A HAPPY NEW YEAR

TO ALL YOU WHO VISIT HERE AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST AND SUPPORT.

This is my last painting of 2007, finished yesterday.
As you can see by going through this blog I paint in many styles: mandalas, portraits, thankas, graphics, etc. but the most personal style is this that I think of as interdependent organic elementals. They have no 'meaning' other than leading the eye on a rhythmic journey through forms and colors.
I am always interested in feedback, so please comment!

SPIN

THREE BOYS FROM DUNUN VILLAGE

ALIEN IN STREETCAR

I used to feel like an alien on this planet and I still feel like that sometimes when I think about the crazy way affairs are handled here on earth.

PEASANT FROM ALGERIA

In 1967 when I lived in Ghardaia, an oasis in southern Algeria, I made my living by painting portraits. This peasant boy didn't come and pick his picture up.

SUNNY DECEMBER

A pleasant result of global warming? Or just another dry winter? The nights are icy, as they should be in December, but the days are like early summer in Denmark. I saw a fruit tree in bloom yesterday.

A corner of my room & a view into the music room.

A shadow of myself…

The weird window

The sun has set in the American suburb. African souvenirs.

Outside: Miguel's Saab and the Drum-Hater's house. I like to think that the drums she is forced to listen to every Tuesday and Thursday, without her knowledge are helping to heal her. She has had serious health problems, but show amazing resilience.

MOODS

When I am in a bad mood I think of this:
A long time ago I read an article about monthly mood swings and whether men had a cycle similar to what they had found for women. The rating system was a scale of five:

1) totally depressed and crappy :-((
2) not having a good day :-(
3) it’s OK :-]
4) pretty nice day :-)
5) cloud nine :-))
The rating was done three times a day: morning, afternoon and evening.

I was interested in the question and decided to try it out for myself. I rated for about six months and didn’t find any discernible lunar influence, but I found another thing. I worked out my average rate and it was exactly 3.0. I was pleasantly surprised; there had been some bleak times and I didn’t expect to come out OK average. It strengthened my belief in a natural balance in things.

I think that if I did such a survey today, I would again come out very close to average 3, but there would be way less ups and downs.

LOW TIDE IN SANTA CRUZ

"Give peace a chance"

HALLOWEEN GONE BAD

This is the pumpkin I grew!

SYNTHESIS

In Heglian philosophy Synthesis is the final stage in the process of dialectical reasoning, in which a new idea resolves the conflict between thesis and antithesis. Thesis being a statement put forth as truth and antithesis the negation of the thesis, based on experience.

So, what is needed as the world engages in religious warfare, is a synthetic religion that is in accord with science and embraces the Truth at the core the different religions and philosophies.

For example:
One thesis is that God created the world with the design of his intelligence, such as described in the Book of Books. The antithesis is that the universe evolved in the way proven by Science.
To resolve the conflict that exists between the believers of these two schools of belief we must admit that both are right.
Science, building on experience, is irrefutable and is obviously right about evolution.
In religion it’s less obvious what is truth and what is superstition, but, since the thesis is based on the Bible, that’s where we must seek its deeper truth. According to the Bible, God revealed himself to Moses as JHVH, meaning, “I am that which is”.
So the thesis holds that “That Which Is” created the world! Of course, “It” must have been there before the world was created, for something cannot come out of nothing.
But what exactly is it “That Is”?
That is a mystery, but in the belief of the American Americans it is called Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit. Science has found that the material world seemingly is built up of a mysterious energy in eleven dimensions.

The synthesis, the idea that makes a resolution of the conflict possible, is that “That Which Is” is an indestructible, free Spirit-Energy that eternally “Is” without any dimensions and that also exists manifested in continuous creation.
It is impossible to deny that there is intelligence in creation, but, as far as the evolution of life on earth goes, the intelligence expresses itself in evolution.
Evolution is continual creation.
This is true religion and goes far beyond words. The Truth at its core is this, that the actualization of being united in the Spirit is unconditional Love for all creation.
That is really all the religion we need.

The title of this picture is SYNTHESIS, and it uses the ancient symbol for spirit energy twice, spinning in opposite directions, as the thesis and antithesis.

QUOTE

I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.

Bertrand Russell