Potential muses
Well, inspiration didn’t come knocking today as I hoped it would. There are some potential muses on the horizon, so to speak. Out of five avocado pits, two of them sprouted a root (one each). I kept one in water and planted the other in a small pot. Oh, and by the way, Arthur is doing very well, thank you very much. (Arthur is my pet avocado tree that almost died, for those of you who have just joined me, see Arthur’s Roots, Arthur On His Own.) Arthur is almost bushy, you wouldn’t recognize him. I’m trying to think of names for the next to avocado plants; probably Arthur Jr. and Arthur III, unless they’re girls, in which case… I don’t know the female counterpart to Arthur. Maybe I’ll just choose different names altogether.
Inspiration from books
The books I am reading are thought provoking. I may have mentioned that I read Plato at the Googleplex, by Rebecca Goldstein. That inspired me to pick up a copy of Plato’s dialogs, which I have been dipping into. Fascinating, although it is not the muse of visual inspiration.
I started The Book Forged in Hell (TBFiH) by Stephen Nadler . It is a very good read, about the Theological-Political Treatise written by Baruch de Spinoza (philosopher and excommunicated Dutch Jew who lived in the 17th century). I’ve tried reading Spinoza’s works before, but have not gotten very far.
My father used to talk about Spinoza’s ideas. Two that stuck in my mind were: the bible (torah) was written by man and not god; god can be equated with nature and the natural laws. I thought these were modern ideas, but apparently originated with Spinoza (in print, at least) in the 17th century. The subtitle of TBFiH is Spinoza’s Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age.
Interesting snippet:
In the chapter, Gods and Prophets, in TNFiH, Nadler discusses Spinoza’s critique of The Guide to the Perplexed written by Maimonides, a 12th century rabbi, with particular regard to the qualities of a prophet. Maimonides lays out the conditions that must be fulfilled before a person becomes a prophet, and able to receive the ‘overflow from god’ : 1) good physical condition; 2) a perfected moral character; 3) an accomplished intellect; 4) an imagination.
From my reading of this chapter, it seems that the most important feature for a prophet to have is an imagination. The prophet, using the imagination, can put the ‘overflow’ from god into language that ‘the masses’ can understand.
“Prophecy itself occurs when the senses are at rest and the onrush of material from the external world is quieted. This allows the imagination to receive the overflow from the rational faculty and rework its content and translate it into images.” * [emphasis added]
The most important quality for a prophet to have is the ability to put thoughts into images (which I am sure are not visual images, but stories and parables) that rank and file people would be able to appreciate. Most philosophers do not have this attribute. They might work out an intellectual or reasoned solution to any set of moral dilemmas, but would not be able to effectively transmit this to ordinary people.
Today’s watercolor study:
My watercolor study today is not inspired by anything except the thought that I wanted to portray a cylinder, a sphere and a cone: three of the four geometric solids that Cézanne considered elementary pictorial forms.
I had no model for this except what I sketched in pencil. I don’t know if the relationships between the forms is correct in terms of the shadows or reflections. In that sense, it is ‘unreal’ art.
Geometric Solids
9″x12″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block
* Nadler, S. The Book Forged in Hell, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 2011 pg. 55
