LAWRENCE RUSS: Soul, Art, and Society
Summoning the Genie’s Power – Post 3
Society works to make us believe that we’re small, insufficient, that we have to run on the fumes of worldly ambition, that we’ll be doomed if we don’t buy what it sells and strive for its peer approval and prizes. On the other hand, countless religious texts, artworks, books of psychology and philosophy throughout the […]
Summoning the Genie’s Power – Post 2
Shadows or darkness, fog or cloud, curving shapes, blurred or fantastical objects. Why should photographs with elements like these help to bring on that state of deep calm and heightened sensitivity that makes the Muse more inclined to visit? I think it’s partly because they mirror conditions and circumstances outside the artwork that bring us […]
Summoning the Genie’s Power – Post 1
At the end of my last post, I promised you testimony to a particular power of art. The photo of mine above has a title relevant to my purpose: “The Power That Builds in Solitude.” Though I’ll talk about writing poetry, what I want to show you is the creative power that certain photographs can […]
A Story of Creation – Post 2 of 2
“Mushrooms & Trees 5” by Van Chu Post 2 of 2: The Tradition, The brief artist statement on Van Chu’s website, http://vanchuart.com confirmed my initial impression that his photograph reflects the influence of Chinese calligraphy and, even more strongly, of the inkbrush landscape paintings of Guo Xi, Ni Zan, and other Chinese masters of that […]
A Story of Creation – Post 1 of 2
“Mushrooms & Trees 5” by Van Chu Post 1 of 2: The Photograph, From time to time in these posts, I’ll write about an image that has caught me in its spell. No, my present subject isn’t the sorcerous tree above, which is mine. My flimsy excuse for putting it here (not that I need […]
“To the Unknown Friend”
For those of you who may not know it already, I took the phrase “the unknown friend” from Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote in one of his journals in the Spring of 1848: “Happy is he who looks only into his work to know if it will succeed, never into the times or the public opinion; […]
Art as Experience
What I’m about to say to you is, in a sense, simple, though its ramifications are not. This will be an essential foundation for much that I’ll have to say in future posts, and it’s crucial for truly understanding art photography and the other arts. Yes, many forces and purposes go into an artwork’s making, like […]
Welcome to Artists, Lovers of Art, and Unknown Friends
Although this first post is addressed mainly to my fellow artists, I hope that this site will interest anyone who loves art, anyone interested in the topics that I take up here, and anyone whose singular curiosity or wayward impulse draws him or her to this corner of the Web. Yes, in some ways what you’ll find here will be like what you find on other […]