Path To Well-Being

Thomas Jefferson Wise Words to Our Generation

asheham — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:36:32 +0000

“I hope we shall crush… in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

~ Thomas Jefferson

Helen Frankenthaler, American abstract painter, dies at 83

asheham — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:49:36 +0000

USA Today Story – Click Here

Updated: ANTARCTIC SOLAR ECLIPSE – November 25th

asheham — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 06:43:27 +0000

UPDATE from Space Weather.com CME IMPACT: As predicted by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, a coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth’s magnetic field at approximately 2145 UT on Nov. 28th. The impact was weaker than expected, but it still produced bright auroras around the Arctic Circle.

Click this link for spectacular photos.

Space Weather.com reports: ANTARCTIC SOLAR ECLIPSE: On Nov. 25th the Moon will pass in front of the sun, slightly off-center, producing a partial solar eclipse visible from Antarctica, Tasmania, and parts of South Africa and New Zealand. Maximum coverage occurs about 100 miles off the coast of Antarctica where the sun will appear to be a slender 9% crescent

Woody Allen, a True American Master

asheham — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 06:38:42 +0000

Am watching PBS American Master series on writer, filmmaker, musician, and observer of life – Woody Allen. Enjoy the opening of one of his best films, Manhattan.

Daily Thought

asheham — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:12:20 +0000

Cooperation breeds evolution, and problems can be solved by applied cooperative intelligence and skills.

- Robert Wilkinson

Truth, Beauty and How We Approach Our Life

asheham — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:32:14 +0000

“Protect me from the cynical mind
That scoffs at Truth and Beauty
And makes of no account
Those things which are of good report.”

This was spoken in the recent HBO special, Living in the Material World about the late musician, George Harrison.

One of the people I follow regularly is astrologer, Robert Wilkinson. He wrote an insightful article today, A Thought On Cynics, Critics, and Others Who Judge Too Harshly. An excerpt from this article:

So often we humans take a one-sided approach to how we view and interpret things. So often we humans only see that which we believe is in error, and forget to praise the good, true, and beautiful. So often we humans offer a stronger negative to what our minds judge rather than offer an acknowledgment of “those things which are of good report.”

Last evening I was reading again some writings by social philosopher, Erich Fromm and find again something related:

“There is only one possible, productive solution for the relationship of individualized man with the world: his active solidarity with all men and his spontaneous activity, love and work, which unite him again with the world, not by primary ties but as a free and independent individual…. However, if the economic, social and political conditions… do not offer a basis for the realization of individuality in the sense just mentioned, while at the same time people have lost those ties which gave them security, this lag makes freedom an unbearable burden. It then becomes identical with doubt, with a kind of life which lacks meaning and direction. Powerful tendencies arise to escape from this kind of freedom into submission or some kind of relationship to man and the world which promises relief from uncertainty, even if it deprives the individual of his freedom.” (Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom [N.Y.: Rinehart, 1941], pp. 36–7. The point is repeated on pp. 31, 256–7.)

Steady the Helm of the Heart

asheham — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:31:09 +0000

Stay on your own course, steadying your boat on the big river of your life. Never deviate from your own conscience, feelings, ethics.

- Hexagram 32

Source link click here

Françoise Gilot: Revelations and Incarnations

asheham — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:12:10 +0000

This past Sunday, I was fortunate to attend a wonderful talk at the Oceanside Museum of Art by Mel Yoakum, Ph.D., about French artist, Francoise Gilot. He recounted her life, struggles and triumphs as an artist. Truly, Madame Gilot, is a woman of substance. She turned 93 this year and continues to paint.

From the OMA site:

Born in Paris in 1921, Françoise Gilot emerged out of the post WWII School of Paris and after moving to New York, was inspired by the contemporary American Art scene. With an interest in mythology and symbolism, Gilot expresses complex philosophical ideas with lyrical accessibility. This exhibition of Gilot’s oils and works on paper highlights her interest in color relationships and the fine line between figuration and abstraction. Also known in the past for her relationship with 20th century icon Pablo Picasso, Gilot resided for many years in La Jolla with her husband Professor Jonas Salk, the polio vaccine American pioneer. Gilot currently divides her time between studios in New York and Paris.

In thinking over the talk, I was struck by something I read this morning by the author of Dr. Zhivago, Boris Pasternak. I will paraphrase and insert my own expression of his feelings about art:

We must try to make sure that our art, collectively speaking, reveals, incarnates, and expresses thoughts and feelings to their ultimate clarity, instead of being only a reminder of sounds which originally charmed us, an inconsequential echo dying in the air.

Let us preserve what is the finer expression of being human – the legacy of the artist and their art, not allowing their life and expression of life to become an inconsequential echo dying in the air but instead, continue on as a living echo to inform and engage future generations of what we are as humans, our loves, our difficulties, our celebrations.

Paris Review, Boris Pasternak, The Art of Fiction No. 25, Summer-Fall 1960 http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4679/the-art-of-fiction-no-25-boris-pasternak

Oceanside Museum of Art http://www.oma-online.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48:transitions&catid=8:current-exhibits&Itemid=129

Sam Maloof and His Communal House

asheham — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 03:37:47 +0000

I had the great honor and the great pleasure of meeting master woodworker & furniture maker, Sam Maloof, in 2008 at the Mingei International Museum. He gave a talk for about 30 minutes and then his wife Beverly spoke. A short film about his legacy was shown. Afterward, attendees could buy a book illustrating his work and have Sam sign the book. I eagerly snapped up a copy of the heavy tome and stood in line where Sam would greet his admirers, say a few words, and then sign the book. When it came my turn, he ended up spending nearly 15 minutes speaking with me, so generous and so gentle a spirit he was. His hands were soft and thick as though he were a doctor or other non-labor professional not requiring the use of saws, and rasps, and planes. I was thoroughly delighted talking with him. He was full of life and had a wonderful twinkle in his eyes. He seemed many decades younger than his 92 years.

Sam Maloof died in 2009, age 93 – one year after I had met him. Lucky for anyone who can attend, is a new exhibit at the Huntington Library: The House That Sam Built: Sam Maloof and Art in the Pomona Valley, 1945-1985,” which opened Saturday, features 35 pieces by Maloof and more than 80 by nearly three dozen artists including Millard Sheets, Karl Benjamin, Phil Dike, Harrison McIntosh, Albert Stewart and Jean and Arthur Ames.

Short clip with actress Rene Russo visiting with Sam Maloof (poor quality but worth viewing)

Maloof Foundation

http://www.malooffoundation.org/

Obituary:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/may/31/1c31maloof03033-sam-maloof/

Daily Thought

asheham — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 03:13:03 +0000

Then there is a time in life when you just take a walk: And you walk into your own landscape. – Willem de Kooning