The Sound and Color of Abstraction
and the joyful, whimsical ceramics created by artist Carol Long
What is abstract all about anyway? I get that a lot of people aren’t always sure how to interpret abstraction – they see a collection of colors and shapes and may not have an emotional response. But those who appreciate the art form respond to the artist’s intention to evoke a feeling, to have the art become part of and transform an environment.
I’m continuing my experiments with works on paper. I find it a much freer medium that I respond to with a much more gestural approach. I’m trying for simple, primitive compositions with simple marks, using color and form that aspires to create an aesthetic, perhaps a psychological or spiritual experience that reveals something about our hidden worlds. I’m using mixed media, including watercolor paint, acrylic paint, acrylic ink and India ink. My intention is to make biomorphic and geometric shapes that might be suggestive of a landscape, or a life form. Working on paper is a great way to try out many different ideas in quick fashion.
This is an approach based on the work of an artist I feel a great connection to, Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky believed that abstraction could create these transcendental experiences, creating a visual language that could express the artist’s inner spiritual world.
Kandinsky painted the first modern abstract, non-objective art, taught his color theories with Paul Klee at the Bauhaus, and is believed by some art historians to have had synesthesia, a neurological condition that confuses the senses and allows one to hear sounds related to different colors.
“Color directly influences the soul. Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another purposively, to cause vibrations in the soul.” – Wassily Kandinsky
About Blue
"Blue is a mysterious color, the hue of illness and nobility, the rarest color in nature. It is the color of ambiguous depth, of the heavens and the abyss at once; blue is the color of the shadow side, the tint of the marvelous and the inexplicable, of desire, of knowledge...of melancholy and the unexpected (once in a blue moon, out of the blue)." — Alexander Theroux from The Quiet Life with Susan Cain
Take a look at the elegantly crafted ceramic sculptures of Kansas artist Carol Long, adorned with flora and fauna motifs and Art Nouveau ornamentation. Her joyful, whimsical creations draw influence from plant and animal life that she finds in her surroundings. Her work has been shown at galleries and museums in Kansas and Florida. See more on her Instagram.
Donald Trump’s charismatic grasp on evangelical voters
For decades evangelical Christians have supported Republican political candidates, and that’s no different in this election cycle with their broad support for President Trump. What’s changed is that many Christian conservatives now believe Mr. Trump to be a modern-day King Cyrus of Persia – an outsider, anointed to be a leader similar to Cyrus in the Book of Isaiah.
In the Book of Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1, it was explicitly prophesied that a man named Cyrus would rise as a charismatic, powerful leader. As the "anointed one," his purpose was to end the Babylonian captivity and send the Jewish people back to their homeland, enabling the rebuilding of Jerusalem and its temple. He is regarded as the only non-Jewish leader to be called "anointed" by God. His rise to the throne and conquering of Babylon was prophetically foretold in the book of Isaiah. – The Digital Bible
An evangelist, Lance Wallnau is now holding tent revivals in swing states to mobilize the evangelical vote in support of former President Trump. Wallnau recently spoke to CBS News reporter Major Garrett about the way conservative christians in America have placed their faith in Mr. Trump, and believe that like Cyrus, he is the leader that takes on not only the government, but academia, the media, the intelligence communities and corporate businesses on their behalf. It’s a revealing listen with a counterpoint by historian Matthew Taylor and sheds light on the political forces at play in these final days before the November election.
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