Lawrence R. Spencer's Blog, page 566
February 24, 2013
RELAX
Leon Redbone is one of my favorite artists.... He gives really good advice....Relax....
February 23, 2013
JEWEL and LOTUS
Jewel within the Lotus
Phallus and the Womb,
United we are, both of us,
The Source of Life Anew.
We are really No-Things
Beings joined with Form:
Animating Matter
The Cause of all that grows.
All creation springs from Love,
Heaven joins the Earth:
We are Souls united with the Flesh,
Death is joined with Life.
I am like Air.
You are like Fire.
A hearth is made in Our embrace.
Our loins the fuel, our kiss the spark,
We fan the Flame with Our desire.
Rising smoke from each caress,
Our Love the heat, Our Joy reflects
That through Our Seed, Our Souls are met:
through Our Cause we are Effect.
One reaches,
One withdraws.
Positive flows to negative,
In and out and ebb and flow
Are rhythms of this Universe.
One is born;
One grows old.
Life and Death are a single thread -
Binding Souls within the flesh
We can escape this slavish strife:
Awake! Fly! Be Your Immortal Soul!
We can transcend the Game of Life -
Create A Universe of Your Own!
________________
-- Lawrence R. Spencer --
February 22, 2013
MY PERSONAL MONA LISA
Pin It"Much like Leonardo da Vinci, I worked intermittently on this single painting over a period of many years, never satisfied that it was finished, and continually improving upon the original. This painting is my personal Mona Lisa, my daughter, Maria.
We had a live-in servant for many years, named Tanneke Everpoel, hired and paid by Maria Thins. She did all of the "heavy labor", as it were: cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, carrying water, tending fires, and a myriad other chores, including helping with the children. However, the expense of paying her wage and room did not include standing for endless hours, day after day, while I painted this portrait! My daughter, Maria, was lovelier and much more readily accessible for the task of standing for this portrait.
It is argued, convincingly, that the immortal painting by Leonard was his own self-portrait as his own, feminine reflection. What man, or woman, regardless of sexual preference in a given lifetime, has not inhabited the flesh of ten thousand bodies, some human, many not, through a nearly infinite cascade of galaxies, stars and planets come and gone. Is not survival a nearly infinite game, in which we interchange ourselves as the players of many parts?
Leonard kept his portrait with him all his life. He never considered that it was complete or perfect. Nor did he ever intend to sell it. How could one sell a most cherished reflection of himself? It is more meaningful than one's own body, which only disguises the inner self, the essence of spirit that animates the fragile flesh.
In fact, a body hides the reflection of the soul! How can any substance, especially that as rude and fragile as meat, reveal the inherent qualities an immortal nothingness? Indeed, it is the fundamental challenge and the most formidable task of an artist to reveal it!
The name given to this painting by others, "The Milkmaid", is a sacrilege! It rivals the incomprehension others have for Leonardo's personal masterpiece. Yet, how can anyone truly understand that a painting is meant to reflect the essence of an immortal being, seen through the eyes of another?
She is painted with angelic colors: blue, gold and white, in contrast to the menial nature of her station in life. From her issues, for me, the Milk and Bread of Life. Life is embodied in her and through her. Women, are the source of children, the source of energy, the source of care. There is no more vital responsibility for any being who plays the game of life, than to confront dreary daily tasks. To humbly make the daily loaf. To soak that bread, mix and soften it with milk, make it warm and feed it to a teething child. Survival is made of such things.
In those days I viewed life as idyllic. My dreams were more real than reality. All things were a possibility. Tragedy could not find me. Until it did, of course. Even when we lost a child, which we did with several, my wife, Catharina, remained resolute in her Faith. God guided us. He did what was best. We knew not why and need not question His purpose for us.
I have no such faith in predetermination. A loaf of grain, clean water and a bed was my fare. Time and a place to paint, uninterrupted, were necessities. My love, shared with wife and family, was the staple diet of my life. I assumed, as a Fool who knows not his own mortality, that they would endure, even when I was gone."
_______________________________________
Excerpt from the book VERMEER: PORTRAITS OF A LIFETIME, by Lawrence R. Spencer
DOWNLOAD THIS BOOK FROM
http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/vermeer/id443800993?mt=11
Pin It
MANTIS FUN
Insects outnumber the human population on this planet by 100,000 to one...or more. If this video doesn't give all of us some perspective on our stupid, egocentric lives, nothing will.....
SCARED IS SCARED
THIS VIDEO IS ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT! THE FANCIFUL, INSOUCIANCE OF A CHILD'S' IMAGINATION -- BROUGHT TO LIFE ON FILM. WOW!!
the Scared is scared from Bianca Giaever on Vimeo.
Bianca Giaever..."I asked a six year old what my movie should be about, and this is what he told me."
If you want to stay updated on more films to come like my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/biancagiaevermedia
If you liked the music in this film check out the webpage for the band Alpenglow: www.alpenglowmusic.com
February 21, 2013
BY ONESELF
The Dhammapada (Pāli; Prakrit: धम्मपद Dhamapada; Sanskrit: धर्मपद Dharmapada) is a collection of sayings of the Buddha in verse form and one of the most widely read and best known Buddhist scriptures. The original version of the Dhammapada is in the Khuddaka Nikaya, a division of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism.
VOICE OF THE GODS
About the painting: "Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses" is an oil painting in the Pre-Raphaelite style by John William Waterhouse that was created in 1891. The painting depicts a scene from Greek mythology, the sorceress Circe offering Odysseus a cup containing a potion with which she seeks to bring him under her spell as she has his crew.
In Greek mythology, Circe (pronounced "Keer-keeh" "falcon") is a minor goddess of magic (or sometimes a nymph, witch, enchantress or sorceress). By most accounts, Circe was the daughter of Helios, the god of the sun, and Perse, an Oceanid. Her brothers were Aeetes, the keeper of the Golden Fleece and Perses, and her sister was Pasiphaë, the wife of King Minos and mother of the Minotaur. Other accounts make her the daughter of Hecate. Circe was renowned for her vast knowledge of drugs and herbs. Through the use of magical potions and a wand she transformed her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals.
ESCHER HAIKU
ESCHER HAIKU by Lawrence R. Spencer
The right hand draws the left
Draws the right drawing the left
Drawing the left hand.
_____________________________
Visit the Official M.C. Escher website -- http://www.mcescher.com/
Maurits Cornelis Escher (17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972), usually referred to as M. C. Escher, was a Dutch graphic artist. He is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. These feature impossible constructions, explorations of infinity, architecture, and tessellations.
February 20, 2013
TELEPATHY: SPIRITUAL MIME
Telepathy (from the ancient Greek τηλε, tele meaning "distant" and πάθη, pathe or patheia meaning "feeling, perception, passion, affliction, experience") is the supposed transmission of information from one person to another without using any of our known sensory channels or physical interaction.
Telepathy is commonly used in fiction, with a number of superheroes and supervillains, as well as figures in many science fiction novels, etc., use telepathy. Notable fictional telepaths include the Jedi in Star Wars. The use of "The Force", which enables the use of the spirit to influence the physical universe. The inspiration for Star Wars was based largely on the much earlier science fiction books of E.E. Smith, most especially in the six books of THE LENSMEN SERIES, first published in 1948.
The mechanics of telepathy in fiction vary widely. Some fictional telepaths are limited to receiving only thoughts that are deliberately sent by other telepaths, or even to receiving thoughts from a specific other person. For example, in Robert A. Heinlein's 1956 novel Time for the Stars, certain pairs of twins are able to send telepathic messages to each other.
In A. E. van Vogt's science fiction novel Slan, the mutant hero Jommy Cross can read the minds of ordinary humans. Some telepaths can read the thoughts only of those they touch, such as Vulcans in the Star Trek media franchise. Star Trek science consultant and writer André Bormanis, has revealed that telepathy within the Star Trek universe works via the "psionic field." According to Bormanis, a psionic field is the "medium" through which unspoken thoughts and feelings are communicated through space. Some humanoids can tap into this field through a kind of sense organ located in the brain; in the same manner that human eyes can sense portions of the electromagnetic field, telepaths can sense portions of the psionic field. In the book "Eragon", Eragon can communicate through his mind with almost anyone, including his dragon Saphira, but it is possible to block people from one's mind with a barrier.
In the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, telepathy is a magical skill known as Legilimency. In the John Wyndham novel The Chrysalids, the main character and narrator David Strorm is one of a group of nine telepaths. In Anthony Horowitz's Power of Five series twins Jamie and Scott Tyler were born with telepathic powers that enable them to read people's minds and, ultimately, control them.
__________________________________
A mime artist (from Greek "μίμος"—mimos, "imitator, actor") is someone who uses mime as a theatrical medium or as a performance art, involving miming, or the acting out a story through body motions, without use of speech. In earlier times, in English, such a performer would typically be referred to as a mummer. Miming is to be distinguished from silent comedy, in which the artist is a seamless character in a film or sketch. The performance of pantomime originates at its earliest in Ancient Greece; the name is taken from a single masked dancer called Pantomimus.
WHO’S TOUGHER THAN A TARDIGRADE?
Imagine if these creatures were 6 feet tall....
Pin It
Tardigrade, kleiner Wasserbär, meaning 'little water bear' in German. The name Tardigrada means "slow walker" and was given by Lazzaro Spallanzani in 1777. The name water bear comes from the way they walk, reminiscent of a bear's gait. The biggest adults may reach a body length of 1.5 millimetres (0.059 in), the smallest below 0.1 mm. Freshly hatched tardigrades may be smaller than 0.05 mm.
About 1,150 species of tardigrades have been described.Tardigrades occur throughout the world, from the Himalayas(above 6,000 metres (20,000 ft)), to the deep sea (below 4,000 metres (13,000 ft)) and from the polar regions to the equator.
The most convenient place to find tardigrades is on lichens and mosses. Other environments are dunes, beaches, soil, and marine or freshwater sediments, where they may occur quite frequently (up to 25,000 animals per liter). Tardigrades often can be found by soaking a piece of moss in spring water.
Tardigrades are able to survive in extreme environments that would kill almost any other animal. Some can survive temperatures of close to absolute zero, or 0 Kelvin (−273 °C (−459 °F)), temperatures as high as 151 °C (304 °F), 1,000 times more radiation than other animals, and almost a decade without water. Since 2007, tardigrades have also returned alive from studies in which they have been exposed to the vacuum of space for a few days in low Earth orbit. Tardigrades are the first known animal to survive in space.
Tardigrades (commonly known as waterbears or moss piglets) are small, water-dwelling, segmented animals with eight legs. It is an ancient group, with fossils dating from 530 million years ago, in the Cambrian period. They are notable for being one of the most complex of all known polyextremophiles. (An extremophile is an organism that can thrive in a physically or geochemically extreme condition that would be detrimental to most life on Earth.)
Tardigrades can withstand temperatures from just above absolute zero to well above the boiling point of water. They can survive pressures greater than any found in the deepest ocean trenches and have lived through the vacuum of outer space. They can survive solar radiation, gamma radiation, ionic radiation— at doses hundreds of times higher than would kill a person. They can go without food or water for nearly 10 years, drying out to the point where they are 3% or less water, only to rehydrate, forage, and reproduce.
Usually, Tardigrades are 1 millimetre (0.039 in) long when they are fully grown. They are short and plump with 4 pairs of legs, each with 4-8 claws also known as "disks." The animals are prevalent in moss and lichen and, when collected, may be viewed under a very low-power microscope, making them accessible to the student or amateur scientist as well as the professional.
