerfish. In fact, many families, including Melanocetidae, Himantolophidae, Diceratiidae, and Gigantactinidae, show no evidence of male parasitism. Females in some of these species contain large, developed ovaries and free-living males have large testes, suggesting these sexually mature individuals may spawn during a temporary sexual attachment that does not involve fusion of tissue. Males in these species also have well-toothed jaws that are far more effective in hunting than those seen in parasitic species.

Finally, some researchers suggest sexual parasitism may be an optional strategy in some species of anglerfishes. In the Oneirodidae, females have been reported in Leptacanthichthys and Bertella, which were parasitized, and others which were not, but still developed fully functional gonads. One theory suggests the males attach to females regardless of their own reproductive development if the female is not sexually mature, but when both male and female are mature, they will spawn then separate.

One explanation for the evolution of sexual parasitism is that the relatively low density of females in deep-sea environments leaves little opportunity for mate choice among anglerfish. Females remain large to accommodate fecundity, as is evidenced by their large ovaries and eggs. Males would be expected to shrink to reduce metabolic costs in resource-poor environments and would develop highly specialized female-finding abilities. If a male manages to find a female, then parasitic attachment is ultimately more likely to improve lifetime fitness relative to free living, particularly when the prospect of finding future mates is poor. An additional advantage to parasitism is that the male’s sperm can be used in multiple fertilizations, as he stays always available to the female for mating. Higher densities of male-female encounters might correlate with species that demonstrate facultative parasitism or simply use a more traditional temporary contact mating.

The spawn of the anglerfish of the genus Lophius consists of a thin sheet of transparent gelatinous material 25 cm (10 inches) wide and greater than 10 m (33 feet) long. The eggs in this sheet are in a single layer, each in its own cavity. The spawn is free in the sea. The larvae are free-swimming and have the pelvic fins elongated into filaments. Such an egg sheet is rare among fish.

Threats

Northwest European Lophius spp. are listed by the ICES as "outside safe biological limits". Additionally, anglerfish are known to occasionally rise to the surface during El Niño, leaving large groups of dead anglerfish floating on the surface.

In 2010, Greenpeace International added the American angler (Lophius americanus), the angler (Lophius piscatorius), and the black-bellied angler (Lophius budegassa) to its seafood red list, which is a list of fish commonly sold worldwide which have a very high likelihood of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries.

Human consumption

One family, the Lophiidae, is of commercial interest with fisheries found in north-western Europe, eastern North America, Africa, and East Asia. In Europe and North America, the tail meat of fish of the genus Lophius, known as monkfish or goosefish (North America), is widely used in cooking, and is often compared to lobster tail in taste and texture. In Asia, especially Korea and Japan, monkfish liver, known as ankimo is considered a delicacy.

Timeline of genera

Anglerfish appeared in some fossil record.

[Credit: en.wikipedia.org]

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After eating some plants with the CEO and Strategy Director of MAPS (the public benefit corp. taking MDMA through FDA clinical trials for PTSD), we were struck by the chemicals adorning our kitchen wall at work.

It reminds me of Michael Pollan, in his new book This is Your Mind on Plants: “How incredible is it that plants have evolved the precise molecular key to unlock your consciousness?”

It’s not an analog or mimic. Plants and fungi and bacteria synthesize our exact neurotransmitters, perhaps some evolutionary inheritance from signaling in the early days of federating single-cell organisms. 90 percent of human serotonin is made by the bacteria in our gut, not in our brain. Gut bacteria produce and respond to the same neurochemicals—such as GABA, serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine, acetylcholine and melatonin—that the brain uses to regulate mood and cognition. Respect, on the kitchen wall.

Every culture on Earth has discovered and used a plant or fungus, often several, that alters consciousness. (Pollan notes one exception: the Inuit who live where nothing interesting grows)

Tim Ferriss interviewed Michael Pollan about his new book, and it’s quite good, here.

Dr. Eric Lander is a geneticist, mathematician, and one of the key architects of modern genomics. As a driving force behind the Human Genome Project, his work has revolutionized biomedical research, enabling breakthroughs in personalized medicine, disease prevention, and genetic diagnostics. His ability to synthesize biology with computational analysis has reshaped how scientists approach complex biological systems.

I photographed Lander on October 12, 2023, at the Broad Institute, a research powerhouse that he helped design. The building itself is a testament to his vision—open, interconnected, and brimming with the collaborative spirit necessary for innovation. As we moved through the space, we discussed the far-reaching impact of genomics on medicine, the ethical challenges of gene editing, and the role of science in shaping public policy.

Lander’s contributions extend beyond research. He has been a prominent science advisor to government leaders, advocating for evidence-based decision-making in public health, climate science, and technological innovation. His tenure as the first Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Biden administration reinforced his commitment to integrating rigorous science into governance.

Our conversation wandered through intricate shadows and bright beams of sunlight, much like the nature of scientific discovery—moments of clarity interspersed with deep complexity. Lander’s perspective on innovation is both pragmatic and ambitious: he sees biology as a vast, untapped frontier where computation, engineering, and fundamental research can converge to tackle humanity’s greatest challenges.

With a career spanning decades, Lander continues to influence the next generation of scientists. His work at the Broad Institute ensures that genomic research remains at the cutting edge, fostering discoveries that will redefine our understanding of health and disease. His legacy is one of relentless curiosity and an unshakable belief in the power of science to transform the world.

Lights @ Warped Tour '09 Toronto on July 10th.

Description: Chandra's image shows a striking, nearly perfect ring about 150 light years in diameter surrounding a cloud of gas rich in oxygen and shock-heated to millions of degrees Celsius. The ring marks the outer limits of a shock wave produced as material ejected in the supernova explosion plows into interstellar gas. The size of the ring indicates that we see the supernova remnant as it was about 10,000 years after its progenitor star exploded. Oxygen is synthesized by nuclear reactions in the interiors of stars at least ten time as massive as the Sun. When such a star explodes, its core collapses to form either a neutron star, or if massive enough, a black hole, and the oxygen-rich material surrounding the core is propelled into interstellar space.

Creator/Photographer: Chandra X-ray Observatory

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. The mirrors on Chandra are the largest, most precisely shaped and aligned, and smoothest mirrors ever constructed. Chandra is helping scientists better understand the hot, turbulent regions of space and answer fundamental questions about origin, evolution, and destiny of the Universe. The images Chandra makes are twenty-five times sharper than the best previous X-ray telescope. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Medium: Chandra telescope x-ray

Date: 2003

Persistent URL: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/snr0103/

Repository: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Collection: Supernovas and Supernova Remnants Collection

Gift line: NASA/CXC/PSU/S.Park et al.

Accession number: snr0103_comp

Synthesized color image made from a single clear filter capture by Cassini on Dec. 20, 2010.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Cassini Imaging Team/Jason Major

Southwestern Mumblings... Humbled, blessed & Grateful in the 505...

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In the Hebrew bible of the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the Holy of Holies (Kodesh Hakodashim) sits behindHoly of holies the two pillars and refers to the inner sanctuary of the Tabernacle where God was believed to be present. It is further described as an inner shrine housing the Ark of the Covenant guarded by two-winged golden cherubim, and an outer chamber (Holy Place) with a golden lampstand, table for showbread, and altar of incense. The meaning of tabernacle(Hebrew: מִשְׁכַּן‎, mishkan), is “a dwelling place or to take up temporary residence; especially: to inhabit a physical body.” This allegorical description above of the Holy of Holies as an inner shrine and a temporary residence to inhabit a physical body, tells us esoterically where this tabernacle is located.

It is not only a man-made building or structure, but also part of the human body, and that in science we can simply call the tabernacle our skull which holds the chalice for our brains, with the winged golden cherubim guarding our thoughts being our hippocampus or ammon’s horn; a subject I have written about many times. This is the beginning explanation of the hidden esoteric meanings behind some of these gnostic biblical stories that were meant to teach initiates to know thyself and to reach a state of true gnosis. This wonderful gnostic story is further explained by Manly P. Hall who had written about this in the Initiates of the Flame: “In the brain of man, between the wings of the kneeling cherubim, is the mercy-seat, and there man speaks with his God as the priest of the tabernacle spoke to the spirit of the Lord hovering between the wings of the Angels. Man is again the Ark, and within him are the three principles, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—the tablets of the law, the pot of manna, and the rod that budded. But as in the case of the ancient Israelites, when they became crystallized the pot of manna and the rod that budded were removed from the Ark, and all that was left were the tablets or the letters of the law. When the individual crystallizes and excludes various sidelights from his mind, he excludes the life force which was flowing to him. In shutting out strangers, he shuts out his own life, and all that he has left are the tablets of the law, the material reasons from which the spiritual life has gone.” This is obviously a story about finding gnosis; which it has long been documented by historians that almost all gnostics throughout history were persecuted, branded as heretics by the church, and often killed en mass for simply practicing an ancient art of knowledge of thyself and thyworld. What happened to this secret gnosis and teachings is represented in the biblical story of the crucifixion of Christ at Golgotha, which I will explain briefly below and have done in another article titled, Christ (Reason) Crucified (Killed) on the Cross (Logos) in Golgotha (Place of the Skull or Our Brain).

In the bible, the word for skull is called Golgotha, which is Latin for place of the skull. This is the exact location where Jesus was crucified on the cross (logos), and where the blood of Jesus fell onto Adam’s skull, restoring Adam back to life. This is another allegorical story about the secret gnosis that occurs alchemically through our brains and especially within our hippocampus; which has been proven in science controls our memories, and that I believe also pertain to past life memories as well.

The story also relates to our blood, with that of Jesus’ that fell onto Adam’s skull. The ancients and many philosophers have long DNA Brainknown that the blood is our mind, where we obtain our conscious, and also the seat of our soul. It has been said that he who controls the blood, controls the mind. It is these esoteric teachings encoded into these biblical stories that many people fail to recognize. This is confirmed by great gnostic philosophers such as Carl Jung who said, “Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books, but lives in our very blood?” I have written about this science before in articles such as DNA Gnosis and Our DNA Computers. Please notice this image below of a painting of Jesus crucified on the cross (logos) at Golgotha, and see if you can see the secret skull towards the bottom with the red veil; hidden and encoded within the painting. This image is related to the secret gnosis of the biblical story of Golgotha and how the blood drops on the skull, and what we can say today flows through the brain to restore someone to life, or what we can simply say makes them fully conscious and illuminated. I already stated above that Golgotha is the place of the skull. Jesus was ‘crucified’, that which is derived from the word crucifix; a cross with the corpus (Body of Christ). The modern Christian cross is a sign of warfare and which is a latter version of the original ancient true cross known as the Tau of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Druids which is a symbol to represent the logos. The meaning of logos is “Reason, or word of God” which then can be easily connected to what we know as gnosis. In philosophy, Heraclitus (ca. 535–475 BC) had said the Logos was “a principle of order and knowledge.” According to Aristotle, logos relates to “the speech itself, in so far as it proves or seems to prove.” One of the reasons for the confusion or misinterpretations of these biblical teachings are because they were forbidden by law, and this one bible verse written in Deuteronomy 4:16-18 stating that the Israelites are forbidden making any likeness, form, or figure of a human or beast for worship. This is when they had encoded their secret teachings of gnosis into allegories, biblical stories, and actual structures and buildings where these secrets would now be encoded. Hidden gnostic allegories that would forever be hidden in plain view into their world-wide temple plans.

gnosticwarrior.com/holy-of-holies.html

In my last article on the Tabernacle, I explained that the cherubim were the sacred guardians in the Holy of Holies, and it is Cherubim and maryhere where we find the two golden cherubim. Cherubim first appear in the Bible in the Garden of Eden, to guard the way to the Tree of life. Cherubim are mentioned throughout the Old Testament, and once in the New Testament in reference to the mercy-seat of the Ark of the Covenant and as the golden guardians of the Holy of Holies.

In Genesis 3:24, the cherubim are placed by God, after the expulsion of Adam from the garden of Eden, at the east thereof, together with the flaming sword “to keep the way of the tree of life.” In their function as guardians of Paradise. In the image to the above right, you can clearly see the shape of a skull, and the two cherubim on both the left and right that in exoteric science represents the hippocampus or ammon’s horn who guard the way to the Tree of life which would be our DNA. Brain firing 2The Garden of Eden is known as the primeval abode of man, and is the dwelling-place of God. This is further explained by by 33rd degree Alchemic philosopher, Manly P. Hall who had written in the Initiates of the Flame; “In the brain of man, between the wings of the kneeling cherubim, is the mercy-seat, and there man speaks with his God as the priest of the tabernacle spoke to the spirit of the Lord hovering between the wings of the Angels. Man is again the Ark, and within him are the three principles, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—the tablets of the law, the pot of manna, and the rod that budded.” Please notice how the image to the left shows the brain as if it is at top of a rod and has budded like a rose, flower or tree. This picture aligns perfectly with Manly P. Hall’s explanation above, and will also make more sense to you as I explain more below. The flaming sword in Genesis, and double-edged sword of the Revelation of Saint John represents the mouth and the word of God that comes from the dwelling-place of God which is in our blood and brains. The allegory of the sword connected to the word of God, rather than an actual sword used for killing people is further explained in bible passages such as Hebrews. iv. 12: ” The word of God is quick and powerful (or living and energetic), sharper than any two-edged sword.” And in Hosea vi. 5, the word of God is said to destroy all his enemies; “Therefore have I hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth; And my judgments have been as the light when it goeth forth.” There are many more bible passages, the above two are just a small sample to prove my point. The cherubim are the bearers and movers of the Divine throne as explained in the vision of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1, with which compare Ezekiel 10). In chapter 1, the prophet designates them as “living creatures” (chayyoth); but upon hearing God’s words addressed to the “man clothed in linen” (Ezekiel 10:2) he perceives that the living creatures which he saw in the first vision were cherubim (Ezekiel 10:20); and in Ezekiel 9:3 the chariot or throne, from which the glory of God went up, is spoken of as a cherub. The man clothed in linen has another hidden meaning that related to the human blood and word of God which is further described in Revelation 19:13: “He is dressed in clothing dipped in blood, and he is called the Word of God.” The man clothed in linen is a direct reference to how human blood holds are conscious. This is the reason that within 10 seconds of blood cut off to the brain, you lose complete consciousness, and when someones begins to bleed to death, their essential life force is drained from their bodies and they lose consciousness and die. The blood is our life force and the seat of our soul. The brain is our central computer processing unites that we use to think, reason and speak to God.

Back to the description of the cherubim… The Roman-Jewish historian Josephus Flavius says: “The cherubim are winged creatures, but the form of them does not resemble that of any living creature seen by man.” All these various references that I mention above and to the cherubim indicate, their the nearness of God, or a sacred and secret spot out of the view of man, but within man. Holy of holiesThis is further explained as I mentioned above by Manly P. Hall who had written; “In the brain of man, between the wings of the kneeling cherubim, is the mercy-seat, and there man speaks with his God as the priest of the tabernacle spoke to the spirit of the Lord hovering between the wings of the Angels.” This esoteric view above by Hall describing the human body (solomon’s temple), blood, brain, and the two golden cherubim is described in the bible as acting as the chariot of the LORD in Ezekiel’s visions, the Books of Samuel, the parallel passages in the later Book of Chronicles, and passages in the early Psalms: “and he rode upon a cherub and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind”. The four living creatures that support the throne of God displayed to Ezekiel a fourfold aspect; they had each the face of a man, the face of a lion, and the face of an ox; they also had the face of an eagle. They had each four wings; they had the hands of a man under their wings. “Two wings of every one were joined one to the other, and two covered their bodies.” They were accompanied by wheels which “went upon their four sides, and they turned not when they went”; “and their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and their wheels were full of eyes”; and the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.” This esoteric explanation we can witness today in modern science, with the wheels of our DNA, firing in the brain, and the memory powerhouse known as the hippocampus which I will briefly explain for you below.

And their wheels were full of eyes – DNA is often associated with spirals of energy as in “wheels (circles),” and what is known as rolling circle DNA replication and DNA supercoiling. This DNA process of unidirectional nucleic acid replication that can rapidly synthesize multiple copies of circular molecules of DNA or RNA, such as plasmids, the genomes of bacteriophages, and the circular RNA genome of viroids. Some eukaryotic viruses also replicate their DNA via a rolling circle mechanism. DNA supercoiling is important for DNA packaging within all cells, and reduces the space and allows for much more DNA to be packaged.(Wikipedia)DNA_circle This explanation of DNA I have found, perfectly matches the description in Ezekiel of the cherubim accompanied by wheels. DNA is based purely upon mathematical principles. The mathematical equations and wheels in our DNA turns it into a biological supercomputer that feeds into the winged cherubim being our hippocampus.

DNA supercoil The brain is the organ of the mind, which each portion of the brain has its own function to perform. The golden cherubim guarding the temple with the four wings would be our hippocampus which is considered the brain’s memory center. This image below shows the color of the hippocampus being somewhat of a yellow or golden color being compared to the Hippocampus kuda, also known as the common seahorse.

The ancient Greeks and Romans had attributed the seahorse with the sea god Poseidon/Neptune, and was considered a symbol of strength and power. The ancient Europeans believed that the seahorse carried the souls of the deceased into the underworld in order to give them safe passage and protection until they met their soul’s destination. These stories from the biblical explanation of the two golden cherubim, the seahorse as a symbol of strength and power, and the relation to the seahorse being the carrier of souls for safe passage and protection all relate to one another. Hippocampus and seahorse. The cherubim were at each end of the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the original stones on which God had engraven the ten commandments given to Moses and the children of Israel on Mount Horeb. Now that we know the cherubim allegorically represents our hippocampus, the original stones might also have a similar hidden esoteric meaning which I believe to also be the case in relating to a similar story being that of the philosopher’s stone. This is further explained in Hebrews VIII where it was foretold by Jeremiah: “Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah: not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.” The passage above makes it clear that saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts. This is a direct reference to our minds and hearts which would further validate that this is a story about gnosis, and the alchemical science of our blood, brain and hippocampus. In Ezekiel, it is mentioned that there was an appearance of a flash of lightning which we can compare to science by comparing our brains to this description where we find the firing rates of neurons in the hippocampal regions relating to past memories. A type of internal lightening blasts that forms vibrations in our bodies for us to recognize past memories or past life recall, which an in tune human can use to tap into in order further evolve by his seventh sense, and his or her soul. Scientists are now finding out that the firing in the brain can arise from intrinsic hippocampal dynamic processing of previous inputs. In simple terms, that this firing action is a type of built-in intuitive and memory center to help animals “remember.” The image below is of a real brain with the appearance of flashes of lightning. In a previous article I explained how the Hebrew alphabet is made up of 22 letters, which was created to compose the Word of God. The word of God is called a lamp (Psalms 119:105, Proverbs 6:22), and the light by which we are to live. This we can compare to the fire. The word light is found 264 times in Scripture. When 264 is divided by 12 (divine authority) we have twenty-two, which represents light. In the gospel of John, the word light is repeated 22 times, and on 22nd time, John quotes Jesus: “I have come as a light into the world . . .” (John 12:46). The number 22 would represent the stone structures that describe the bones of the skull, of which there are twenty-two. This is where we receive the light and are illuminated, or enlightened beings. In the rear compartment of our skulls, or Holy of Holies is called “the oracle.” This is our brain which transmits our blood and DNA through our organs. Beneath this skull and brain are the aqueducts, passages, and tanks once used for the proper drainage and use of the Temple. The Temple being our bodies with the aqueducts, passages, and tanks consisting of our blood, veins and organs. The esoteric biblical explanation relates to the science above, when it was said that upon completion of the dedication of the Tabernacle, the Voice of God spoke to Moses “from between the Cherubim”. (Numbers 7:89). This symbolizes the gnosis we receive within our minds and into the firing of our brains through our hippocampus which is referred to above as the Voice of God spoke to Moses “from between the Cherubim.”

Secrets of the Pyramid Hippocampus Drawing www.macalester.edu

Moe

Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. A website dedicated to both the ancient and modern teachings of Gnosticism.

The hippocampus is divine in its on right. The place of memory (I AM).. Agreed! The pineal gland though, is the third eye, since it has every component of an actual eye. It also has tiny crystal fibers within it, which hence the thousand petal lotus or christ consciousness, also being Christ as the alchemical Crystal. Even in Genesis 32:30 Jacob called the place peniel because he seen God face to face. Also in the new testament it is stated that the greatest in the Kingdom is the smallest (like a mustard seed)…. The pineal gland is small. Jesus told Peter he will build his church on a rock, that is the pineal gland that became harden like stone (philosophers stone).. When the sandy substance around the pineal gland hardens, that is Jesus liken someone to a wise man, who built his house on a rock. When a storm comes and try to beat it to and fro it doesn;t budge. The mind has light! When the eye be single the whole body will be filled with light (photons).

gnosticwarrior.com/two-golden-cherubim.html

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Born in Khiva around 780 CE, al-Khorezmi (or al-Khwarizmi meaning 'of Khwarizm', the original name of Khiva) was a great mathematician, scientist and author. He is considered the father of algebra (the word derives from the name of his book on the subject, Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah, which became the standard mathematical book at European universities until the 16th century. He made an even more important contribution (hard to imagine….) in developing the concept of an algorithm. In this capacity, some consider him to be the grandfather of computer science. The word algorithm is derived from a Latin corruption of his name.

In addition to his original work, al-Khorezmi also synthesized the work of other great scholars of the era. After reviewing various numerical systems, he adopted the Hindu system (in the western world, we incorrectly call it the Arabic system) of numerals and was the first to recognize the importance of the number zero. It was through al-Khorezmi's work that this numerical system spread to the Middle East and then Europe and the rest of the world.

Beyond mathematics, al-Khorezmi made contributions to the field of geography by supervising the creation of a map of the world and to astronomy where he wrote about clocks, astrolabes and sundials.

At the time, Khiva was part of Persian Khorasan that was under the auspices of the Arab Abbasid caliphate administered from Baghdad. Al-Khorezmi moved to Baghdad early in his life and studied there at the House of Wisdom, a scientific research and teaching center.

Khiva, Uzbekistan

This photo is dedicated to good friend and scholar, O Bejeweled Land (Zendeh baad Azadi).

Explore #186 on July 26, 2010

First synthesized by the chemist Wallace Carothers and introduced in the 1939 World's Fair by DuPont, #ストッキングの日 celebrates when the first nylon stocking went on sale on May 15, 1940!

Sagrada Família, Barcelona, España.

El Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia, conocido simplemente como la Sagrada Familia, es una basílica católica de Barcelona (España), diseñada por el arquitecto Antoni Gaudí. Iniciada en 1882, todavía está en construcción (noviembre de 2016). Es la obra maestra de Gaudí, y el máximo exponente de la arquitectura modernista catalana.

La Sagrada Familia es un reflejo de la plenitud artística de Gaudí: trabajó en ella durante la mayor parte de su carrera profesional, pero especialmente en los últimos años de su carrera, donde llegó a la culminación de su estilo naturalista, haciendo una síntesis de todas las soluciones y estilos probados hasta aquel entonces. Gaudí logró una perfecta armonía en la interrelación entre los elementos estructurales y los ornamentales, entre plástica y estética, entre función y forma, entre contenido y continente, logrando la integración de todas las artes en un todo estructurado y lógico.

La Sagrada Familia tiene planta de cruz latina, de cinco naves centrales y transepto de tres naves, y ábside con siete capillas. Ostenta tres fachadas dedicadas al Nacimiento, Pasión y Gloria de Jesús y, cuando esté concluida, tendrá 18 torres: cuatro en cada portal haciendo un total de doce por los apóstoles, cuatro sobre el crucero invocando a los evangelistas, una sobre el ábside dedicada a la Virgen y la torre-cimborio central en honor a Jesús, que alcanzará los 172,5 metros de altura. El templo dispondrá de dos sacristías junto al ábside, y de tres grandes capillas: la de la Asunción en el ábside y las del Bautismo y la Penitencia junto a la fachada principal; asimismo, estará rodeado de un claustro pensado para las procesiones y para aislar el templo del exterior. Gaudí aplicó a la Sagrada Familia un alto contenido simbólico, tanto en arquitectura como en escultura, dedicando a cada parte del templo un significado religioso.

The Expiatory Church of the Sagrada Familia, known simply as the Sagrada Familia, is a Roman Catholic basilica in Barcelona, Spain, designed by architect Antoni Gaudí. Begun in 1882, it is still under construction (November 2016). It is Gaudí's masterpiece and the greatest exponent of Catalan modernist architecture.

The Sagrada Familia is a reflection of Gaudí's artistic plenitude: he worked on it for most of his professional career, but especially in his later years, where he reached the culmination of his naturalistic style, synthesizing all the solutions and styles he had tried up to that point. Gaudí achieved perfect harmony in the interrelationship between structural and ornamental elements, between plasticity and aesthetics, between function and form, between content and container, achieving the integration of all the arts into a structured and logical whole. The Sagrada Familia has a Latin cross plan, five central naves, a three-aisled transept, and an apse with seven chapels. It boasts three façades dedicated to the Birth, Passion, and Glory of Jesus. When completed, it will have 18 towers: four at each portal, making a total of twelve for the apostles, four over the transept invoking the evangelists, one over the apse dedicated to the Virgin, and the central dome tower in honor of Jesus, which will reach 172.5 meters in height. The temple will have two sacristies next to the apse and three large chapels: the Assumption Chapel in the apse and the Baptism and Penance Chapels next to the main façade. It will also be surrounded by a cloister designed for processions and to isolate the temple from the exterior. Gaudí applied a highly symbolic content to the Sagrada Familia, both in architecture and sculpture, dedicating each part of the temple to a religious significance.

Tim Ferriss commands 90% of my podcast attention. Unlike the arbitrage media du jour, he aims for timeless nuggets of wisdom from a panoply of top performers. So, it is a great honor to have our almost 3-hour (!) long-form interview go live today, with a wide range of fun topics. Enjoy: Our Episode (we start at minute 6:19 with a deep dive on quantum computing. A wider range of fun topics starts at minute 27)

You never know how a loooong conversation like this will be received. And none of it had a second take; it was just one big stream of consciousness. Well, I was blown away by the comment stream on Twitter.

“The Tim Ferriss Show is generally the # 1 business podcast on all of iTunes, and it’s been ranked # 1 out of 300,000+ podcasts on many occasions. It is the first to pass 100,000,000 downloads, and it has been selected as “Best of” iTunes for three years running. Each episode, I deconstruct world-class performers from eclectic areas (investing, sports, business, art, etc.) to extract the tactics, tools, and routines you can use.”

SHOW NOTES [program time]

On the power of quantum mechanics and the potential for quantum computers. [09:23]

What is a quantum computer? [11:34]

How big is a quantum computer? [14:20]

An explanation of Rose’s Law. [15:10]

How useful are quantum computers now, and how much more useful can we expect them to be in the near future? [19:50]

What is quantum chemistry, and what problems does it potentially solve? [21:06]

Quantum applications for deep learning. [22:22]

Musings on quantum entanglement. [23:15]

What Steve sees for the future of business as we move from theoretical and experimental exploration in quantum physics toward its practical application. [25:37]

What existential challenges of rapid technological advancement are we most likely to face? First: bridging the accelerating rich-poor gap. [26:54]

Protecting Earth from asteroids. [28:33]

Addressing the increasing ease with which weapons of bioterrorism can be synthesized. [30:09]

How might we cope with the effects of climate change through hibernation? [32:07]

In what ways can we prevent or mitigate social unrest resulting from a widening rich-poor gap? [34:14]

If life-saving drugs are to become cheap and affordable to everyone in the future, how does Steve see the incentives for research and development adapting? [41:00]

How did Steve get through his undergrad at Stanford in two-and-a-half years? [42:28]

Why did time and budgeting become less of a concern when Steve began his master’s program? [44:45]

Why did Steve decide to get an MBA, and would he still make that decision today? [46:00]

How did Steve enter the world of investing? [48:39]

What mistakes does Steve see otherwise smart venture capitalists making often? [49:53]

What helped Steve succeed early in his career? [53:13]

The simple rule Steve began to implement around early-stage investing. [55:26]

When did Steve start to see signs pointing toward a likely dotcom crash circa 2000, and how did his investment strategy change? [56:59]

At the time, why did Steve choose nanotechnology as the next big thing? [59:16]

On machine learning, cellular automata, and the difficulties faced when trying to reverse engineer an evolved structure to understand how they work (like a teenager or a human brain). [1:02:15]

A deep dive into deep learning and neural networks — and how GPU technology once designated for video games has pushed the field forward in unexpected ways. [1:06:08]

With an education and background in electrical engineering, why did Steve get involved in product marketing at Apple and NeXT? [1:14:23]

What are the check boxes that help Steve mitigate risk when he’s weighing investment opportunities? [1:18:52]

The question that weeds out “the charlatans and the arbitrage-seeking opportunists.” [1:22:04]

The uncertainty of enormous markets. [1:23:36]

Where did the name for Hotmail originate, and how dedicated to “free” were the founders? [1:24:32]

Wildly successful companies that were initially regarded as bad ideas. [1:25:19]

Why does Steve never sell shares once he’s invested in a company? [1:26:07]

Commonalities and differences observed between Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. [1:31:18]

In what ways does Steve believe Elon Musk is the “most risk-immune person” he’s ever met? [1:36:09]

Elon’s “battle mode” of focus during crises. [1:42:26]

On Steve Jobs’ architecting of the way people communicated, and enforcing the ideal number of people in team sizes and meetings. [1:47:18]

Steve addresses recent bad press. [1:48:54]

What was Steve’s self-talk when these allegations arose? [1:52:15]

Who helped Steve throughout this time, and why was he advised to keep mum about the allegations — even in his own defense? [1:56:59]

What other particularly trying times has Steve endured? [1:59:31]

What helped Steve through the grieving process when his father passed away? [2:00:32]

How Steve prepared to become a parent, and what analytical thinkers can gain by trying to see things from the perspective of a child. [2:04:59]

What Steve would put on his billboard. [2:07:11]

How children are like scientists. [2:07:38]

Steve is so enthusiastic about model rockets that he even gave a TED Talk about them. [2:09:15]

Drones and how to eliminate the TSA. [2:10:36]

As a technology investor, how does Steve budget for regulatory or political opposition from incumbents? [2:15:01]

The current and future science of synthetic “clean” meat and why it’s important. [2:18:27]

Could this technology be adapted to produce human tissue and organs for transplants, or is 3D printing more feasible? [2:28:13]

How might the layman become more scientifically literate? [2:31:13]

How long does Steve estimate it would take for someone to familiarize themselves enough with deep learning to get involved in the field? [2:35:04]

Steve talks about the commencement speech he gave at his old high school, what it covered, and what was most strongly received. [2:36:20]

Personal strengths don’t always come from obvious places, and their combination into “talent stacks” can result in unforeseeable breakthroughs. [2:38:25]

How “every great idea is a recombination of prior ideas,” and the part technology plays in increasing possible pairings of these prior ideas. [2:40:52]

Parting thoughts and what’s next for Steve. [2:42:51]

This vibrant image features a butterfly that immediately strikes the viewer as unreal, despite its undeniable beauty. The colors, while brilliant and captivating, possess an almost artificial luminescence, giving the impression of an oversaturated illustration rather than a living creature. Its wings display intricate patterns that seem too perfect, too symmetrical, and perhaps too fantastical to exist naturally. This kitschy aesthetic, with its exaggerated vibrancy and flawless execution, hints at a digital origin, playfully disrupting our expectations of a true-to-life photograph.

Indeed, the artificial intelligence behind this AI photo has masterfully crafted an image that blurs the lines between reality and digital artistry. The "beauty" here isn't derived from the authenticity of a natural subject but from the algorithms' ability to synthesize an idealized, almost dreamlike representation of a butterfly. This deliberate unreality is part of its charm, inviting viewers to appreciate the creative potential of AI in generating visuals that are stunning precisely because they transcend the limitations of the natural world.

Não sei quem sou, que alma tenho.

Quando falo com sinceridade não sei com que sinceridade falo.

Sou variamente outro do que um eu que não sei se existe (se é esses outros)...

Sinto crenças que não tenho.

Enlevam-me ânsias que repudio.

A minha perpétua atenção sobre mim perpetuamente me ponta

traições de alma a um carácter que talvez eu não tenha,

nem ela julga que eu tenho.

Sinto-me múltiplo.

Sou como um quarto com inúmeros espelhos fantásticos

que torcem para reflexões falsas

uma única anterior realidade que não está em nenhuma e está em todas.

Como o panteísta se sente árvore (?) e até a flor,

eu sinto-me vários seres.

Sinto-me viver vidas alheias, em mim, incompletamente,

como se o meu ser participasse de todos os homens,

incompletamente de cada (?),

por uma suma de não-eus sintetizados num eu postiço."

Fernando Pessoa

I do not know who I am, I have that soul.

When I speak honestly do not know that I speak sincerely.

I am variously other than one I do not know if there is (if these others) ...

I do not have beliefs.

Enlevam urges me to repudiate.

My perpetual perpetually watching over me I tip

betrayal of the soul to a character that maybe I did not,

or she thinks I have.

I am multiple.

I'm like a room with many mirrors fantastic

that twist to false reflections

previous one reality that is not in any and is in all.

As the pantheist feels tree (?) And to the flower,

I feel many beings.

I am living the lives of others in me halfway,

as if my being partake of all men,

each incompletely (?)

by a sum of non-selves I synthesized a fake. "

Fernando Pessoa

At modelshopstudio™ & Lloyd Thrap Creative Photography

Model: Emma Alabama.

Location: modelshopstudio™

Albuquerque, New Mexico. USA

© 2013 2015 Photo by Lloyd Thrap Photography for modelshopstudio™

No images are within Public Domain. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of copyright.

Lloyd Thrap's Public Portfolio

Model

In the interests of sexual equality here's a shot of the male Steampunk model Paul Smith from the Photo24 Leake Street tunnel shoot.....

The 250 or so photographers that took part in the Photography News / Fujifilm London Photo24 event had the opportunity to take part in a Steampunk shoot in the 'Banksy' Leake Street tunnel under Waterloo Station.

Click here to see more shots from this and previous years Photo24 events : www.flickr.com/photos/darrellg/albums/72157667520181380

From Wikipedia : "Steampunk fashion has no set guidelines but tends to synthesize modern styles with influences from the Victorian era. Such influences may include bustles, corsets, gowns, and petticoats; suits with waistcoats, coats, top hats and bowler hats (themselves originating in 1850 England), tailcoats and spats; or military-inspired garments. Steampunk-influenced outfits are usually accented with several technological and "period" accessories: timepieces, parasols, flying/driving goggles, and ray guns.

Modern accessories like cell phones or music players can be found in steampunk outfits, after being modified to give them the appearance of Victorian-era objects. Post-apocalyptic elements, such as gas masks, ragged clothing, and tribal motifs, can also be included. Aspects of steampunk fashion have been anticipated by mainstream high fashion, the Lolita and aristocrat styles, neo-Victorianism, and the romantic goth subculture."

My Website : Twitter : Facebook : Instagram : Photocrowd

© D.Godliman

Pasted papers, watercolor, gouache, ink, and oil on canvas.

A native of Reggio Calabria, Boccioni studied art through the Scuola Libera del Nudo at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome, beginning in 1901. He also studied design with a sign painter in Rome. Together with his friend Gino Severini, he became a student of Giacomo Balla, a divisionist painter. In 1906, Boccioni studied Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles in Paris. During the late 1906 and early 1907, he shortly took drawing classes at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. In 1901, Boccioni first visited the Famiglia Artistica, a society for artists in Milan. After moving there in 1907, he became acquainted with fellow Futurists, including the famous poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. The two artists would later join with others in writing manifestos on Futurism.

Boccioni became the main theorist of the artistic movement. He also decided to be a sculptor after he visited various studios in Paris, in 1912, among which those of Braque, Archipenko, Brancusi, Raymond Duchamp-Villon and, probably, Medardo Rosso. While in 1912 he exhibited some paintings together with other Italian futurists at the Bernheim-Jeun, in 1913 he returned to show his sculptures at the Gallerie La Boetie: all related to the elaboration of what Boccioni had seen in Paris, they in their turn probably influenced the cubist sculptors, especially Duchamp-Villon.

In 1914, he published Pittura e scultura futuriste (dinamismo plastico) explaining the aesthetics of the group: “While the impressionists make a table to give one particular moment and subordinate the life of the table to its resemblance to this moment, we synthesize every moment (time, place, form, color-tone) and thus build the table.” He exhibited in London, together with the group, in 1912 (Sackville Gallery) and 1914 (Doré Gallery): the two exhibitions made a deep impression on a number of young English artists, in particular C.R.W. Nevinson, who joined the movement: others aligned themselves instead to its British equivalent, Vorticism, led by Wyndham Lewis.

Mobilized in the declaration of war, Boccioni was assigned to an artillery regiment at Sorte, near Verona. On 16 August 1916, Boccioni was thrown from his horse during a cavalry training exercise and was trampled. He died the following day, age thirty-three.

Pablo Picasso

I INTRODUCTION

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Spanish painter, who is widely acknowledged to be the most important artist of the 20th century. A long-lived and highly prolific artist, he experimented with a wide range of styles and themes throughout his career. Among Picasso’s many contributions to the history of art, his most important include pioneering the modern art movement called cubism, inventing collage as an artistic technique, and developing assemblage (constructions of various materials) in sculpture.

Picasso was born Pablo Ruiz in Málaga, Spain. He later adopted his mother’s more distinguished maiden name—Picasso—as his own. Though Spanish by birth, Picasso lived most of his life in France.

II FORMATIVE WORK (1893-1900)

Picasso’s father, who was an art teacher, quickly recognized that his child Pablo was a prodigy. Picasso studied art first privately with his father and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in La Coruña, Spain, where his father taught. Picasso’s early drawings, such as Study of a Torso, After a Plaster Cast (1894-1895, Musée Picasso, Paris, France), demonstrate the high level of technical proficiency he had achieved by 14 years of age. In 1895 his family moved to Barcelona, Spain, after his father obtained a teaching post at that city’s Academy of Fine Arts. Picasso was admitted to advanced classes at the academy after he completed in a single day the entrance examination that applicants traditionally were given a month to finish. In 1897 Picasso left Barcelona to study at the Madrid Academy in the Spanish capital. Dissatisfied with the training, he quit and returned to Barcelona.

After Picasso visited Paris in October 1900, he moved back and forth between France and Spain until 1904, when he settled in the French capital. In Paris he encountered, and experimented with, a number of modern artistic styles. Picasso’s painting Le Moulin de la Galette (1900, Guggenheim Museum, New York City) revealed his interest in the subject matter of Parisian nightlife and in the style of French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a style that verged on caricature. In addition to café scenes, Picasso painted landscapes, still lifes, and portraits of friends and performers.

III BLUE PERIOD (1901-1903)

From 1901 to 1903 Picasso initiated his first truly original style, which is known as the blue period. Restricting his color scheme to blue, Picasso depicted emaciated and forlorn figures whose body language and clothing bespeak the lowliness of their social status. In The Old Guitarist (1903, Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois), Picasso emphasized the guitarist’s poverty and position as a social outcast, which he reinforced by surrounding the figure with a black outline, as if to cut him off from his environment. The guitarist is compressed within the canvas (no room is left in the painting for the guitarist to raise his lowered head), suggesting his helplessness: The guitarist is trapped within the frame just as he is trapped by his poverty. Although Picasso underscored the squalor of his figures during this period, neither their clothing nor their environment conveys a specific time or place. This lack of specificity suggests that Picasso intended to make a general statement about human alienation rather than a particular statement about the lower class in Paris.

Why blue dominated Picasso’s paintings during this period remains unexplained. Possible influences include photographs with a bluish tinge popular at the time, poetry that stressed the color blue in its imagery, or the paintings of French artists such as Eugène Carrière or Claude Monet, who based many of their works around this time on variations on a single color. Another explanation is that Picasso found blue particularly appropriate for his subject matter because it is a color associated with melancholy.

IV ROSE PERIOD (1904-1905)

In 1904 Picasso’s style shifted, inaugurating the rose period, sometimes referred to as the circus period. Although Picasso still focused on social outcasts—especially circus performers—his color scheme lightened, featuring warmer, reddish hues, and the thick outlines of the blue period disappeared. Picasso maintained his interest in the theme of alienation, however. In Two Acrobats and a Dog (1905, Museum of Modern Art, New York City), he represented two young acrobats before an undefined, barren landscape. Although the acrobats are physically close, they gaze in different directions and do not interact, and the reason for their presence is not made clear. Differences in the acrobats’ height also exaggerate their disconnection from each other and from the empty landscape. The dog was a frequent presence in Picasso’s work and may have been a reference to death as dogs appear at the feet of figures in many Spanish funerary monuments.

Picasso may have felt an especially deep sympathy for circus performers. Like artists, they were paid to entertain society, but their itinerant lifestyle and status as outsiders prevented them from becoming an integral part of the social fabric. It was this situation that made the sad clown an important figure in the popular imagination: Paid to make people laugh, he must keep hidden his real existence and true feelings. Living a life of financial insecurity himself, Picasso no doubt empathized with these performers. During this period Picasso met Fernande Olivier, the first of several women who shared his life and provided inspiration for his art. Olivier’s features appear in many of the female figures in his paintings over the next several years.

V CLASSICAL PERIOD (1905) AND IBERIAN PERIOD (1906)

Experimentation and rapid style changes mark the years from late 1905 on. Picasso’s paintings from late 1905 are more emotionally detached than those of the blue or rose periods. The color scheme lightens—beiges and light browns predominate—and melancholy and alienation give way to a more reasoned approach. Picasso’s increasing interest in form is apparent in his references to classical sculpture. The figure of a seated boy in Two Youths (1905, National Gallery, Washington, D.C.), for example, recalls an ancient Greek sculpture of a boy removing a thorn from his foot.

By 1906 Picasso had become interested in sculptures from the Iberian peninsula dating from about the 6th to the 3rd century bc. Picasso must have found them of particular interest both because they are native to Spain and because they display remarkable simplification of form. The Iberian influence is immediately visible in Self-Portrait (1906, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania), in which Picasso reduced the image of his head to an oval and his eyes to almond shapes, thus revealing his increasing fascination with geometric simplification of form.

VI AFRICAN PERIOD (1907)

Picasso’s predilection for experimentation and for drawing inspiration from outside the accepted artistic sources led to his most radical and revolutionary painting yet in 1907: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907, Museum of Modern Art). The painting’s theme—the female nude—could not be more traditional, but Picasso’s treatment of it is revolutionary. Picasso took even greater liberties here with human anatomy than in his 1906 Self-Portrait . The figures on the left in the painting look flat, as if they have no skeletal or muscular structure. Faces seen from the front have noses in profile. The eyes are asymmetrical and radically simplified. Contour lines are incomplete. Color juxtapositions—between blue and orange, for instance—are intentionally strident and unharmonious. The representation of space is fragmented and discontinuous.

While the left side of the canvas is largely Iberian-influenced, the right side is inspired by African masks, especially in its striped patterns and oval forms. Such borrowings, which led to great simplification, distortion, and visual incongruities, were considered extremely daring in 1907. The head of the figure at the bottom right, for example, turns in an anatomically impossible way. These discrepancies proved so shocking that even Picasso’s fellow painters reacted negatively to Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. French painter Henri Matisse allegedly told Picasso that he was trying to ridicule the modern movement.

VII CUBISM (1908-1917)

For many scholars, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon—with its fragmented planes, flattened figures, and borrowings from African masks—marks the beginning of the new visual language, known as cubism. Other scholars believe that French painter Paul Cézanne provided the primary catalyst for this change in style. Cézanne’s work of the 1890s and early 1900s was noted both for its simplification and flattening of form and for the introduction of what art historians call passage, the interpenetration of one physical object by another. For example, in Mont Sainte-Victoire (1902-1906, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City), Cézanne left the outer edge of the mountain open, allowing the blue area of the sky and the gray area of the mountain to merge. This innovation—air and rock interpenetrating—was a crucial precedent for Picasso’s invention of cubism. First, it defied the laws of our physical experience, and second, it indicated that artists were viewing paintings as having a logic of their own that functioned independently of, or even contrary to, the logic of everyday experience.

Scholars generally divide the cubist innovations of Picasso and French painter Georges Braque into two stages. In the first stage, analytical cubism, the artists fragmented three-dimensional shapes into multiple geometric planes. In the second stage, synthetic cubism, they reversed the process, putting abstract planes together to represent human figures, still lifes, and other recognizable shapes.

A Analytical Cubism (1908-1912)

Profoundly influenced by Cézanne's later work, Picasso and Braque initiated a series of landscape paintings in 1908. These paintings approximated Cézanne’s both in their color scheme (dark greens and light browns) and in their drastic simplification of nature to geometric shapes. Upon seeing these paintings, French critic Louis Vauxelles coined the term cubism. In Picasso’s Houses on the Hill, Horta de Ebro (1909, Museum of Modern Art), he gave architectural structures a three-dimensional, cubic quality, but he abandoned conventional three-dimensional perspective: Instead of being depicted one behind the other, buildings appear one on top of the other. Moreover, he simplified every aspect of the painting according to a vocabulary of cubic shapes—not just the houses but the sky as well. By neutralizing differences between earth and sky, Picasso made the canvas appear more unified, but he also introduced ambiguity by not differentiating solid from void. In addition, Picasso often used inconsistent light sources. In some parts of a painting, light appears to come from the left; in other parts, it comes from the right, the top, or even the bottom. Spatial planes intersect in ways that leave the spectator guessing whether angles are concave or convex. Delight in confusing the viewer is a regular feature of cubism.

By 1910, it had become evident that cubism no longer had any cubes and that the illusion of three-dimensional space, or volume, was gone. Picasso seemed to have dismantled the very idea of solid form, not only by fragmenting the human figure and other shapes, but also by using Cézanne’s concept of passage to merge figure and environment, solid and void, background and foreground. In this way he created a visually consistent painting, yet the consistency does not conform to the physical consistency of the natural world as we experience it. Picasso’s decision to limit his color scheme to dark browns and grays also suggests that his paintings have initiated a radical departure from nature, rather than attempted to copy it.

The year 1912 marks another major development in the cubist language: the invention of collage. In Still Life with Chair Caning (1912, Musée Picasso), Picasso attached a piece of oilcloth (that depicts woven caning) to his work. With this action Picasso not only violated the integrity of the medium—oil painting on canvas—but also included a material that had no previous connection with high art. Art could now be created, Picasso seems to imply, with scissors and glue as well as with paint and canvas. By including pieces of cloth, newspaper, wallpaper, advertising, and other materials in his work, Picasso opened the door for any object or material, however ordinary, to be included in (or even replace) a work of art. This innovation had important consequences for later 20th-century art. Another innovation was including the letters JOU in the painting, possibly referring to the beginning of the word journal (French for “newspaper”) or to the French word jouer, meaning “to play,” as Picasso is playing with forms. These combinations reveal that cubism includes both visual and verbal references, and merges high art with popular culture.

B Synthetic Cubism (1912-1917)

By inventing collage and by introducing elements from the real world in his canvases, Picasso avoided taking cubism to the level of complete abstraction and remained in the domain of tangible objects. Collage also initiated the synthetic phase of cubism. Whereas analytical cubism fragmented figures into geometric planes, synthetic cubism synthesized (combined) near-abstract shapes to create representational forms, such as a human figure or still life. Synthetic cubism also tended toward multiplicity. In Guitar, Sheet Music, and Wine Glass (1912, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas), for instance, Picasso combined a drawing of a glass, several spots of color, sheet music, newspaper, a wallpaper pattern, and a cloth that has a wood–grain pattern. Synthetic cubism may also combine different textures, such as wood grain, sand, and printed matter. Sometimes Picasso applied these textures as collage, by gluing textured papers on the canvas. In other cases the artist painted an area to look like wood or wallpaper, fooling the spectator by means of visual puns.

VIII CONSTRUCTION AND AFTER (1912-1920)

In 1912 Picasso instigated another important innovation: construction, or assemblage, in sculpture. Before this innovation, sculpture, at least in the West, was primarily created in one of two ways: by carving a block of stone or wood or by modeling—shaping a form in clay and casting that form in a more durable material, such as bronze. In Guitar (1912, Museum of Modern Art), Picasso used a new additive process. He cut various shapes out of sheet metal and wire, and then reassembled those materials into a cubist construction. In other constructions, Picasso used wood, cardboard, string, and other everyday objects, not only inventing a new technique for sculpture but also expanding the definition of art by blurring the distinction between artistic and nonartistic materials.

From World War I (1914-1918) onward, Picasso moved from style to style. In 1915, for instance, Picasso painted the highly abstract Harlequin (Museum of Modern Art) and drew the highly realistic portrait of Ambroise Vollard (Metropolitan Museum of Art). During and after the war he also worked on stage design and costume design for the Ballets Russes, a modern Russian ballet company launched by the impresario Sergey Diaghilev. Inspired by his direct experience of the theater, Picasso also produced representations of performers, such as French clowns called Pierrot and Harlequin, and scenes of ballerinas.

Picasso separated from Olivier in 1912, after meeting Eva Gouel. Gouel died in 1915, and in 1918 Picasso married Olga Koklova, one of the dancers in Diaghilev’s company. Picasso created a number of portraits of her, and their son, Paulo, appears in works such as Paulo as Harlequin (1924, Musée Picasso).

IX CLASSICAL PERIOD (1920-1925)

After World War I, a strain of conservatism spread through a number of art forms. A motto popular among traditionalists was “the return to order.” For Picasso the years 1920 to 1925 were marked by close attention to three-dimensional form and to classical themes: bathers, centaurs (mythical creatures half-man and half horse), and women in classical drapery. He depicted many of these figures as massive, dense, and weighty, an effect intensified by strong contrasts of light and dark. But even as he moved toward greater realism, Picasso continued to play games with the viewer. In the classical and carefully composed The Pipes of Pan (1923, Musée Picasso), for example, he painted an area of the architectural framework in the foreground (which should be grayish) with the same color as the sea in the background, revealing again his pleasure in ambiguity.

X CUBISM AND SURREALISM (1925-1936)

From 1925 to 1936 Picasso again worked in a number of styles. He composed some paintings of tightly structured geometric shapes, limiting his color scheme to primary colors (red, blue, yellow), as in The Studio (1928, Museum of Modern Art). In other paintings, such as Nude in an Armchair (1929, Musée Picasso), he depicted contorted female figures whose open mouths and menacing teeth reveal a more emotional, less reasoned attitude. Picasso’s marriage broke up during this time, and some of the menacing female figures in his art of this period may represent Koklova.

The same diversity is visible in Picasso’s sculpture during this period. Bather (Metamorphosis II) (1928, Musée Picasso) represents the human body as a massive spherical shape with protruding limbs, whereas Wire Construction (1928, Musée Picasso) depicts it as a rigid, geometric configuration of thin wires. Picasso also experimented with welding in sculpture of this period and explored a variety of themes, including the female head, the sleeping woman, and the Crucifixion. The model for many of his sleeping women was Marie Thérèse Walter, a new love who had entered his life. Their daughter, Maia, was born in 1935.

In the early 1930s Picasso had increasing contact with the members of the surrealist movement (see Surrealism) and became fascinated with the classical myth of the Minotaur. This creature, which has the head of a man and the body of a bull, appears in a study by Picasso for the cover of the surrealist journal Minotaure (1933, Museum of Modern Art). Here Picasso affixed a classical drawing of a Minotaur to a collage of abstracted forms and debris. The Minotaur has numerous incarnations in Picasso’s work, both as an aggressor and a victim, as a violent character and a friendly one. It may represent the artist himself and frequently appears in the context of a bullfight, a typically Spanish scene close to Picasso’s heart.

XI GUERNICA (1937)

In 1937 the Spanish government commissioned Picasso to create a mural for Spain’s pavilion at an international exposition in Paris. Unsure about the subject, Picasso procrastinated. But he set to work almost immediately after hearing that the Spanish town of Guernica had been bombed by Nazi warplanes in support of Spanish general Francisco Franco’s plot to overthrow the Spanish republic. Guernica (1937, Prado, Madrid) was Picasso's response to, and condemnation of, that event. He executed the painting in black and white—in keeping with the seriousness of the subject—and transfigured the event according to his fascination with the bullfight theme.

At the extreme left is a bull, which symbolizes brutality and darkness, according to Picasso. At the center, a horse wounded by a spear most likely represents the Spanish people. At the center on top, an exploding light bulb possibly refers to air warfare or to evil coming from above (and putting out the light of reason). Corpses and dying figures fill the foreground: a woman with a dead child at the left, a dead warrior with a broken sword (from which a flower sprouts) at the center, a weeping woman and a figure falling through a burning building at the right. The distortion of these figures expresses the inhumanity of the event. To suggest the screaming of the horse and of the mother with the dead child, Picasso transformed their tongues into daggers. In the upper center, a tormented female figure holds an oil lamp that sheds light upon the scene, possibly symbolizing the light of truth revealing the brutality of the event to the outside world. In 1936 Picasso met Dora Maar, an artist who photographed Guernica as he painted it. She soon became his companion and the subject of his paintings, although he remained involved with Walter.

XII WORLD WAR II (1939-1945)

Picasso, unlike many artists, stayed in Paris during the German occupation of World War II. Some of his paintings from this time reveal the anxiety of the war years, as does the menacing Still Life with Steer's Skull (1942, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany). Other works, such as his sculpture Head of a Bull (1943, Musée Picasso), are more playful and whimsical. In this sculpture Picasso combined a bicycle seat and handlebars to represent the bull’s head. Upon receiving news of the Nazi death camps, Picasso also painted, although he did not finish, an homage to the victims of the Holocaust (mass murder of European Jews during the war). In this painting, called The Charnel House (1945, Museum of Modern Art), he restricted the color scheme to black and white (as in Guernica) and depicted an accumulation of distorted, mangled bodies. During the war Picasso joined the Communist Party, and after the war he attended several peace conferences.

XIII LATE WORK (1945-1973)

Picasso remained a prolific artist until late in his life, although this later period has not received universal acclaim from historians or critics. He made variations on motifs that had fascinated him throughout his career, such as the bullfight and the painter and his model, the latter a theme that celebrated creativity. And he continued to paint portraits and landscapes. Picasso also experimented with ceramics, creating figurines, plates, and jugs, and he thereby blurred an existing distinction between fine art and craft.

Picasso’s emotional life became more complicated after he met French painter Françoise Gilot in the 1940s, while he was still involved with Maar. He and Gilot had a son, Claude, and a daughter, Paloma, and both appear in many of his late works. Picasso and Gilot parted in 1953. Jacqueline Roque, whom Picasso married in 1961, became his next companion. They spent most of their time in the south of France.

Another new direction in Picasso’s work came from variations on well-known works by older artists that he recast in his own style. Among these works are Women on the Banks of the Seine, after Courbet (1950, Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland) and Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe after Manet (1960, Musée Picasso). What makes these works particularly significant is that they run counter to a basic premise of modern art, Picasso’s included: namely, originality. Although many modern painters were influenced by earlier artists, they rarely made such direct and obvious references to each other’s work because they deemed such references unoriginal. In the postmodern period, which began in the 1970s, artists and critics began to question the modernist directive to be original. In acts of deliberate defiance, many postmodern artists have appropriated (taken for their own use) well-known images from their predecessors or contemporaries. Seen against this context, Picasso’s later variations on paintings by earlier masters hardly seem out of place; on the contrary, they anticipate a key aspect of art in the 1980s.

One of Picasso’s late works, Head of a Woman (1967), was a gift to the city of Chicago. This sculpture of welded steel, 15 m (50 ft) tall, stands in front of Chicago’s Civic Center. Although its semiabstract form proved controversial at first, the sculpture soon became a city landmark.

Because of his many innovations, Picasso is widely considered to be the most influential artist of the 20th century. The cubist movement, which he and Braque inspired, had a number of followers. Its innovations gave rise to a host of other 20th-century art movements, including futurism in Italy, suprematism and constructivism in Russia, de Stijl in the Netherlands, and vorticism in England. Cubism also influenced German expressionism, dada, and other movements as well as early work of the surrealists (see Surrealism) and abstract expressionists (see Abstract Expressionism). In addition, collage and construction became key aspects of 20th-century art.

Contributed By:

Claude Cernuschi

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Young Cedar Waxwing is drinking at 2:55 pm!!!! Brush Prairie, Washington. This is a young bird because it lacks the waxy wing tips.

"The bright red waxy tips of the secondary feathers of the Cedar Waxwing are unique to this group of birds. The function of these waxy tips is not known. The number and length of these red tips are useful to determine age and sex. Tips may be lacking in young birds, and are most developed in adult males (Pyle 2001). The tips are synthesized from carotenoid pigments in the diet (Alderfer 2006). www.wbu.com/chipperwoods/photos/cedarwaxwing.ht

Cave boxwork in South Dakota, USA.

Boxwork is a scarce cave feature characterized by a network of intersecting veins projecting from cave walls or ceilings. Boxwork veins are typically composed of calcite, but quartz and gypsum boxwork have also been reported. Wind Cave in South Dakota’s Black Hills is the best locality on Earth for seeing abundant, well-developed cave boxwork. Wind Cave is developed in the Lower Mississippian Pahasapa Limestone. Early in the geologic history of Wind Cave, the rocks were attacked by sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and became decomposed, leaving a residual, crumbly, sandy-like material. Veins in the limestone bedrock were originally gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O - hydrous calcium sulfate), which is immune to sulfuric acid attack. The result was gypsum veins sticking out from cave walls. These projecting gypsum veins were later replaced by calcite (CaCO3 - calcium carbonate).

Locality: Wind Cave, southern Black Hills, southwestern South Dakota, USA

---------

Synthesized from:

Palmer, A.N. 2007. Cave Geology. Dayton. Cave Books & Cave Research Foundation. 454 pp.

A.N. Palmer (pers. comm., 2011)

“I don’t want to use the word ‘mind-blowing’, but, as a scientific phenomenon, if you can create conditions in which seventy per cent of people will say they have had one of the five most meaningful experiences of their lives? To a scientist, that’s just incredible.”

"The developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik has speculated that the way young children perceive the world has much in common with the psychedelic experience. As she puts it, 'They’re basically tripping all the time.'”

Here are some more interesting excerpts from the new wave of clinical trials, covered in Michael Pollan's new article in New Yorker:

“I felt a little like an archeologist unearthing a completely buried body of knowledge,” he said. Beginning in the nineteen-fifties, psychedelics had been used to treat a wide variety of conditions, including alcoholism and end-of-life anxiety. The American Psychiatric Association held meetings centered on LSD. “Some of the best minds in psychiatry had seriously studied these compounds in therapeutic models, with government funding,” Ross said.

Between 1953 and 1973, the federal government spent four million dollars to fund a hundred and sixteen studies of LSD, involving more than seventeen hundred subjects. (These figures don’t include classified research.) Through the mid-nineteen-sixties, psilocybin and LSD were legal and remarkably easy to obtain. Sandoz, the Swiss chemical company where, in 1938, Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD, gave away large quantities of Delysid—LSD—to any researcher who requested it, in the hope that someone would discover a marketable application. Psychedelics were tested on alcoholics, people struggling with obsessive-compulsive disorder, depressives, autistic children, schizophrenics, terminal cancer patients, and convicts, as well as on perfectly healthy artists and scientists (to study creativity) and divinity students (to study spirituality). The results reported were frequently positive.

Researchers are using or planning to use psilocybin not only to treat anxiety, addiction (to smoking and alcohol), and depression but also to study the neurobiology of mystical experience, which the drug, at high doses, can reliably occasion. Forty years after the Nixon Administration effectively shut down most psychedelic research, the government is gingerly allowing a small number of scientists to resume working with these powerful and still somewhat mysterious molecules.

their excitement about the results was evident. According to Ross, cancer patients receiving just a single dose of psilocybin experienced immediate and dramatic reductions in anxiety and depression, improvements that were sustained for at least six months.

The fact that a drug given once can have such an effect for so long is an unprecedented finding. We have never had anything like it in the psychiatric field.”

“There is such a sense of authority that comes out of the primary mystical experience that it can be threatening to existing hierarchical structures,” Griffiths told me when we met in his office last spring. “We ended up demonizing these compounds. Can you think of another area of science regarded as so dangerous and taboo that all research gets shut down for decades? It’s unprecedented in modern science.”

Participants ranked these experiences as among the most meaningful in their lives, comparable to the birth of a child or the death of a parent. Two-thirds of the participants rated the psilocybin session among the top five most spiritually significant experiences of their lives; a third ranked it at the top.

Furthermore, the “completeness” of the mystical experience closely tracked the improvements reported in personal well-being, life satisfaction, and “positive behavior change” measured two months and then fourteen months after the session.

A follow-up study by Katherine MacLean, a psychologist in Griffiths’s lab, found that the psilocybin experience also had a positive and lasting effect on the personality of most participants. This is a striking result, since the conventional wisdom in psychology holds that personality is usually fixed by age thirty and thereafter is unlikely to substantially change. But more than a year after their psilocybin sessions volunteers who had had the most complete mystical experiences showed significant increases in their “openness,” one of the five domains that psychologists look at in assessing personality traits. (The others are conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.) Openness, which encompasses aesthetic appreciation, imagination, and tolerance of others’ viewpoints, is a good predictor of creativity.

The psychedelic experience seems to allow many subjects to reframe, and then break, a lifelong habit. “Smoking seemed irrelevant, so I stopped,” one subject told me. Twelve subjects, all of whom had tried to quit multiple times, using various methods, were verified as abstinent six months after treatment, a success rate of eighty per cent.

adverse effects have not surfaced in the trials of drugs at N.Y.U. and Johns Hopkins. After nearly five hundred administrations of psilocybin, the researchers have reported no serious negative effects.

In his account, he likened the start of the journey to the launch of a space shuttle, “a physically violent and rather clunky liftoff which eventually gave way to the blissful serenity of weightlessness.”

Griffiths likens the therapeutic experience of psilocybin to a kind of “inverse P.T.S.D.”—“a discrete event that produces persisting positive changes in attitudes, moods, and behavior, and presumably in the brain.”

I was struck by how the descriptions of psychedelic journeys differed from the typical accounts of dreams. For one thing, most people’s recall of their journey is not just vivid but comprehensive, the narratives they reconstruct seamless and fully accessible, even years later. They don’t regard these narratives as “just a dream,” the evanescent products of fantasy or wish fulfillment, but, rather, as genuine and sturdy experiences. This is the “noetic” quality that students of mysticism often describe: the unmistakable sense that whatever has been learned or witnessed has the authority and the durability of objective truth. “You don’t get that on other drugs”

Aldous Huxley concluded from his psychedelic experience that the conscious mind is less a window on reality than a furious editor of it. The mind is a “reducing valve,” he wrote, eliminating far more reality than it admits to our conscious awareness, lest we be overwhelmed. “What comes out at the other end is a measly trickle of the kind of consciousness which will help us to stay alive.” Psychedelics open the valve wide, removing the filter that hides much of reality, as well as dimensions of our own minds, from ordinary consciousness.

“This culture has a fear of death, a fear of transcendence, and a fear of the unknown, all of which are embodied in this work.” Psychedelics may be too disruptive for our society and institutions ever to embrace them.

The first time I raised the idea of “the betterment of well people” with Roland Griffiths, he shifted in his chair and chose his words carefully. “Culturally, right now, that’s a dangerous idea to promote,” he said. And yet, as we talked, it became clear that he, too, feels that many of us stand to benefit from these molecules and, even more, from the spiritual experiences they can make available.

“We are all terminal,” Griffiths said. “We’re all dealing with death. This will be far too valuable to limit to sick people.”

Zuloaga y Zabaleta, Ignacio

Nacionalidad Española

(España, Eibar (Guipúzcoa), 1870 – España, Madrid, 1945)

1907

Oil on fabric

204 x 198 cm.

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Comentario sobre

Las brujas de San Millán

Luego de diversas experiencias formativas en Roma, París y Sevilla, el pintor vasco pasó varias temporadas en Segovia entre los años 1898 y 1902, al establecerse en esa ciudad su tío Daniel, quien instaló un taller de cerámica en la iglesia de San Juan de los Caballeros.

A partir de 1905, retomó estas visitas, pasando los otoños e inviernos allí, aproximadamente hasta 1913, alternando con estadías en París, donde tenía montado un taller.

En estos años, motivado por el conocimiento que había ido adquiriendo de la cultura castellana, comenzó a dar mayor preponderancia en su obra a los paisajes y tipos humanos de esta región, en la línea de la gran tradición realista española, el Siglo de Oro y Diego Velázquez, a la cual añadió recursos técnicos impresionistas y post-impresionistas.

En oposición al preciosismo que había imperado durante gran parte del siglo XIX, Zuloaga desnudó un seco y duro realismo, al margen de las vanguardias que estaban floreciendo.

Consolidó así, hacia principios del siglo XX, el estilo llamado de la “España negra”, caracterizado por un verismo claroscurista y costumbrista de visos trágicos (a pesar de que antes había incursionado en la corriente opuesta de la “España blanca”).

Paralelamente, durante sus estancias en París, se dedicó en especial al retrato, cimentando una fama internacional que lo llevaría a plasmar en sus lienzos a la aristocracia y burguesía tanto europea como americana.

La fascinación de Zuloaga por los tópicos castellanos entronca con la reivindicación de estos parajes emprendida por la llamada generación del 98, grupo de intelectuales españoles que impulsaba una renovada visión de Castilla como sublimación de la identidad nacional, recuperando el “país real” que anidaba en los paisajes olvidados y la gente humilde.

Así, ese árido territorio y la dureza de sus habitantes iban a constituirse en una imagen emblemática de España toda, buscando una conciencia nacionalista y una unidad ideológica en realidad inexistentes.

La iconografía castellana y los valores estéticos que se generaron a partir de estos postulados reforzando la corriente de la “España negra” –que tiene como antecedente a Francisco de Goya– se popularizaron internacionalmente, logrando que Zuloaga obtuviera no solo galardones en las exposiciones sino también un gran éxito comercial.

Sin embargo, esta imagen cruda y también algo estereotipada de España, a cuya difusión mucho contribuyó el cosmopolitismo de Zuloaga, le valió a este la acusación por parte de diversos detractores de dañar la imagen nacional al mostrar lo atrasado y paupérrimo como lo característico español.

Esta controversia dio lugar a la llamada “cuestión Zuloaga”.

Las brujas de San Millán fue pintado durante una de sus estadías en Segovia, en 1907; para ello se valió como modelos de algunas viejas segovianas y criadas de su tío Daniel.

Fue expuesto con gran éxito, en 1908, en el Salón de la Société Nationale de París y en Nueva York al año siguiente.

San Millán es un barrio céntrico segoviano, que en los primeros años del siglo XX era un arrabal de casas bajas, de vida miserable y urbanización tortuosa, cuya sordidez resumía acabadamente la Segovia de la época.

En él habitó Zuloaga en 1902; alquilaba junto a otro pintor vasco, Pablo Uranga (1861-1934), una casa famosa por haber sido el escenario de un asesinato múltiple en 1892, que conmovió a la población.

Aunque existe la leyenda de que una alucinación de Uranga, sugestionado por el pasado de la morada, habría inspirado la temática, esta obra fue realizada años después, en el taller que Zuloaga alquiló en el barrio Las Canonjías.

Sin duda, durante su permanencia en San Millán, el pintor pudo observar los grupos de mujeres ancianas enlutadas y algo siniestras que, semiocultas bajo sus sayos, acudían a diario a la iglesia homónima, templo románico del siglo XII.

En su propósito de “sintetizar el alma castellana”, como él mismo declaró, compuso una escena concebida teatralmente, con un fondo de telón plano con cierta indicación de paisaje, infinito y tenebroso.

Dispuso a las siete mujeres en dos grupos que constituyen cada uno un triángulo. En una estructura característica de su obra, construyó un primer triángulo –casi rectángulo– en un primer plano acusado, muy próximo al borde inferior del cuadro; inclusive, la mujer de espaldas se sale del marco de la composición.

El segundo triángulo está constituido por las mujeres de pie a la izquierda. La ubicación escalonada de los personajes que conforman el primer triángulo lleva la mirada del espectador en forma ascendente hasta perderse en la misteriosa oscuridad del cielo a la derecha.

La disposición de las mujeres en estos dos triángulos funciona como herramienta de otros recursos propios del autor: el descentramiento y el esquema vertical.

La iluminación sobre las cabezas, proyectada desde la derecha, implica el uso de un recurso tenebrista de lejana raíz caravaggesca.

Las vestimentas oscuras y casi indiferenciadas, sin detalles, contrastan con la precisión dibujística de los rostros de las ancianas, que emergen como “faros” de las ropas geometrizadas.

Asimismo, el contraste de esas masas uniformes de color acentúa más el verismo de los objetos: el huso, el farol de lata y el cesto de mimbre.

La mirada de la mujer de cabellos blancos justo en el centro de la tela rompe el mundo privado de esos dos corrillos de ancianas y tiende un puente hacia el espectador, quien a través de aquella siente que su presencia ha sido advertida.

Se trata, como en otras obras de su autoría, de auténticos retratos en tamaño natural, recortados sobre paisajes característicos de la meseta, de pincelada densa y matérica, de colores terrosos y tonos contrastados.

Por todo esto, Las brujas de San Millán constituye uno de los ejemplos del arte zuloaguesco que difundió por el mundo una visión de la península ibérica que quedaría fijada en el imaginario europeo y americano.

========================================================

Commentary on The Witches of San Millán

After various formative experiences in Rome, Paris and Seville, the Basque painter spent several seasons in Segovia between 1898 and 1902, when his uncle Daniel settled in that city who installed a pottery workshop in the church of San Juan de los Caballeros. Starting in 1905, he resumed these visits, spending the autumns and winters there, approximately until 1913, alternating with stays in Paris, where he had established a workshop.

In these years, motivated by the knowledge that had been acquiring of Castilian culture, he began to give greater prominence in his work to the landscapes and human types of this region, in line with the great Spanish realist tradition, the Golden Age and Diego Velázquez, to which he added technical resources of impressionism and post-impressionism.

In opposition to the preciosity that had prevailed during great part of the XIX century, Zuloaga revealed a dry and hard realism, on the leading edge of the vanguards that were flourishing. There emerged, towards the beginning of the twentieth century, the so-called style of "black Spain", characterized by a chiaroscuro verismo and manners of tragic overtones (although he had previously dabbled in the opposite current of "white Spain").

At the same time, during his stays in Paris, he devoted himself especially to portraiture, cementing an international fame that would lead him to capture in his canvases the aristocracy and bourgeoisie both European and American.

Zuloaga's fascination with Castilian topics is related to the claim of these places undertaken by the so-called generation of 98, a group of Spanish intellectuals who promoted a renewed vision of Castile as a sublimation of national identity, recovering the "real country" that nested in the forgotten landscapes and the humble people. Thus, that arid territory and the hardness of its inhabitants were going to constitute an emblematic image of Spain as a whole, seeking a nationalist consciousness and an ideological unity that does not really exist.

The Castilian iconography and the aesthetic values that were generated from these postulates reinforcing the current of "Black Spain" -which has as a precedent Francisco de Goya- became popular internationally, achieving that Zuloaga obtained not only awards in the exhibitions but also a great commercial success.

However, this crude and also somewhat stereotyped image of Spain, to whose dissemination Zuloaga's cosmopolitanism greatly contributed, earned him the accusation on the part of various detractors of damaging the national image by showing the backward and very poor as the characteristic Spanish. This controversy gave rise to the so-called "Zuloaga question".

The Witches of San Millán was painted during one of his stays in Segovia, in 1907; for this he used as models some old segovians and servants of his uncle Daniel. It was exhibited with great success, in 1908, at the Salon de la Société Nationale in Paris and in New York the following year.

San Millán is a Segovian downtown district, which in the early years of the twentieth century was a suburb of low houses, miserable life and tortuous urbanization, whose sordidness summarized the Segovia of the time. In it Zuloaga lived in 1902; he rented with another Basque painter, Pablo Uranga (1861-1934), a house famous for having been the scene of a multiple murder in 1892, which shocked the population. Although there is a legend that a hallucination of Uranga, suggested by the past of the dwelling, would have inspired the theme, this work was made years later, in the workshop that Zuloaga rented in the Las Canonjías neighborhood.

Undoubtedly, during his stay in San Millán, the painter was able to observe the groups of elderly, mournful and somewhat sinister women who, half-hidden under their coats, went daily to the homonymous church, a Romanesque temple of the twelfth century.

In his purpose of "synthesizing the Castilian soul", as he himself declared, he composed a scene conceived theatrically, with a background of flat curtain with some indication of landscape, infinite and gloomy. He arranged the seven women in two groups that each constitute a triangle. In a characteristic structure of his work, he built a first triangle -almost a rectangle- in the foreground, very close to the lower edge of the painting; the woman with her back to the viewer leaves the frame of the composition.

The second triangle is constituted by the women standing to the left. The staggered location of the characters that make up the first triangle takes the viewer's gaze upward until getting lost in the mysterious darkness of the sky on the right. The disposition of women in these two triangles works as a tool of the author's own resources: decentering and the vertical scheme. The lighting on the heads, projected from the right, implies the use of a tenebrist resource of distant caravaggiesque root. The dark and almost undifferentiated clothes, without details, contrast with the drawing precision of the faces of the old women, who emerge as "beacons" of the geometrized clothes.

Likewise, the contrast of these uniform masses of color accentuates more the verismo of the objects: the spindle, the lantern and the wicker basket. The look of the woman with white hair right in the center of the fabric breaks the private world of those two groups of old women and builds a bridge towards the viewer, who through that feels that his presence has been noticed.

It is, as in other works of his authorship, a work of authentic portraits in natural size, cut out on characteristic landscapes of the plateau, of dense and material brushwork, of earthy colors and contrasted tones. For all this, Las brujas de San Millán is one of the examples of the Zulo-Cantabrian art that spread throughout the world a vision of the Iberian Peninsula that would be fixed in the European and American imaginary.

Fuente/Source: www.bellasartes.gob.ar/coleccion/obra/2633

Jan Trampota (1887-1942)

Oil on canvas

Vilnius Art Gallery

Vilnius, Lithuania

Jan Trampota (21 May 1889, Prague - 19 October 1942, Poděbrady) was a Czech Modernist landscape painter.

His father was a shoemaker. He originally intended to be a gardener, but decided to pursue landscape painting instead.[1]

From 1907 to 1909, he studied at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design and at the Academy of Fine Arts with Jan Preisler, among others. In 1910, his family emigrated to America for economic reasons, but he remained behind.[2]

In 1913, he became a member of the Mánes Union of Fine Arts.[1] Two years later, he went to Nová Ves u Chotěboře at the invitation of Jarmila Šťastná-Mixová (sister of the poet Tereza Dubrovská [cs]) where he and several other young Czech artists spent the time painting en plein aire. In 1916, he was drafted into service and was stationed in Salzburg, Bergheim and Fondo.[2] He held his first exhibition upon returning.

From 1919 to 1920, he lived in Nové Hrady and Vysoké Mýto as a guest of the painter Josef Kubíček [cs], and created a series of works on apple farming.[1]

He married Albertina Venclová (an amateur actor) in 1921 and, after touring Slovakia and Hungary, settled in Pěčín. From then on, most of his works consisted of landscapes of the local countryside there. His wife died in 1928.[2]

From 1930 to 1931, to help relieve his depression, he visited France with his friend, Rudolf Kremlička [cs], where he visited the art galleries and went on painting expeditions to Normandy.[2] Upon returning, he exhibited the works he created there, but they were not critically well received.

Back in Pěčín, he attempted to synthesize what he had learned by painting seascapes with his earlier landscape style and spent much of his time in the Orlické Mountains. Many of his works from this period were left unfinished.[1]

He had always suffered from a weak heart.[1] In 1939, his health began to fail and he died three years later while seeking a cure at the spa in Poděbrady.[2] A small monument to him has been erected in Pěčín.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Trampota

Oil on canvas; 66 x 53 cm.

Born in Guangdong Province in 1900, Guan Liang was the first generation Chinese Modern art pioneer. He studied Art in Tokyo from 1917 to 1922 where he was introduced to western oil painting technique. While receiving the basic realistic sketch training in school, he was also devoted in Impressionism and Post-impressionism art. Works by Monet, Renoir,Cézanne, Matisse had left him a deep impressionand the works by Van Gogh and Gauguin had become the model he worshiped and studied. From then onwards, Guan Liang was determined to pursue the vitality in art, art must surpass the beauty of stillness, art had to be rich in meaning.

Guan Liang’s paintings can be classified into oil paintings, water color paintings, sketches, and Chinese ink paintings. The former incorporated diversified themes while the latter mainly based on Chinese opera characters. Guan’s oil paintings were mostly painted freely unlike the works of artists in the same generation which seemed rigid and tedious. In landscape paintings, Guan was good at simplify the enormous space, complex color relationship and structure to bring about the landscape’s momentum. His figures were often small and crude, but with a high spirit that served to enlighten the landscape. The advent of Guan’s Chinese ink opera figures paintings was a new page for the Chinese art history in the 20th century. His interest and cultivation in Chinese opera not only served as a motivation for his art creation, but was also the concept of his painting. For Guan Liang, those legendry figures were not the main subject of his painting, instead, what he depicted were the characters and scenes he had seen on stage. Guan had a special intimate relationship with Chinese opera. While he drew the performance of characters, he was also drawing his emotions and understandings of this particular scene, this particular episode. Just like Xu-Hong said: “His Chinese ink opera figures paintings attempted to transform the long-term fixed format of Chinese ink paintings. He synthesized the folklore interest with the lyricism of Chinese ink painting. He had thus used the rich stage performance format to expand the expression of Chinese ink, Guan had left the 20th century Chinese art a heritage of free and child-like water ink expression.”

Reference from

Guan Liang—A Wanderer in the Art Realm, Shui Zhong-Tien

www.linlingallery.com/eng/artist_introduce.php?id=6

Lloyd Thrap Creative Photography and Teddy No Name — at modelshopstudio™.

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The Faeth site just went live, and the scientific founders' groundbreaking work was just featured in Science:

"Special diets might boost the power of drugs to vanquish cancers

"Scientists including Vousden, who cofounded a company with Cantley to test diet-drug combinations in cancer trials, are unraveling the molecular pathways by which slashing calories or removing a dietary component can bolster the effects of drugs. In mice with cancer, “the effects are oftentimes on the same order of magnitude as those from the drugs that we give patients. That’s a powerful thing to think about"

In one trial, participants will shop for and prepare meals according to instructions. In the other, the company Faeth Therapeutics that Cantley co-founded will ship meals to patients to help them stay on track.

If those trials show the ketogenic diet helps curb tumor growth for a year or two longer than the PI3K inhibitor otherwise would, the diet “could become the standard of care,” Cantley says. “That will be what physicians will tell patients to do.”

A ketogenic diet may enhance other cancer treatments, too. Immunologist Laurence Zitvogel of the Gustave Roussy Institute in France recently studied mice with skin, kidney, or lung cancers receiving a drug known as a checkpoint inhibitor that helps the immune system’s T cells kill tumors. In animals on a ketogenic diet, the ketone bodies they produced boosted the T cells’ power, her team reported in January. Rabinowitz and collaborators have begun enrollment for a 40-person trial to see whether the diet can enhance the impact on pancreatic cancer of a chemotherapy cocktail.

OTHER RESEARCHERS ARE exploring an even more precise dietary limitation: cutting out specific amino acids, best known as the building blocks of proteins but also key to many other metabolic processes. Vousden unexpectedly veered into that line of research while studying a cancer-preventing gene called p53. The protein it encodes can trigger cells that have DNA damage to self-destruct, stopping them from turning cancerous. The gene is mutated in many tumors, allowing unrestrained growth.

But in 2005, a U.S. lab reported a surprising finding: The intact p53 protein helps healthy cells survive when glucose is scarce, suggesting p53-mutated cancer cells are especially vulnerable to glucose limitation. Vousden wondered whether the protein also helps cells survive a shortage of other, less explored nutrients, such as amino acids—and whether the mutated p53 in cancer would make the cells less resilient.

To find out, her postdoc Oliver Maddocks [and Faeth Head of Research] methodically removed various amino acids from cancer cells’ culture medium. Many types of cancer cells grew more slowly when deprived of two related amino acids, serine and glycine, and deleting p53 ramped up that effect. The scientists then tested the effects of a serine- and glycine-free diet in mice. Maddocks and Vousden reported in 2013 and 2017 that the special diet slowed cancer growth and extended the lives of mice implanted with colon cancer cells lacking p53 as well as in mice engineered to develop lymphoma or colon tumors. Cells need serine or glycine to make a compound that sops up DNA-damaging free radicals, and the deprivation made tumor cells more sensitive to that oxidative stress. Radiation and some chemotherapies kill cells by generating free radicals, so the results suggested the diet could prime tumors for those treatments.

Similar findings have emerged for other amino acids. Limiting the essential amino acid methionine appears to amplify the effects of radiation and chemotherapy in mice with colon cancer and sarcomas. And removing asparagine, an amino acid abundant in asparagus, from mouse diets curbed the spread of metastatic breast cancer, suggesting the diet could enhance drug treatments.

As with serine, depriving mice of one of those amino acids apparently disrupts metabolic cycles by which cancer cells respond to oxidative stress, synthesize DNA, and turn genes off and on.

The company Vousden and Cantley founded, Faeth (Welsh for nutrition), is gearing up to test amino acid–depleted diets in two clinical trials this year. Faeth, also cofounded by Maddocks, will combine chemotherapy with a shake lacking specific amino acids, delivered to participants’ homes alongside other meal components, such as salads. The researchers got support from private investors after failing to win research grants for their idea, says Maddocks, now at the University of Glasgow. “It’s quite out of the box.”

Maddocks expects the cancer-diet field will take years to move from “piecemeal forays” to a clear understanding of each diet’s pros and cons. Establishing that a specific diet works well enough to become part of routine clinical care also will take time. But Zitvogel says fighting cancer with diet is no longer a fringe idea. The field is at the start of “a new era where people will really take diet seriously into account,” she says. “The time is ripe.”

Think Fast JAK Showcase 2013 Preview. More to Come...

Photographed at Low Spirits Club in Albuquerque, New Mexico.USA

Was an amazing night of music and dance.

Think Fast JAK and Red Light Camera's with the Number Ones, Kady Bow, Port Alice,

Dance and Music ensemble Yankadi.

Think Fast JAK is based around the lyrics and music of Washington, DC-based singer/songwriter Jessica Sands.She has always had a passion for writing and creating music and began performing at an early age.Being a life long follower of great musicians and music she developed an eclectic musical taste which she carries into her current work.

In 2005, she began writing and recording with her brother Anton Kozikowski, an Albuquerque/San Francisco-based film and TV producer and lifetime musician.

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Lloyd Thrap's Public Portfolio

I INTRODUCTION

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Spanish painter, who is widely acknowledged to be the most important artist of the 20th century. A long-lived and highly prolific artist, he experimented with a wide range of styles and themes throughout his career. Among Picasso’s many contributions to the history of art, his most important include pioneering the modern art movement called cubism, inventing collage as an artistic technique, and developing assemblage (constructions of various materials) in sculpture.

Picasso was born Pablo Ruiz in Málaga, Spain. He later adopted his mother’s more distinguished maiden name—Picasso—as his own. Though Spanish by birth, Picasso lived most of his life in France.

II FORMATIVE WORK (1893-1900)

Picasso’s father, who was an art teacher, quickly recognized that his child Pablo was a prodigy. Picasso studied art first privately with his father and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in La Coruña, Spain, where his father taught. Picasso’s early drawings, such as Study of a Torso, After a Plaster Cast (1894-1895, Musée Picasso, Paris, France), demonstrate the high level of technical proficiency he had achieved by 14 years of age. In 1895 his family moved to Barcelona, Spain, after his father obtained a teaching post at that city’s Academy of Fine Arts. Picasso was admitted to advanced classes at the academy after he completed in a single day the entrance examination that applicants traditionally were given a month to finish. In 1897 Picasso left Barcelona to study at the Madrid Academy in the Spanish capital. Dissatisfied with the training, he quit and returned to Barcelona.

After Picasso visited Paris in October 1900, he moved back and forth between France and Spain until 1904, when he settled in the French capital. In Paris he encountered, and experimented with, a number of modern artistic styles. Picasso’s painting Le Moulin de la Galette (1900, Guggenheim Museum, New York City) revealed his interest in the subject matter of Parisian nightlife and in the style of French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a style that verged on caricature. In addition to café scenes, Picasso painted landscapes, still lifes, and portraits of friends and performers.

III BLUE PERIOD (1901-1903)

From 1901 to 1903 Picasso initiated his first truly original style, which is known as the blue period. Restricting his color scheme to blue, Picasso depicted emaciated and forlorn figures whose body language and clothing bespeak the lowliness of their social status. In The Old Guitarist (1903, Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois), Picasso emphasized the guitarist’s poverty and position as a social outcast, which he reinforced by surrounding the figure with a black outline, as if to cut him off from his environment. The guitarist is compressed within the canvas (no room is left in the painting for the guitarist to raise his lowered head), suggesting his helplessness: The guitarist is trapped within the frame just as he is trapped by his poverty. Although Picasso underscored the squalor of his figures during this period, neither their clothing nor their environment conveys a specific time or place. This lack of specificity suggests that Picasso intended to make a general statement about human alienation rather than a particular statement about the lower class in Paris.

Why blue dominated Picasso’s paintings during this period remains unexplained. Possible influences include photographs with a bluish tinge popular at the time, poetry that stressed the color blue in its imagery, or the paintings of French artists such as Eugène Carrière or Claude Monet, who based many of their works around this time on variations on a single color. Another explanation is that Picasso found blue particularly appropriate for his subject matter because it is a color associated with melancholy.

IV ROSE PERIOD (1904-1905)

In 1904 Picasso’s style shifted, inaugurating the rose period, sometimes referred to as the circus period. Although Picasso still focused on social outcasts—especially circus performers—his color scheme lightened, featuring warmer, reddish hues, and the thick outlines of the blue period disappeared. Picasso maintained his interest in the theme of alienation, however. In Two Acrobats and a Dog (1905, Museum of Modern Art, New York City), he represented two young acrobats before an undefined, barren landscape. Although the acrobats are physically close, they gaze in different directions and do not interact, and the reason for their presence is not made clear. Differences in the acrobats’ height also exaggerate their disconnection from each other and from the empty landscape. The dog was a frequent presence in Picasso’s work and may have been a reference to death as dogs appear at the feet of figures in many Spanish funerary monuments.

Picasso may have felt an especially deep sympathy for circus performers. Like artists, they were paid to entertain society, but their itinerant lifestyle and status as outsiders prevented them from becoming an integral part of the social fabric. It was this situation that made the sad clown an important figure in the popular imagination: Paid to make people laugh, he must keep hidden his real existence and true feelings. Living a life of financial insecurity himself, Picasso no doubt empathized with these performers. During this period Picasso met Fernande Olivier, the first of several women who shared his life and provided inspiration for his art. Olivier’s features appear in many of the female figures in his paintings over the next several years.

V CLASSICAL PERIOD (1905) AND IBERIAN PERIOD (1906)

Experimentation and rapid style changes mark the years from late 1905 on. Picasso’s paintings from late 1905 are more emotionally detached than those of the blue or rose periods. The color scheme lightens—beiges and light browns predominate—and melancholy and alienation give way to a more reasoned approach. Picasso’s increasing interest in form is apparent in his references to classical sculpture. The figure of a seated boy in Two Youths (1905, National Gallery, Washington, D.C.), for example, recalls an ancient Greek sculpture of a boy removing a thorn from his foot.

By 1906 Picasso had become interested in sculptures from the Iberian peninsula dating from about the 6th to the 3rd century bc. Picasso must have found them of particular interest both because they are native to Spain and because they display remarkable simplification of form. The Iberian influence is immediately visible in Self-Portrait (1906, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania), in which Picasso reduced the image of his head to an oval and his eyes to almond shapes, thus revealing his increasing fascination with geometric simplification of form.

VI AFRICAN PERIOD (1907)

Picasso’s predilection for experimentation and for drawing inspiration from outside the accepted artistic sources led to his most radical and revolutionary painting yet in 1907: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907, Museum of Modern Art). The painting’s theme—the female nude—could not be more traditional, but Picasso’s treatment of it is revolutionary. Picasso took even greater liberties here with human anatomy than in his 1906 Self-Portrait . The figures on the left in the painting look flat, as if they have no skeletal or muscular structure. Faces seen from the front have noses in profile. The eyes are asymmetrical and radically simplified. Contour lines are incomplete. Color juxtapositions—between blue and orange, for instance—are intentionally strident and unharmonious. The representation of space is fragmented and discontinuous.

While the left side of the canvas is largely Iberian-influenced, the right side is inspired by African masks, especially in its striped patterns and oval forms. Such borrowings, which led to great simplification, distortion, and visual incongruities, were considered extremely daring in 1907. The head of the figure at the bottom right, for example, turns in an anatomically impossible way. These discrepancies proved so shocking that even Picasso’s fellow painters reacted negatively to Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. French painter Henri Matisse allegedly told Picasso that he was trying to ridicule the modern movement.

VII CUBISM (1908-1917)

For many scholars, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon—with its fragmented planes, flattened figures, and borrowings from African masks—marks the beginning of the new visual language, known as cubism. Other scholars believe that French painter Paul Cézanne provided the primary catalyst for this change in style. Cézanne’s work of the 1890s and early 1900s was noted both for its simplification and flattening of form and for the introduction of what art historians call passage, the interpenetration of one physical object by another. For example, in Mont Sainte-Victoire (1902-1906, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City), Cézanne left the outer edge of the mountain open, allowing the blue area of the sky and the gray area of the mountain to merge. This innovation—air and rock interpenetrating—was a crucial precedent for Picasso’s invention of cubism. First, it defied the laws of our physical experience, and second, it indicated that artists were viewing paintings as having a logic of their own that functioned independently of, or even contrary to, the logic of everyday experience.

Scholars generally divide the cubist innovations of Picasso and French painter Georges Braque into two stages. In the first stage, analytical cubism, the artists fragmented three-dimensional shapes into multiple geometric planes. In the second stage, synthetic cubism, they reversed the process, putting abstract planes together to represent human figures, still lifes, and other recognizable shapes.

A Analytical Cubism (1908-1912)

Profoundly influenced by Cézanne's later work, Picasso and Braque initiated a series of landscape paintings in 1908. These paintings approximated Cézanne’s both in their color scheme (dark greens and light browns) and in their drastic simplification of nature to geometric shapes. Upon seeing these paintings, French critic Louis Vauxelles coined the term cubism. In Picasso’s Houses on the Hill, Horta de Ebro (1909, Museum of Modern Art), he gave architectural structures a three-dimensional, cubic quality, but he abandoned conventional three-dimensional perspective: Instead of being depicted one behind the other, buildings appear one on top of the other. Moreover, he simplified every aspect of the painting according to a vocabulary of cubic shapes—not just the houses but the sky as well. By neutralizing differences between earth and sky, Picasso made the canvas appear more unified, but he also introduced ambiguity by not differentiating solid from void. In addition, Picasso often used inconsistent light sources. In some parts of a painting, light appears to come from the left; in other parts, it comes from the right, the top, or even the bottom. Spatial planes intersect in ways that leave the spectator guessing whether angles are concave or convex. Delight in confusing the viewer is a regular feature of cubism.

By 1910, it had become evident that cubism no longer had any cubes and that the illusion of three-dimensional space, or volume, was gone. Picasso seemed to have dismantled the very idea of solid form, not only by fragmenting the human figure and other shapes, but also by using Cézanne’s concept of passage to merge figure and environment, solid and void, background and foreground. In this way he created a visually consistent painting, yet the consistency does not conform to the physical consistency of the natural world as we experience it. Picasso’s decision to limit his color scheme to dark browns and grays also suggests that his paintings have initiated a radical departure from nature, rather than attempted to copy it.

The year 1912 marks another major development in the cubist language: the invention of collage. In Still Life with Chair Caning (1912, Musée Picasso), Picasso attached a piece of oilcloth (that depicts woven caning) to his work. With this action Picasso not only violated the integrity of the medium—oil painting on canvas—but also included a material that had no previous connection with high art. Art could now be created, Picasso seems to imply, with scissors and glue as well as with paint and canvas. By including pieces of cloth, newspaper, wallpaper, advertising, and other materials in his work, Picasso opened the door for any object or material, however ordinary, to be included in (or even replace) a work of art. This innovation had important consequences for later 20th-century art. Another innovation was including the letters JOU in the painting, possibly referring to the beginning of the word journal (French for “newspaper”) or to the French word jouer, meaning “to play,” as Picasso is playing with forms. These combinations reveal that cubism includes both visual and verbal references, and merges high art with popular culture.

B Synthetic Cubism (1912-1917)

By inventing collage and by introducing elements from the real world in his canvases, Picasso avoided taking cubism to the level of complete abstraction and remained in the domain of tangible objects. Collage also initiated the synthetic phase of cubism. Whereas analytical cubism fragmented figures into geometric planes, synthetic cubism synthesized (combined) near-abstract shapes to create representational forms, such as a human figure or still life. Synthetic cubism also tended toward multiplicity. In Guitar, Sheet Music, and Wine Glass (1912, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas), for instance, Picasso combined a drawing of a glass, several spots of color, sheet music, newspaper, a wallpaper pattern, and a cloth that has a wood–grain pattern. Synthetic cubism may also combine different textures, such as wood grain, sand, and printed matter. Sometimes Picasso applied these textures as collage, by gluing textured papers on the canvas. In other cases the artist painted an area to look like wood or wallpaper, fooling the spectator by means of visual puns.

VIII CONSTRUCTION AND AFTER (1912-1920)

In 1912 Picasso instigated another important innovation: construction, or assemblage, in sculpture. Before this innovation, sculpture, at least in the West, was primarily created in one of two ways: by carving a block of stone or wood or by modeling—shaping a form in clay and casting that form in a more durable material, such as bronze. In Guitar (1912, Museum of Modern Art), Picasso used a new additive process. He cut various shapes out of sheet metal and wire, and then reassembled those materials into a cubist construction. In other constructions, Picasso used wood, cardboard, string, and other everyday objects, not only inventing a new technique for sculpture but also expanding the definition of art by blurring the distinction between artistic and nonartistic materials.

From World War I (1914-1918) onward, Picasso moved from style to style. In 1915, for instance, Picasso painted the highly abstract Harlequin (Museum of Modern Art) and drew the highly realistic portrait of Ambroise Vollard (Metropolitan Museum of Art). During and after the war he also worked on stage design and costume design for the Ballets Russes, a modern Russian ballet company launched by the impresario Sergey Diaghilev. Inspired by his direct experience of the theater, Picasso also produced representations of performers, such as French clowns called Pierrot and Harlequin, and scenes of ballerinas.

Picasso separated from Olivier in 1912, after meeting Eva Gouel. Gouel died in 1915, and in 1918 Picasso married Olga Koklova, one of the dancers in Diaghilev’s company. Picasso created a number of portraits of her, and their son, Paulo, appears in works such as Paulo as Harlequin (1924, Musée Picasso).

IX CLASSICAL PERIOD (1920-1925)

After World War I, a strain of conservatism spread through a number of art forms. A motto popular among traditionalists was “the return to order.” For Picasso the years 1920 to 1925 were marked by close attention to three-dimensional form and to classical themes: bathers, centaurs (mythical creatures half-man and half horse), and women in classical drapery. He depicted many of these figures as massive, dense, and weighty, an effect intensified by strong contrasts of light and dark. But even as he moved toward greater realism, Picasso continued to play games with the viewer. In the classical and carefully composed The Pipes of Pan (1923, Musée Picasso), for example, he painted an area of the architectural framework in the foreground (which should be grayish) with the same color as the sea in the background, revealing again his pleasure in ambiguity.

X CUBISM AND SURREALISM (1925-1936)

From 1925 to 1936 Picasso again worked in a number of styles. He composed some paintings of tightly structured geometric shapes, limiting his color scheme to primary colors (red, blue, yellow), as in The Studio (1928, Museum of Modern Art). In other paintings, such as Nude in an Armchair (1929, Musée Picasso), he depicted contorted female figures whose open mouths and menacing teeth reveal a more emotional, less reasoned attitude. Picasso’s marriage broke up during this time, and some of the menacing female figures in his art of this period may represent Koklova.

The same diversity is visible in Picasso’s sculpture during this period. Bather (Metamorphosis II) (1928, Musée Picasso) represents the human body as a massive spherical shape with protruding limbs, whereas Wire Construction (1928, Musée Picasso) depicts it as a rigid, geometric configuration of thin wires. Picasso also experimented with welding in sculpture of this period and explored a variety of themes, including the female head, the sleeping woman, and the Crucifixion. The model for many of his sleeping women was Marie Thérèse Walter, a new love who had entered his life. Their daughter, Maia, was born in 1935.

In the early 1930s Picasso had increasing contact with the members of the surrealist movement (see Surrealism) and became fascinated with the classical myth of the Minotaur. This creature, which has the head of a man and the body of a bull, appears in a study by Picasso for the cover of the surrealist journal Minotaure (1933, Museum of Modern Art). Here Picasso affixed a classical drawing of a Minotaur to a collage of abstracted forms and debris. The Minotaur has numerous incarnations in Picasso’s work, both as an aggressor and a victim, as a violent character and a friendly one. It may represent the artist himself and frequently appears in the context of a bullfight, a typically Spanish scene close to Picasso’s heart.

XI GUERNICA (1937)

In 1937 the Spanish government commissioned Picasso to create a mural for Spain’s pavilion at an international exposition in Paris. Unsure about the subject, Picasso procrastinated. But he set to work almost immediately after hearing that the Spanish town of Guernica had been bombed by Nazi warplanes in support of Spanish general Francisco Franco’s plot to overthrow the Spanish republic. Guernica (1937, Prado, Madrid) was Picasso's response to, and condemnation of, that event. He executed the painting in black and white—in keeping with the seriousness of the subject—and transfigured the event according to his fascination with the bullfight theme.

At the extreme left is a bull, which symbolizes brutality and darkness, according to Picasso. At the center, a horse wounded by a spear most likely represents the Spanish people. At the center on top, an exploding light bulb possibly refers to air warfare or to evil coming from above (and putting out the light of reason). Corpses and dying figures fill the foreground: a woman with a dead child at the left, a dead warrior with a broken sword (from which a flower sprouts) at the center, a weeping woman and a figure falling through a burning building at the right. The distortion of these figures expresses the inhumanity of the event. To suggest the screaming of the horse and of the mother with the dead child, Picasso transformed their tongues into daggers. In the upper center, a tormented female figure holds an oil lamp that sheds light upon the scene, possibly symbolizing the light of truth revealing the brutality of the event to the outside world. In 1936 Picasso met Dora Maar, an artist who photographed Guernica as he painted it. She soon became his companion and the subject of his paintings, although he remained involved with Walter.

XII WORLD WAR II (1939-1945)

Picasso, unlike many artists, stayed in Paris during the German occupation of World War II. Some of his paintings from this time reveal the anxiety of the war years, as does the menacing Still Life with Steer's Skull (1942, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany). Other works, such as his sculpture Head of a Bull (1943, Musée Picasso), are more playful and whimsical. In this sculpture Picasso combined a bicycle seat and handlebars to represent the bull’s head. Upon receiving news of the Nazi death camps, Picasso also painted, although he did not finish, an homage to the victims of the Holocaust (mass murder of European Jews during the war). In this painting, called The Charnel House (1945, Museum of Modern Art), he restricted the color scheme to black and white (as in Guernica) and depicted an accumulation of distorted, mangled bodies. During the war Picasso joined the Communist Party, and after the war he attended several peace conferences.

XIII LATE WORK (1945-1973)

Picasso remained a prolific artist until late in his life, although this later period has not received universal acclaim from historians or critics. He made variations on motifs that had fascinated him throughout his career, such as the bullfight and the painter and his model, the latter a theme that celebrated creativity. And he continued to paint portraits and landscapes. Picasso also experimented with ceramics, creating figurines, plates, and jugs, and he thereby blurred an existing distinction between fine art and craft.

Picasso’s emotional life became more complicated after he met French painter Françoise Gilot in the 1940s, while he was still involved with Maar. He and Gilot had a son, Claude, and a daughter, Paloma, and both appear in many of his late works. Picasso and Gilot parted in 1953. Jacqueline Roque, whom Picasso married in 1961, became his next companion. They spent most of their time in the south of France.

Another new direction in Picasso’s work came from variations on well-known works by older artists that he recast in his own style. Among these works are Women on the Banks of the Seine, after Courbet (1950, Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland) and Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe after Manet (1960, Musée Picasso). What makes these works particularly significant is that they run counter to a basic premise of modern art, Picasso’s included: namely, originality. Although many modern painters were influenced by earlier artists, they rarely made such direct and obvious references to each other’s work because they deemed such references unoriginal. In the postmodern period, which began in the 1970s, artists and critics began to question the modernist directive to be original. In acts of deliberate defiance, many postmodern artists have appropriated (taken for their own use) well-known images from their predecessors or contemporaries. Seen against this context, Picasso’s later variations on paintings by earlier masters hardly seem out of place; on the contrary, they anticipate a key aspect of art in the 1980s.

One of Picasso’s late works, Head of a Woman (1967), was a gift to the city of Chicago. This sculpture of welded steel, 15 m (50 ft) tall, stands in front of Chicago’s Civic Center. Although its semiabstract form proved controversial at first, the sculpture soon became a city landmark.

Because of his many innovations, Picasso is widely considered to be the most influential artist of the 20th century. The cubist movement, which he and Braque inspired, had a number of followers. Its innovations gave rise to a host of other 20th-century art movements, including futurism in Italy, suprematism and constructivism in Russia, de Stijl in the Netherlands, and vorticism in England. Cubism also influenced German expressionism, dada, and other movements as well as early work of the surrealists (see Surrealism) and abstract expressionists (see Abstract Expressionism). In addition, collage and construction became key aspects of 20th-century art.

Contributed By:

Claude Cernuschi

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Concealed behind the walled city of Intramuros, built by the Spaniards in 1570, is the church of San Agustin. This church is a significant monument to the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, being the first religious structure built in the island of Luzon, after the Spanish relocated from Cebu in the south.

Built within the administrative center of the Spanish government, San Agustin church enjoyed privileges not commonly dispensed to most colonial churches. It was built by the Spaniard Juan Macias in 1586 and was completed in 1606. Luciano Oliver later renovated it in 1854. The book Great Churches of the Philippines points out that the church was designed “according to the plans approved by the Royal Audencia of Mexico and by a Royal Cedula.”

Jesus Encinas, who wrote San Agustin Manila, states that the design of the church was derived from other churches that were built by the Augustinians in Mexico. Pedro Galende, OSA, in his book San Agustin Noble Stone Shrine, adds that the Augustinians “who came from Spain and those born in Mexico had a great opportunity to observe and study the South American monastic architecture which they later used in the Philippines. They took into consideration the quality of the local stone and the weather conditions which required them to sacrifice aesthetic requirement for durability.”

This practical and banal approach to aesthetics is evident on the church’s facade. It may have been the most sought and copied facade in the colonial period, but its static appearance and dark adobe stone lack grace and charm. Even the Augustinians themselves were not too kind with the church’s displeasing appearance. In another book, Angels in Stone, Galende recalls the Augustinian historian, Agustin Ma. de Castro’s critical comment of the church’s facade: “It was of triangular form, very ugly and of a blackish color; flanked by two towers, one of which has no bells and does not serve for anything. Due to the frequent earthquakes in Manila, they (towers) have only one body, ugly and irregular, without elevation or gracefulness.”

Sedate and direct to the point, the facade follows the style of High Renaissance. The symmetrical composition is prefixed by pairs of Tuscan columns that flank the main door of the two-tiered facade. The vertical movement of the paired columns is adapted at the second level by equally paired Corinthian columns. At the second level, mass and void alternate in a simple rhythm of solid walls and windows. The two levels, emphasized by horizontal cornices, are then capped by a pediment that is accentuated with a simple rose window. The facade’s hard composition is held together by two towers; unfortunately, the missing left belfry further exaggerates the lackluster facade. It was taken down after a destructive earthquake hit the church in 1863 and 1880, splitting the tower in two.

The facade has a touch of Baroque by the ornately carved wooden doors that depict floras and religious images. Baroque is also evident in the carved niches that quietly reside between the paired lower columns. The church is bequeathed with Chinese elements in the form of fu dogs that emphatically guard the courtyard entrances.

Alicia Coseteng, in Spanish Churches of the Philippines, describes the church as having “an inverted vaulting foundation, which reacts to seismic effects in much the same manner as the hull of a ship resists the waves.” Although this is difficult to prove, this may be one of the reasons why, amidst the destructive natural calamities that are prevalent in the country, the church is still standing today. Winand Klassen, in his book Architecture in the Philippines, also notes that the church has an inverted vault-like foundation, and was the first earthquake-proof building in stone. This makes San Agustin as the only surviving 16th century edifice, and the oldest church in the Philippines. Another interesting structural component of the church is the lateral bays that act as interior buttressing. This is completely different from all the colonial churches where the wall buttresses flare out at the exterior side of the church walls. Within each compartmentalized bay is a side chapel that Coseteng refers to as cryptocollateral chapel. Seven side chapels line the entire length of each side of the nave.

San Agustin church is also the only colonial church that has retained its original vaulting, despite the destructive forces that shelled the church during WW II. It was a fortuitous turn because San Agustin church flaunts one of the most artistically decorated interiors among all of the colonial churches in the country.

The splendid trompe l’oeil barrel vault and dome magnify the skills of two Italian decorative painters, Alberoni and Dibella, who were commissioned to paint the church’s interior in 1875. With a barren, plain surface, they managed to sculpt and gave life to the ceiling with their paint brushes. Alberoni and Dibella animated every space with wonderful floral motifs, geometric patterns, classic architectural themes, coffers, and religious images. Significantly, the artists developed a language in the trompe l’oeil vaulting that synthesizes with the spatial geometry of the church. The super-imposed columns which divide each side chapel are echoed above by coffered bands that traverse across the barrel vault. Even the faux coffers are organized along the length of the ceiling to suggest depth, movement, balance, and proportion to the nave below. At the crossing, the concentric trompe l’oeil of the shallow dome is curiously crisscrossed by fluted ribs that rise from each pier and merge at the apex.

The playful effect of chiaroscuro-light and shadows-and perspective, restrained only by the limited palette of a few earthly colors, is a visual spectacle. Perhaps, the grandiosity of the painting is a bit too presumptuous to some critics, but one can assume that the vitality of the interior must have roused the imaginations of Simon Flores, a local artist who later became responsible in decorating the interiors of several other churches, including the sumptuous interior of Betis church in Pampanga.

As a final stroke to the exhilarating visual experience, the church is vested with a heavily guilded pulpit, with the native flora and pineapple as decorative motifs, as well as a very ornate altar.

The church is more than just an architectural icon. A side chapel next to the main altar is dedicated to the Spanish Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, the founder of Manila. His remains were re-buried here by the Augustinians, unidentified and mixed along with others, after they were ruthlessly unearthed by the British who were searching for golden treasures in 1762.

At best, today, one can only quietly contemplate the charged bygone days at the foot of Legaspi’s final resting place.

Adjacent to the church, the monastery was converted in 1973 to become a repository for religious artifacts and art treasures dating back as early as the 16th century. Here, one can spend an entire day to cherish and absorb the remains of a resplendent era in the country’s religious history.

San Agustin church is, indeed, the mother of all Philippine colonial churches.

Yonge Street, Toronto

The definitive New Order tune!! - Mike

www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3XW6NLILqo

*****

"'The Perfect Kiss' is a song by the English rock band New Order. It is the first New Order song to be included on a studio album at the same time as its release as a single. The vinyl version has Factory catalogue number FAC 123 and the video has the opposite number, FAC 321.

The song has a complex arrangement which includes a number of instruments and methods not normally used by New Order. For example, a bridge features frogs croaking melodically. The band reportedly included them because Morris loved the effect and was looking for any excuse to use it. At the end of a track, the faint bleating of a (synthesized) sheep can be heard. Sheep samples would reappear in later New Order singles 'Fine Time' and 'Ruined in a Day'. Despite being a fan favourite, the song was not performed live between 1993 and 2006 due to the complexity of converting the programs from the E-mu Emulator to the new Roland synthesizer. However, it returned to the live set at a performance in Athens on 3 June 2006.

'The Perfect Kiss' reached only #46 in the UK charts, most likely due to a lack of marketing by Factory Records and the obscure Peter Saville sleeve: uniform grey with the word 'perfect' embossed on the front side and 'kiss The' on the back, like a wraparound band. It was about this time that the photographer Geoff Power [see 'Shellshock'] was introduced to Peter Saville. So enamoured was Peter by Geoff's work that he originally offered the photographer the cover to Low-Life. Then when that fell through, they worked on a cover for 'The Perfect Kiss' using one of Geoff's photographs, which can be seen later in New Order's songbook, 'X'. With time running out and Peter's decision not to run with this image - it didn't fit in Peter's subsequent portraits of the band on Low-Life - Geoff was offered an OMD album cover instead. Suffice to say Geoff decided to hang on until a subsequent New Order release came up a year later ['Shellshock'].

It has been suspected, and the lyrics strongly suggest that the song is about Ian Curtis's suicide. The lyrics seem to describe the subject of the song knowing that the 'friend' (possibly Ian) was suffering psychologically ('often thought he was deranged') and then the act of suicide ('you throw away your only chance to be here today', 'my friend he took his final breath, now I know the perfect kiss is the kiss of death').

The video also has a picture of Ian in the doorway at the end.

Lasting nearly 9 minutes, the full 12' single version of the song is longer than even "Blue Monday", New Order's 1983 dance epic. This version also appears on the vinyl edition of Substance, with the CD pressings deleting 44 seconds of the climatic finale, due to time limitations of the CD format in 1987 (future remasterings of Substance did not restore the missing 44 seconds, even though newer CDs would allow for it). The full version was eventually released unedited on the 2-disc deluxe edition of Low-Life, marking its first appearance on CD.

The version on the original Low-Life and all post-Substance compilations is a 4:48 edit that omits the third verse (the one that mentions the song's title) and fades out before the climax. This version is present on the A-side of the 7' single from the Philippines; most 7' issues from other countries have on the A-side a version that is further edited to 4:24 (in some or all cases without the percussion introduction). The UK 7' promo release on Factory Records is a rarely-heard edit which compresses most of the elements of the full, 8:46 version (including the ending but not the third verse) into 3:50.

There is also a live studio recording which corresponds to the music video; it is available on the bonus disc included with some editions of Retro and on various promotional vinyl releases.

The song has been remixed by third parties like Razormaid and Hot Tracks and has been covered by bands including Capsule Giants, Nude, International, Paradoxx, Razed in a New Division of Agony, and Amoeba Crunch.

'The Kiss of Death' is a typical New Order dub version: it is a mostly instrumental remix of the A-side with added effects; it notably features the opening of the album version. 'Perfect Pit' is a short recording of synthesized bass and drum parts that sounds like Gillian Gilbert and Stephen Morris practicing." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Perfect_Kiss

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No images are within Public Domain. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of copyright.

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All works subject to applicable copyright laws. This intellectual property MAY NOT BE DOWNLOADED except by normal viewing process of the browser. The intellectual property may not be copied to another computer, transmitted , published, reproduced, stored, manipulated, projected, or altered in any way, including without limitation any digitization or synthesizing of the images, alone or with any other material, by use of computer or other electronic means or any other method or means now or hereafter known, without the written permission of Lloyd Thrap and payment of a fee or arrangement thereof.

No images are within Public Domain. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of copyright.

Lloyd Thrap's Public Portfolio

National Nordic Museum

Seattle, Washington

Fischersund

FAUX FLORA

For Fischersund, Iceland is more than home; it is muse. Formed in 2017 by siblings J6nsi, Inga, Lilja, and Sigurr6s, the family-run art collective draws inspiration from the country's landscapes and the memories they create in them.

The exhibition Faux Flora imagines new flowering plant species through artwork that synthesizes scent, sound, and images. With each flower, this

multisensory exhibition elicits emotions and evokes experience. Motifs and

fragrances familiar across Iceland coalesce into a new botany.

Here forms of life intertwine. The exhibition progresses through five chapters-germination, growth, flowering, seed formation, and dispersal mirroring the stages of human life: birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and death.

See and smell these fictive flowers. Fischersund names and describes each plant in the exhibition, drawing on botanical treatises from across a span of centuries. In these scientific source materials, authors paired text with detailed illustrations to catalog and classify plant life. The artists, in turn, use contemporary and historical techniques such as video art and hand-painted photography to animate their flower species.

Perfume-a primary artistic medium for the collective-provides important olfactory

information for plant identification.

Listen closely to the sounds of each artificial plant, and envision the proposed flower's growth in the Icelandic landscape. A soundscape

composed for the exhibition marks the culmination of this linear, time bound journey.

Walk toward it slowly, appreciating the fleeting beauty of Faux Flora.

Fischersund: Faux Flora has been organized by Chief Curator Leslie Anne

Anderson and the artists.

Staff across the Museum collaborated to bring the

exhibition concept to life.

Backing out of the United Airlines hangar at LAX for her epic journey through the LA city streets.

My buddy David Knight and crew filmed the transit in 3D. Here, and below, are his favorite four photos from 9,500 shots. He asked them to make this pivot for the photos.

He also wrote to say: "the public will not be able to actually access or look into the Shuttle's interior, so the Science Center is going to utilize our Everyscape VR Tour to give visitors the ability to ‘go inside Endeavour’! They are putting together an interactive kiosk that will also have a larger monitor above it, so that people can watch someone ‘navigate’ through the depiction."

This view inside was synthesized from my photos by Everyscape.

You can see a preview of my Endeavour tour here. Click on the instrument panel and mouse around.

First synthesized by the chemist Wallace Carothers and introduced in the 1939 World's Fair by DuPont, #ストッキングの日 celebrates when the first nylon stocking went on sale on May 15, 1940!

First synthesized by the chemist Wallace Carothers and introduced in the 1939 World's Fair by DuPont, #ストッキングの日 celebrates when the first nylon stocking went on sale on May 15, 1940!

First synthesized by the chemist Wallace Carothers and introduced in the 1939 World's Fair by DuPont, #ストッキングの日 celebrates when the first nylon stocking went on sale on May 15, 1940!

НИКОЛАЙ ФЕШИН - Портрет Вари Адоратской

☆

Location: State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan, Kazan, Russia.

Source: goskatalog.ru/portal/#/collections?id=8586634

Based on publication by Galina Tuluzakova. Nikolai Fechin. Kazan – Taos. Celebration of the 1000th Anniversary of Kazan // The Tretyakov Gallery magazine: Special issue N1. USA–Russia: On The Crossroads Of Cultures

One of Fechin's undisputed masterpieces is his portrait of Varya Adoratskaya. Created in 1914, at its very first exhibitions "Varenka” drew comparisons with Serov's famous "Girl with Peaches”. The two canvases do have much in common - similar subjects, similar technique, and, above all, the same mood of peace, tranquillity and happiness.

Portrait is one of the most harmonious creations of the artist in the Russian period of creativity, clear in thought and in construction. At this time (1914 - 1918), choosing the form of the interior portrait-picture, Fechin tried to create a generalized, multifaceted image that would synthesize the psychological characteristics of the model and her momentary mood or condition depicted in the picture. “Portrait of Varya Adoratskaya” by the Doctor of Arts Galina Tuluzakova calls “the most complete and perfect form of the image of childhood in the work of Feshin.”

Today, the name of Nikolai (Nicolai) Fechin is still little known to the Russian public - yet this talented and appealing artist was equally gifted in painting, draughtsmanship, wood carving, sculpture and the teaching of art. His work reflects a number of contemporary trends, although art nouveau, with its love of beauty, romantic quest for national roots and lack of a rigid stylistic models was to prove the most appropriate form for this master.

Born in 1881 in Kazan, capital of Tatarstan, Fechin trained as an artist at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Returning to Kazan after his studies, he took part in numerous European and American exhibitions. The majority of works from this time were either sold at these events, or sent abroad to foreign coll-ectors. With the beginning of World War I, such international connections were severed: paintings created during and immediately after the war remained in Russia. In 1923, the artist was forced to emigrate: Fechin left for America, taking some of his canvases with him. For this reason, the years prior to 1910 and the period between 1914 and 1923 are the stages in Fechin's career best represented in Russian museums.

For Fechin, beauty lay in individuality. The artist never attempted to correct or improve that which was created by nature. His portraits force the viewer to consider the arbitrary nature of our ideas on beauty. He likes to totter on the brink. For him, there is no set model: discordant, incongruous images can also be beautiful.

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Pablo Picasso

I INTRODUCTION

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Spanish painter, who is widely acknowledged to be the most important artist of the 20th century. A long-lived and highly prolific artist, he experimented with a wide range of styles and themes throughout his career. Among Picasso’s many contributions to the history of art, his most important include pioneering the modern art movement called cubism, inventing collage as an artistic technique, and developing assemblage (constructions of various materials) in sculpture.

Picasso was born Pablo Ruiz in Málaga, Spain. He later adopted his mother’s more distinguished maiden name—Picasso—as his own. Though Spanish by birth, Picasso lived most of his life in France.

II FORMATIVE WORK (1893-1900)

Picasso’s father, who was an art teacher, quickly recognized that his child Pablo was a prodigy. Picasso studied art first privately with his father and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in La Coruña, Spain, where his father taught. Picasso’s early drawings, such as Study of a Torso, After a Plaster Cast (1894-1895, Musée Picasso, Paris, France), demonstrate the high level of technical proficiency he had achieved by 14 years of age. In 1895 his family moved to Barcelona, Spain, after his father obtained a teaching post at that city’s Academy of Fine Arts. Picasso was admitted to advanced classes at the academy after he completed in a single day the entrance examination that applicants traditionally were given a month to finish. In 1897 Picasso left Barcelona to study at the Madrid Academy in the Spanish capital. Dissatisfied with the training, he quit and returned to Barcelona.

After Picasso visited Paris in October 1900, he moved back and forth between France and Spain until 1904, when he settled in the French capital. In Paris he encountered, and experimented with, a number of modern artistic styles. Picasso’s painting Le Moulin de la Galette (1900, Guggenheim Museum, New York City) revealed his interest in the subject matter of Parisian nightlife and in the style of French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a style that verged on caricature. In addition to café scenes, Picasso painted landscapes, still lifes, and portraits of friends and performers.

III BLUE PERIOD (1901-1903)

From 1901 to 1903 Picasso initiated his first truly original style, which is known as the blue period. Restricting his color scheme to blue, Picasso depicted emaciated and forlorn figures whose body language and clothing bespeak the lowliness of their social status. In The Old Guitarist (1903, Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois), Picasso emphasized the guitarist’s poverty and position as a social outcast, which he reinforced by surrounding the figure with a black outline, as if to cut him off from his environment. The guitarist is compressed within the canvas (no room is left in the painting for the guitarist to raise his lowered head), suggesting his helplessness: The guitarist is trapped within the frame just as he is trapped by his poverty. Although Picasso underscored the squalor of his figures during this period, neither their clothing nor their environment conveys a specific time or place. This lack of specificity suggests that Picasso intended to make a general statement about human alienation rather than a particular statement about the lower class in Paris.

Why blue dominated Picasso’s paintings during this period remains unexplained. Possible influences include photographs with a bluish tinge popular at the time, poetry that stressed the color blue in its imagery, or the paintings of French artists such as Eugène Carrière or Claude Monet, who based many of their works around this time on variations on a single color. Another explanation is that Picasso found blue particularly appropriate for his subject matter because it is a color associated with melancholy.

IV ROSE PERIOD (1904-1905)

In 1904 Picasso’s style shifted, inaugurating the rose period, sometimes referred to as the circus period. Although Picasso still focused on social outcasts—especially circus performers—his color scheme lightened, featuring warmer, reddish hues, and the thick outlines of the blue period disappeared. Picasso maintained his interest in the theme of alienation, however. In Two Acrobats and a Dog (1905, Museum of Modern Art, New York City), he represented two young acrobats before an undefined, barren landscape. Although the acrobats are physically close, they gaze in different directions and do not interact, and the reason for their presence is not made clear. Differences in the acrobats’ height also exaggerate their disconnection from each other and from the empty landscape. The dog was a frequent presence in Picasso’s work and may have been a reference to death as dogs appear at the feet of figures in many Spanish funerary monuments.

Picasso may have felt an especially deep sympathy for circus performers. Like artists, they were paid to entertain society, but their itinerant lifestyle and status as outsiders prevented them from becoming an integral part of the social fabric. It was this situation that made the sad clown an important figure in the popular imagination: Paid to make people laugh, he must keep hidden his real existence and true feelings. Living a life of financial insecurity himself, Picasso no doubt empathized with these performers. During this period Picasso met Fernande Olivier, the first of several women who shared his life and provided inspiration for his art. Olivier’s features appear in many of the female figures in his paintings over the next several years.

V CLASSICAL PERIOD (1905) AND IBERIAN PERIOD (1906)

Experimentation and rapid style changes mark the years from late 1905 on. Picasso’s paintings from late 1905 are more emotionally detached than those of the blue or rose periods. The color scheme lightens—beiges and light browns predominate—and melancholy and alienation give way to a more reasoned approach. Picasso’s increasing interest in form is apparent in his references to classical sculpture. The figure of a seated boy in Two Youths (1905, National Gallery, Washington, D.C.), for example, recalls an ancient Greek sculpture of a boy removing a thorn from his foot.

By 1906 Picasso had become interested in sculptures from the Iberian peninsula dating from about the 6th to the 3rd century bc. Picasso must have found them of particular interest both because they are native to Spain and because they display remarkable simplification of form. The Iberian influence is immediately visible in Self-Portrait (1906, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania), in which Picasso reduced the image of his head to an oval and his eyes to almond shapes, thus revealing his increasing fascination with geometric simplification of form.

VI AFRICAN PERIOD (1907)

Picasso’s predilection for experimentation and for drawing inspiration from outside the accepted artistic sources led to his most radical and revolutionary painting yet in 1907: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907, Museum of Modern Art). The painting’s theme—the female nude—could not be more traditional, but Picasso’s treatment of it is revolutionary. Picasso took even greater liberties here with human anatomy than in his 1906 Self-Portrait . The figures on the left in the painting look flat, as if they have no skeletal or muscular structure. Faces seen from the front have noses in profile. The eyes are asymmetrical and radically simplified. Contour lines are incomplete. Color juxtapositions—between blue and orange, for instance—are intentionally strident and unharmonious. The representation of space is fragmented and discontinuous.

While the left side of the canvas is largely Iberian-influenced, the right side is inspired by African masks, especially in its striped patterns and oval forms. Such borrowings, which led to great simplification, distortion, and visual incongruities, were considered extremely daring in 1907. The head of the figure at the bottom right, for example, turns in an anatomically impossible way. These discrepancies proved so shocking that even Picasso’s fellow painters reacted negatively to Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. French painter Henri Matisse allegedly told Picasso that he was trying to ridicule the modern movement.

VII CUBISM (1908-1917)

For many scholars, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon—with its fragmented planes, flattened figures, and borrowings from African masks—marks the beginning of the new visual language, known as cubism. Other scholars believe that French painter Paul Cézanne provided the primary catalyst for this change in style. Cézanne’s work of the 1890s and early 1900s was noted both for its simplification and flattening of form and for the introduction of what art historians call passage, the interpenetration of one physical object by another. For example, in Mont Sainte-Victoire (1902-1906, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City), Cézanne left the outer edge of the mountain open, allowing the blue area of the sky and the gray area of the mountain to merge. This innovation—air and rock interpenetrating—was a crucial precedent for Picasso’s invention of cubism. First, it defied the laws of our physical experience, and second, it indicated that artists were viewing paintings as having a logic of their own that functioned independently of, or even contrary to, the logic of everyday experience.

Scholars generally divide the cubist innovations of Picasso and French painter Georges Braque into two stages. In the first stage, analytical cubism, the artists fragmented three-dimensional shapes into multiple geometric planes. In the second stage, synthetic cubism, they reversed the process, putting abstract planes together to represent human figures, still lifes, and other recognizable shapes.

A Analytical Cubism (1908-1912)

Profoundly influenced by Cézanne's later work, Picasso and Braque initiated a series of landscape paintings in 1908. These paintings approximated Cézanne’s both in their color scheme (dark greens and light browns) and in their drastic simplification of nature to geometric shapes. Upon seeing these paintings, French critic Louis Vauxelles coined the term cubism. In Picasso’s Houses on the Hill, Horta de Ebro (1909, Museum of Modern Art), he gave architectural structures a three-dimensional, cubic quality, but he abandoned conventional three-dimensional perspective: Instead of being depicted one behind the other, buildings appear one on top of the other. Moreover, he simplified every aspect of the painting according to a vocabulary of cubic shapes—not just the houses but the sky as well. By neutralizing differences between earth and sky, Picasso made the canvas appear more unified, but he also introduced ambiguity by not differentiating solid from void. In addition, Picasso often used inconsistent light sources. In some parts of a painting, light appears to come from the left; in other parts, it comes from the right, the top, or even the bottom. Spatial planes intersect in ways that leave the spectator guessing whether angles are concave or convex. Delight in confusing the viewer is a regular feature of cubism.

By 1910, it had become evident that cubism no longer had any cubes and that the illusion of three-dimensional space, or volume, was gone. Picasso seemed to have dismantled the very idea of solid form, not only by fragmenting the human figure and other shapes, but also by using Cézanne’s concept of passage to merge figure and environment, solid and void, background and foreground. In this way he created a visually consistent painting, yet the consistency does not conform to the physical consistency of the natural world as we experience it. Picasso’s decision to limit his color scheme to dark browns and grays also suggests that his paintings have initiated a radical departure from nature, rather than attempted to copy it.

The year 1912 marks another major development in the cubist language: the invention of collage. In Still Life with Chair Caning (1912, Musée Picasso), Picasso attached a piece of oilcloth (that depicts woven caning) to his work. With this action Picasso not only violated the integrity of the medium—oil painting on canvas—but also included a material that had no previous connection with high art. Art could now be created, Picasso seems to imply, with scissors and glue as well as with paint and canvas. By including pieces of cloth, newspaper, wallpaper, advertising, and other materials in his work, Picasso opened the door for any object or material, however ordinary, to be included in (or even replace) a work of art. This innovation had important consequences for later 20th-century art. Another innovation was including the letters JOU in the painting, possibly referring to the beginning of the word journal (French for “newspaper”) or to the French word jouer, meaning “to play,” as Picasso is playing with forms. These combinations reveal that cubism includes both visual and verbal references, and merges high art with popular culture.

B Synthetic Cubism (1912-1917)

By inventing collage and by introducing elements from the real world in his canvases, Picasso avoided taking cubism to the level of complete abstraction and remained in the domain of tangible objects. Collage also initiated the synthetic phase of cubism. Whereas analytical cubism fragmented figures into geometric planes, synthetic cubism synthesized (combined) near-abstract shapes to create representational forms, such as a human figure or still life. Synthetic cubism also tended toward multiplicity. In Guitar, Sheet Music, and Wine Glass (1912, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas), for instance, Picasso combined a drawing of a glass, several spots of color, sheet music, newspaper, a wallpaper pattern, and a cloth that has a wood–grain pattern. Synthetic cubism may also combine different textures, such as wood grain, sand, and printed matter. Sometimes Picasso applied these textures as collage, by gluing textured papers on the canvas. In other cases the artist painted an area to look like wood or wallpaper, fooling the spectator by means of visual puns.

VIII CONSTRUCTION AND AFTER (1912-1920)

In 1912 Picasso instigated another important innovation: construction, or assemblage, in sculpture. Before this innovation, sculpture, at least in the West, was primarily created in one of two ways: by carving a block of stone or wood or by modeling—shaping a form in clay and casting that form in a more durable material, such as bronze. In Guitar (1912, Museum of Modern Art), Picasso used a new additive process. He cut various shapes out of sheet metal and wire, and then reassembled those materials into a cubist construction. In other constructions, Picasso used wood, cardboard, string, and other everyday objects, not only inventing a new technique for sculpture but also expanding the definition of art by blurring the distinction between artistic and nonartistic materials.

From World War I (1914-1918) onward, Picasso moved from style to style. In 1915, for instance, Picasso painted the highly abstract Harlequin (Museum of Modern Art) and drew the highly realistic portrait of Ambroise Vollard (Metropolitan Museum of Art). During and after the war he also worked on stage design and costume design for the Ballets Russes, a modern Russian ballet company launched by the impresario Sergey Diaghilev. Inspired by his direct experience of the theater, Picasso also produced representations of performers, such as French clowns called Pierrot and Harlequin, and scenes of ballerinas.

Picasso separated from Olivier in 1912, after meeting Eva Gouel. Gouel died in 1915, and in 1918 Picasso married Olga Koklova, one of the dancers in Diaghilev’s company. Picasso created a number of portraits of her, and their son, Paulo, appears in works such as Paulo as Harlequin (1924, Musée Picasso).

IX CLASSICAL PERIOD (1920-1925)

After World War I, a strain of conservatism spread through a number of art forms. A motto popular among traditionalists was “the return to order.” For Picasso the years 1920 to 1925 were marked by close attention to three-dimensional form and to classical themes: bathers, centaurs (mythical creatures half-man and half horse), and women in classical drapery. He depicted many of these figures as massive, dense, and weighty, an effect intensified by strong contrasts of light and dark. But even as he moved toward greater realism, Picasso continued to play games with the viewer. In the classical and carefully composed The Pipes of Pan (1923, Musée Picasso), for example, he painted an area of the architectural framework in the foreground (which should be grayish) with the same color as the sea in the background, revealing again his pleasure in ambiguity.

X CUBISM AND SURREALISM (1925-1936)

From 1925 to 1936 Picasso again worked in a number of styles. He composed some paintings of tightly structured geometric shapes, limiting his color scheme to primary colors (red, blue, yellow), as in The Studio (1928, Museum of Modern Art). In other paintings, such as Nude in an Armchair (1929, Musée Picasso), he depicted contorted female figures whose open mouths and menacing teeth reveal a more emotional, less reasoned attitude. Picasso’s marriage broke up during this time, and some of the menacing female figures in his art of this period may represent Koklova.

The same diversity is visible in Picasso’s sculpture during this period. Bather (Metamorphosis II) (1928, Musée Picasso) represents the human body as a massive spherical shape with protruding limbs, whereas Wire Construction (1928, Musée Picasso) depicts it as a rigid, geometric configuration of thin wires. Picasso also experimented with welding in sculpture of this period and explored a variety of themes, including the female head, the sleeping woman, and the Crucifixion. The model for many of his sleeping women was Marie Thérèse Walter, a new love who had entered his life. Their daughter, Maia, was born in 1935.

In the early 1930s Picasso had increasing contact with the members of the surrealist movement (see Surrealism) and became fascinated with the classical myth of the Minotaur. This creature, which has the head of a man and the body of a bull, appears in a study by Picasso for the cover of the surrealist journal Minotaure (1933, Museum of Modern Art). Here Picasso affixed a classical drawing of a Minotaur to a collage of abstracted forms and debris. The Minotaur has numerous incarnations in Picasso’s work, both as an aggressor and a victim, as a violent character and a friendly one. It may represent the artist himself and frequently appears in the context of a bullfight, a typically Spanish scene close to Picasso’s heart.

XI GUERNICA (1937)

In 1937 the Spanish government commissioned Picasso to create a mural for Spain’s pavilion at an international exposition in Paris. Unsure about the subject, Picasso procrastinated. But he set to work almost immediately after hearing that the Spanish town of Guernica had been bombed by Nazi warplanes in support of Spanish general Francisco Franco’s plot to overthrow the Spanish republic. Guernica (1937, Prado, Madrid) was Picasso's response to, and condemnation of, that event. He executed the painting in black and white—in keeping with the seriousness of the subject—and transfigured the event according to his fascination with the bullfight theme.

At the extreme left is a bull, which symbolizes brutality and darkness, according to Picasso. At the center, a horse wounded by a spear most likely represents the Spanish people. At the center on top, an exploding light bulb possibly refers to air warfare or to evil coming from above (and putting out the light of reason). Corpses and dying figures fill the foreground: a woman with a dead child at the left, a dead warrior with a broken sword (from which a flower sprouts) at the center, a weeping woman and a figure falling through a burning building at the right. The distortion of these figures expresses the inhumanity of the event. To suggest the screaming of the horse and of the mother with the dead child, Picasso transformed their tongues into daggers. In the upper center, a tormented female figure holds an oil lamp that sheds light upon the scene, possibly symbolizing the light of truth revealing the brutality of the event to the outside world. In 1936 Picasso met Dora Maar, an artist who photographed Guernica as he painted it. She soon became his companion and the subject of his paintings, although he remained involved with Walter.

XII WORLD WAR II (1939-1945)

Picasso, unlike many artists, stayed in Paris during the German occupation of World War II. Some of his paintings from this time reveal the anxiety of the war years, as does the menacing Still Life with Steer's Skull (1942, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany). Other works, such as his sculpture Head of a Bull (1943, Musée Picasso), are more playful and whimsical. In this sculpture Picasso combined a bicycle seat and handlebars to represent the bull’s head. Upon receiving news of the Nazi death camps, Picasso also painted, although he did not finish, an homage to the victims of the Holocaust (mass murder of European Jews during the war). In this painting, called The Charnel House (1945, Museum of Modern Art), he restricted the color scheme to black and white (as in Guernica) and depicted an accumulation of distorted, mangled bodies. During the war Picasso joined the Communist Party, and after the war he attended several peace conferences.

XIII LATE WORK (1945-1973)

Picasso remained a prolific artist until late in his life, although this later period has not received universal acclaim from historians or critics. He made variations on motifs that had fascinated him throughout his career, such as the bullfight and the painter and his model, the latter a theme that celebrated creativity. And he continued to paint portraits and landscapes. Picasso also experimented with ceramics, creating figurines, plates, and jugs, and he thereby blurred an existing distinction between fine art and craft.

Picasso’s emotional life became more complicated after he met French painter Françoise Gilot in the 1940s, while he was still involved with Maar. He and Gilot had a son, Claude, and a daughter, Paloma, and both appear in many of his late works. Picasso and Gilot parted in 1953. Jacqueline Roque, whom Picasso married in 1961, became his next companion. They spent most of their time in the south of France.

Another new direction in Picasso’s work came from variations on well-known works by older artists that he recast in his own style. Among these works are Women on the Banks of the Seine, after Courbet (1950, Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland) and Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe after Manet (1960, Musée Picasso). What makes these works particularly significant is that they run counter to a basic premise of modern art, Picasso’s included: namely, originality. Although many modern painters were influenced by earlier artists, they rarely made such direct and obvious references to each other’s work because they deemed such references unoriginal. In the postmodern period, which began in the 1970s, artists and critics began to question the modernist directive to be original. In acts of deliberate defiance, many postmodern artists have appropriated (taken for their own use) well-known images from their predecessors or contemporaries. Seen against this context, Picasso’s later variations on paintings by earlier masters hardly seem out of place; on the contrary, they anticipate a key aspect of art in the 1980s.

One of Picasso’s late works, Head of a Woman (1967), was a gift to the city of Chicago. This sculpture of welded steel, 15 m (50 ft) tall, stands in front of Chicago’s Civic Center. Although its semiabstract form proved controversial at first, the sculpture soon became a city landmark.

Because of his many innovations, Picasso is widely considered to be the most influential artist of the 20th century. The cubist movement, which he and Braque inspired, had a number of followers. Its innovations gave rise to a host of other 20th-century art movements, including futurism in Italy, suprematism and constructivism in Russia, de Stijl in the Netherlands, and vorticism in England. Cubism also influenced German expressionism, dada, and other movements as well as early work of the surrealists (see Surrealism) and abstract expressionists (see Abstract Expressionism). In addition, collage and construction became key aspects of 20th-century art.

Contributed By:

Claude Cernuschi

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

1979

This was one of the first digital synthesized tuner. It was constructed with a little help from Pioneer. The massive 19 "aluminum front was a typical feature of the Phase Linear series. It looks very good to the famous amp line from Bob Carvers Phase Linear line. Now I'm looking for an amp.

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Der 5100 II war seinerzeit einer der ersten Tuner mit einer digitalen Abstimmungstechnik. Mit etwas Hilfe von Pioneer wurde er entwickelt. Die solide 19" Front gehörte zum typischen Erscheinungsbild der Phase Linear Serie. In Set mit Bob Carvers sehr leistungsstarken Phase Linear Endverstärkern gibt es einen professionellen Look. Hat jemand noch einen Amp für mich ;-)

Pooping Gold

Description: Previously known as Nephila clavipes, Trichonephila clavipes is a spider in the class Arachnida, order Araneae, suborder Opisthothelae, infraorder Araneomorphae, superfamily Araneoidea and family Nephilidae.

T. clavipes's abdomen is dark with many irregularly-patterned white punctuations giving it a clear look. Females may have from 24 to 76mm (requires confirmation) in length, while males measure around 8mm, less than, or less commonly, 25mm (requires confirmation). Body larger than width with a legspan of around 152mm. Eye disposition at 4 to 4. Median posterior eyes possess a tapetum. Body is cylindrical.

The legs are banded and alternating between darker parts and orangeish-red, with tufts of hair (gaiters) on the tibial segments 1, 2 and 4, and curving down at the tip. Males are typically dark brown, slender spiders. Females make at least two large eggsacs with 25 to 30mm in diameter consisting of several hundred eggs. The eggsacs are surrounded by curly yellow silk. During their reproductive season, males will search for females and get on their web. Males challenge each other for the position closest to the female, the largest becoming her mate. Smaller males go to the edges of the web. Mates gain the almost exclusive advantage in mating as well as feeding on prey caught by the female's web. The males around the edges may try to mate with the female but rarely accomplish this. Occasionally, the female will feed on the males.

They are aerial orb-weavers which web displays a yellow / golden coloring which gives them their vernacular name. Webs can reach over 900mm in diameter (or length?) at eye vision level or above forests and mangroves. Webs have been seen measuring 4 meters in diameter (or length?). The orbicular web woven between branches of trees is carefully sculpted in strong strings of golden silk which are intertwined and reinforced at the center in a zigzag shape (stabilimenta), in a height where insects generally fall prey. The webs are also symmetric with an asymmetrical orb near the top where the the spider dwells. The orbicular web is so strongly woven that even small birds may fall prey, which is not uncommon to happen. In fact, the silk is so sticky that they are known for their incredible resistence, being compared to steel cables in a proportional sense. Prey includes Diptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Odonata and, as previously mentioned, occasionally small birds. The web is a semipermanent structure, which means they are not destroyed and created periodically like other members of Araneae. They usually repair damaged web structures.

Like most spiders, they are venomous but their venom is weak and is not a threat to humans, unless they are allergic to the venom. Otherwise, they are harmless and will only bite if held or pinched. The bite leaves simple swelling, redness and localized pain. The bite is, theoretically, less dangerous than a bee sting. They are widely distributed in Australia, Asia, Africa, Argentina, Madagascar, South America é North America to the South of the USA. They can be seen all over Brazil but their habitat is the Atlantic Forest, forest edges and dense woodlands.

T. clavipes are often found on banana trees. They live under hot weathers; this made them develop structures to prevent them from overheating. Such structures include the silvery carapace that reflects sunlight, while the long and cylindrical body reduces the area of the exposed body by being pointed directly at the Sun. They can also force evaporative cooling by dropping a fluid with the chelicerae; this is generally done when temperatures are higher than 35°C (Krakauer, 1972). Webs are woven regardless of Sun position, with the aim of capturing as much prey as possible. Their orientation movements can be complex (Robinson and Robinson, 1974). They are not aggressive and will rarely leave their webs. They will change colors as they mature. In the picture we can see an adult female and an adult male behind.

The silk in the center of the web possess oily drops which contain vesicles that trap proteic and peptidic solutions inside, as well as many composts of low molecular mass. The drops contain toxins, saturated fatty acids and even alkaloids. It is speculated that these saturated fatty acids help to destabilize the cuticles of the insect and allow the diffusion of the toxins to the interior of the body. This study proves that their webs are not purely for mechanically ensnaring prey, but a very complex structure with an active role on the capture of prey. Seemingly, repellent alkaloids to some predators are seen in a few webs, as well as insect toxins in others. The silk glands, especially the aggregated gland, can synthesize and deposit over the silk important toxins which are common to a few animal toxins, putting them on a higher step in the food chain compared to some spiders.

repositorio.unesp.br/bitstream/handle/11449/150381/esteve...

According to the following study, they can adapt well to abandoned webs that belong to other spiders:

"The experiments showed that both resident spiders and introduced spiders remained in the webs in which they were placed. Resident females demonstrated that, when they were bigger, they showed an advantage in the dispute against the invasive (introduced) species, though it was not noticed any significant advantage when the "invasive" (introduced) individuals had the same size or were bigger. The resident invested more in the maintenance of the web than the "invasive" (introduced), performing more agonistic behaviors and returning more times to the web after combats. It did not occur intolerance among individuals on the support wires, thus indicating that the formation of aggregations might be related to the tolerance of individuals to accept the presence of conspecifics from nearby areas." - repositorio.ufjf.br/jspui/bitstream/ufjf/5567/1/biancapoc...

Other sources:

www.ninha.bio.br/biologia/nephila.html

faunaefloradorn.blogspot.com/2010/07/aranha-de-teianephil...

www.achetudoeregiao.com.br/animais/nephila_clavipes.htm

professora-mel.blogspot.com/2013/01/foto-da-aranha-que-es...

entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/golden_silk_spider.htm

bugguide.net/node/view/2023

pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephila_clavipes

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephila_clavipes

eol.org/pages/1193392/overview

PROJECT NOAH (Português): www.projectnoah.org/spottings/1003890997