Thoughts on the South Mountain Reservation ... and more

It's time to get back to my personal blog ... and catch up on sharing the things I do ...

It's nearly always best to share with visuals. Here's "my place" in the South Mountain Reservation:

It's just below the Diamond Mill Dam:

And this is but one serene place of many in the Reservation, but it is my serene place, the one I go to in order to find peace and tranquilty in solitude. I share it because I not afraid of too many others seeking serenity, and those who do are no threat to mine.

The pond setting is awesome at this time of year with the leaves beginning to change colors:

It's a treasure, and it has a history, the realization of an individuals vision. So it is a richly stocked mine for the discovery of real value for those of us who work at it. Cheers!

Art as applied cohesive coherence - Part II

 "Globe with Stand"—©2012 Hilding Lindquist—Marker, colored pencil on paper

I call my doodle art "organic abstract" ... letting the work evolve out of itself with parameters i.e. markers and colored pencils on paper, with colors bounded by path-like narrow borders, in turn bounded by black lines ... just like a living substance evolves out of itself bounded by a set of parameters ... integrating the nourishment from its environment.

My organic abstract doodling focuses my mind (the brain/body arena) on integrating possibility with existence ... awareness of isness while perceiving oughtness as choosing between possibilities and applying my choice of possibility, creating a new existence ... which in turn closes off some possibilities as it also creates new ones of which I was not aware until I experienced the new existence ... which is the rhythm of applied cohesive coherence—the sticking together of integrated diverse elements—the essential dynamic of art ... the permanent "object" created out of the mind of the artist ... art being a form of applied cohesive coherence.

I believe this creative process is essential to the development of the "civilized" mind ... allowing us to override the reactive biology of our body and its too-often negative short-term results ...

The rhythm of cohesive coherence in its application also encourages experimentation with "objects of interest" ... both what we already know applied in a new way and what we can apply through discovery by exploration (with a definite "ah hah!" experience as the mind fits the discovery into coherence with existing work, existence ... often serendipitously) ... the essential characteristics of learning ... thereby fostering an attitude of satisfaction with one's mind ... and the rich environment of the civilized mind ... might I add that the civilized mind is the goal of education (or should be the goal) ... because out of it comes the benefits of living in the world it creates ... and it is the faith we place in discovery by the human mind to produce benefit that decrees the only boundaries to exploration should be ethical ... (which, of course, brings me into alignment with my being in the Ethical Culture Society) ... which is itself (existing within ethical boundaries) the existence into which possibility is integrated ...

And the child can be enveloped in art—applied cohesive coherence—based on the statement of Picasso, that if all he had was a the dust on the floor of a prison cell, he would draw in it with his tongue:

 “We artists are indestructible; even in a prison, or in a concentration camp, I would be almighty in my own world of art, even if I had to paint my pictures with my wet tongue on the dusty floor of my cell.” -Pablo Picasso.

Give the child the materials and tools of art ... as simple as crayons and paper bags ... or mud from a creek (both examples from the lives of artists I know) ... drums, xylophones, recorders, keyboards ... clay ... finger paint ... on and on ... introducing geometric figures, etc. as the child grows older ... the da Vinci paradigm ... it is the simplicity of the complexity symbolized by the computer: two states of energy, on and off, combine to produce the ground from which everything the computer does arises ... the simplicity of binary math produces it all.

Art as applied cohesive coherence - Part I

First some background on what is being undertaken. The proverbial "we" are bringing together individuals who believe in "the transformative power of the arts to bring us together in common purpose as we struggle to understand and cope with our changing world." I should add, "as we both individually and collectively struggle to understand and cope with our changing world."

For example, we theorize that the immersion in the arts at the earliest stages of cognitive development produces vital connections for later creative thinking. The name for these connections is synapses, of course. (Ref: "Brain Development", Authors: Jandy Jeppson with Judith A. Myers-Walls and Dee Love; http://www.extension.purdue.edu/providerparent/child%20growth-development/braindev.htm )

At the preschool and kindergarten levels, and even for some children through the 1st and 2nd grades (8+/- years of age) the individual child's brain/body development is not ready to handle some subject matter—specifically reading and math—beyond a certain basic level, "stepped" to the child's individual development. We would suggest that to have a learning environment where the child is expected to achieve beyond the capability of the child's brain/body development is to induce a sense of failure in using the mind—the brain/body arena for thought—in the pursuit of the "skills" being pressed upon the child, a negative connection/phobia that can last a lifetime.

Using the cognitive powers of the mind for long-term benefit as we grow older allows us to override the reactive biology of our bodies and its too-often negative short-term results. And we would also theorize that immersion in the arts has this benefit for individuals of any age in any field of endeavor because the benefit relates to the individual developing a greater capacity for creative thought and then reaping the positive results from this enhanced capacity.

"In layman’s terms, through self-awareness and conscious intention, we can train our brain to transform our lives whether at home or at work. In the intensity of our current tumultuous times, getting a handle on our thoughts might be the very currency needed to consume the chaos and boost creativity." -http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/12/20/deepak-chopra-on-your-super-brain-work-stress-and-creativity/

The above referenced web article also states in quoting Dr. Deepak Chopra M.D.:

"Meditation makes the entire nervous system go into a field of coherence. Your entire brain in meditation goes into what is called “phase and frequency locking in.” All the neural networks adhere together synchronistically. And no other experience other than meditation does it quite that way. Being more aware creates responsibility. What does responsibility mean? It means the ability to respond. The more conscious you are in your ability to respond, the more creative you’ll be."

We would suggest that immersion in an art project or event that engages/focuses our mind also creates a synchronistic field of coherence. From our own experience, this immersion draws us into the creative rhythm of action applied to an "object set", mind response (thought), leading to action, leading to mind response ... a dance of cohesive coherence (the sticking together of integrated diverse elements) of objects, actions and thoughts ... bringing conscious awareness of and in the creative process ... along with satisfaction, joy, and a sense of one's own capability to create positive results in one's own world that are personally rewarding, and thereby its own motivation to continue.

With this theoretical framework "we" are exploring options to begin an art-based neighborhood transformation program New Jersey.

My Weigh DuraScale D2 300 Digital Pocket Scale

FYI: Warning! This is a commercial message containing a recommendation for a product I own and use regularly. My policy on posting commercial messages is to only post recommendations when warranted of products and services that I use and expect to use again. -H.G. Lindquist

My Weigh DuraScale D2 300 Digital Pocket Scale, purchased from Old Will Knott Scales website.

Here is the review I posted with a 5-star rating on the website:

This is proving to be one of the most useful items I have purchased. Its ease of use and automatic adjustment for the tare weight is seamless. I use it in my Chemex coffee brewing process for my own personal use to accurately weight the fresh-ground coffee (Green Mountain from Vermont)for absolute consistency. I brew 10 6 oz. cups at a time in my glass Chemex and store it in a glass thermos. Coffee should never touch plastic or metal, certainly NEVER, EVER aluminum. It's hard to avoid plastic entirely -- almost impossible -- but contact can be kept at a minimum. Hey, I am Scandinavian -- Swedish-American -- and I was raised on coffee in Northern Minnesota. Well, milk with a dash of coffee perked on the top of a wood burning stove. By the way, I'm going to make a video of the way I brew coffee. I'm sure many other folks use the same techniques, but they might not know about the usefulness of the Weigh DuraScale D2 300 Digital Pocket Scale. Plus I make coffee to serve at the meetings of the groups in which I participate, such as my local Seniors Club. It raises my approval rating. ;-) And if the scale lasts as long as it looks like it will, this is one helluva piece of equipment for its price!

November 7, 2012: Day One of President Obama's ...

On August 20th of this year I tweeted (to paraphrase) that President Obama had not earned a second term but Romney's choice of Ryan as a running mate made Obama's re-election a gift. On election night as the news came in between 10 and 11 PM on the makeup of the Florida electorate and the fact they were staying in line after the polls closed, I knew Obama had won. Later, when the Teamster official in Ohio told about the huge hold out of his county's mostly Democratic votes, I knew the win would be decisive.

My first national election was in 1960 when Mayor Richard J. Daley held out the huge Democratic vote of Chicago until Senator Everett Dirksen—US Senator (Republican) from Illinois 1950-1969—delivered the downstate votes which were mostly Republican. By holding out the longest Daley knew how many votes he had to deliver to make John F. Kennedy president. I voted for Nixon because I thought President Eisenhower was a great president, and I still do. The War in Vietnam turned me into a "fairness progressive." I'll explain what that means in the posts to come.

November 7, 2012: This is "Day One" of President Obama's new opportunity to actually earn the re-election to a second term that "We the People" have now given him. I think We the People should speak out individually and collectively about what we expect from him as our leader.

I will periodically record my thoughts in video format and post the video here. Here is the first. As I wrote on my Facebook page (Hg Lindquist):

Most will find this video incredibly boring, but someone might not ... and that is who it is for. "We the people" have some issues that need resolution ... and in a country where too many of us are more familiar with the names and personalities of our favorite sports teams than we are with our state legislatures ...

FYI: That's one of my doodles in ink and colored pencil on the wall behind me. I am putting together a functional "recording booth" to eliminate the distraction of my cluttered workspace.

Campbell's Pond in the South Mountain Reservation

Find more photos like this on Maplewood, NJ & South Orange, NJ - Navigator

Fiddling with my camera ...

No, I am not a great photographer. Mostly I take pictures in a "diary mode", keeping a record of what got me out of bed on a given day. Here are a five from the weekend:

I found this insect aka bug when I was straightening up the garage over the weekend. I should have put a quarter down beside it, or something else to give a sense of size. But that is part of why I found it so interesting. I learn from doing the things that interest me, that draw me into discovery through doing.

Flowers continue to fascinate me. Photographing them motivates me to learn more about the art and craft of photograpy ... for instance f stops and depth of field. I loved it when I found the water-drops on the second hibiscus above.

Cheers!

There is more to life at 73 than ...

There is more to life at 73 than I ever thought possible. Well ... I didn't really think about it much when I was younger ... the possibility of living to 73 ... and now I have the prospect of living until I am 93+, another 20 to 25 years.

So let's see ... among the several things that get me up in the morning is taking Odin, the house dog, up to the South Mountain Reservation for a walk.

This morning we took the Crest Drive from the Dog Park to the first viewing area with benches. You can check out the map at: http://www.essex-countynj.org/p/SMR-Trail-Map_letter.pdf

Here are some of the photos I took along our walk. It should give you insight into how my mind works:

At the start of our walk, Odin "reads" the environment by sniffing!

Awesome sense of green space.

The forest is varied in its scenes.

Viewing area on Crest Drive.

A view from the viewing area on Crest Drive.

Benches in the viewing area on Crest Drive.

The forest has its natural sculptures.

A different path back.

Another natural sculpture in the forest.

And another natural sculpture in the forest.

A quiet scene in the forest.

And yet another natural sculpture in the forest.

I'm not just watching birds!

I'm not just watching birds, I'm gardening with raised garden "boxes" ... among other things. Here's the "before" shot on one set of garden boxes:


This was taken of me planting tomatoes approximately 45 days after my open heart surgery on April 10, 2012.

Here'a how it looks now:

The first garden box on the right is the box I am standing in front of in the "before" picture above. The tomatoes are doing fine. Thanks for asking!

This looking at the row of garden boxes from the other end.

Here is a photo of the peas I am growing.

I'll try to keep you posted, but I am having such a kick in "doing" that I am hard-pressed on writing about it.

A "too young to fly" bird ...

A "too young to fly" bird dropped into the backyard ...