Philosophical rambles

[ABSTRUSE]

I originally posted this in Abstrusion's, I was wondering if anyone else had a similar experince while looking at a work of Art or something in nature?




A brief moment on art, creativity and life.




Sphinx of Senwosret III, ca. 1878–1841 B.C.E.; Dynasty 12, reign of Senwosret III; Middle Kingdom
Egyptian

This statue is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Nyc. I remember seeing it last time I was there.
I thought about how incredible it was, this piece of Ancient decoration, so far from home.
Carved so long ago, yet looking almost as wonderful as when it held court in ancient times to honor a long dead king.
The artist carved this piece in the name of his king to honor him and reserve a place in the afterlife, never did he dream one day it would end up to be viewed by millions of people in a land he never knew existed.
Now his gift is timeless and yet he remains anonymous. Made by simple tools, carved in stone, smoothed and polished by hand, a testament to his skill.
He left a footprint on this earth, a beautiful, graceful footprint of line, form and texture.

Did he stand back and admire it, did the king reward him, what was his life like?

I wonder if I too will leave a footprint such as he? An anonymous testament to the fact that I was here, I have created something, and I am now a shadow of my past.

He didn't get scores for what he did, no one damaged his work through jealously or malice.

I remember looking around to see if anyone was watching and did the unthinkable.
I touched my fingertip to that statue.
I connected for a split second with that ancient artist, our souls meeting in fleeting seconds and I remember thinking I have touched my past.

just feeling a little deep today.
Thanks for letting me ramble.

~A~

 

[cantdog]

When we'd been married twenty-five years, so that it seemed like it might last, we had rings made at a goldsmith's on the docks at Camden. Nice fellow, good craftsman.

He said he got into the business because thousands of years hence, his work in incorruptible gold would be the artifacts of this civilization.


cantdog

 

[ABSTRUSE]

When we'd been married twenty-five years, so that it seemed like it might last, we had rings made at a goldsmith's on the docks at Camden. Nice fellow, good craftsman.

He said he got into the business because thousands of years hence, his work in incorruptible gold would be the artifacts of this civilization.


cantdog

I like that.
Thank you.

 

[matriarch]

I originally posted this in Abstrusion's, I was wondering if anyone else had a similar experince while looking at a work of Art or something in nature?

I enjoyed reading this the first time Abs, and again the second time. I replied the first time, and will do so again. Could be the start of an interesting thread.

One of my oldest friends is the parish priest in the village of Avesbury in Wiltshire, home to one of the most famous pre-historic religious sites in Britain. The first time I went to visit her in her new parish, I had promised myself some time to walk the Great Stone Circle, and the Avenue.

When you arrive in Avesbury by road, one minute you are driving past the main car park for visitors, and the next you are suddenly confronted by these enormous pieces of rock, all shapes and sizes, magnificent in their size, and awesome in their age.

While walking around the village, camera in hand, surrounded by hundreds of tourists from all over the world, it was a strange feeling. Today, and a time earlier than I can really comprehend, meeting in one place. A bizarre blending of culture and belief and history.

I started to walk the circle of stones, the sun was bright, the shadows were impressive, some of the stones were glinting from the sunlight. I was intending to photograph the stones, with a view to producing pencil drawings at a later date. I took some pictures, trying to avoid the tourists wandering around, pointing, having their picture taken standing by the stones.

It was difficult to capture the mood and connection I was after, until I reached a quiet part. Suddenly, there were no tourists within ear shot, it was almost silent. I was standing between two of the larger stones, towering above my mere 5ft. I looked up at them, completely awed at them and the thought of the people who had overcome huge obstacles to get these stones in this spot, with no cranes, no technology, just themselves. And the faith that had urged them to do it.

Like you, Abs, I found myself reaching out. I lay my hand on one stone, flat palmed, and to my surprise, it was warm. Smooth, almost calming. I added my other hand, and had the same response. Then for some strange reason I felt impelled to lay my face against the stone, then my whole self.

Again, like you, I was immediately filled with the knowledge that I was touching, feeling, what men, and maybe women, had felt thousands and thousands of years ago. I have no idea if they had shaped these stones, or if they were simply taken as 'the gods' had left them and used. But I do know they have great meaning to them. And I was humbled to be able to touch where they had touched.

There are people who can 'feel' through the stones, this I know, I have no idea if I can. All I know, is that I felt a warmth and comfort in the touch of them. And in those brief moments of silence and touch, I felt a connection with our past I will never forget.

Mat

 

[doormouse]

What a great thread!!

I can't recall ever being so lucky, but as a kid I remember meeting Shirley Straughn from Skyhooks. He was killed in a helicopter crash years later, so I felt special for having met him.

Totally off the topic (sorry LOL)

I also have a budha given to me from my great-grandmother. It's an inch high, but it's my link to the past.

Hah, now it's me rambling ;-)

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Great story Mat's, I often feel a compulsion to touch things that make me feel connected to something in the past.

Like the Pyramids and their great stones being heaved and placed by rudimentary means.

To me though, I think of England as a mystical place in itself.

 

[Guest]

Wankers!

 

[Guest]

cv, whenever I pass a bottle of Absolut, or see their ubiquitous ads, I think of you, and I get profoundly philosophical and meditative, and then


I feel so empty.

Perdita

 

[ABSTRUSE]

cv, whenever I pass a bottle of Absolut, or see their ubiquitous ads, I think of you, and I get profoundly philosophical and meditative, and then


I feel so empty.

Perdita

That was brilliant.

 

[doormouse]

hey p ((hugs)) hon

CV who rattled your cage?

 

[ABSTRUSE]

I love old Cathedrals too. The intricate carvings and stained glass. It gives me a sense of spirituallity, not a belief in God kind of thing, but a creative spirit connection.

 

[SeaCat]

I love old Cathedrals too. The intricate carvings and stained glass. It gives me a sense of spirituallity, not a belief in God kind of thing, but a creative spirit connection.

There is a church in Eder Oberstein Germany. It is halfway up a clif and the nly way to get in is through a tunnel. It was never sacked, all of the glass and furnishings are original. Whenever I entered it I was amazed at the artwork, and the feelings it gave me. Here was something built by those who believed. It was almost as though you could fel the love the original builders and worshipers had put into making it.

Cat

 

[cloudy]

There is a part of me that seems to vibrate in sympathy when I handle some things......

Items passed at a powwow, an old sword my great-grandfather carried in the civil war, my grandmother's pearls that I wore on my wedding day, and my daughter will wear on hers.

It may be my imagination, but I truly don't think it is.

 

[shereads]

This statue is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Nyc. I remember seeing it last time I was there.
I thought about how incredible it was, this piece of Ancient decoration, so far from home.

Same place, A.

The Met, when the Egyptian Wing had just opened. I was there alone, which might be the only way to really look at a museum, and I walked into that big glass-roofed atrium where they had reasembled the Temple of Dendur. It gave me chills. I was dying to walk up inside it, but of course it's roped off. Still, you can see graffiti inscribed on it: "Leonardo 1812."

Someday, someday someday I'll explore that part of the planet. I want to see Egypt while the antiquities are still here. And Sicily, which I've heard is as close as you can come to seeing Roman and Greek and Etruscan sites that aren't overrun with tourists yet.

I want to travel. I want just enough wealth to travel the planet.

It's not fair.

Okay, it's fair. But I still want to, dammit.

 

[shereads]

The Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

Doesn't this make you want to be a wealthy Victorian Brit, so you could discover these places and make off with them, a piece at a time? What a fabulous pool cabana this would make for one's home in Palm Springs.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

The Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

Doesn't this make you want to be a wealthy Victorian Brit, so you could discover these places and make off with them, a piece at a time? What a fabulous pool cabana this would make for one's home in Palm Springs.

I love the Temple of Dendur! I want to see Egypt also, I love anything to do with Egypt.
What an incredible civilization in was in the past.

I would make it my foyer if I was rich.

 

[seasparks]

Back when I lived in Arizona, My briother and I were out hiking in the desert just north of Tucson.

He spotted something sticking out of the side of a dey wash, and we went over to investigate.

What we found was a skeleton that had been partly exposed by a recent rain.

When it was exhumed (by the proper authorities) The skeleton had the remains of a gunbelt around the hips that still held a very rusted and corroded revolver.

The final determination was that the man had died sometime in the late 1800's. His identity was never discovered.

I have often wondered who he was, and how he died there in the desert.

And who buried him there so far from home.

 

[Guest]

My turn

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Re: My turn

On my firstvisit to Florence, I went to the Accademia to see Michelanelo's David - suffuciently long ago that it was before it was put behind plexiglass. As you enter the area where the David is displayed, there is a long wide corridor, ending in a rotunda (as I recall) where the statue stands.

Along the corrridor are semi-finished works, half of the pieces are still just the raw marble block, while the other half seems to flow out of the rock, as if it had liquified and cast itself, rather than being carved.

Prior to going to Florence I had read "The Agony and The Ecstacy" and there was a line in the book where (as legend would have it) Michelangelo said that within every block of marble, there was a figure waiting to be liberarted, he merely had to remove the material around it. Seeing the semi-finished works brought a sudden understanding of the statement and an unwavering faith that the legend must be true, making the viewing of the David a strongly spiritual experience and a connection with the artist that I had never expected.

Lime

Did you ever see Bernini's David? I really is a more powerful piece, this man made marble come to life.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Alone is the only way to see those ancient pieces. I never travel to a museum with a friend and I loathe crowded museums. When I was younger, my parents took me to Paris and while they hit the Louvre and the Eifel Tower with all the other slobbering American hordes, I tucked away to the Parthenon (basically a church with some nice murals of Joan d'Arc and below are some famous tombs) and a tiny little museum called l'musee de historie de france. The second place which had maybe 10 visitors in totality, was my favorite memory of the trip.

My connection moment was in that museum in this basement area where they had Roman artifacts that were found in ancient Gaul. There was in the corner a battered leather armor with a sword slash through it. I touched the slash and for a second I felt cold and nervous.

 

[Lisa Denton]

I was at a campground thingie, you know where you set up your tent but have a water spout and a cooking grill and not too far walk to the restrooms, I don't believe in taking nature too far. As I sat looking up at a portion of the Smoky Mountains on a beautiful evening, with a soft breeze blowing, and the view was like peaceful and astounding all at once. I felt something was about too be revealed to me which would forever change my life. Something about being at one with nature and the wilderness. Just then the pizza slice selling van came through playing 'pop goes the weasel' on the loudspeakers and the moment was gone, oh well. I had two slices of pepperoni.

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: My turn

 

[oggbashan]

Near where I live is a Roman fort. That isn't surprising in the UK.

Sometimes I go there late at night because it is a good place to watch celestial phenomena such as comets. There is less light pollution.

Some people think it is a scary place at night. They have heard a baby screaming. A few years ago archaeologists found a crushed baby's skeleton under a foundation. The accounts of hearing the screaming baby have been recorded from time to time over the last 100 years.

I stand on the walls and think what it must have been like to be a sentry at night in the cold and rain. I think the sentry might have come from Spain or Africa (there is archaelogical evidence for both) and what he would of thought of the English weather. To the sentry, England must have seemed like the end of the world, the pits, the worst place to be. Perhaps he heard the screaming baby too and shivered.

Og














PS. I'm not surprised about the screaming baby. Yes, I've heard it several times. Just over the hill from the fort is a long established holiday caravan park. In the middle of a quiet might a hungry baby's yell carries a long way. But I still hear it in deep winter when the caravan park is shut...

 

[CharleyH]

I was at a campground thingie, you know where you set up your tent but have a water spout and a cooking grill and not too far walk to the restrooms, I don't believe in taking nature too far. Just then the pizza slice selling van came through playing 'pop goes the weasel' on the loudspeakers and the moment was gone, oh well. I had two slices of pepperoni.

God did I appreciate this. LOL.

Not that I didn't appreciate the musings of the rest of you. I did. I always thought that if I got to Rome or London, what a fabulous adventure to find the centre of the city, the oldest known part, with chipped and crumbling structures, and walk on a path, over barely recognizable cobblestone or brick roads (a feature I found endearing in NYC) through history to the edges of modern, often stilted, surburban civilization.

My encounters with art are different all the time, but in particular I recall a show by Jenny Holtzer at a museum in Buffalo, NY.

Standing in the centre of a huge room that could have probably accommodated about 500 people, surrounded only by neon words and phrases on electronic bulletin board walls. Standing in the centre of the darkened room, being the centre as red letters constructing absurd, philosophical phrases winded around my body, reflected off my skin, knowing the room itself was another centre surrounded by Warhol and pop arists on the other side of the flashing, moving walls, another centre that was surrounded by walls of expressionists, surrounded by walls of some other era, opening up and expanding through time, and alternately closing in, on me, the centre of that time, that place, a small piece like a Russian doll, not touching the past and pondering, not contemplating the future as it all surrounded me, but existing in it, as a part of it.

Edit to add: where I still exist in the simultaneity of that moment, this and the next

Hey, it's Sunday. I'm allowed to be odd.

 

[Carl East]

Do you ever wonder about the meaning of life, and what comes after death? In all seriousness, I do. I wonder if I'll get to see my father again, or am aware that I've died.

I wonder if this plain of existence is merely a stepping stone to other great events in our souls history. I wonder if the dead can see the living, and where they eventually go to in their after life.

I feel sorry that these questions can't be answered, because if they could and we found that there truly is an afterlife, death wouldn't have such a grip on us. I realize that this might be a little too deep for some, but I'm a curious kind of guy.

I wonder if we have a form after death, or can communicate with other lives that have crossed over. There can be no answers to these enquiries, but it's interesting to speculate. I'm like ABS, in that I'd like to leave something behind to be remembered by.

Carl