is that a fact...

If time and space are relative, then "facts" themselves must also be relative. That is they must incorporate relativity: Any fact itself therefore must be in the least a duality - if they exist in fact long enough or slow enough for us to discover them at all - for surely they all do not necessarily have to exist within our perceptible and definable space/time to have relevance. What orbitals or rays of significance sweep or pierce through our small and tentative little reality without our knowing? "And with a little pin bores through his castle wall and farewell king..."

On Discovery and Patience...

"[John] Harrison [could not] express himself clearly in writing.... No matter how brilliantly ideas formed in his mind, or crystallized in his clockworks, his verbal descriptions failed to shine with the same light.... The first sentence [of his last published work] runs on, virtually unpunctuated, for twenty-five pages." Dava Sobel, Longitude, p66

"...some modern horologists claim that Harrison's work facilitated England's mastery over the oceans, and thereby led to the creation of the British Empire..." pp152-3.

After reading Longitude I am reminded and convinced even more that we require a great deal more than just visual and lingual competence. John Harrison never did receive official acknowledgement from the Board of Longitude for his monumental achievement. This servers to prove that to prevail against even those forces presumed to ally with us we must nurture the longing and patience that sustains an individual's methodical approach to anything including comprehension of the basic academics, disciplined research or complex engineering; whether there exists a learned past or not. What we have indeed become in contemporary society is impatient and lacking in faith in our own countries citizens. How many geniuses now though could either afford or possibly survive long enough in a garret anywhere in America to develop that which could save our industries from an already nearing ruin.

My latest excursion - Mt. Rainier

The arts and back to reality...

The topics I write about are varied, but include the state of the Arts, how this aesthetic aspiration gets knocked around as it is embedded in a fluctuating and now exasperating cultural environment. Everything from virtual to physical boundaries, the landscape, and even territorial frontiers. I consider the history of the Arts to be fascinating and current events as well are worthy subjects. Native aesthetics or natural artists like Andy Goldsworthy... or others such as those that have expanded the boundary/frame and even enclosed or exploded the supposed installation space such as Michael Heizer, or Christo - these are some of the topics I launch from.

Today I am reading Provenance which is excellent so far, and the true tale therein exposes the unstable nature of authority in the Art world. Finance, investing and greed and even mere sentimentality have added to the ongoing dissemblance of a once admirable path for the talented artist - now this role is caked with distrust and the superficial, affected mystique of it. It is no wonder that many fine artists find themselves drudging away in retail, design or isolating themselves as street or event performers or social critics. It's time to bring to a brighter light the abandonment of honor and cultural nurturing in the west; and rescue the Arts from simplistic "Art Appreciation."