Cherry Bowl

To cure the wintery ennui I have learned to make a GIF file.  For anyone under 30 this news will be a joke, but any ancient from the Cretaceous period will understand the sense of fulfillment.

The computer tablet is a real leap forward in art.  No longer are we shuffling dust around on some flat surface.  It is now pixel shuffling that is done.  The ability to revise and erase is a wonder, but the lack of a physical something is hard be relaxed about.

Ah, well... back to my case of "cabin fever".  More snow on the way.

Banyan Trees & Human Brains

Most people define themselves by their clothes, possessions, house, car, friends, career…  all the accumulated stuff that insulates the individual human from harsh reality.  Back in the 60’s someone said that people should be seen for who they really are.  But, strip a human of every surrounding defense, leave him or her standing naked and alone, and you have nothing – only a 20 something in good physical shape is impressive in their stark humanness.

We are social & acquisitive, and it seems that without those physical accouterments we are a lesser species of ape.

Or are we?

The naked ape you see in the mirror every morning may be unimpressive, but the 3 pound human biocomputer hidden behind the sensory array on the top is.  The brain is certainly large and complex, but more importantly it embodies programming that reflects thousands of years of experience.

I was in South Florida for the holidays, and sketched a Banyan tree trunk.  Banyan trees propagate by sending out aerial roots from their branches, which result in a bewildering complex of large and small veins where a single trunk might normally be.

I was also rereading Dorothy Dunnett’s The Game of Kings (she was a very distant relative of mine), and this quote seemed to fit the visual theme: “We’re our father’s prejudices and our swordmaster’s dead men; our mother’s palate and our nurse’s habit of speech.  We’re the books unwritten by our tutor, and our groom’s convictions and the courage of our first horse.”

Perhaps our possessions, which I disparaged at the beginning, are simply the expression of our internal thinking.  But then again, perhaps we are simply good liars; just another aspect of our contradictory, kaleidoscopic, Gordian knot of a brain.

3

Truth

“I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.”  - Richard Feynman

The previous post on beauty leads to the obvious question of truth in human existence.  The following are some personal notes suitable for cutting through the mental thickets surrounding Truth.

Truth would seem to be a nice simple idea compared with “everybody has their own idea of” Beauty. However, looking at some quotes I dug up suggests otherwise.  The Bible talks of misleading external appearances, the “whited sepulchers,” suggesting beauty can camouflage what is ugly and evil.  Which is just another way of saying that beauty is “skin deep.”  The beautiful “gold digger” and the “diamond in the rough” are well worn phrases describing the disconnect between truth and beauty.  “In vino veritas”, suggests that truth comes from honesty and transparency, not to mention drunkenness.  Occam’s razor states that truth is related to simplicity.  Truth can be “ugly” and “brutal”, and Churchill famously said that the truth was so precious during wartime, that it had to be surrounded by a “bodyguard of lies.”  I could go on quoting from the “marketplace of ideas,” and noting the ideas that have “stood the test of time,” but the “cliché meter” would blow up so I’ll stop here.

Perhaps the degree of truth is related to the institution that proclaims “truth”.  For instance science tells the truth, while novels don’t.  Actually that definition doesn’t really work either.  Scientists 100 years ago considered Phrenology to be a serious science.  As physicist Richard Feynman said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”  Conversely, novels often convey a deep human truth imbedded in a pudding of lies.

I think I need to state some basic principles here.  I believe that there is a consistent truth out there; let’s call it capital ‘R’ “Reality”.  What we call truth is our human attempt to capture, model and record that “Reality”.  The model that we hold in our mind which reflects “Reality” is what we call “Truth”, let’s give it a capital ‘T’.  While “Reality” is unlimited and unchanging, subject to some deep but partially knowable laws, “Truth” is subject to the whims of our emotions and self interest, and our limited senses and brain.  It is charmingly naïve to believe that there is some perfect beauty.  It is not so charming, and it is certainly naïve to believe that human “Truth” equals absolute “Reality”.

While “Reality” is unknowable it is a consistent sounding board for our pursuit of “Truth”.  If your idea of “Truth” leads you to burn your finger and stub your toe, you may be on the wrong path.  So are we back to the “eye of the beholder”?  Not quite.  Whereas beauty can be very personal and idiosyncratic without harm, “Truth”, if it wanders too far from “Reality” can get the individual killed, or can condemn a group to extinction.  A poor person or a soldier on the battlefield had better have a close connection between his idea of “Truth” and the reality of “Reality”.  A rich person can get away with criminality or addiction which would destroy a poor person.  Similarly, a country with an out-of-touch ruling elite can make life miserable for everyone, and get themselves killed into the bargain.  From Caligula and Ivan the Terrible to Hitler and Stalin, absolute (and absolutely insane) rulers have run roughshod through the masses (for the good of the masses of course).  Without the “hard” truth of “Reality” to drag us back we would live in a fantasy world of our own making.    Perhaps someday technology will advance far enough to create such a “science fiction” virtual world, but I would recommend keeping a life jacket handy if you ever sign on for that cruise.

So “Truth” will always be at best an approximation of “Reality”.  We are stuck looking at Plato’s shadows in a cave.  My own rules for “Reality” are:

1. Always test your conception of the “Truth”. Read the opposition, and compare both sides with historic examples, related studies and human nature. “Truth” is found via skepticism.

2. Understand that, although hard science is the most rigorous model of reality, scientists are still only human, subject to confirmation bias. Feynman has a point.

3. Social Science is always fascinating, but is challenged by both confirmation bias in the scientist and “spinning” by the subjects of the study. On this field traditional morality and progressive values fight.

4. Religion, politics, art and business are all simply rationalizations of our instinctual moralizing. The foundation of nearly everything we do or think is wrapped up in our basically emotional brain. Doesn’t mean it is right or wrong, just means there is a lot of contradiction, Ad Hockery and outright lies.

Final admonition:  That we aren’t busy killing each other in small primitive groups is amazing. The peaceful daily life of civilization is an anomaly, and we should be thankful for it, and careful that we don’t undermine it.

Shell Sketching

I hate vacations.  Ever since I was a teenager vacations have been a rush of activities sandwiched between long bouts of driving.  I usually had work to do during the vacation, or the kids needed (unwanted) chaperoning.  Whenever I was asked what I wanted to do for Father’s Day, or my birthday, I would say “nothing”.  I never got my wish.  Yes… my middle name is “curmudgeon”.

Nevertheless, I spent the entire month of February in Florida.  I just needed warmth and a change.  Since my wife had just died and my kids were grown I was able to indulge in my own form of doing nothing.  That is, I sat inside and sketched miscellaneous things in the apartment.

Now for most people Florida in the winter means lying in the sun by the pool.  Unfortunately, I don’t tan, I burn.  I’m a blue eyed blond (with great legs!).  Or rather, I’m a pasty faced, four-eyed nerd, Johnny Winter look-alike.  I went south to embrace the sunny warmth, but avoid the sunny sun. 

So, what did I draw/paint?  First, I continued a series of ink line sketches of the presidents for a future blog or book.  But I also used a conch as the subject of my extended sketching.  A conch has many admirable properties that make it interesting to sketch, the most obvious is that it doesn’t move.

As with all good still life subjects, a conch has a shape that affords an infinite number of forms seen from different angles and in different lights.  It is like life drawing where the human body is a complex form uniformly surfaced with skin.  Unlike the human form however, the conch presents a single solid object; no arms and legs to flap around in disconcerting ways.

The conch also presents a few different surface textures.  The outside is generally rough with growth ridges, while the inside is a smooth, polished surface.  The outside is a range of earth colors, while the inside transitions to a rich pink.  Even on the simple cylindrical side of the conch the pattern of ridges presents a challenge.

The most “rational” aspect of the conch is the spiral coil.  You might think this would be the easiest part to draw being a known geometry, but I found the cone shape spiral hard enough without adding the nubs of decreasing size.  Getting it right was fairly easy in plan or elevation views, but trying to reproduce that screw shape at a foreshortened angle was a bear.

As you can see I started with a graphite pencil on any available paper.  The results were interesting enough for investment in some color paper and Prismacolor pencils.  I eventually broke down and got a watercolor block and a simple set of colors and brush.

I am always touting the need to draw so as to see more deeply, but I don’t follow my own advice enough.  It takes a lot of discipline and effort.  Most people have a life, a career and a family, so drawing a cumquat for an hour can seem insane.  But, when you do have that “vacation” the effort can produce something worth keeping.