Music of the Spheres

adult learning, Aristotle, art, color Wheel, Creativity, Faith, Holy Spirit, Horeb, Icarus, Imagination, nature, Painting, Prayer, Pythagorean Cosmology, Silence, Spirituality, vision

One of my favorite hymns growing up in the church was “This Is My Father’s World,” by Maltbie D. Babcock, a Presbyterian minister. Written in 1901, to the tune Terra Beata, or Blessed Earth, the song was originally a traditional English folk tune, but composer Franklin L. Sheppard arranged a variation specifically for this text. This hymn and “The Church in the Valley in the Wildwood” were my mother’s and my grandmother’s two favorites to sing. I loved them both also because of their location in nature.

This is my Father’s world,
And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world:
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas–
His hand the wonders wrought.

As Paul wrote in Romans 1:20—

“Ever since the creation of the world (God’s) eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things (God) has made.”

Tracing history backwards from the 1st CE, the Pythagoreans (active from the late 6th to the mid 5th century BCE) thought the music of the spheres was an ethereal harmony produced by the vibration of the celestial spheres.

Aristotle said the Pythagoreans believed things are numbers or they are made out of numbers by noticing more similarities between things and numbers than between things and the elements, such as fire and water, as adopted by earlier thinkers. The Pythagoreans thus concluded things were numbers or were made of numbers. Therefore, the principles of numbers, the odd and the even, are the principles of all things. The odd was limited and the even was unlimited.

Aristotle criticized the Pythagoreans for being so enamored of numerical order that they imposed it on the world even where it wasn’t suggested by the phenomena. Thus, appearances suggested there were nine heavenly bodies orbiting in the heavens but, since they regarded ten as the perfect number, they supposed there must be a tenth heavenly body, the counter-earth, which we cannot see.

Pythagoreans presented the principles of reality as consisting of ten pairs of opposites:

1. limited—unlimited

2. odd—even

3. unity—plurality

4. right—left

5. male—female

6. rest—motion

7. straight—crooked

8. light—darkness

9. good—bad

10. square—oblong

In art we have similar categories which we use to create dynamic images. If our painting is all of one value—all white, all black, or all middle value—it lacks visual interest. We are drawn to images which have contrasting values covering multiple values. As with everything, too much of a good thing can become a bad thing! In medicine, a small dose of Botox can make wrinkles disappear, but a large dose could poison a person. As I tell folks, some things require experts, not DIY practitioners.

The Middle Path is safest and best—
Unknown Artist: The fall of Icarus., Fresco of the Third style from Pompeii, 50—75 CE. (H. 35.5, W. 34.5 cm.),
London, British Museum.

I’ve probably mentioned before my encounter with the Hostess chocolate cupcakes. When I realized I could buy a whole box for slightly more money than a package of two tiny cakes, of course my starving art school student budget sprung for the box. That’s when I ate chocolate cupcakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. By the end of that box, I was cured of my chocolate cupcake desire for a very long time. This is a classic case of “too much of a good thing,” or “knowing when to stop.” The Greeks recognized the need to curb human behavior of our “all or nothing” thinking by prescribing the idea of the Golden Mean, or “nothing to excess.” I definitely went to excess on my cupcake journey.

Mies van der Rohe’s Tugendhat Armchair was designed for the Tugendhat House in Brno, the Czech Republic in 1929 and is one of several different furniture pieces designed for the home of Greta Weiss and Fritz Tugendhat. In the design of the home, Mies designed nearly every detail down to the furniture used. He also prescribed the placement of each furniture piece in the home to maintain spatial composition.

Mies van der Rohe, whose architecture and furniture design exemplified his style, “less is more,” never reduced his work to nothing. His work was faithful to the new industrial materials of steel and glass being used in skyscrapers. Our excess in art is never to nothingness, but we don’t over elaborate or over decorate, just for the sake of filling the space.

So, what do we do and how we proceed? When faced with the challenge of all we see before us, what do we select to make our images? I believe this is where the creating Spirit comes into play, for we can walk past a tree all day long, but on a certain day, the tree comes alive for us. When Moses was herding his father-in-law’s sheep out in the wilderness, his mind was on the sheep, his current family, and his past life and deeds. Scripture doesn’t tell us how long the bush burned on that mountain before Moses noticed it and said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” (Exodus 3:3)

Likewise, we walk past inspiring images daily when we’re preoccupied with our day-to-day concerns. We also have difficulty finding time to create because others want our attention first. One of my seminary professors lectured us in class about taking time to keep our spiritual lives front and center as we moved through school and our church appointments. She said our spouses and children would want to be first, plus our congregations also would want to be first. We’d most likely want to put our careers first to get a bigger steeple or to please our supervisors. However, if we put anything or anyone before God, our spiritual lives would suffer, and like dominos, everything else would fall also. “Many are called, but few are chosen,” as Jesus says in Matthew 22:14.

In art as in life, we need to be deeply rooted in the life of the Spirit. I can tell when I’m going through the motions, but I keep on painting, for I figure I’ll at least learn something from my adequate work, so I’ll be found ready when the creative Spirit strikes. Sometimes I’m more present to the cares and concerns of this world and my work suffers for it. Other times, I’m under the creating power of a Greater Power and my work is altogether more inspired because of that energy. We’d all be more vigorous and creative in our everyday lives if we spent more time in prayer, contemplation, and searching the scriptures to hear God’s voice speak in the silent corners of our hearts and minds.

Last week, only Mike and I showed up for art class. Everyone else was either tied up with doctor appointments or at home with rehab or otherwise occupied. Mike and I explored making different colors with the 8 Color Prang Watercolor Set. We can make interesting colors by combining the complementary colors or the tertiary colors. Mike’s first landscape painting got the energies of his competing needs out of the way.

As in journaling, we often need to make a habit of writing our thoughts so our deepest feelings can get expressed. He began a second painting with more focus on the goal of mixing new colors.

I started my painting with the circles by using yellow watercolor to outline intersecting circles of the same size on my paper. Then I mixed some primary colors together, some secondary colors together and some tertiary colors together. I painted different sections of the overlapping circles. Some of the paint I thinned to a wash, and others I laid on fully. When I got home, I painted in the background, allowing some areas to be a wash and other parts to be thicker.

Music of the Spheres: Creation Energy, acrylic

I finished at home an acrylic painting, which explores some of the same themes as the watercolors we’ve worked on in class. In this I used various material with different textures for my spheres. One of the circles is more three dimensional because it’s from a handmade cloth mask left over from the pandemic. I painted parts of it, also. The background has lines of “energy” all about.

While the Pythagoreans attempted to see unity and harmony in the creation in numbers, our Judeo-Christian faith recognizes God as creator of nature and nature revealing the Creator. One of the best texts to understand this distinction is 1 Kings 19: 11-13, in which Elijah meets the LORD on the mountain at Horeb:

(God) said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.

When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

No one has ever heard the music of the spheres, and the voice of God arrives in the sound of sheer silence. Perhaps that “polar opposite” of the Pythagorean’s world view was on to something after all. If we’re very quiet and still, we may hear both the music of the spheres and the voice of God in the great silence.

Joy and peace,

Cornelia

This Is My Father’s World | Hymnary.org

https://hymnary.org/text/this_is_my_fathers_world_and_to_my

Counterfeit Version of Botox Found in Multiple States | FDA

https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/counterfeit-version-botox-found-multiple-states

Pythagoreanism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pythagoreanism/

Texture Paintings

adult learning, Aristotle, art, autumn leaves, beauty, brain plasticity, cognitive decline, Creativity, flowers, Holy Spirit, Imagination, Leonardo da Vinci, Painting, renewal, Uncategorized, vision

I don’t do wine painting classes. Since I teach in a United Methodist Church, our Wesleyan temperance tradition holds sway: we serve no alcohol. However, out in the world beyond there are classes where everyone drinks wine and paints the same image. They’re out for fellowship purposes more than for art, but these classes serve to get people started in the basic techniques of the media. Students copy the teacher’s model painting, often working along as the teacher instructs the class. This is the “show and tell” style of teaching, which usually results in most students’ works approximating the teacher’s example.

Wine painting classes: One Lion to Rule Them All

College art education classes often are taught this way, but art classes in art schools are never taught like this. Why you might ask? Because art schools exist to help students find their own voice, for they know copying another’s style only diminishes a student’s true voice. The creative spirit within each of us is unique,
breathed into us by a holy God. Ecclesiastes 12:7 reminds us at our end, “the breath (Spirit) returns to God who gave it.” If art students are copying any art works, their teachers are humble enough to send their students to the masters first, or to life itself.

Laguna College of Art and Design art class

Art, like golf, is a humbling experience. In both we’re always playing against our handicap: we want to be “Perfect,” but we weren’t given the means to accomplish this goal without God’s grace. We go on to perfection by degrees, with the help of God, if we don’t get lazy and take the shortcuts, as the Adam and Eve, Prodigal Son, and many other great stories tell. As Jesus reminds his followers in Matthew 23:11-12—

“The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Why is it difficult to draw from life? Or for that matter, to really look hard at a painting to copy it? From an early age, most of us are taught it’s impolite to stare. In some cultures, even looking directly into the eyes of another person as you speak is unacceptable behavior. I know my parents taught me to look at them when I was in trouble, even when I wanted to look down in shame. I had to face their anger. While I didn’t enjoy it as a child, it prepared me as a teen for hateful comments from my peers, and as an adult for discrimination in the workplace. I could look people in the eye and call them out. This is likely why our early teenage children roll and flutter their eyes at us when we call them to account. They “look at us” without “looking.” And why we say, “Look me in the eye!”

19th century humorous postcard: The Artist’s Studio

We also have thoughts running through our heads: our to do lists, our concerns about our friends and loved ones, as well as the woes of the world stage. The more we learn to focus on the present moment in which we find ourselves, the better off we are. I find when I can pay attention to my colors, patterns, and how they come together on the canvas, I forget everything else.

I have some artist friends who always have a glass of wine in the studio, since it helps them relax. I think they just like wine. I’m a coffee lover, but too much caffeine makes my hand jittery, and too much wine would make my hand sloppy. I personally believe in moderation in all things, but then I’m sold on Aristotle’s “golden mean,” or the “Goldilocks zone,” where

“at the right times, about the right things, towards the right people, for the right end, and in the right way, is the intermediate and best condition, and this is proper to virtue.”

We barely avoided the 15th government shutdown since 1981, but we now have a House majority without a Leader due to a few extremist members. These Republican Party members who are “pirates who take no prisoners and make no compromises” might want to catch up on their ancient philosophical reading before chaos ensues. Sometimes life imitates art: if you have MAX, you can watch Michael Cain in “Our Flag Means Death.”

All creativity improves with either time or wine. Both allow you to loosen up and not control what happens but go with the flow of what happens on the canvas, instead of forcing the paint to go where you want it to be. I have canvases which began in one direction and ended up in quite another. I can only say my original idea was rejected by the painting in progress, for I had to “listen to what the painting wanted to become.” As Psalms 104:30 says:

“When you send forth your spirit, they are created;
and you renew the face of the ground.”

In case you’re wondering, the “ground” of a canvas is the white primer, so it’s not a stretch to say, God’s Spirit works through us to renew the face of the “ground.” Some texts translate this as the “earth,” and God’s Spirit also works through us to restore and renew our planet to health after all the damage from industrial pollution and man made climate changes.

Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance genius, claimed, “There are three classes of people: Those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” We can all learn to see. How we learn to see takes time and effort. This is why I always talk about some examples of good art before we begin our work. I know most people haven’t seen the masters, so getting images in mind is important. A little art history lesson never hurt anyone. Then I explain the project and we get to work. Stephen King, the noted author, says this about the creative experience: “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

In class we were using the flower arrangement which had been residing in the kitchen fridge for the past several weeks. I don’t know who to thank for it, but we put it back where we found it. Our group was given the key to use patterns and textures in the work.
Tim wants to learn to draw from life better, but he was struggling to get his proportions to scale. I showed him the trade skill of using a pencil or part of his hand to measure part of the object and compare its size to another part.

We give away our secret sauce recipe all the time! Everyone knows how to multiply with a ruler for a scale drawing, but that idea often doesn’t occur to them if they aren’t using it on a flat plane. If they have no real ruler, the idea of using an ordinary object as a measuring device also doesn’t enter our brains. This is normal, but once upon a time, we used our bodies to measure the work in progress: a cubit was the distance from the elbow to the middle fingertip and a hand-width was just that: the width of the four fingers. Over the years these were standardized to 18 inches and 4 inches. Horses are still measured in hands today, but we moderns measure in feet and meters rather than cubits.

Gail lined out some lovely patterns on her canvas and made good progress on her painting. She always gets a good plan and executes it.

Mike was glad to be back after doing renewal work/manual labor. This creative exercise of moving bold colors and strong patterns around his canvas was a welcome respite after all that physical activity. A mental challenge seemed welcome to him.

I had done a pattern piece in the week before, so I enjoyed painting the still life, and may use it as a study for something larger later.

We finished up our works on the second session. Tim reworked the pumpkin drawing from an earlier time and Gail finished up her texture painting of the flowers. Mike dropped in with Van Gogh books before going out on an errand of mercy to rescue a young client. He was impressed with the amount of blue clothing the people wore in Van Gogh’s paintings. I reminded him the very denim jeans we wear first came from Nimes, France. We call these “jeans,” because the weavers in France were trying to imitate the techniques of Genoa, Italy, but failed, and made instead the sturdy fabric that’s blue outside and white inside. Hence, “jeane de Nimes.”

“I did not know that!” He exclaimed.

Art is for wondering, for seeing new things, for opening up our minds to new realities and new possibilities. Whenever we go beyond what we already know, we open a new brain pathway and create new connections between the neurons. This keeps our minds agile and staves off the worst aspect of aging: the pessimistic belief that nothing is new under the sun. If we keep the optimism of a child, for whom everything is the newest and best, we’ll keep a youthful heart and spread joy wherever we go.

Joy and Peace,

Cornelia

The ‘Golden Mean’: Aristotle’s Guide to Living Excellently —Philosophy Break
https://philosophybreak.com/articles/the-golden-mean-aristotle-guide-to-living-excellently/

Weights & Measures
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/weights-measures

History of Denim & the Origin of Jeans
https://www.hawthornintl.com/history-of-denim

Pears and Apples

adult learning, Altars, apples, Aristotle, art, brain plasticity, change, cognitive decline, color Wheel, Creativity, exercise, Fear, Habits, Holy Spirit, inspiration, Lent, Leonardo da Vinci, Painting, perfection, Physical Training, purpose, risk, Thomas Merton, Van Gogh

Still Life with canvas, pallet, and brushes

Aristotle said in his Poetics, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance, and this, and not the external manner and detail, is true reality.”

He spoke mainly about poetry, which was the highest art of his age, but his words also apply to the fine arts. Today, many people are still mesmerized by artists who practice various styles of realism, but they overlook the artists who show us the realities of emotion and inner vision.

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time,” said the spiritual writer, Thomas Merton. Some people use art as a cathartic exercise, and pour out their inner emotions on the canvas or their chosen media. Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings and Van Gogh’s late works are good examples of emotional expression. We all know folks who have a project going in their garage. They go work on “that worthless piece of junk” to focus their attention and energy on fixing something on which they can make a difference, instead of getting tied up in knots about things they can’t change and must accept. Gardening and knitting are also good hobbies for focusing this energy.

We know our nervous system grows to the modes in which it has been exercised. This is what we call building a habit over time. Just as a child doesn’t walk straight out of the womb, they have preparatory skills that must be acquired by stages as they grow. Exercising their muscles by rolling over also helps to strengthen their necks to hold their heads up. Crawling leads to pulling up, and that leads to letting go to learn balance.

Each time a child repeats these movements, he or she will simplify the movements required to achieve the needed result, make them more accurate, and diminish fatigue. In this, they’re building habits that bring them closer to walking. Rushing them to achieve “early” walking actually puts them behind cognitively.

Not only are there twenty five body parts in a baby’s body that are used in the crawl movement, but crawling also strengthens the hip sockets, so the baby will have a strong platform on which to stand. Crawling helps the corpus callosum, which is a band of nerve fibers between the hemispheres of the brain. Criss-cross crawling on the knees and hands stimulates the corpus callosum to develop in a balanced way, facilitating the hemispheres of the brain to communicate. These cross lateral movements work both sides of the body evenly and involve coordinated movements of the eyes, ears, hands, feet, and core muscles. This helps support cognitive function, problem solving, and ease of learning. Exploring the floor in a baby proofed home allows your baby to achieve his or her optimal potential.

“Practice makes perfect” is only as true as the practice is directed in a true direction. This is where a teacher, a parent, a coach, or a spiritual guide comes into play. Only one who’s been led well can lead others with grace. We don’t tear down the learner, but ask questions, give guidance, help them see alternative paths, and allow them a safe place to explore their choices.

Art class isn’t brain surgery. No one will die if the painting isn’t successful, and no one’s salvation is at risk if the painting doesn’t come out the way we hoped it might. Art class is a safe place to take risks, unlike jumping from a tall tower without a parachute. Learning to accept failure on our canvases and coming back next time to try again is a mark of resilience and courage. Every time we fail closer to our target, we realize we’re gaining on it! We never say I CAN’T in art class.

The sad reality is we can teach and expand the horizons of young people up til the age of 25 or 30. After that, they seem to lose energy and desire to learn more or to change. They “habitually” repeat their previous acts, for good or for ill. We’ve all heard the old saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Those of us who are no longer young have sometimes been accused of being set in our ways. Some of us are afraid we won’t excel at a new challenge, for we’ve always been held to a high standard of achievement. Since none of us will be the next Georgia O’Keefe or Leonardo da Vinci, we can set that worry aside. They both had more years to practice than we have left in front of us. Instead, we should give our remaining time our most focused attention, so we can get the most from our experience.

My high school chemistry book had the same information in it which my daddy’s college chemistry book covered. He was amazed I was learning “advanced” ideas at my young age. In 1982 R. Buckminister Fuller introduced the idea of the “knowledge doubling curve.” Up until 1900, knowledge doubled every century. By 1945, knowledge doubled every 25 years and by 1982, it doubled every year. Some say it’s now doubling twice a day! The newest computer we buy off the shelf today is already obsolete.

We can’t train our students for the jobs of today because these jobs likely won’t exist tomorrow. We need to train people to be lifetime learners instead. Luckily, we don’t have to know all things, but we do need the skills to find the knowledge and sort through the best sources for the best possible information.

Today, knowledge we acquire in high school, college, graduate school, and our last job may already be obsolete. (I’m one who still grieves the loss of Pluto as a planet; it exists but is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt). This is especially true in fast moving fields like technology. As futurist Alvin Toffler wrote, “the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

This means all of us will need to become lifelong learners or we’ll risk losing touch with an ever evolving world. Maybe we think our brains can’t handle something new, for we’ve heard about the effect of aging. Cognitive process studies with older brains show learning, memory, and problem-solving in humans are often less efficient in these areas.

However, it has recently been established that dogs show many of the same kind of age related changes that humans do. A study in Vienna showed that older dogs learned new tasks just as well as younger dogs, although they took longer to do so and required more repetitive corrections. This aptitude is also known as “resilience training.”

I think it’s also important to know why we want to keep our brains agile as we move into our later years. John Wesley was fond of repeating William Law’s summary from the Practical Treatise on Christian Perfection,

“Do all the good you can, to all you can,
by any means you can, as long as you can.”

Because Wesley was better known than William Law, this quote is now attributed to Wesley alone. We Methodists have made it our own, however, and have carried its banner around the globe in our world wide mission efforts made possible by our Connectional ministries. Wesley thought enough of Law’s writing to reprint 19 editions of his work.

My late mother, at the age of eighty, learned how to use a laptop computer. She was motivated because she wanted to see emailed photos of her grandchildren, but then she realized she also could find recipes. When a child in her hometown needed a Mercy Flight, she used her new skills to get him transportation to an out of state hospital for treatment. I occasionally had to reteach her on how to double click quickly on her icons, rather than slowly, but she finally caught on.

If we want to keep our brains agile throughout our middle, silver, and golden years, we always need to try new things. Doing art challenges makes our brain build new neural pathways. Every time we look at a still life or a landscape, we have to make multiple decisions: what shapes do I see—circles, squares, triangles, or rectangles; how do these shapes relate to one another on the plane of our canvas; what is most important; what colors will I use; what emotions do I want to express; and where will I begin?

Eventually, we will find our “style.” We don’t find a style by copying another’s work, but we create enough works until our hand becomes one with our spirit. Since God has placed a special spark of God’s own creative Spirit within each of us, eventually we’ll experience the joy of being one with God when we are in our painting moments. As Paul said to the Romans (8:16):

“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God.”

Last Friday we had a simple still life as our inspiration. Half our class was out sick with spring pollen troubles, but it was good to see those who could come after a two week hiatus. After a brief show and tell to get us inspired by other artists’ takes on the subject for the day, we got started. I reminded everyone not to make the fruit too tiny, so it wouldn’t get lost on the canvas. I believe everyone succeeded with this goal!

Mike painted his whole canvas with one brush. This gave the fruit a certain texture with contrasting colors, and the background, which was in a close value, didn’t show much brush strokes or texture. I like the perspective he chose, which brings the viewer in close to these fruit.

Gail tried a larger canvas with bolder colors than she normally uses. It was more dramatic and stronger in contrast than usual, while she kept her smooth strokes of paint as usual. She also took a view from above.

I stuck to a traditional rendering of the still life, since I do many abstract paintings in my own studio. I’d call these two Day and Night, for the Apple is quite awake and the Pear seems to need a little nap. It’s a study in contrasts: red and green, blue violet and yellow orange—a color wheel study masquerading as a still life.

Next week we’re in the season of Lent. As Christ turns his face towards Jerusalem, we’ll begin a study on the icons. This will be accessible and interesting. You’ll end up with your own icon for your personal worship center also.

Joy and Peace,

Cornelia

Classics in the History of Psychology — James (1890) Chapter 4
https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/prin4.htm

Crawling is important for childhood brain development
https://thefnc.com/research/crawling-is-important-for-childhood-brain-development/

You Can Teach an Old Dog New Tricks | Psychology Today
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/canine-corner/201602/you-can-teach-old-dog-new-tricks

Letters of John Wesley – John Wesley, Augustine Birrell – Google Books, p.423
https://books.google.com/books/about/Letters_of_John_Wesley.html?id=zgYu6NpqWDEC

What It Takes To Change Your Brain’s Patterns After Age 25 https://www.fastcompany.com/3045424/what-it-takes-to-change-your-brains-patterns-after-age-25

Artandicon's Blog

Crossroads of art and faith

Aristotle

Music of the Spheres

Texture Paintings

Pears and Apples

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