Laura Summer Reports on the Image Art from the Perspective of Spiritual Reality Conference

Dear Participants in 2010 and/or 2011 August Conferences,

Those of you who were here know that we had an inspiring conference on August 5-8, Image Art from the Perspective of Spiritual Reality. Today some of the conference organizers met informally and talked about the conference. As we talked about next year things started to move. We have some ideas and if you are interested in carrying this forward with us, meeting during the year, studying together, please let us know. Some people told us during the conference that they would like to be a part of future preparation, Nic Tuff, Jude Neu and Simeon Amstutz, but there were others who mentioned it.

We would like to have a meeting of people interested and for this purpose I have set up a doodle:http://www.doodle.com/anmwryemkd7n4rwx
We will choose the date which is best for the most people.

Here are some links for you all:
Rosemary Mcmullen’s blog about the conferences:http://TimeSculpture2011.blogspot.com
The Art Section in North America blog:
http://northamericanartsection.blogspot.com/

Free Columbia’s site with the link to the web album:
http://www.freecolumbia.org/august-conference.php

websites:

Travis Henry   https://sites.google.com/site/threefoldnow <file://localhost/site/threefoldnow>

Johanna Berger BLANK www.blankstudiosgallery.org
Involuntary Park www.involuntarypark.com

http://www.laurasummer.com/

If anyone has email info for :
Chrissy Benson
Martin Stenius
Lauren Morley
Susanna Segnet
Tim Kowalski
Please send to me.

Also send me photos and I will add them to the album  https://picasaweb.google.com/103588655269987228457/AugustConferenceImageArtFromThePerspectiveOfSpiritualReality

Thank you all so very much for such a great conference, Laura

Upcoming August Conference: An Open Secret!

Image Arts from the Perspective of Spiritual Reality-

the conference and its context

http://www.freecolumbia.org/august-conference.php

In August of 2010, in Hudson, NY, a conference took place called –The Search for Humanity in Contemporary Art-.  This conference, which sprouted out of the soil of the art section of the school for spiritual science, consisted in a struggle to bring post modern art and art theory into a new light by seeing it in relationship to spiritual science, and likewise to see anthroposophy in its relationship to post modernity.  This was attempted in many ways.  Of course, only the smallest beginning could be made.  A group of around 50 people, mostly artists, gathered together to try this.  You can get an impression of the activities, exhibits, research and events of last summer by going to

http://www.freecolumbia.org/report.php  

 

During August 5, 6 and 7 of 2011 another gathering will take place in Columbia County, NY.  It has grown out of last summer’s gathering.  Our question has become more specific, -Image Arts from the Perspective of Spiritual Reality-.  The relationships between painting, photography and Cinema, and the greater effect technological reproduction (particularly of artwork) has had on the world and culture, have been central themes for artists over the last decades.  Striving to achieve clarity in these relationships out of a spiritual understanding of reality, this task is left to those working with spiritual science.  A group of artists is also preparing an exhibit to take place parallel to the conference.  The theme of the exhibit is -The Metamorphosis of Fear–.  As you will see below, this work can be seen as a preparatory step.

As we continue to look forward, a larger gathering in the near future is coming into sight which will take all this work and tie it together.  Rudolf Steiner indicated, in conversations with an artist named Jan Stuten, that a new kind of marionette theater needed to be developed to act against the harmful effects cinema had on the human being.  A century has now passed since they worked together on initial plans and sketches for this, but the project never reached maturity.  This was to be a new art, for the small stage, of moving light. Rudolf Steiner saw that in cinema the highest form that could be achieved would be animation. His idea for a renewal of puppetry would be related to what we know as animation, only guided and performed by human beings.  Rudolf Steiner suggested that the first piece he and Stuten could create for this stage, might be called -The Metamorphosis of Fear-.  This summer we are creating an initial exhibit on the theme of the metamorphosis of fear and exploring the arts of painting, photography and cinema in a conference.  Hopefully during the summer of 2012 or 2013 we can bring all this work together to see if we can take another step.

If you would like to join us this summer, or would like to learn more you can contact either:

Nathaniel Williams:  nafanyel79@gmail.com   518 672 4090

or

Laura Summer: laurasummer@taconic.net    518 672 7302

http://www.freecolumbia.org/august-conference.php

The Shamanic Influence in Art by Van James

Throughout history and across the planet, spiritual practices are revealed through the medium of art. Outside the structured doctrines of traditional religious practices stand the artistic-ritualistic expressions of indigenous spirituality or shamanism. From rhythmic drumming and decorative costuming to creative movement and symbolic imagery, the language of art bridges the inner and outer experiences of primal spirituality and mediates the existence between a divine-elemental and a material world. Even today the images of shamanic practices appear in the most unlikely places...

Read the whole article with pictures

A Brief Historical Survey of Anthroposophical Architecture in the USA by David Adams

I will attempt to survey the increasing variety of anthroposophically designed architecture in the United States by focusing primarily on the work of eight designers whose work has resulted in most of these buildings in North America. The design of Fritz Westhoff (1902 Paraguay-1980 New Jersey, USA) marks the beginning of this architecture in America. Beginning about 1928, Westhoff's wooden furniture was full of irregular organic forms, angular planes, and beveled edges. Both his furniture and his three buildings in Spring Valley, New York, reflect Steiner's organic functionalist approach.

Read the whole article with pictures

Gallery Addition: Iris Sullivan

We are pleased to add the work of Iris Sullivan to our Gallery

As well as add a link to her website 

The Aesthetic Logic of the Heart: Forming Heart Thinking by Van James

“The man who lives his life artistically has his brain in his heart.”—Oscar Wilde

Consider three different people’s thoughts on the subject of heart thinking. First; Dr. Paul Pearsall, American author of sixteen best selling self-help books says, “We're a brain culture as distinct from a heart culture. We want to quantify everything. If we can't weigh it and measure it objectively, it simply doesn't exist for us. The Hawaiians have always believed that it is through the heart that we know the truth. For them, the heart is as sentient as the brain. We find this same belief with the Hopi Indians in New Mexico, and with the Chinese; within many cultures the heart chakra is the key to healing."1...

...Link to the whole article...

How Is Anthroposophical Architecture "Organic?" by David Adams

Rudolf Steiner, Boiler House 1913-15, Dornach Switzerland

Today architectural design is passing through a phase of transition and change that offers possibilities that have not existed since the early twentieth century for openness to anthroposophical work in architecture. Organic, irregular, sculptural forms are once again appearing on and as contemporary buildings. How can we bring anthroposophical architecture into the contemporary dialogue?...

This essay was originally published in the Art Section Newsletter No. 17 (Fall/Winter 2001).

Click here to read the whole essay, pictures included.


Organic Architecture Forum website (only in German and Dutch)

Book Reviews: Spirit and Art by Van James

Spirit and Art: Pictures of the Transformation of Consciousness

by Van James Anthroposophic Press/SteinerBooks

300 pages and over 300 illustrations in b/w and color $30.- softcover. ISBN 0-88010-497-X, 2001, 2008

Read reviews

Searching for Forms that Speak: Reflections on Graphic Design by Van James

As a graphic artist I am challenged to develop designs that speak in the visual language of form, and these forms must communicate specific ideas, activities, and organizational principles through their brand.  Much like an architect I am often bound by the interests of a client to certain parameters that require design compromises.  At other times it is possible to have complete artistic freedom in evolving a theme and to be able to explore new directions.  Both possibilities can be equally challenging and rewarding...

Read more

Creating Art From Spiritual Experiences

I am looking forward to exploring this blog further and am very excited about the collaboration format, also learning about what other people are actually experiencing through their studies and explorations in art.

Recently I have been studying Rudolf Steiner's book "How to Know Higher Worlds" where Steiner states that spiritual realties can be perceived in the same way for everyone, just as we all see a chair. Has anyone depicted some of these perceptions through art?  Has anyone clearly 'seen' these things to be able to depict them? Or is it that if it's spiritual perception it does not translate back into the physical medium as it is a different way of 'seeing'?  And if someone has done this, do others agree with that perception? Many questions!

But I am sure you get my gist, I see a lot of 'perceptions' and interpretations out there, including mine, but is this all just groping in the dark compared to Steiner's suggestion that there is an actual 'concrete' spiritual reality that is the same for us all?

Hopefully this blog will show what picture this collaboration paints about such a reality, that indeed we are all probing the same environment and not just feeding our individual fantasies.

~ Shaun Plowman

Sweater of Rain: Gesture Stories by Laura Summer

The gesture of a story

When we think of a story we think of a plot, characters, setting and meaning but we can also look at the gesture of a story. What, in a gesture, is a story trying to say? Do we look inward? Do we turn our thinking around? Do we struggle through darkness to light?

In creating these stories I tried to see what the gesture of a season is. How is Advent different from Easter? What happens at Ascension? At Michaelmas? In creating paintings and block prints to accompany these stories I tried to bring the gesture of the season as it is revealed in the story into visual expression. You will not find illustrations here but rather visual experiences that may make you question, what gesture lives here?

The story here is for Ascension, it is called “Swinging Bridge”. It is one of four gesture stories from the book “Sweater of Rain”, available from Free Columbia.

~Laura Summer

Links to the story: Part 1  Part 2

Writings by David Adams

• The Postmodern Revolution and Anthroposophical Art

Writings by Michael Howard

•On the Aesthetic Education of the Human Being

  A Free Rendering of Friedrich Schiller’s Aesthetic Letters

• "Art = Capital"

   The Economics of Culture and the Culture of Economics

• Art as an Antidote to Techno-Fatigue


• Metamorphosis of Art and Money

Summer Conference in Columbia County, NY: August, 5-7

-Image Arts from the Perspective of Spiritual Reality-

the conference and its context

In August of 2010, in Hudson, NY, a conference took place called –The Search for Humanity in Contemporary Art-.  This conference, which sprouted out of the soil of the art section of the school for spiritual science, consisted in a struggle to bring post modern art and art theory into a new light by seeing it in relationship to spiritual science, and likewise to see anthroposophy in its relationship to post modernity.  This was attempted in many ways.  Of course, only the smallest beginning could be made.  A group of around 50 people, mostly artists, gathered together to try this.  You can get an impression of the activities, exhibits, research and events of last summer by going to

http://www.freecolumbia.org/report.php  

 

During August 5, 6 and 7 of 2011 another gathering will take place in Columbia County, NY.  It has grown out of last summer’s gathering.  Our question has become more specific, -Image Arts from the Perspective of Spiritual Reality-.  The relationships between painting, photography and Cinema, and the greater effect technological reproduction (particularly of artwork) has had on the world and culture, have been central themes for artists over the last decades.  Striving to achieve clarity in these relationships out of a spiritual understanding of reality, this task is left to those working with spiritual science.  A group of artists is also preparing an exhibit to take place parallel to the conference.  The theme of the exhibit is -The Metamorphosis of Fear–.  As you will see below, this work can be seen as a preparatory step.

As we continue to look forward, a larger gathering in the near future is coming into sight which will take all this work and tie it together.  Rudolf Steiner indicated, in conversations with an artist named Jan Stuten, that a new kind of marionette theater needed to be developed to act against the harmful effects cinema had on the human being.  A century has now passed since they worked together on initial plans and sketches for this, but the project never reached maturity.  This was to be a new art, for the small stage, of moving light. Rudolf Steiner saw that in cinema the highest form that could be achieved would be animation. His idea for a renewal of puppetry would be related to what we know as animation, only guided and performed by human beings.  Rudolf Steiner suggested that the first piece he and Stuten could create for this stage, might be called -The Metamorphosis of Fear-.  This summer we are creating an initial exhibit on the theme of the metamorphosis of fear and exploring the arts of painting, photography and cinema in a conference.  Hopefully during the summer of 2012 or 2013 we can bring all this work together to see if we can take another step.

If you would like to join us this summer, or would like to learn more you can contact either:

Nathaniel Williams:  nafanyel79@gmail.com   518 672 4090

or

Laura Summer: laurasummer@taconic.net    518 672 7302

A Visit to the Studio of Jennifer Thomson

Writings by Nathaniel Williams

Art, Postmodernity and Anthroposophy

Writings by Van James

• Life Blood of Education

• Art: That Which Makes Us Truly Human

• Art, Life and Education

• LANGUAGE OF THE LINE: a Reinvented Art-form of the Waldorf Schools

• Mandala: Picture of Oneself and the World

• The Path to the Self Portrait

• The Secret Language of Form Visual Meaning in Art and Nature by Van James; Rudolf Steiner College Press. Reviewed by Dennis Klocek

• Rudolf Steiner as Artist

• The Spiritual Image in Contemporary Art: The Painting of Gerard Wagner

• A Western Renewal of the Mandala

•  Art: Awakener of Consciousness, Humaniser of Society

Trial Run Post: Michael Warms Things Up

It has been a cold winter in Amherst but Michael keeps 

his wood pile stacked and his studio warm.