tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86535635920692667902024-03-13T19:55:21.007-05:00The Poetry of Sightthis is an online commonplace book as well as the home of ballast reviewsRoy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comBlogger921125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-47185752505545389152024-02-18T16:47:00.001-06:002024-02-18T16:47:56.696-06:00Alan Watts / merely a philosophical entertainer?<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaNOF-iThwAdnz812FKIhhkjcPXdfaGLeQZ8KocCjOj29p6OMZMb7sCBVc3sXo9-Qb7eKpNdA72HJCrlUEf1IVxU08lb6kt40Rx5unVBSeNlLcZ1iuhNlZPSezvFsiqih50kCkU4DIDz1Xy_NKvL3MTx8GF2NTHJe7EfJZSNeQMvh2fQmOGbucSy7oZ5lC/s390/Watts_Gestalt_390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="219" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaNOF-iThwAdnz812FKIhhkjcPXdfaGLeQZ8KocCjOj29p6OMZMb7sCBVc3sXo9-Qb7eKpNdA72HJCrlUEf1IVxU08lb6kt40Rx5unVBSeNlLcZ1iuhNlZPSezvFsiqih50kCkU4DIDz1Xy_NKvL3MTx8GF2NTHJe7EfJZSNeQMvh2fQmOGbucSy7oZ5lC/s16000/Watts_Gestalt_390.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from <i><a href="https://youtu.be/47SxhNeKgpw" target="_blank">Art, Design and Gestalt Theory: The Film Version</a></i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Currently I am reading the autobiography of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Watts" target="_blank"><b>Alan Watts</b></a> (1915-1973), the British-born philosopher (whom some have dismissed as a “philosophical entertainer”), who popularized Zen Buddhism and other aspects of Asian philosophy. To my dismay, I am not enjoying it. <br /><br />That said, I remain indebted to his introduction to <b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Two-Hands-God-Myths-Polarity/dp/1608686868" target="_blank">The Two Hands of God: The Myths of Polarity</a></b> (NY: Braziller, 1963), which I first read secretly (since books were banned as “contraband”) while undergoing US Marine Corps infantry training. Back then, I was enamored by the resemblance between Watts’ essay and my own understanding of <b><a href="https://www.academia.edu/42844664/Art_Design_and_Gestalt_Theory" target="_blank">Gestalt theory</a></b> (which had influenced him as well), which I had discovered as an undergraduate art student. <br /><br />I wish his autobiography had been as precisely and sparingly phrased. But I would like to share the following passage, in which he bemoans his own education, and provides a list of components that he regards as more essential. Do not try this at home.</p><p>•••<br /><br />Alan Watts, In <a href="https://www.amazon.com/My-Own-Way-Autobiography/dp/1577315847" target="_blank"><i>My Own Way: An Autobiography</i>, 1915-1965</a>. NY: Pantheon Books, 1972, pp. 92-93–<br /><br /><span style="color: #45818e;">[In an ideal education] I would have arranged for myself to be taught survival techniques for both natural and urban wildernesses. I would want to have been instructed in self hypnosis, in <i>azkido</i> (the esoteric and purely self-defensive style of judo), in elementary medicine, in sexual hygiene, in vegetable gardening, in astronomy, navigation, and sailing; in cookery and clothesmaking, in metalwork and carpentry, in drawing and painting, in printing and typography, in botany and biology, in optics and acoustics, in semantics and psychology, in mysticism and yoga, in electronics and mathematical fantasy, in drama and dancing, in singing and in playing an instrument by ear; in wandering, in advanced daydreaming, in prestidigitation, in techniques of escape from bondage, in disguise, in conversation with birds and beasts, in ventriloquism, and in classical Chinese.</span></p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-92013691269605002622024-02-12T15:15:00.001-06:002024-02-13T07:21:16.131-06:00Ruth Suckow / most promising writer of fiction<p> <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Suckow" target="_blank"></a></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7l06ribkggTrPPIRun3rky1Mt1sok__g0HzzmUyso9seedRAETeLo-vL7b0OKKSa9-Xy7t6BP3eNKrZ1erm6h7nglbkfUEL1Ly_ycHvBzejf0KwUUB0CXL0CxWJi0N218-AoSn_ubWeExw7aPpCG-CEobbXJzclrE-jMP6xF-QrQhyce2Zbp_PDdi2RYC/s390/BEHRENS_SuckowFlyer390.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="302" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7l06ribkggTrPPIRun3rky1Mt1sok__g0HzzmUyso9seedRAETeLo-vL7b0OKKSa9-Xy7t6BP3eNKrZ1erm6h7nglbkfUEL1Ly_ycHvBzejf0KwUUB0CXL0CxWJi0N218-AoSn_ubWeExw7aPpCG-CEobbXJzclrE-jMP6xF-QrQhyce2Zbp_PDdi2RYC/s16000/BEHRENS_SuckowFlyer390.png" /></a></b></div><b>Ruth Suckow</b> (pronounced soo-co) (1892-1960), an Iowa-born novelist and short story writer, was at one time expected to become one of the most accomplished writers of the Modern era. She was, in the words of literary critic <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken" target="_blank">H.L. Mencken</a></b>, “the most promising young writer of fiction, man or woman, now visibly at work in America.” It was not a light endorsement, since Mencken also had high praise for <b><a href="https://www.academia.edu/42973863/Bewilderness_James_Joyce_and_the_National_Parks" target="_blank">James Joyce</a></b>, <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_O'Neill" target="_blank">Eugene O’Neill</a></b>, and <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Dreiser" target="_blank">Theodore Dreiser</a></b>.<br /><br />She lived until 1960, having published nine novels in which she invariably tried to convey the experience of living in the <b>American Midwest</b>. From her awkward family name, her roots are undoubtedly German, which may be one of the reasons why Mencken was drawn to her writing. But as she herself recalled, “There was nothing German in our home except noodle soup, a tree and frosted cookies at Christmas, and brown-covered copies of <i>Die Gartenlaube</i> [a popular German magazine].” <br /><br />In fact, her origins also go back to Puritan New England, to the “different drummer” proclivities of Unitarians and Transcendentalists. As she was growing up, her father was a Congregational minister in Iowa, in the course of which the family moved from one community to another. In her own lifetime, Suckow lived in at least sixteen Iowa communities, among them Hawarden (her birthplace), LeMars, Paullina, Algona, Fort Dodge, Des Moines, Grinnell, McGregor, Manchester, Earlville, Bettendorf, and Cedar Falls. At other times, she also lived in Greenwich Village in New York, and in California.<br /><br />In recent decades, there has been a focused effort, by writers who admire her work, to restore at least some portion of Suckow’s literary prominence, to encourage a new awareness and appreciation of her work. As a result, in 1966, six years after Suckow’s death, the <a href="https://www.ruthsuckow.org/" target="_blank"><b>Ruth Suckow Memorial Association</b></a> was established. In the years since, that organization has gathered annually to share their findings about her work, while also enabling a range of events.<br /><br />Under the leadership of Iowa writer <b><a href="https://humanitiesiowa.org/speakers/#blounsberry" target="_blank">Barbara Lounsberry</a></b>, who is currently the president of the RSMA, funding support was obtained from <b><a href="https://humanitiesiowa.org/" target="_blank">Humanities Iowa</a></b>, for the design, production and distribution of a traveling exhibition, titled <b>Ruth Suckow: An Exhibition about Her Life</b>. The exhibit consists of eight full-color printed panels, each measuring 24 inches wide by 36 inches high. Using photographs, book covers, and critical excerpts, the exhibit tells the story of Suckow’s Iowa childhood, the sequence of her published work, and assessments of her accomplishments by various writers and scholars.<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Qk6ivqrIcSpElvY_kMInPdIKEiZIkjwIWG-z6K3d_fbjnNc0CmckwO9kZoDNReiVy017mHI6-P1bG-2ElGuRPXHTqfIt6c_DYYrZsiAEhwrQjuZC6j6XCSrrPpEO_eDTCZdlE8jvhKPvyv_EFURTi1XkaFMbxxn37RJTu1Vf9uHRfI1FCeDHbjkKvZXj/s390/BEHRENS_SuckowBrochure_390.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="302" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Qk6ivqrIcSpElvY_kMInPdIKEiZIkjwIWG-z6K3d_fbjnNc0CmckwO9kZoDNReiVy017mHI6-P1bG-2ElGuRPXHTqfIt6c_DYYrZsiAEhwrQjuZC6j6XCSrrPpEO_eDTCZdlE8jvhKPvyv_EFURTi1XkaFMbxxn37RJTu1Vf9uHRfI1FCeDHbjkKvZXj/s16000/BEHRENS_SuckowBrochure_390.png" /></a></div>The exhibit was completed in 2023, and was first exhibited at the public library in <b>Hawarden IA</b> (where Suckow was born) from January 1 through 28, 2024. It has proven to be popular, and current requests to host it (for one month) at libraries, historical centers, or other non-profit locations in Iowa have now been scheduled through the middle of 2025. The following is an incomplete listing of exhibition dates and locations:<br /><br />February 4 - March 3, 2024 at <b>Burt Public Library</b><br />March 10 - April 7 at <b>Orange City Public Library</b><br />April 14 - May 12 at <b>Bettendorf Public Library</b><br />May 19 - June 16 at <b>Urbandale Public Library</b><br />June 23 - August 4 at <b>Cedar Falls Public Library</b><br />August 11 - September 8 at <b>Polk City Public Library</b><br />September 15 - October 13 at <b>Robey Memorial Library, Waukon</b><br />October 20 - December 1 at <b>Ruth Suckow Public Library, Earlville</b><br />December 8, 2024 - January 5, 2025 at <b>Kendall Young Library, Webster City</b><br />January 12 - February 9, 2025 at <b>Drake Community Library, Grinnell</b><br />February 16 - March 16 at <b>Manchester Public Library</b><br />March 23 - April 20 at <b>LeMars Public Library</b><br />Also scheduled in 2025 for <b>Atlantic</b>, and <b>Shenandoah</b> libraries<br /><br /><b>To apply to host the exhibit</b> in 2025 or later, go to the RSMA website at <<a href="http://ruthsuckow.org">ruthsuckow.org</a>>.<br /><p></p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-54067991117092673342023-12-22T17:22:00.001-06:002023-12-22T17:22:43.288-06:00i believe in the imaginative life and love to talk<p><i><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIJ104L71zDLnEtn5VUwkC_PZxWbcnPaFF_09_5XIiofg7Wty_qcnZl6LLNpsRS2YV8gTi9rvld4ocAfrLdgg-wwMqF_xWK5BzrjsgdV5-mhQaZmZ4_MSYUH_CKn3ki0HlJxPLYJ-6yWoyS0msTef9uEMzQmP0rFaZ_e3EVgrYW9dyG-TM3Hvh9JdxClBF/s390/MSB_RedBlueKimono390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIJ104L71zDLnEtn5VUwkC_PZxWbcnPaFF_09_5XIiofg7Wty_qcnZl6LLNpsRS2YV8gTi9rvld4ocAfrLdgg-wwMqF_xWK5BzrjsgdV5-mhQaZmZ4_MSYUH_CKn3ki0HlJxPLYJ-6yWoyS0msTef9uEMzQmP0rFaZ_e3EVgrYW9dyG-TM3Hvh9JdxClBF/s16000/MSB_RedBlueKimono390.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">© Mary Snyder Behrens<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Above</i> <b><a href="https://marysnyderbehrens.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Mary Snyder Behrens</a></b>, <i>Edo Wan</i> (1988). Textile collage with machine stitching. 38h x 45w. Private collection. <br /></p><p>•••</p><p>These are the concluding words in <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherwood_Anderson" target="_blank">Sherwood Anderson</a></b>’s foreward to his autobiography, as published in Ray Lewis White, ed., <i>Sherwood Anderson’s Memoirs: A Critical Edition</i>, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1969, p.29—<br /><br /><span style="color: #45818e;">I am an imaginative man. I believe in the imaginative life, its importance and would like to write of that. My readers, therefore, those who go long with me, will have to be patient…<br /><br />…I shall tell the tale as though you, the reader, were a personal friend. We are walking together, let’s say, on a country road. The road follows a stream and the day is pleasant. We are unhurried. We stop at times to sit on a rock beside the stream. We arise and walk again and I talk.<br /><br />I keep talking, love to talk. I am telling you that this thing happened to me, that that thing happened.<br /><br />Do you wish I would stop talking, let you talk? Why then, dear reader, go write your own book.</span></p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-53678336346658798282023-12-02T19:06:00.000-06:002023-12-02T19:06:32.159-06:00John Page / painter, printmaker and professor<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwgw-Qbg7WgqPS6Tv__4-MMb7SWaIEBBlotn1nzuzaTP_gYGXidBAzwQqDSEKM2raiMn5vaYAbIvKg26WffaB50PNTgpcCyKNQVLYzuu5LFOugvIfy-DT5j1NBo69yonJlOJqu10PurohoH0AFhPOh9K1ZB4i-sYuieWcATrwVTFa4QSFPnOpK0D6sHWZW/s390/JohnPageWebsite390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwgw-Qbg7WgqPS6Tv__4-MMb7SWaIEBBlotn1nzuzaTP_gYGXidBAzwQqDSEKM2raiMn5vaYAbIvKg26WffaB50PNTgpcCyKNQVLYzuu5LFOugvIfy-DT5j1NBo69yonJlOJqu10PurohoH0AFhPOh9K1ZB4i-sYuieWcATrwVTFa4QSFPnOpK0D6sHWZW/s16000/JohnPageWebsite390.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bobolinkbooks.com/BALLAST/johnpage.html" target="_blank">site link</a><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Just today, I have designed and posted a <a href="http://www.bobolinkbooks.com/BALLAST/johnpage.html" target="_blank">new website</a> about the life and work of Iowa-based printmaker, painter and teacher <b>John H. Page</b> (1923-2018). I hope it will be of interest to those who know and admire his work—as well as to those who have never heard of him.<br /></p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-14637543515668920192023-11-26T14:38:00.001-06:002023-11-26T14:38:55.532-06:00newly revised site map for ballast / camoupedia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA4nFWcXWKUFqhpDANLiTM4_PRp4Rc51NU8185FJcfDFPMqoicnFScAKIsnRQ4wAS1A52MWAJl1rbzpbN5F06-Wg5K7Fn15lt_-bF0p-dNduTbGMGFgVqFFzkF7LAvlNOc-17c6V_tyOoc-PNsVVD3RaVNe1Voa4Edc2__b30FgWGpkrpR9muo6SFC7HwO/s642/PictorialSiteMap390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="642" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA4nFWcXWKUFqhpDANLiTM4_PRp4Rc51NU8185FJcfDFPMqoicnFScAKIsnRQ4wAS1A52MWAJl1rbzpbN5F06-Wg5K7Fn15lt_-bF0p-dNduTbGMGFgVqFFzkF7LAvlNOc-17c6V_tyOoc-PNsVVD3RaVNe1Voa4Edc2__b30FgWGpkrpR9muo6SFC7HwO/s16000/PictorialSiteMap390.png" /></a></div>At long last. We have finally succeeded in cleaning house on our website—or at least on <a href="http://www.bobolinkbooks.com/BALLAST/sitemap.html" target="_blank">the site directory</a>. Essays, design and art portfolio, blog links, online video talks: all in one location.<br />Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-78662798509917576512023-11-25T10:07:00.000-06:002023-11-25T10:07:23.449-06:00she spent half her life in a pink chenille robe<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFnQw3qPV3tyloRTCUcWPGMGBsSgI95ADUnoGPa4qN2JQ6uPDC5-qAC6KDsdtno02uNOqMUzBJ1S-eyAa37BfH6yAXv6-Jg8G0Vszvjwq3sMZ9ilS5IUqzSuc8g2JVdz3baAc9lPCO8eqFSOqLL1zzkcVnXPe2qAR91Nwh2nzIvDGd-7OKFH4QtbWdEowx/s440/BEHRENS_SlidesFromChairTalk390.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFnQw3qPV3tyloRTCUcWPGMGBsSgI95ADUnoGPa4qN2JQ6uPDC5-qAC6KDsdtno02uNOqMUzBJ1S-eyAa37BfH6yAXv6-Jg8G0Vszvjwq3sMZ9ilS5IUqzSuc8g2JVdz3baAc9lPCO8eqFSOqLL1zzkcVnXPe2qAR91Nwh2nzIvDGd-7OKFH4QtbWdEowx/s16000/BEHRENS_SlidesFromChairTalk390.jpg" /></a></i></div><i>Above</i> Image sequence from a talk I once presented on the history of chair design, called <i>Sitting Down with Frank Lloyd Wright</i>.<p></p><p>•••</p><p><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: black;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Critchfield" target="_blank">Richard Critchfield</a></b>, <i>Those Days: An American Album</i>. New York: Dell, 1986, pp. 376—</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #45818e;">In one corner of the dining room, by the
hot-air register, was a big old <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_chair" target="_blank">Morris chair</a>, where Betty, when she
still worked at the bakery, would sit and fall asleep, she was so tired.
Billy used to say, "Betty's spent half her waking life in a pink
chenille robe." The stairwell to the attic was always loaded with things
left there by somebody intending to take them up later: books, clothes,
tennis rackets, skates, Tinker Toys, little trucks that always seemed
to have a wheel missing. Like the road to hell, the stairs were paved
with good intentions. <br /></span></p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-33972195842212231202023-11-25T09:35:00.000-06:002023-11-25T09:35:11.095-06:00we do not first see, we define first and then see<p><b><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhga8_F_FOAbOHcSPMsP7leO0tyBLY8IuTw9uvT8GSoq_LhmFkZFU5TH4PX0m3vjtkVmabLOWsuo2u2hjE81x1enZ8GH8U1tKota6GMjRzoQHIWWoGsNPiqPz6YkVaJYre1NjyW7aMOAI3cSh6G0ID0ijqfnhOQqsb8aoybfqgOYGMeUsGkkUo7Ia9isz_N/s390/videotalks390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhga8_F_FOAbOHcSPMsP7leO0tyBLY8IuTw9uvT8GSoq_LhmFkZFU5TH4PX0m3vjtkVmabLOWsuo2u2hjE81x1enZ8GH8U1tKota6GMjRzoQHIWWoGsNPiqPz6YkVaJYre1NjyW7aMOAI3cSh6G0ID0ijqfnhOQqsb8aoybfqgOYGMeUsGkkUo7Ia9isz_N/s16000/videotalks390.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzYrUfsAvkZur5cBv6xlhSg" target="_blank">related online video talks</a><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Walter Lippmann</b>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Opinion_(book)" target="_blank"><i>Public Opinion</i></a>. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1922, p. 81—</p><p><span style="color: #45818e;">[In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_as_Experience" target="_blank"><i>Art as Experience</i></a>, <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey" target="_blank">John Dewey</a></b>] gives an example of how differently an experienced layman and a chemist might define the word <i>metal</i>. "Smoothness, hardness, glossiness, and brilliancy, heavy weight for its size…the serviceable properties of capacity for being hammered and pulled without breaking, of being softened by heat and hardened by cold, of retaining the shape and form given, of resistance to pressure and decay, would be included" in the layman's definition. But the chemist would likely as not ignore these esthetic and utilitarian qualities, and define a metal as "any chemical element that enters into combination with oxygen so as to form a base."</span></p><p><span style="color: #45818e;">For the most part we do not first see, and then define, we define first and then see. In the great blooming, buzzing confusion of the outer world we pick out what our culture has already defined for us, and we tend to perceive that which we have picked out in the form stereotyped for us by our culture.</span></p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitjH1ppm238mmMQa3qiE7viBH1Dfjb_WsMlqH5R9f6B6qbj67X6hYAokesBj1Lt25HE5AVRmvIGdLv488n2XI6IYkTLdWs9CMHjuYz4cvr9nEs8E50ww_FksjgN-1vwNRiOEKochAWl59swCrIBDLtmNwVS0yR-oFnPKug1S9z5OV4cOIdm-L4YX-_mjQd/s545/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-25%20at%209.20.57%20AMPandemicMontageEssay390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitjH1ppm238mmMQa3qiE7viBH1Dfjb_WsMlqH5R9f6B6qbj67X6hYAokesBj1Lt25HE5AVRmvIGdLv488n2XI6IYkTLdWs9CMHjuYz4cvr9nEs8E50ww_FksjgN-1vwNRiOEKochAWl59swCrIBDLtmNwVS0yR-oFnPKug1S9z5OV4cOIdm-L4YX-_mjQd/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-25%20at%209.20.57%20AMPandemicMontageEssay390.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/105309636/Pandemic_Images_and_Gestalt_Theory_Introspective_Musings_About_a_Series_of_Digital_Art_works" target="_blank">regarding montages and vision</a><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> </p><p><br /></p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-47712362626203007232023-11-25T08:44:00.001-06:002023-11-25T08:44:42.199-06:00the extraordinary visions of Joseph Podlesnik<p><span class="break-words"><span><span dir="ltr"><i></i></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio2UmhS8Yuh3hGi85KEZv57ao6ZucXEGS5sNC_tq7xhgBBe1SXZzhQeDuuOZeUsx-QlriDD6UYdXOlLXbtehgsfC50f0IOO_MersyZmEWTgywrLFDuLeRkJ7Q11zZQQBdRJu296_WjDIgQIqJsO1EqY9Aq3ErrO2PyNIWCqE-cLi2ec3fHin5JgWEYS_gG/s475/PodlesnikPhotos390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio2UmhS8Yuh3hGi85KEZv57ao6ZucXEGS5sNC_tq7xhgBBe1SXZzhQeDuuOZeUsx-QlriDD6UYdXOlLXbtehgsfC50f0IOO_MersyZmEWTgywrLFDuLeRkJ7Q11zZQQBdRJu296_WjDIgQIqJsO1EqY9Aq3ErrO2PyNIWCqE-cLi2ec3fHin5JgWEYS_gG/s16000/PodlesnikPhotos390.png" /></a></i></div><i>Above</i> The photographs of <a href="https://www.josephpodlesnik.com/" target="_blank"><b>Joseph Podlesnik</b></a> are simply astonishing. A large selection are on sale through December 8, 2023, <a href="https://www.josephpodlesnik.com/shop" target="_blank">online here</a>.<br /><p></p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-23895413197333066912023-11-19T10:41:00.000-06:002023-11-19T10:41:18.298-06:00PBS gift / Frank Lloyd Wright and Mason City<p><span class="break-words"><span><span dir="ltr"></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="break-words"><span><span dir="ltr"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhstDOASGHpb8MDo9VeBkdkxxhLSckXjNotVkmceoDbR9aCmHWBEALrEeLaWwZt2Q7vPJhinttuv8zR6XvB3-eMyvzdCS2FksglcyFEkfeMoCOtISgOPHmMjD3yC51yPnxSfO96gzEJAqLBQzlmaRArJe84adVfIM3gvxQBjD3CMhrOri3VoQZELZoQcbXU/s390/IPTV_bookAd390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="257" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhstDOASGHpb8MDo9VeBkdkxxhLSckXjNotVkmceoDbR9aCmHWBEALrEeLaWwZt2Q7vPJhinttuv8zR6XvB3-eMyvzdCS2FksglcyFEkfeMoCOtISgOPHmMjD3yC51yPnxSfO96gzEJAqLBQzlmaRArJe84adVfIM3gvxQBjD3CMhrOri3VoQZELZoQcbXU/s16000/IPTV_bookAd390.png" /></a></span></span></span></div><span class="break-words"><span><span dir="ltr">I couldn't be more delighted to see that
my recent book, titled <a href="https://thepoetryofsight.blogspot.com/search?q=wright" target="_blank"><b>Frank Lloyd Wright and Mason City: Architectural
Heart of the Prairie</b></a>, is currently being offered as a free donation
bonus in the fundraising campaign on <b>Iowa PBS</b>. It is featured in two
donation options online <b><a href="https://www.iowapbs.org/support/membership/gifts/10347/frank-lloyd-wright-and-mason-city-architectural-heart-prairie-book" target="_blank">here</a></b> and <b><a href="https://www.iowapbs.org/support/membership/gifts/10349/historic-buildings-iowa-mason-city-and-clear-lake-ticket-combo" target="_blank">here</a></b>. </span></span></span><p></p><p><span class="break-words"><span><span dir="ltr">I think it's a pretty good overview of the influence of <a href="https://thepoetryofsight.blogspot.com/2023/02/frank-lloyd-wright-and-dessau-bauhaus.html" target="_blank">European</a> and
<a href="https://thepoetryofsight.blogspot.com/2018/06/kevin-nute-on-frank-lloyd-wright-and.html" target="_blank">Japanese</a> traditions on Wright's architectural style (and vice versa), as
well as an explanation of why <b><a href="https://www.wrightonthepark.org/about" target="_blank">Mason City</a></b>'s architecture is of genuine
significance. There is a shortage of serious writing about the
importance of things that surround us.</span></span></span></p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-30624543216894552692023-11-03T09:34:00.000-05:002023-11-03T09:34:24.237-05:00a meeting of midwestern minds? one gets nasty<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3JwsF9QYIqqDavimwkzSOgZ-1Nq79xDATTEEShWvuMGDJK-MTchw1SzLi-sQS8JlAmcH7RIN2A7QYsRwW5PEmSn90fyZHi5NsTn9toYN67kR7WfcKZTczkoi_6dQbA0TdvLKSiDa8mfJhGEjKNB5WaSkUtMCaQif_D-s_2F0TqV4u-v-GhUE0IBQHhtkx/s390/wood_wright_390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3JwsF9QYIqqDavimwkzSOgZ-1Nq79xDATTEEShWvuMGDJK-MTchw1SzLi-sQS8JlAmcH7RIN2A7QYsRwW5PEmSn90fyZHi5NsTn9toYN67kR7WfcKZTczkoi_6dQbA0TdvLKSiDa8mfJhGEjKNB5WaSkUtMCaQif_D-s_2F0TqV4u-v-GhUE0IBQHhtkx/s16000/wood_wright_390.png" /></a></div>The lives of Wisconsin-born architect <b><a href="https://thepoetryofsight.blogspot.com/search?q=wright+mason" target="_blank">Frank Lloyd Wright</a> </b>(1867-1959) and Iowa-born artist <b><a href="https://thepoetryofsight.blogspot.com/search?q=grant+wood" target="_blank">Grant Wood</a> </b>(1891-1942) overlapped for a half-century. For a dozen or so of their mutual years, they were both celebrities within their respective professions. Surely, they were well aware of each other's work—but did the two men ever meet?<p></p><p>Wood was greatly interested in architecture, as is apparent in the subject matter of his paintings. But what did he think of Wright's architecture? And, in turn, what was Wright's opinion of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regionalism_%28art%29" target="_blank"><b>Regionalist</b></a> paintings of Grant Wood and others? Based on evidence from the time, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/108825707/Did_Frank_Lloyd_Wright_and_Grant_Wood_Meet" target="_blank">this essay surmises the answer</a>.</p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-54813950572006704702023-11-02T10:41:00.001-05:002023-11-02T10:41:47.317-05:00the process by which creativity works / koestler<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUeJbqtWXR5u4Lqpsnz_21OoiDU_dIf0ik8rInrUbmZ8iBzib5DCv9CIbOMM5B8meHuRbxyig5XZeGLSuW0-CbPYUkNvOFmnZRA6Ei4V82HUqX4e0kV1OEaDiamOGFupumTeGgWYN4X0r8dTHbdBUr-jU7_knE2jEoFD4wgnSgudRmjs464UcEhFWpNYRD/s424/Koestler_with_dog390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUeJbqtWXR5u4Lqpsnz_21OoiDU_dIf0ik8rInrUbmZ8iBzib5DCv9CIbOMM5B8meHuRbxyig5XZeGLSuW0-CbPYUkNvOFmnZRA6Ei4V82HUqX4e0kV1OEaDiamOGFupumTeGgWYN4X0r8dTHbdBUr-jU7_knE2jEoFD4wgnSgudRmjs464UcEhFWpNYRD/s16000/Koestler_with_dog390.png" /></a></b></div><b>Roy R. Behrens</b>, from the film narration in <b>HOW TO WIN KINGS AND INFLUENCE CABBAGES: The Process by Which Creativity Works</b> (2022), free to <a href=" https://youtu.be/Ccv83XxcEqg " target="_blank">watch online on YouTube here</a>— <br /><p></p><p>As a college student, I was required to read for a humanities class <b><a href="http://www.bobolinkbooks.com/BALLAST/ak.html" target="_blank">Arthur Koestler</a></b>’s <i>Darkness at Noon</i>, <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Camus" target="_blank">Albert Camus</a></b>’ <i>The Stranger</i>, and <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre" target="_blank">Jean-Paul Sartre</a></b>’s <i>No Exit</i>. Years later, I found out that, amusingly, all three of these literary titans had been drinking companions in postwar Paris, and that on one unforgettable evening in 1949 a greatly intoxicated Koestler (who was small and reputedly scrappy) had thrown a glass at Sartre and given Camus a black eye.</p><p>My favorite photograph of Koestler was made in the same year as that famous brawl by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Kessel" target="_blank"><b>Dmitri Kessel</b></a> for <i>Life</i> magazine [see above]. A double portrait of the Hungarian-born British writer and his magnificent boxer Sabby, it is memorable in part because of the uncanny resemblance between dog and master—boxer meets boxer, they seem deliberately to be imitating one another.</p><p>It is also, as might be said, a “self-exemplifying” image because that portrait is a superb example of what Koestler identified as the key ingredient throughout all creative activity: “The discovery of hidden similarities” or <a href="https://www.academia.edu/42844658/On_Creativity_and_Humor_An_Analysis_of_Easy_Street" target="_blank"><b>bisociation</b></a> (perceiving things “in two self-consistent but incompatible frames of reference at the same time”). </p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-3785655517851660592023-10-27T20:05:00.002-05:002023-10-27T20:05:41.295-05:00newly published book on Blanche Ames Ames<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0gb0pxcTSZLE0AGaM_McTr9fmo5WtA5INEAwToJ4VVy6U5wqrTB0zpCfXAweTEfPHe2yPwQkhX_QUo5EMvshwTijZCgwfsEy9amBS9Yrcw_KBXfLZNMGDak4o1GUfAiMfeh9bYoevt9aRBM2g2SEqmivY4RBmU5F39CxDy4kw4gi-Mku5D22WlNTUxFB0/s589/AmesBookCover390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="589" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0gb0pxcTSZLE0AGaM_McTr9fmo5WtA5INEAwToJ4VVy6U5wqrTB0zpCfXAweTEfPHe2yPwQkhX_QUo5EMvshwTijZCgwfsEy9amBS9Yrcw_KBXfLZNMGDak4o1GUfAiMfeh9bYoevt9aRBM2g2SEqmivY4RBmU5F39CxDy4kw4gi-Mku5D22WlNTUxFB0/s16000/AmesBookCover390.png" /></a></i></div><i>Above</i> I’ve been writing about the Ames family for more than 50 years. I myself don’t know of a family that is more colorful or complex. I refer to those descended from the marriage of Union General <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelbert_Ames" target="_blank">Adelbert Ames</a></b> (Reconstruction governor of Mississippi) and <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanche_Butler_Ames" target="_blank">Blanche Butler</a></b>, who was the daughter of the notorious General <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Butler" target="_blank">Benjamin F. Butler</a>.</b> <br /><br />One of their sons was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelbert_Ames_Jr." target="_blank"><b>Adelbert (Del) Ames, Jr</b>.</a>, an artist and optical scientist who devised the well-known <a href="https://www.academia.edu/42882412/Adelbert_Ames_and_the_Cockeyed_Room" target="_blank"><b>Ames Demonstrations in psychology</b></a> (such as his Distorted Room). One of their daughters was an artist and equal rights proponent named <b><a href="https://www.academia.edu/42844653/The_Artistic_and_Scientific_Collaboration_of_Blanche_Ames_Ames_and_Adelbert_Ames_II" target="_blank">Blanche Ames Ames</a></b>. She has that double name because she married Harvard orchid expert <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakes_Ames_(botanist)" target="_blank">Oakes Ames</a></b>, whose ancestors had made their fortune providing shovels to those who went west to pan for gold or who worked on the Transcontinental Railroad. <br /><br />Ames, Iowa, is named for a prominent family member. <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Plimpton" target="_blank">George Plimpton</a></b>’s mother was an Ames, and it appears there is also a link to <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldrich_Ames" target="_blank">Aldrich Ames</a></b>, the famous spy. My main interest has usually been the artist and scientist Del Ames, about whom I have published various essays over the years and, more recently, have produced a series of <a href="<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzYrUfsAvkZur5cBv6xlhSg>" target="_blank">three short online videos</a>.<br /><br />But I’ve also always been intrigued by Del’s sister, Blanche, in part because he and she worked in tandem on art and science research in the years before the outbreak of World War I. In recent years, there have been various efforts to unearth and celebrate the achievements of Blanche Ames Ames, whose magnificent self-designed mansion is now <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderland_State_Park" target="_blank"><b>Borderland State Park</b></a> in Massachusetts, just south of Boston, a site that is well-worth the visit. <br /><br />Last year, a 55-minute film was produced, titled <b><a href="https://www.borderlandthedocumentary.com/" target="_blank">Borderland: The Life and Times of Blanche Ames Ames</a></b>. And now, most recently, a new book has just been published about the shared lives of Blanche Ames and her husband. Titled <a href="<https://www.amazon.com/Blanche-Ames-1878-1969-Oakes-1874-1950/dp/1666771910/>" target="_blank"><b>Blanche Ames Ames (1878-1969) and Oakes Ames (1874-1950): Cultivating That Mutual Ground</b> </a>(Eugene OR: Resource Publications), it was written by <b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/Elizabeth%20F.%20Fideler/author/B00DW6C7YG" target="_blank">Elizabeth F. Fideler</a></b>, a Harvard scholar who has published earlier books about aging, retirement and related concerns. Especially for those who are interested in the Ames family, women’s studies, and the chemistry of married life, it is a praiseworthy overview of the accomplishments of an amazing American woman. <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPM5Rju9yQ3ndY1hy7PivvvLYriMhLivuDizdnA-Q9eXN6I-RkFZw7idtzADdFJLN7K5RlzfdYxjogFuwiifs0Xq8U4EojmFw91pyCx2WjXjZseO_GVnt4n02fV_zRAoCFjXO8fPAtXYY9nhXWsmLfaD0XH8t5zzOj1mFSnUPto-sQSP4UcRBSUGiLbD2H/s390/AMES_PartOne_013_390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="294" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPM5Rju9yQ3ndY1hy7PivvvLYriMhLivuDizdnA-Q9eXN6I-RkFZw7idtzADdFJLN7K5RlzfdYxjogFuwiifs0Xq8U4EojmFw91pyCx2WjXjZseO_GVnt4n02fV_zRAoCFjXO8fPAtXYY9nhXWsmLfaD0XH8t5zzOj1mFSnUPto-sQSP4UcRBSUGiLbD2H/s16000/AMES_PartOne_013_390.png" /></a></div>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-18695170444571480132023-10-25T18:13:00.001-05:002023-10-25T18:15:39.902-05:00John C. Lofton / his astonishing miniature rooms<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: helvetica; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDYitCfPaUO8yQciUn2GlQ3N7vPyLQJevyotaKb5FVm2-1Jc1mLGyECfvXVyoeb8YfpbIEpLieUuBgVqqgjs44_8G87-ZuF1cts0B4DuU5G_jkxTFAwumlx-idWJS7xsKDqsMFubWjdoy4qQH1aab-bN8QT43_Ejw36aXQvzu5pQwq44eT6blN8eDpCvXC/s578/LoftonRoomChair390.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="578" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDYitCfPaUO8yQciUn2GlQ3N7vPyLQJevyotaKb5FVm2-1Jc1mLGyECfvXVyoeb8YfpbIEpLieUuBgVqqgjs44_8G87-ZuF1cts0B4DuU5G_jkxTFAwumlx-idWJS7xsKDqsMFubWjdoy4qQH1aab-bN8QT43_Ejw36aXQvzu5pQwq44eT6blN8eDpCvXC/s16000/LoftonRoomChair390.png" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>John C. Lofton,</b> <i>Abandoned Nest in an Empty Room</i> (1976). Wood and other materials. Interior 28h x 16w x 22d. Exterior (on sturdy mounted tripod stand) 90h. Lighted inside through window with shade. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span>I’m not sure when I purchased this. It must have been in the 1980s. I was teaching in Milwaukee, and became interested in a series of constructions that consisted of mysterious room interiors. They were miniaturized of course, but enclosed in a box and mounted on a wooden pole-like stand (including the stand, the height of this one is 90 inches). </span></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Lofton was a local artist who was especially skilled at woodworking. I was drawn to this particular work, because it reminded me of the bleakness of an empty room in (let's say) an apartment at the moment one is moving in—or moving out.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">There is a detailed hardwood floor, exactly proportioned moulding, and replicas of a wooden chair, a telephone, an ashtray, and a window on the facing wall. The detail which completes its persuasiveness is the simulated outdoor light that appears to flow in from beyond the window shade.<br /><br />I can’t recall how much I paid for this. Not a terrible lot, I’m sure. But the amount was sufficient that the artist joked I’d “lost my shirt” in acquiring it. As a result, he graciously threw in a second miniature work of his (see below), a hand-carved balsa wood shirt, with appropriate metal buttons and a wire clothes hanger.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgULUxhx_4wNX74A28wn5xIrTlzfunWQMS46z23EDpo394vVejp9cnf7BldzAI2GKPetLkDZtLnMNJz2MwU7P9JL4rcgNqy8J-Np9WVVFqsrDthHfijnBLdDZwmVmLeOgCw6EPT2nb06TY-6y0iLLIcX8ollAOkd29ti-IbMEFvjn8c8cJg5SvQd7lqHie-/s497/LoftonBasicWoodShirt390.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="497" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgULUxhx_4wNX74A28wn5xIrTlzfunWQMS46z23EDpo394vVejp9cnf7BldzAI2GKPetLkDZtLnMNJz2MwU7P9JL4rcgNqy8J-Np9WVVFqsrDthHfijnBLdDZwmVmLeOgCw6EPT2nb06TY-6y0iLLIcX8ollAOkd29ti-IbMEFvjn8c8cJg5SvQd7lqHie-/s16000/LoftonBasicWoodShirt390.png" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I remember another Lofton work, a second room interior, which I saw but, regrettably, did not buy. Fortunately, I still have a full-color photograph of it (also below). He titled it <i>Bird Cage</i> (1976), a name that surely does not “spoil” or give away its range of interpretative possibilities. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Is that a toucan on the pole?</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCqLzXoAqzQiNa_tZtCShrOLt-wlFLfvmOraF3lcUCCrPCyfrv_nt0-fWTTu-b_GUoZ1I9Jhl1TQ7hHgjpc2SgW3MAUoasYU49Eg1Dgi5u41fw8YgajQu6dpxsCl3EUmclTngi6NmbE7pnbD7Xr6AQUT05ydi7W-9ZHvj-I-O_EG3-lj3BAEBEWY67pjhu/s559/loftonroombird390.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="559" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCqLzXoAqzQiNa_tZtCShrOLt-wlFLfvmOraF3lcUCCrPCyfrv_nt0-fWTTu-b_GUoZ1I9Jhl1TQ7hHgjpc2SgW3MAUoasYU49Eg1Dgi5u41fw8YgajQu6dpxsCl3EUmclTngi6NmbE7pnbD7Xr6AQUT05ydi7W-9ZHvj-I-O_EG3-lj3BAEBEWY67pjhu/s16000/loftonroombird390.png" /></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">These two artworks (the empty room and wooden shirt) have traveled with us everywhere in the years since 1985, as we repeatedly moved from state to state. They have survived unscathed, as have so many other wonderful works which remain in our collection. As we age, of course, we wonder what will become of them. It's not unlike finding a home for a cat. So many questions, so many concerns. </span></p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-2881888048703281292023-09-07T14:53:00.000-05:002023-09-07T14:53:33.492-05:00Josiah Royce's mother walks west from Iowa<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT6Y2Vx8tdzbTQ5mrKjJomS1Tv0W51pN1uLrwQYNTaWn2ho_V1Ztel5kv8gMZCPRgvq6f-v-H9X-wt46XoygGUXZ6CtTNHnJhBrDRiJd9czZ9XGfQFGrQ1K-jlmisbNmu9O84gZxaxLgvPfaeZjwDkFGQYvQ4AUGgkcg5TRLiptnuFdmPLPmhwvsZE46Qo/s899/BEHRENS_RoyceArticle390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="899" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT6Y2Vx8tdzbTQ5mrKjJomS1Tv0W51pN1uLrwQYNTaWn2ho_V1Ztel5kv8gMZCPRgvq6f-v-H9X-wt46XoygGUXZ6CtTNHnJhBrDRiJd9czZ9XGfQFGrQ1K-jlmisbNmu9O84gZxaxLgvPfaeZjwDkFGQYvQ4AUGgkcg5TRLiptnuFdmPLPmhwvsZE46Qo/s16000/BEHRENS_RoyceArticle390.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/106330122/The_Westward_Journey_of_Sarah_Royce" target="_blank">read more</a>>><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Just published in <i><a href="https://www.iowasource.com/tag/iowa-magazine/" target="_blank">The Iowa Source</a></i>. <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Royce" target="_blank">Sarah Royce</a></b>, the mother of American philosopher <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Royce" target="_blank"><b>Josiah Royce</b></a> (a colleague of <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James" target="_blank">William James </a></b>at Harvard), was a "<a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/california-first-person-narratives/articles-and-essays/early-california-history/forty-niners/" target="_blank">forty-niner</a>," one of those hell-bent American souls, who walked with their families from the Midwest to the West Coast in 1849. Read <a href="https://www.academia.edu/106330122/The_Westward_Journey_of_Sarah_Royce" target="_blank">the entire article here</a>. <br /></p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-29383877293481132502023-09-03T15:29:00.000-05:002023-09-03T15:29:27.513-05:00peach brandy / couldn't get drunk until sundown<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglc-HTWlKNe5TdYmpdJX6mwE844YFhRr0cvsLovA1jhz-wamY6m1PPsAtBI61z9Jgx1eVjPvhD5UyRbcPLIggeQZINb9XPZtNkFXGmveR5lp1yhq-fcSVL8pME0j-En2RAzGosQdIqUsCi1cdm4cIMAHmGxNyhpx13il-HENRldGtceh2ArrMN520MVZKA/s505/BisbyFinleyJug1939_390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="505" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglc-HTWlKNe5TdYmpdJX6mwE844YFhRr0cvsLovA1jhz-wamY6m1PPsAtBI61z9Jgx1eVjPvhD5UyRbcPLIggeQZINb9XPZtNkFXGmveR5lp1yhq-fcSVL8pME0j-En2RAzGosQdIqUsCi1cdm4cIMAHmGxNyhpx13il-HENRldGtceh2ArrMN520MVZKA/s16000/BisbyFinleyJug1939_390.png" /></a></i></div><i>Above</i> Historic clay jug, as rendered in a painting by American illustrator Bisby Finley, for the <b>Index of American Design</b> (1939).<p></p><p></p><p>•••<br /></p><p><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stark_Young" target="_blank">Stark Young</a></b>, <i>The Pavilion: Of People and Times Remembered, of Stories and Places</i>. NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1951, p. 77—</p><p><span style="color: #45818e;">Micajah McGhee had many acres in peaches for making brandy. His constitution was such, the history says solemnly, that drink as he might he was unable to be drunk till sundown, once a day; but as the infirmities of age crept on him he was able to be drunk twice a day. The Methodist exhortations converted him to some of sort of reform by which he agreed to limit himself to a daily quart of brandy. In a fortnight he returned to say that he could not endure it, and his advisors said, very well, they would pray for him and he should what he could; the matter was between him and God.</span><br /></p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-43560634414212642032023-09-03T14:48:00.001-05:002023-09-03T14:48:38.303-05:00the family chair in which one customarily dies<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjf8P5sk1UewGONZSvhXZ0i_TKkWC0bm7VeB5342Qztc08Gg6f3M6uhkhUvS4XLg-8RBT509JeGsOdzJ7LRKWBdh6ogfZ-wCN7y59xFCeFhsjtktQ1NVsxHBQpkQM2F6hPgDHIAKlCY3cqZAQPGlQbS4ncou7tanZnrZgDddUY3v1HR61tv8WxpSft7Uv-/s516/MackintoshChair1890_390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="516" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjf8P5sk1UewGONZSvhXZ0i_TKkWC0bm7VeB5342Qztc08Gg6f3M6uhkhUvS4XLg-8RBT509JeGsOdzJ7LRKWBdh6ogfZ-wCN7y59xFCeFhsjtktQ1NVsxHBQpkQM2F6hPgDHIAKlCY3cqZAQPGlQbS4ncou7tanZnrZgDddUY3v1HR61tv8WxpSft7Uv-/s16000/MackintoshChair1890_390.png" /></a></i></div><i>Above</i> Armchair designed by <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Rennie_Mackintosh" target="_blank">Charles Rennie Mackintosh</a></b>, Glasgow (1898).<p></p><p>•••<br /></p><p><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stark_Young" target="_blank">Stark Young</a></b>, <i>The Pavilion: Of People and Times Remembered, of Stories and Places</i>. NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1951, p. 78—</p><p><span style="color: #45818e;">…in another branch of [his father's] family, nine Douglass men had gone from a single household to [serve in] the [American] Revolution. It was in this Douglass family that they had what was known as the Douglass chair. The custom was for every man in the house, when the moment came for him to die, to rise from his bed and go, or else be carried, to meet his death sitting in this chair. </span><br /></p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-21514108318663042292023-08-24T19:55:00.002-05:002023-08-24T19:55:58.621-05:00new poetry book with Mary Snyder Behrens art<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAsvxFO27fprntuweBE3O_IaEOe6lJCgloSkC1VhPDTqsYaK4eU1smEmFlXphcb8VdBhCJla0RFKaMIS5ATkpEiSD97IBYQ75DjulJMzTkyJya0qXFR9GZMonCIgXGfzPYSR70ObLvAfUJlzt-z-AmRjI4UaRTrzvL5JMSUgTcTh1sJZDUzuBPJ3Im9o7a/s595/AmericanSadBookCover_390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAsvxFO27fprntuweBE3O_IaEOe6lJCgloSkC1VhPDTqsYaK4eU1smEmFlXphcb8VdBhCJla0RFKaMIS5ATkpEiSD97IBYQ75DjulJMzTkyJya0qXFR9GZMonCIgXGfzPYSR70ObLvAfUJlzt-z-AmRjI4UaRTrzvL5JMSUgTcTh1sJZDUzuBPJ3Im9o7a/s16000/AmericanSadBookCover_390.png" /></a></div>It has been a pleasure to learn today about the upcoming publication of a new book of poetry by American poet <a href="https://jdschraffenberger.wordpress.com/about/" target="_blank"><b>J.D. Schraffenberger</b></a>, titled<i> American Sad</i>. Its projected publication date is February 2024, but copies can be pre-ordered now, at an advance sale discount price.<b> </b>The author is editor of the <a href="https://northamericanreview.org/" target="_blank"><em>North American Review</em> </a>and professor of English at the University of Northern Iowa. More book information, examples of the author's poems, and ordering information <a href="https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/american-sad-j-d-schraffenberger/" target="_blank">can be found here</a>.<p></p><p>Full disclosure: Personally, I am especially pleased that a major artwork by my wife, <b><a href="http://www.bobolinkbooks.com/MSB/Home.html" target="_blank">Mary Snyder Behrens</a></b>, as been chosen by the author for use on the cover. I live with this work, since it has been on view in our dining room for years, and I pass it multiple times in the course of a day. It is large, for the scale of a dining room wall (48h x 30w x 4d), encased in a plexiglas cover, and so multi-faceted and visually provocative that one cannot help but be drawn in. Titled <i>American Canvas II</i>, it is one of <a href="http://www.bobolinkbooks.com/MSB/AmericanCanvas.html" target="_blank">several comparable-sized, related works</a> that she completed in 2002 (can it really have been 21 years ago?). All of them are mixed media, dimensional compositions of cast-off detritus from our farm, bits of junk that farmers buried years ago (in the manner of amateur landfills), and which, during heavy rains, rise up again to the surface—and, in some cases, cause us harm. </p><p>I for one could not be more delighted that the writer J.D. Schraffenberger has found some strand of common ground between the art he makes with words, and the visual verse that Mary constructs.<br /></p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-14100545451744820642023-08-24T16:36:00.000-05:002023-08-24T16:36:36.549-05:00novelist Ruth Suckow / a celebration of her life<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM1x0aMESBD5W1ScW5Znu9UXTOsPkEkJ0Dnne3FIeVBBH4mEG85uxLNEyi4c8p4VnEBIHhQSe8OQeoOU9Yx8i6q4_LtBnEZQAyuW6J2VMdxcU_FkW-81mDol1nA5Oka6STigV4LKaNJK1YLqbmqmrJd02iBVsfy-ifXr9-wYkBHGizt8aoDa15ty650ob9/s942/BEHRENS_SuckowBanner390.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="942" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM1x0aMESBD5W1ScW5Znu9UXTOsPkEkJ0Dnne3FIeVBBH4mEG85uxLNEyi4c8p4VnEBIHhQSe8OQeoOU9Yx8i6q4_LtBnEZQAyuW6J2VMdxcU_FkW-81mDol1nA5Oka6STigV4LKaNJK1YLqbmqmrJd02iBVsfy-ifXr9-wYkBHGizt8aoDa15ty650ob9/s16000/BEHRENS_SuckowBanner390.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Suckow exhibition banner (2023)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>On Saturday (two days from now), there is a gathering of the <b>Ruth Suckow Memorial Association</b>. Suckow (pronounced Soo-Co), who lived from 1892-1960, was a once highly-acclaimed novelist and short story writer from Iowa, whose work was resoundingly praised by the famous literary critic <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken" target="_blank">H.L. Mencken</a></b>. Much more information about her can be found on an online <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Suckow" target="_blank">Wikipedia biography site</a>, including a list of her books, and a link to the <a href="https://www.ruthsuckow.org/" target="_blank">Suckow Memorial Association</a>, which was founded in 1966.<br /></p><p>The association's annual gathering will take place this weekend at the <a href="https://www.thehearst.org/" target="_blank"><b>Hearst Center for the Arts</b></a> at 304 West Seerley Boulevard (a few blocks east of the University of Northern Iowa campus) in Cedar Falls IA on August 26. Beginning at 1:00 pm that day, there is a one-hour session that is free and open to the public. One of her novels, titled <i>Country People</i>, will be the primary focus of that afternoon session, in which a discussion will follow a series of short presentations by four association members, <b>Bill Douglas</b>, <b>Jim O'Loughlin</b>, <b>Julie Husband</b>, and <b>Cherie Dargan</b>.<br /></p><p>I have a particular interest in this event because earlier this year I was asked by <b><a href="https://creativenonfiction.org/people/barbara-lounsberry/" target="_blank">Barbara Lounsberry</a></b>, the association's president, to design a six-panel exhibition about Ruth Suckow's life, along with a banner for posting (as shown above) as it travels to libraries throughout the state. The panels and banner, which were made possible by a grant from <a href="https://humanitiesiowa.org/" target="_blank"><b>Humanities Iowa</b></a>, will premiere this weekend at the RSMA gathering. </p><p>I have an additional interest because one of the communities where Ruth Suckow lived was the city of <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester%2C_Iowa" target="_blank">Manchester IA</a></b>, at a time when my <a href="https://www.academia.edu/44456801/Living_Among_the_Navajo" target="_blank">maternal ancestors</a>, the family of <b>John J. Pentony</b>, also lived there. Suckow attended high school with my grandmother and several great aunts.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv6XfeuUE7U9164GoVKS3tLUp3vxiRJqAW-yk7qUjLdKKf0TOCglX1rY406X166FPP9ZvnISBoEafAweDYiYEDBsZXc22DYPlMCOogH4nworP6Eh-MjnzWHlabq-kZTdTqmRWEGqkxZuJrh69PgsK1lPUUN7p_JZxvkxjMC-dRPRtUZH1xVslOt7TLzJvX/s586/BEHRENS_Suckow_PanelSix_390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv6XfeuUE7U9164GoVKS3tLUp3vxiRJqAW-yk7qUjLdKKf0TOCglX1rY406X166FPP9ZvnISBoEafAweDYiYEDBsZXc22DYPlMCOogH4nworP6Eh-MjnzWHlabq-kZTdTqmRWEGqkxZuJrh69PgsK1lPUUN7p_JZxvkxjMC-dRPRtUZH1xVslOt7TLzJvX/s16000/BEHRENS_Suckow_PanelSix_390.png" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-82575012653887335732023-08-15T17:05:00.000-05:002023-08-15T17:05:38.499-05:00Walter Hamady // book artist and paper maker<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWG1MYJTe04CrV7UzoShTmvRbWiv5ePHXbGBUcZXuyuVMGDdBl6EOHa8ZbYYH_5pM_FaLj2RmgTrUz0IFgvEbrElKaaQZaOJv6DJYwnHrg8TjjSVAGR2d9bAa6gDc8kVB68_wMILML7s-M-95533QDb8XQ6pq_HDHKvb0xrz8BLnQXAzfK7BophNz7WexB/s390/HAMADY_hedgehog_390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="222" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWG1MYJTe04CrV7UzoShTmvRbWiv5ePHXbGBUcZXuyuVMGDdBl6EOHa8ZbYYH_5pM_FaLj2RmgTrUz0IFgvEbrElKaaQZaOJv6DJYwnHrg8TjjSVAGR2d9bAa6gDc8kVB68_wMILML7s-M-95533QDb8XQ6pq_HDHKvb0xrz8BLnQXAzfK7BophNz7WexB/s16000/HAMADY_hedgehog_390.png" /></a></i></div><i>Above</i> (and below) Title frame and other single frames from a new 20-minute video talk about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Hamady" target="_blank"><b>Walter Hamady</b></a> (1940-2019), prominent book artist, paper-maker, and collagist, who was well-known as a teacher at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. <p></p><p>Having earlier taught in Milwaukee for ten years, I had become aware of his work in the 1970s. Because of his liking for <a href="https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ballast/" target="_blank"><b>Ballast Quarterly Review</b></a> (which I had founded in 1985), he and I began to exchange spirited letters (along with a mix of enclosures), once or twice or more a month. </p><p>This led to collaborations of one kind or another, eventually resulting in exhibitions, published essays, and an archive of his artist’s books. I saved everything, even all the envelopes and mailing containers, in part because they were always addressed to mutilations of my name, such as <i>Corps du Roy</i>, <i>Rhoidamoto</i>, <i>Trompe L’Roi at Labbast</i>, <i>Royatolla</i>, and so on. This continued for more than a decade, perhaps to the mailman’s amusement.<br /></p><p>Looking back on what I have, I have now produced a video talk (a brief memoir-like tribute) titled <b><a href="https://youtu.be/NUW5k970Hkc" target="_blank">BOOK ART: Walter Hamady’s Books, Collages and Assemblages</a></b>, which can be accessed free online on my <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzYrUfsAvkZur5cBv6xlhSg" target="_blank"><b>YouTube channel</b></a>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsz5T6RSgkV3mJVdm6eI7A52eY7haDai9dtf5tT0WbD1v0AfgfUeZ3rgoJWjDno5Zujf0hgM0rCAXHk9lgH9sv7ECwJX3bQw6JZpj1vwu5rNDvT4GppYv2heRVBpWquEpyrjtR8YuaOh_vSD8CD1Pgu_jx7Ax2fEdQHCsdweiqI1qWmuvkesetTqawzaJa/s390/BEHRENS_Hamady_Title_Slide_390.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="222" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsz5T6RSgkV3mJVdm6eI7A52eY7haDai9dtf5tT0WbD1v0AfgfUeZ3rgoJWjDno5Zujf0hgM0rCAXHk9lgH9sv7ECwJX3bQw6JZpj1vwu5rNDvT4GppYv2heRVBpWquEpyrjtR8YuaOh_vSD8CD1Pgu_jx7Ax2fEdQHCsdweiqI1qWmuvkesetTqawzaJa/s16000/BEHRENS_Hamady_Title_Slide_390.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb7SO8mCxeO_e25cE2zhxNhQVpCLL_q2rAAmAdn5Ttzini_xTzbpe-lKFMmofC4KLrkRH9K_MuvANn-0dQrXdonaaLGWqIZhGWji5V5FjriQTPuanVDoaTZaBgNQf0y1h1VV94AfHTkVhJDVX6O0Rj_9vxMZrQWfm32IMs3RMB6HOWc0EfV5v6QgsAwwD_/s390/WSH_NAR_390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="223" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb7SO8mCxeO_e25cE2zhxNhQVpCLL_q2rAAmAdn5Ttzini_xTzbpe-lKFMmofC4KLrkRH9K_MuvANn-0dQrXdonaaLGWqIZhGWji5V5FjriQTPuanVDoaTZaBgNQf0y1h1VV94AfHTkVhJDVX6O0Rj_9vxMZrQWfm32IMs3RMB6HOWc0EfV5v6QgsAwwD_/s16000/WSH_NAR_390.png" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-4835822122267027322023-07-09T18:32:00.000-05:002023-07-09T18:32:24.689-05:00exquisite gestural movement / the ballets russes<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbNSSg7vYNW_TshHko-XegPPicZetD6DWtEBWDVy_LrdAb0wu6C1KQE_hC-OvWkd9IQhqtOHvFhFfTD-2y7gTczLkqfjCadPjCQe4zDqrAIogXvWbC6GgPDh8ZjjKxTOt-Ypw2ONPc0ENkX18iJQtwkYzHUYntrcyi8fM3VuB6IwCjmLATTK0riW0fZB2k/s407/BEHRENS_Ballets_Russes_Poster_390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="407" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbNSSg7vYNW_TshHko-XegPPicZetD6DWtEBWDVy_LrdAb0wu6C1KQE_hC-OvWkd9IQhqtOHvFhFfTD-2y7gTczLkqfjCadPjCQe4zDqrAIogXvWbC6GgPDh8ZjjKxTOt-Ypw2ONPc0ENkX18iJQtwkYzHUYntrcyi8fM3VuB6IwCjmLATTK0riW0fZB2k/s16000/BEHRENS_Ballets_Russes_Poster_390.png" /></a></i></div><i>Above</i> <b>Ballets Russes</b> poster design (©2023) <a href="https://scholarworks.uni.edu/behrens_posters/" target="_blank">Roy R. Behrens</a><br /><br /><span style="color: #45818e;">The <b>Ballets Russes</b> was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. It is widely regarded as the most influential ballet company of the 20th century, in part because it promoted ground-breaking artistic collaborations among young choreographers, composers, designers, and dancers, all at the forefront of their several fields.…</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballets_Russes" target="_blank">more>>></a> <p></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">Dancers pictured are <span class="tBJ dyH iFc sAJ O2T zDA IZT swG"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Fokine" target="_blank">Mikhail Fokine</a> and <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/fokina-vera-1886-1958" target="_blank">Vera Fokina</a> in the ballet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheherazade_(Rimsky-Korsakov)" target="_blank"><i>Scheherazade</i></a>.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="tBJ dyH iFc sAJ O2T zDA IZT swG"><b>Related Links</b></span></span></p><ul><li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://scholarworks.uni.edu/awce/">American Women Camouflage Exhibition</a></span></li><li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ballast/">Ballast Quarterly Review</a></span></li><li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://scholarworks.uni.edu/behrens_videos/">Behrens Video Archive</a></span></li><li> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://scholarworks.uni.edu/camouflage_cartoons/">Camouflage Cartoons Archive</a></span></li><li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://scholarworks.uni.edu/mdie/">Modern Design Icons Exhibition</a></span></li><li> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://scholarworks.uni.edu/wpsa/">Whitson Pencil Sharpener Artifacts
</a></span></li></ul>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-59101396711039427752023-06-29T10:34:00.000-05:002023-06-29T10:34:40.916-05:00Del Ames / David Chelsea's book on perspective<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGF9Htl0fApSPG0VTU8G8j0T4CI8ORcVRmcT9Paoi-S1qpfm1E_DqGeFPFOp72Lhrlz9E1g3iaEcTyemMjXyNEgQACt9RU1rA32cdEHFIImu-vMxdTWbzaNjP4zZZlBD_PLKrlDGhY_i5l7VNfQ4ygZZZwZ7mkuR1_cCAPrAr9C1U8Fpy69VJknitvsrtk/s592/ChelseaBookp66_390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="592" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGF9Htl0fApSPG0VTU8G8j0T4CI8ORcVRmcT9Paoi-S1qpfm1E_DqGeFPFOp72Lhrlz9E1g3iaEcTyemMjXyNEgQACt9RU1rA32cdEHFIImu-vMxdTWbzaNjP4zZZlBD_PLKrlDGhY_i5l7VNfQ4ygZZZwZ7mkuR1_cCAPrAr9C1U8Fpy69VJknitvsrtk/s16000/ChelseaBookp66_390.png" /></a></div>I recently ran across a book (a comic book) which I highly recommend. Titled <b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Perspective-Action-Exercises-Representation-Renaissance/dp/1607749467" target="_blank">Perspective in Action: Creative Exercises for Depicting Spatial Representation from the Renaissance to the Digital Age</a></b>, it was both drawn and written by a Portland-based illustrator named <b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B004IZRDOY/about" target="_blank">David Chelsea</a></b>. I regret not knowing about this earlier, since it was published back in 2017 (six years ago!) by New York: Watson-Guptill. ISBN 978-1-60774-946-2. Fortunately, it is still available online, and I now own a copy. <br /><p></p><p>There are various reasons why I recommend this book (the cover isn’t one of them). The interior comic-style images are beautifully rendered and colorized, and the page layout is very smart. It interweaves a well-written and reliable text, both historical and technical, with clear and thoughtful instructions on how to make physical models of the demonstrations in the text.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4tT-tj9rikp0dANMvjs-UvqP8DRNslzlcR5bOsL27HewxQt2sqBybmOJCIZRe2qYjVzw1albP4V9Xx1vcNSYhoA7VooL6agxImNJcSVPK_0goEMN4XrKgim1h8rJtiHu89o7wkdvk11j9eakOp7pfytpTxzLNckIPueVGrEeG5xA0_r-2MnF9oBJs4hLN/s592/ChelseaBook21_390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="592" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4tT-tj9rikp0dANMvjs-UvqP8DRNslzlcR5bOsL27HewxQt2sqBybmOJCIZRe2qYjVzw1albP4V9Xx1vcNSYhoA7VooL6agxImNJcSVPK_0goEMN4XrKgim1h8rJtiHu89o7wkdvk11j9eakOp7pfytpTxzLNckIPueVGrEeG5xA0_r-2MnF9oBJs4hLN/s16000/ChelseaBook21_390.png" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>That would be enough to recommend it. But I am also drawn to it because it covers so many of the vision-related topics that I myself have researched and written about since the 1960s, of which the history of <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective_(graphical)" target="_blank">perspective</a></b> is one. But there is also the use of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_obscura" target="_blank"><b>camera obscura</b></a> as a drawing aid. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamorphosis" target="_blank"><b>Anamorphoses</b></a> or “forced perspective” imagery, including <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Beever" target="_blank">street art illusions</a></b>. <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Janssens_Elinga" target="_blank">Dutch perspective cabinets</a></b>. The <b><a href="https://www.academia.edu/42882412/Adelbert_Ames_and_the_Cockeyed_Room" target="_blank">Ames Demonstrations</a></b>, devised by American optical physiologist <b><a href="https://www.academia.edu/42844653/The_Artistic_and_Scientific_Collaboration_of_Blanche_Ames_Ames_and_Adelbert_Ames_II" target="_blank">Adelbert Ames II</a></b>, including the <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ames_room" target="_blank">Ames Distorted Room</a></b> (there are instructions on how to make a model, in exacting detail). Six-Point Perspective. Various kinds of <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoscopy" target="_blank">stereoscopic (3-D) imagery</a></b>, and even stereo collage (which I thought I invented back in c1984). And <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoetrope" target="_blank">zoetrope</a></b> (flip book) animations. Wow! What more could you want.</p><p>So look for this book! It’s well worth it. And you might also take a look at my own recent video trilogy on the life and work of Ames, since it touches on many of the same subjects. The videos are found online at my <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzYrUfsAvkZur5cBv6xlhSg" target="_blank"><b>YouTube Channel</b></a>. They are completely free to view and to share with others. See two screen grabs below.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW48ErLDe7ACX4eVq0omC4-7-mgPZOD7OD53ez0uA8-f3-3iwxnWOGmFBPvLDBWUbiVWvlpv1MH0bj_XQM5pTifhUt19_1JowFDBXbTC53Hg7vwwfWLa4Qc_Et9bM4Ug-e26yWCF2YplZxJXpdmRvVWgYdDYsIqJSKnmg-W2n_foj7W5tU1uJ-oAu81bRe/s390/AmesVideo_PartTwo_016_390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="294" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW48ErLDe7ACX4eVq0omC4-7-mgPZOD7OD53ez0uA8-f3-3iwxnWOGmFBPvLDBWUbiVWvlpv1MH0bj_XQM5pTifhUt19_1JowFDBXbTC53Hg7vwwfWLa4Qc_Et9bM4Ug-e26yWCF2YplZxJXpdmRvVWgYdDYsIqJSKnmg-W2n_foj7W5tU1uJ-oAu81bRe/s16000/AmesVideo_PartTwo_016_390.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSTf_iS3acZ6a9DXoICQkxOAATKsnFGbm70gnUOZnyNV88EmhrTSP1Rva1MhAgw9VwqdyITZLV7pH5rrN0s_MF9T6ilny0vTXFwl975a2SYmCABpuG163i9s4N6VkYH3K8b1e6qfS_Brgq_evtVo9q_JTzrJd6lCEszrRHksHVrvgy8Q0KMuJngeegtRuq/s390/AmesVideo_PartTwo_015_390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="294" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSTf_iS3acZ6a9DXoICQkxOAATKsnFGbm70gnUOZnyNV88EmhrTSP1Rva1MhAgw9VwqdyITZLV7pH5rrN0s_MF9T6ilny0vTXFwl975a2SYmCABpuG163i9s4N6VkYH3K8b1e6qfS_Brgq_evtVo9q_JTzrJd6lCEszrRHksHVrvgy8Q0KMuJngeegtRuq/s16000/AmesVideo_PartTwo_015_390.png" /></a></div><br />Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-91024656463107962012023-06-19T17:09:00.001-05:002023-06-19T17:09:43.285-05:00if Vincent Van Gogh had been a dentist instead<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrBq3GyFCep5zm6qXxJGt1-8bNpgDvcBJso_CwuvIkhGUDvUQKeQ2qyOR52Tf-vMxXxXR73NokV0NrV_hKLfIP5jp-qQckVzloFpGJOJ1Ddg5Hq5XQjKtj5AsSvKmXWo1po5Id6_XXlNGGZr6fKM54YhVNxCT5Ym1I4RiKPSS5zuteBIC3_BkGj627LGLz/s390/danceOfTeeth390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrBq3GyFCep5zm6qXxJGt1-8bNpgDvcBJso_CwuvIkhGUDvUQKeQ2qyOR52Tf-vMxXxXR73NokV0NrV_hKLfIP5jp-qQckVzloFpGJOJ1Ddg5Hq5XQjKtj5AsSvKmXWo1po5Id6_XXlNGGZr6fKM54YhVNxCT5Ym1I4RiKPSS5zuteBIC3_BkGj627LGLz/s16000/danceOfTeeth390.png" /></a></b></div><b>Woody Allen</b>, “If the Impressionists Had Been Dentists” in <i>Without Feathers</i>. New York: Random House, 1975, p. 199— <p></p><p><span style="color: #45818e;">Dear Theo—<br /><br />Will life never treat me decently? I am wracked by despair! My head is pounding! Mrs. Sol Schwimmer is suing me because I made her bridge as I felt it and not to fit her ridiculous mouth! That’s right!… I decided her bridge should be enormous and billowing, with wild, explosive teeth flaring up in every direction like fire! Now she is upset because it won’t fit in her mouth! She is so bourgeois and stupid, I want to smash her! I tried forcing the false plate in but it sticks out like a star burst chandelier. Still, I find it beautiful. She claims she can’t chew! What do I care whether she can chew or not! Theo, I can’t go on like this much longer! . . .<br /><br />Vincent</span></p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-29186792411132956042023-06-19T14:32:00.001-05:002023-06-19T14:32:45.320-05:00a new practical guide to art in relation to seeing<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnjhwiEa_7rqUbfoZsCfc7fieHO2pQ7H-k271DLq1vRmInf4YelXYH0XVgjUqo8TMr8Wenadyxc0sgQbC6iMDF3hARdJjbfuPq06gB3Q_XFq8HZjMi1CwG2zxhC-jzvzN7mgEq9uk5HlQTHwlv1ax83Kd0NsKngUB8ntbdkf3ZV0xBIm2aIqMwsI2NF4el/s520/TorlenCover390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="520" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnjhwiEa_7rqUbfoZsCfc7fieHO2pQ7H-k271DLq1vRmInf4YelXYH0XVgjUqo8TMr8Wenadyxc0sgQbC6iMDF3hARdJjbfuPq06gB3Q_XFq8HZjMi1CwG2zxhC-jzvzN7mgEq9uk5HlQTHwlv1ax83Kd0NsKngUB8ntbdkf3ZV0xBIm2aIqMwsI2NF4el/s16000/TorlenCover390.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">coming soon<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>There’s a new book in the works—it isn't out yet, but it's coming. Issued by the <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/S/bo208668484.html" target="_blank">University of Chicago Press</a>, it will soon be available in hardbound, paperback, and E-book formats. The title peaks my interest: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Studio-Seeing-Practical-Painting-Perception/dp/1789387892" target="_blank"><b>STUDIO SEEING: A practical guide to drawing, painting, and perception</b></a>. It is due out in September. The author is <a href="https://michaeltorlen.com/the-artist/" target="_blank"><b>Michael Torlen</b></a>, a painter, printmaker and writer who retired from teaching in 2012, and now resides in Maine. A graduate of Ohio State University and Cranbrook Academy, he taught courses in visual arts for many years at the University of Georgia at Athens, and at Purchase College in New York.<br /><br /><i>How do I know him?</i> I don’t, or at least we've never met in person. But we are well-acquainted “online,” as they say, because about ten years ago, by chance <a href="https://camoupedia.blogspot.com/2014/11/michael-torlen-remembers-hoyt-l-sherman.html" target="_blank">we discovered that we have a common interest in</a>, not just art and vision, but in the writings and teaching practices of an artist / teacher (in the 1940s and thereafter) named <b><a href="https://www.askart.com/artist/Hoyt_Leon_Sherman/106131/Hoyt_Leon_Sherman.aspx" target="_blank">Hoyt Sherman</a></b>. At OSU, Sherman was the teacher of Pop Artist <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Lichtenstein" target="_blank">Roy Lichtenstein</a></b>. But he was also the teacher of one of my most influential teachers, a man named <b><a href="https://www.askart.com/artist/David_D_Delafield/10013657/David_D_Delafield.aspx" target="_blank">David Delafield</a></b>. Torlen’s link to Sherman is far more direct: he earned an MFA at OSU and actually <a href="http://www.bobolinkbooks.com/Ames/DrawingInDark.html" target="_blank">worked closely with Sherman</a>. <br /><br />My additional interest in Sherman is through his connection to artist and optical physiologist <a href="https://www.academia.edu/43579688/Eyed_Awry_The_Ingenuity_of_Del_Ames" target="_blank"><b>Adelbert Ames II</b></a>, who invented the <b><a href="https://scholarworks.uni.edu/art_facpub/5/" target="_blank">Ames Demonstrations</a></b>, about whom I have written, and more recently made a <a href="https://thepoetryofsight.blogspot.com/2022/09/film-trilogy-on-artist-scientist.html" target="_blank">three-part documentary video</a> on.<br /><br />At OSU, Sherman reconstructed many of the Ames Demonstrations. But the achievement for which he was famous (or, as his detractors would probably say, “infamous”) was his attempt to teach <a href="https://www.academia.edu/43246808/Drawing_in_the_Dark_Rembrandt_Pearl_Harbor_and_Hoyt_Shermans_Flash_Lab" target="_blank">drawing in the dark</a>. He devised a method of <a href="http://www.bobolinkbooks.com/Ames/DrawingInDark.html" target="_blank">teaching drawing in a pitch dark studio</a> (called a “flash lab”) in which his students drew from abstract images that he projected on a screen, using a tachistoscope, for a fraction of a second. His students included members of the OSU football team, who (it was claimed) improved their passing accuracy by wearing a hooded contraption called a “flash helmet.”<br /><br />Judging from its table of contents (as well as the title), the key concern in Torlen’s book is perception in relation to art, from the view of a long-experienced teacher. You can learn much more about him as well as updates on his book at <<a href="https://www.michaeltorlenauthor.com/">https://www.michaeltorlenauthor.com/</a>>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMjViA0dx6TXLd9IelKXoogZM03RqcY8S_RlfTC5TzCeqmMHhE2N5csXicKvDrkKfT_O0WDZkOD6J8B1-93ctaTdRz9RnaDFk2ARqs233iQBwFBZIZRdkOOLSNFSLL2DnwyIrbhIHv-t4ARKLRCGuKG1POtD5P2l4kC3DMEtd_QMRNJPceqk26OiTh0VPK/s505/BEHRENS_AmesVideos390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="505" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMjViA0dx6TXLd9IelKXoogZM03RqcY8S_RlfTC5TzCeqmMHhE2N5csXicKvDrkKfT_O0WDZkOD6J8B1-93ctaTdRz9RnaDFk2ARqs233iQBwFBZIZRdkOOLSNFSLL2DnwyIrbhIHv-t4ARKLRCGuKG1POtD5P2l4kC3DMEtd_QMRNJPceqk26OiTh0VPK/s16000/BEHRENS_AmesVideos390.png" /></a></div><br />Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-5678776769098638252023-06-09T10:06:00.000-05:002023-06-09T10:06:13.355-05:00reality lacks solidity when compared to illusions<p><b><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifgDxguNw5FTuYiCgx93YvLL1BsjGZsDb2Lab4IpMJhUqCRp9V4I0UoBnEXuhNSBOX6YsJ2nLQfcCm0pKln1ZbNl95j1bK6Uz34Bv4r0vqJVaBPxOc5FpjDACthg7ewh2w7QByguMcLMHvU8fjx344kX6mYnYoPgiUzmxkjDSBUFe0uPwOmSeJTdtUzg/s390/AMES_PartOne_051_390.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="294" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifgDxguNw5FTuYiCgx93YvLL1BsjGZsDb2Lab4IpMJhUqCRp9V4I0UoBnEXuhNSBOX6YsJ2nLQfcCm0pKln1ZbNl95j1bK6Uz34Bv4r0vqJVaBPxOc5FpjDACthg7ewh2w7QByguMcLMHvU8fjx344kX6mYnYoPgiUzmxkjDSBUFe0uPwOmSeJTdtUzg/s16000/AMES_PartOne_051_390.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzYrUfsAvkZur5cBv6xlhSg" target="_blank">Del Ames, <i>The Man Who Made Distorted Rooms</i>, Part 1</a><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stark_Young" target="_blank">Stark Young</a></b>, <i>The Pavilion: Of People and Times Remembered, of Stories and Places</i>. NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1951, p. 187—</p><p><span style="color: #45818e;">Art’s function is to extend life into dream; since reality, for all its being so close at hand, is beyond us; it is actually far more incapable of definition than the maddest vision. For us the actuality of real things has no solidity as compared to the reality of our illusions and the precision of our emotions. We know only too well the truth of that line in French that man who can create countless gods cannot create even a flea. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>See also</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/42823829/" target="_blank">Adelbert Ames, Fritz Heider, and the Chair Demonstration</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="js-work-strip-work-link text-gray-darker" data-click-track="profile-work-strip-title" href="https://www.academia.edu/42844653/The_Artistic_and_Scientific_Collaboration_of_Blanche_Ames_Ames_and_Adelbert_Ames_II">The Artistic and Scientific Collaboration of Blanche Ames Ames and Adelbert Ames II</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a class="js-work-strip-work-link text-gray-darker" data-click-track="profile-work-strip-title" href="https://www.academia.edu/42882412/Adelbert_Ames_and_the_Cockeyed_Room">Adelbert Ames and the Cockeyed Room</a></span> <br /></p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8653563592069266790.post-42157267790953392952023-06-07T17:21:00.000-05:002023-06-07T17:21:23.201-05:00hoop and holler when little pig got under skirt<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkFuWykyzdLvNh8qRh5uNXjGSsm9rzcC4Bn5UkFd1PMHTRwlisvM6_90k1t5QZDMBpb7sSN3vKm_9Ij7WCu1I8HP-FvipgRw_TWluvjtiGTN1ObSDNNoFCqCfW3nurx5Pvnd-nGRg7vpEAQoedSr94dLz-rnIccH7VoHRuUVYOL187yxP0W9zNKoZusA/s603/HoopSkirt_390.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="603" data-original-width="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkFuWykyzdLvNh8qRh5uNXjGSsm9rzcC4Bn5UkFd1PMHTRwlisvM6_90k1t5QZDMBpb7sSN3vKm_9Ij7WCu1I8HP-FvipgRw_TWluvjtiGTN1ObSDNNoFCqCfW3nurx5Pvnd-nGRg7vpEAQoedSr94dLz-rnIccH7VoHRuUVYOL187yxP0W9zNKoZusA/s16000/HoopSkirt_390.jpg" /></a></b></div><b>Stark Young</b>, <i>The Pavilion: Of People and Times Remembered, of Stories and Places</i>. NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1951, p. 106—<br /><br /><span style="color: #45818e;">My father had a brother-in-law, Uncle Henry Hargis, who had married my Aunt Elizabeth. She had been long since dead and the only thing remembered about her was that she went on wearing hoopskirts years after they were given up, because her legs were too weak for skirts pressuring against them, and that a little pig had got under the hoop one day and the more she kicked and screamed the higher he jumped.</span><p></p>Roy R. Behrenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11190780873758218161noreply@blogger.com