Top photograph by versluis, 2004 — Credit for the close-up photograph below it is from SmitoniusAndSonata, all rights reserved.
Pictured above are ceramic tiles on the exterior wall of the Princessehof Ceramics Museum in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. The design is based on M.C. Escher’s 1949 woodcut titled the “Regular Division of the Plane With Birds.” The piece commemorates the fact that M.C. (Maurits Cornelis) Escher (1898–1972) was born in Leeuwarden.
Escher felt that the regular division of the plane using contiguous shapes was one of the most interesting problems he dealt with. In an essay titled “Coloured Symmetry” Prof. H.S.M. Coxeter quotes Escher as saying:
“A plane, which should be considered limitless on all sides, can be filled with or divided into similar geometric figures that border each other on all sides without leaving any ‘empty spaces’. This can be carried on to infinity according to a limited number of systems.”[1]
Escher goes on to say this about his interest in the motifs of animal shapes:
“… My experience has taught me that the silhouettes of birds and fish are the most gratifying shapes of all for use in the game of dividing the plane. The silhouette of a flying bird has just the necessary angularity, while the bulges and indentations in the outline are neither too pronounced nor too subtle ….”[2]
Sending this keepsake in the mail is a great way to say thanks. Especially if you appreciate letterpress typography and printing as I do. This piece is also a fine epitaph for László Moholy-Nagy and I think he would have approved of the funky rendition of his quote.
All the best to the Board members of AIGA Nebraska and to Jim Sherraden—manager of Hatch Show Print in Nashville, Tennessee.
By the way, I learned all I know about wood engraving and letterpress printing from Jim Horton of Ann Arbor, Michigan—thanks Jim.
Art is the gift of God, and must be used
Unto His glory.…
—Longfellow
This quote is found in a dramatic lyrical poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow entitled, Michael Angelo. Longfellow’s illustrated book was published in 1884.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Michael Angelo. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1884. 25-26. University of California Libraries/California Digital Library. Web. 5 Feb. 2011.
Vittoria.Soli Deo Gloria Read More......
But that
Is not what occupies my thoughts at present,
Nor why I sent for you, Messer Michele.
It was to counsel me. His Holiness
Has granted me permission, long desired,
To build a convent in this neighborhood,
Where the old tower is standing, from whose top
Nero looked down upon the burning city.
Michael Angelo.
It is an inspiration!
Vittoria.
I am doubtful
How I shall build; how large to make the convent,
And which way fronting.
Michael Angelo.
Ah, to build, to build!
That is the noblest art of all the arts.
Painting and sculpture are but images,
Are merely shadows cast by outward things
On stone or canvas, having in themselves
No separate existence. Architecture,
Existing in itself, and not in seeming
A something it is not, surpasses them
As substance shadow. Long, long years ago,
Standing one morning near the Baths of Titus,
I saw the statue of Laocoön
Rise from its grave of centuries, like a ghost
Writhing in pain; and as it tore away
The knotted serpents from its limbs, I heard,
Or seemed to hear, the cry of agony
From its white, parted lips. And still I marvel
At the three Rhodian artists, by whose hands
This miracle was wrought. Yet he beholds
Far nobler works who looks upon the ruins
Of temples in the Forum here in Rome.
If God should give me power in my old age
To build for Him a temple half as grand
As those were in their glory, I should count
My age more excellent than youth itself,
And all that I have hitherto accomplished
As only vanity.
Vittoria.
I understand you.
Art is the gift of God, and must be used
Unto His glory. That in art is highest
Which aims at this. When St. Hilarion blessed
The horses of Italicus, they won
The race at Gaza, for his benediction
O’erpowered all magic; and the people shouted
That Christ had conquered Marnas. So that art
Which bears the consecration and the seal
Of holiness upon it will prevail
Over all others. Those few words of yours
Inspire me with new confidence to build.
What think you? The old walls might serve, perhaps,
Some purpose still. The tower can hold the bells.
Michael Angelo.
If strong enough.
Vittoria.
If not, it can be strengthened. …
Jacob Bronowski and Daughter, 1961. Photograph credit: Sandra Lousada.
Lousada, Sandra. Public Faces Private Places — Portraits of Artists 1956–2008. London: Frances Lincoln Limited, 2009. 120. Print. Web. 18 Dec. 2010. The PhotoBook. Doug Stockdale, October 19, 2009.
“The discoveries of science, the works of art are explorations — more, are explosions, of a hidden likeness. The discoverer or the artist presents in them two aspects of nature and fuses them into one. This is the act of creation, in which an original thought is born, and it is the same act in original science and original art.”
Bronowski, Jacob. Science and Human Values. New York: Harper & Row, 1956. 19. Print.
Henry Miller in Hydra, 1939. Photo by George Seferis.
Reference for this picture is found here.
Reflections on Writing:
Photograph of E. Paul Torrance is from the blog Thriving Too in a piece posted by Tessy titled “The Power of Creativity,” May 15, 2010.
“They found a large number of significant correlations between the non-aptitude traits and the measures of ideational fluency and originality. Ideational fluency appears to be related to impulsiveness, self-confidence, ascendance, greater appreciation of originality and inclination away from neuroticism. Those having higher originality scores tend to be more interested in aesthetic expression, in meditative or reflective thinking, and appear to be more tolerant of ambiguity, and to feel less need for discipline and orderliness.” —E. Paul Torrance
Victor D’Amico. Photograph by David E. Scherman. From Mining Modern Museum Education: Briley Rasmussen on Victor D’Amico.
“The art work of children is important to the teacher insofar as it tells him about the child and helps him to keep alive the child’s imagination and also the will to express it. Experience, and not the product, is the precious aim of art education.” —Victor D’Amico.
D’Amico, Victor. Creative Teaching in Art, Scranton, PA: Revised edition, International Textbook Co.. 1953, p3.In addition, the following quote also sounds like D’Amico, however, I can’t find the source:
Picasso at La Californie, Cannes, France (1957; platinum/palladium print, 1974). Photographic portrait by Irving Penn. Courtesy of the Resource Library.
Image © 2010 iStockphoto, all rights reserved
Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Authors, Famous Americans Issue, 1940
Emerson, Edward Waldo, and Waldo Emerson Forbes, eds. Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Vol. 9. Journal 51, 1860. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company and The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1913. 277-78. Google Books. Web. 10 Sept. 2010. (From journal entry titled “Imagination.”) [development of the “individual”]
Photograph by Versluis, 05.19.2010
“As mere human beings, we do not have the option of ‘creating’ things: It is not within our capacity to produce anything out of thin air. Rather, the entire range of human innovation (whether works of art and literature, design solutions, scientific discoveries, or new technologies) has come from the recombination of pre-existing components, by a process that Einstein referred to (in a famous introspective note about his own creative process) as combinatory play.” [1]
Footnote:
- Behrens references Einstein’s quote in: Jacques Hadamard, The Psychology Invention in the Mathematical Field. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1949.
Brewster Ghiselin at a Picnic (center foreground)
Photograph credit: Brewster Ghiselin Photograph Collection
J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, P0296
“Genuine creativity will always involve individual reflection…. From the point of view of consciousness, the creativity appears to arise ex nihilo [out of nothing].
… Creativity ministers to the benefit of society through the solutions of a wide variety of problems, …. But creativity also ministers to the good of the individual creative person as well, by filling that gap, that “nothing” within his own being.”
—Brewster Ghiselin
