Creative Summit, San Marcos, Tx. March 28-29, 2008

About the Creative Summit

The Creative Summit was founded by Chris Hill to further the knowledge and spirit of creativity for his students while teaching at Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University, San Marcos). Now in its 20th year, the Creative Summit has grown into a highly respected regional student competition and conference attended by students and professionals from all over the country. This annual event is coordinated by Chris’ studio, HILL, with the support of the faculty and students from the Department of Communication Design at Texas State University, San Marcos. The Creative Summit is a non-profit organization. All proceeds go towards scholarship monies awarded for outstanding student work.

Alkek Library Theater, Texas State University
San Marcos, Texas
http://www.creativesummit.com

Looks like fun!

Talking


Is your silence that golden?
Are you comfortable in it?
Is it the key to your freedom
Or is it the bars on your prison?
Are you gagged by your ribbons?
Are you really exclusive or just miserly?
You spend every sentence as if it was marked currency
Come and spend some on me
Shut me up and talk to me
I'm always talking
Chicken squawking
Please talk to me

Joni Mitchell, Talk to Me

Copyright © 1976; Crazy Crow Music

"A real artist is going to like a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and it's going to take an entire life to assimilate them into something new," ... "It's not going to happen when you're young, and this is a youth-driven market. It's like painting: everybody knows, or they used to, that it takes a long time to distill all this. You don't become a master until you're in your 50s and 60s."

Joni Mitchell from an interview with the Guardian's Paul Sexton
'I came to hate music'

Wet Paint, Saint Paul, Minnesota

Discovered that Wet Paint has more than just the Pentel Pocket Brush pen (and cartridges). I like Wet Paint cause they have stuff that Blick, Utrecht and ASW (Art Supply Warehouse) do not have. None of them really rock with the graphic stuff. And guess what? Buried in the subcategories, Wet Paint has a lot of this cool stuff--like manga and cartoon paint (black, white, grey and the basics), same thing with cartoonists ink (I assume black is what its about...load on the carbon?), all sorts of british dip pens and nibs, manga and cartoon boards (with or without photoblue printed windows, grids or layout formats all under the subcategory in Paper as Comics). I cannot wait the Graphix Introductory Kit (duoshade drawing board kit)--a wonderful item of exotica that this novice is on the edge of her seat about. What? You ask, is this miraculous thing? Well, let's let the pros from Wet Paint tell us:

... this is an often requested product: Duoshade drawing board by Grafix. These drawing papers are processed with two invisible tones (dot & line patterns) that are made visible by applying the developers with a brush or pen. Its like having hidden screen tones right in the paper!

This kit includes three 3-ply bristol boards and one sheet of vellum, all 8.5x11; developers; illustrated information and pattern chart with complete directions for using Grafix shading mediums.

Can you imagine? OH. My. god. Can you say fun? Probably more toxic than anything we can imagine---second hand smoke? Turpentine? all those goodies you need to do screenprinting? But a barrel of monkeys more fun too. (can you guess-- I have one on order!). I also got some of the preprinted board, manga ink and some red Herbin (closeout) ink cartridges to put in a rotring for added partying.

Wet Paint, Inc.
Artists' Materials & Framing
1684 Grand Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55105
651.698.6431

I am ready to go!!

wheeeeee


Man, what a week. A screamer from the start til Friday. Lucky me, however--I got all the work done so Sunday is optional unless I want to wrap up (which I do) Momento Mori 2, getting the new images for the illustration site (from Memento Mori 2) and start some new pix for the Baker (a cat and a horse). I see an hour or so making new pictures for myself.

Icy on the ground here. Get on the spikes. Just standing still, and you move. Dark grey sky at a quarter to nine in the morning. Looks like snow. But, it doesnt smell like snow.

Am delighting in reading snippets from Braudel's social histories (all blocked out during time periods). I love these books as you can jump entirely into clothes, fashion and style, or food and dining, or houses and living, politics and religion. It is written beautifully, a rich slice to snuggle with before the marvelous state of dark unconsiousness I look forward to every day. I am reading about food right not...and how those foods that are out of everyman's reach (and therefore expectation and taste)--once they become adapted by the rich, having it extend into the everyman's diet is not far behind. And once it becomes an everyman's dish, it loses it's exotic quality and cuisine advances. He was listing all the meat (which he surprises us to say was really commonplace--for every plate (time frame is 1550-1650) from all sorts of four legged beasts and every bird imaginable from swans, to herons and cranes to small birds. He is talking about the development of the fork and plate--how they were expensive and very expressive of wealth and position. I need to dive in again soon...drinking my delicious Gimme! Platinum Blonde (favorite) and toasting my toes to the Jotul 602 Cricket.

Had a great chat with Carol Tinkelman about this and that and most particularly about Hartford. I may do a little copywriting (ey yi yi!) for her for a postcard (which I have been enjoying musing about) to promote the program. I am thinking we should probably have some running text with a sidebar of bullets so we get it all out---with a shortie punchlist should someone not want to read the copy. Carol sent me a great press release that they are sending out and 3 CDs of the opening slide shows for the first day of school and the graduating show for the class of 2007. The Graduating show was impressive (a tad long) but really depicts the process of the program, the camaraderie and relationships the students and teachers have, and finalizing with the work. My only critique from this show and from the opening shows is that maybe we can have some snapshots of each person to link name with face with work. She also sent me a bunch of testimonials/critiques from the students about the program. Some of the former SU graduates mouthed my expectations that they thought that the UH program would be a mirror of the SU program, its energy etc and how wonderfully surprised they were in how the UH program is a new paradigm, a new beat, a higher bar. And, what is really cool was that I had the chance to see the first slides of the same students before they entered the program and then with the graduation slide show, I had the chance to see how their work had moved from the experience. And, everyone's work significantly moved --some people phenomenally, to a higher level and presentation. How does one depict that change? And the invisible stuff like personal change and growth? Hmm.

More later.

IF: [Security] Blanket


noun: 1. A blanket carried by a child to reduce anxiety. 2. Informal Something that dispels anxiety.

For anxiety, as we have come to use it to describe our characteristic state of mind, can be contrasted with the active fear of hunger, loss, violence and death. Anxiety is the appropriate emotion when the immediate personal terror—of a volcano, an arrow, the sorcerer’s spell, a stab in the back and other calamities, all directed against one’s self—disappears.
Margaret Mead (1901–1978), U.S. anthropologist. “One Vote for This Age of Anxiety,” sect. VI, New York Times (May 20, 1956).
...when the immediate personal terror......disappears. I would say that this is a security blanket, not a wet blanket, for us when we question our mortality...and remember it...Memento Mori.

quick note


Off for a morning at Cornell to talk about the Baker Annual Report and a freebie, graphics for a Triathlon being held at Taughannock State Park this summer. I smell an illustration for that--do you?

Its a crisp, clear morning with promises of winter storms, sleet and snow later today. I know it sounds crazy, but we need it. Snow, that is. The herd of deer that lives on our property need it...and we would like a water filled summer like we have had recently--versus the parched, needle sharp, brown grass we sometimes get around the beginning of August. So, please, a bit of water.

Woodstove got another workout last night. R. brought a basket of wood in from the stock we have outside (from the trees we have had cut down before they would fall down)--and arranged it all to look as if Martha Stewart and her minions had gotten a job here. I peered nearsightedly at the basket and was shocked (as was R) to see that one of the logs wasnt a log...it was a part of a deer leg...complete with the hoof and fur. Shady and her girlfriends must have been saving a deercicle for a snack along with the walnut logs...just for "later". I let out a hoot--R did a doubletake and the hoof found itself out in the woods in an instant. Good thing it didnt make it into the stove...Imagine! Not a good way to break in the little black cricket on the hearth.

We are having a benefit with the local Democrats on February 10th to raise money for the up and coming local elections. I am thinking little plastic donkeys and marzipan in red white and blue. Maybe streamers and red white and blue sprayed carnations What do you think? Tasteful enough?

More later>>

Dreams


I know, I know. You are tired about hearing this--but did I extol the virtues of Dr. Martin's Black Star Matte Ink recently? It is amazing. Lays down matte and thick...and is just pure sex as it is luscious and rich and....well. I am in love over and over with this ink and the cheap brushes (only the best) to help me work through my issues with my mortality in my monteval all media field sketch books (another find!). I am slugging away with pictures of spirits and had a mini epiphany. As I was looking at the images in Graven--I noticed that the planes of the wings are really just big ole shapes with some linear detail worked in to say "feathers" or "nose and eyes". I figure I should do the same thing. Big planes and maybe create the line work on trace...scan it in and reverse it out of the image. Fast and good. Plus, gives me a chance to work bigger, bolder, and god forbid..more graphic...which, honestly, I have been shying from as it is too easy to do. Cheap trick, I guess. But, nonetheless...it is part of the progression of images and imagery. I was thinking about how this work is furthered beyond manifesting it in other forms (like embroidery, glass etc.)--How does one develop the sketches beyond what is there? Deal with more fears? Like, how do I get over being afraid of color? Or should I embrace my fear of color and stick with more black and white as this pool is something I like to swim in? Is it medium? Technique? Or should I embrace my fear of paint...in the same way? Should I forget all of that and deal with content (which is really interesting) and take a dozen images further--really developing them...running parallel with developing product/fabric/patterns/? Or should I work on a body of images that progress with some sort of personal story? I need to think. And more importantly, I need to keep the work coming.

Two new projects flew in through the window yesterday. Quickies. But..hey. Keeps us busy. The Steuben project has been moved up--and will be shown to someone tomorrow beginning the chain of presentations to sell the job. Am keeping my fingers crossed on this one. Feels like another working Sunday this weekend with the work and the short deadlines--

Got the work to Society of Illustrators LA. Need to get the Print and CA work figured out and done too. Deadlines are more than a month away...but I am likely to flake on this and it would be nice to get something in.

Purple sky this morning has blown through to give us cold, blue skies and an amazing whippy wind which is taking limbs and trees down. Promising a bit of snow...but not much.

Fired up the cricket (Jotul 620) for the second time last night. A gem. I am pleased we have this little woodstove as it will take the sting out of the future new kitchen (which in this 1848 house was the original kitchen...complete with a deep fireplace with iron firebacks, original cranes and iron cooking devices). Our existing kitchen is a 1940s remodel of the old servant's dining room and pantry. It serves as the family entrance of the house now...a crossroads that I happen to cook out of (on an old, early 1950s electric stove that looks like a car and works like a charm...it has convinced me that I don't mind working on an electric stove ), kids do their homework...etc. The current kitchen is going to be converted back into a space that doubles as an entry and passage along with a pantry for the future new (old) kitchen. Plans are afoot for us to get a wood cookstove (as an add...not as the sole cooking tool) for this new passage to provide heat, to cook on and if needed to work as a water heater as a nice add to the house and as a fallback for all of us should we lose power (which really does happen). I like the idea and the challenge of learning to cook on a woodstove...seems somehow cool...even if its soup. I like the added heating option. And the emergency thing I love too. There are too many people (and some of them older) who need support...and this will be a big help. Now, all I need to do is convince the boss that I also want a series of Honda generators...that might take some doing.

But, girls can dream can't they?

Sheets of Ice


Sheets of ice on the roads, on the sidewalks making us all shuffle and skitter to get around this morning. The pool was happily not crowded so I could continue to solve the world's problems during my regular back and forth. I love the striped line and the two crosses at either end of the pool acting as the comma, the comma, the semi-colon, the open quote and then finally, the close quote..of the thinking and journey through the water. It was very cathartic and filled with intellectual lists of things to do, things to send out, things to complete.

Was thinking about the ideas of "passing on", "passing","slipping the bounds" and the images that surround those ideas. Also thinking about the snake biting it's tail as seen in the wonderful Suzanna Jayne marker and the opportunities with that (the symbol of continuous life, life everlasting--a symbol of a continum). I love the way snakes look--their graphic quality, the texture they have and the way they can fill a page...creating a dynamic layout. Entwining, overlapping...calligraphic.

While musing on snakes, ropes (the bounds) and doorways (all in the Memento Mori context) I started thinking about decoration or decorative illustration versus editorial and my preconceived bias that one is "better" than the other. One is truly Illustration (with the capital I) and the other is "paying work". I am feeling a bit like the work that I am doing is more in the camp of decoration versus "real" illustration--and frankly, I am getting through this without worrying about the real-ness. My new thinking about illustration is that the world of editorial work has shifted out...much like typesetting in the eighties...and there are new opportunities out there beyond editorial. Editorial is just one slice of the illustration pie. There are a bunch of newbie illustrators being graduated annually from schools across the country--and there seems to be all sorts of work out there. Plus, if you look at it through my lens, three years ago I would not have been considered nor had the confidence to say that yes, I can do this project, yes I can create an image and yes, I can hold my head up and not feel like I am pulling some rabbit out of a hat. And someone (meaning my new clients) think I can illustrate too. It is going into publications, on products, within environments (just found out that a mix of animals are going to be part of a new lobby design at Cornell's Baker Institute--need to do a llama to complete the mix). It's paying. I can say that I have made the money for my time at Hartford (or will by that time) with illustration. So, a new income stream has opened up for me as well. And recognition? This is the stuff that is getting me noticed too.

So, real or not-- I guess it's working. And it's been a significant shift in the last year. Such that it is occupying a real spot on my work roster. And, the more illustration I do, the better I get...and the wheel starts spinning...right now, its spinning pretty quickly.

chattering teeth.

Well. Another week begins. Had a great time in the blueness of the Pool of Dilemmas. My muse recommends that I develop the psychotic ideas that spring from the experiences of the Pool of Dilemmas into a graphic novel, per se. I don't know about this-- but think about it as I review old friends and new ones on a daily basis. Perhaps in the CF Payne and wonderful Gary Kelly class at Hartford in 2009. Imagine.I LOVE these guys...tons of talent, even more personality and opinion, gallons of thoughts about illustration. Each one, concentrated illustration bliss. Combined? Yowza. One thing about Mr. Murray. He does some key-razy mix and matching that results in great things for the students (and to be honest, for the teachers too).Murray has this amazing sense of putting chocolate and peanut butter together and making something even better. Its a veritable third sense for him. I am psyched to get a semi-full dose of that versus the self serving BS that the last 18 mos of the orange school provided. Back to Kelley and Payne. Maybe they can help me on some spreads of the Pool of Dilemma. The Naked girl. The pink girl. Women in red caps. Men in caps. Mr. Hip Hugger. and all the other personalities that evolve and develop on a daily basis. Its amazing I get laps in...for all the fun that is there.

The new cricket, the black legged, tiny Jotul stove (Jotul F 602 CB) delivered today. Sweetness. It takes a limited number (say one) of shortie logs...and can crank it up with relatively no problem. My muse is listening (as we speak) to UTube-ulation on Jotul tiny stoves..the wheres and whatfores. It is going to be great. The fantasy side porch is winding down. The capitals were delivered and installed today to our delight.

Steuben job in the last stages. They were so taken by the progress, they moved the meeting from the fourth to the 31st...So finalizing on a little book that I proposed along with the glass designs (maybe letterpress). Need to call around to test feasibility.

Life's So Sweet Chocolates

Life's So Sweet Chocolates cordially invites you to join us for our grand opening on February 1st, 2008.

Online sales will be ready at 11:00 am. At the same time, the doors will open for our retail store, located at 44 W Main St, Trumansburg NY.

If you have the opportunity to visit our store on February 1, we will have free samples to whet your taste buds!

We sincerely appreciate you taking the time to visit our website, and hope that you will be back soon!

Darlynne
"The Chocolatier"

Cold knuckles


Working day with the radiator off. Thank goodness R ran off to the lake cottage for the random electric oil heaters that took the brrrrr....out of the air. It was a hat, 2 scarves, snowboots kind of day in the studio. Busy working out the shell, the sunface and moving towards closure for this phase of the project. There are sketches for the other 7 ideas on the table. Wednesday is the due date on that. Poking along. Everyone seems happy (I might almost say VERY) with the progress, my nailing deadlines etc. Now nailing a cheap fee is another thing. Ouch!

K and A. were on the ski slopes today. Great skiing. Lots of friends wanting to do the same things K and A wanted to do.

R and I talked about the next phase of development of the Camp House (back walkway space--definition, redesign and repurposing). R has some terrific ideas that need to be embellished upon and taken to the next level. We also need to get to more bathrooms and maybe a new kitchen too. However, tomorrow a teensy single log type woodstove will be installed in the old kitchen (in the big, iron backed fireplace with a big mantle and even all the cranes and hooks that might have been used in 1848. The little woodstove will be great. We had put a coal stove in the same place. However, if you are not familiar with coal..this stuff needs to burn at an amazingly hot temperature--so hot that I often feared we would burn down the building. Wood is not that "on.off" as coal. It is far more predictable and manageable (at least for this girl) than the mega burn, mega nuclear fuel that coal is.

This time of the year I covet storm windows and doors, hot radiators and heat in general. Its beautiful to have natural air conditioning (in August)--but people laugh at my get up with the hats and scarves. You might too (if you saw me!). That's why blogging is so darned beautiful--as you can imagine me as the 5'10", blonde with perfect eyesight and teeth...and not the scary, harridan that writes and fumes...in the cold.

Jane Austen awaits...! (I hope you have dialed into this elucidating elucidation with our 1800 galpal?).

Tomorrow. The Pool of Dilemmas awaits (although I am not sure with the hats and scarves...do you think goggles will go with that?). Miami is looking sweet for April.

C-Shell


Just finished up with a group of 15 and 16 yr old girls gathering here for pizza, rice crispy treats, tea and soda and fashionable recycling. We had an event where everyone brought used teeshirts to recycle and reuse in new configurations. There were all sorts of fashionable things happening from someone making a teeshirt tuxedo to slashing the shirts with a pinned underpinning--in the shapes of hearts etc. There were lots of tube tops, mini skirts and everything in between. The ladies were delightful and thrilled to be together to eat and make stuff. It was a big success--and all involved had a great time. We will have to do it again.

Am in the throes of a project--a dozen illustrations in less than a week--with 5- 6 of them finalized by Monday so as to be applied to crystal blanks. Its terrific to illustrate and design a collection of a dozen hexagonal pictures that need to stand on their own merit, work as a group, are totally analog (only black or white--nothing in between). I sold them on the image ideas along with a book that would accompany the work to tell a secondary/poetic story of why these images, why they are part of the group etc. I am thinking of letterpress (with J. Seppi @Pioneer Press in Lodi)--but we will see. They also want the entire program sketched out...and should it be a go...it will be a sizable illos job along with a base/or two and the book to design and illustrate (and probably produce too). It is exciting to pull together some fairly disparate ideas but treat them in a similar hand...making visual sense to something that doesnt happily hang together. More tomorrow. I have the last of the group due Monday p.m. I have done a tree, a stag, snow, a shell, a fish and the worst is yet to come (hardest, that is)--a sun. it cannot be a sun with a "have a nice day" face, nor can it be entirely "symbolic"--so I founder. We will see what will happen with a bit of cooking while sleeping. I was thinking about how to repurpose the images. I have some ideas--working the black and white images with letters and images that twist the straight up image...and takes it some place.

Need to finalize book two of Memento Mori. The work is done and scanned. Really just need to get it bolted down in the InDesign file. Mostly done. But Mostly is not final. Must make that happen before Feb. 1 as the pictures for book three are happening as we speak. Have met a wonderful and interesting new i-friend who can do machine embroidery. Will be turning 1-2 ilos off to her to create a digitized version for embroidery. I am thinking industrial weight, wool felt with this work--to turn into pillowtops, book covers...whatever. Its a bit of an experiment...but could be cool. Could be part of the final thesis research etc. We will see.

It's late. More later. My head is eyeing the horozontality of this tabletop with ideas.

thoughts from the pool of dilemmas


I was musing while I went back and forth in the swishy blueness of the Pool of Dilemma. If your spirit is released from the physical in death, then where does it go? Towards the light? Do they stay here? Do they watch and guide on this level? or do they join the larger energy? If one is deaf and there is birdsong, because one can't hear, does that mean that the birdsong doesn't exist? Or does it only exist to those that can tune into that band? to those with ability or access to that energy? Could the human physicality be the blocker to that other place? It's the same with sight. If you are in an unfamiliar dark room, do the things in the room exist as you cannot see them? or because you can slightly perceive them and understand it with your other senses--are they there? are they shadows of their reality? Is this the way it is with us and other spirits that exist on a parallel plane? Are we more perceptive as children or artists--those that are more accepting of the abstract? Or is it our age and the closest we are to birth and death? In later years, my grandmother was always visiting with her sisters who would perch on the end of her bed to chat about their trips and times they spent together as young women? Or children and their imaginary friends?

Maybe instead of the blue pool, I should consider a blue pill?

a bit of the seventies in California.


Just got loaded up with a pile of pictures. Am busy moving the piles of stuff around the office with one or two of them getting moved onto other desks and offices, finally. Moving and moving. Whirling like a dervish--correcting typos, changing colors, moving pictures, changing ideas, switching programs, yaking on the phone and around and around again.

Saw a few great movies after dinner for the last two nights. I recommend these highly:
Dogtown and Z-Boys


Dogtown is a terrific documentary about the birth of skateboarding in Southern California around 1975. It dives into the Zephyr (Z) team, their style and drive, their pursuit and love of the sport and how this group of kids created an industry. Essentially, if these guys couldn't surf all the time, they would surf on the land. In swimming pools (they borrowed), in the cement byways and streets of LA. They fused as a team and essentially a family under the leadership of Jeff Ho,Skip Engblom and Craig Stecyk . It really painted a great picture of the time, the sheer innovation and energy of these people--which begins to set up and explain the traditions we see in skating today. A perfect California day during this frosty winter eve.

Riding Giants is in the same mode--but all about surfing. Whoa. It is paralyzingly scary but at the same time very dynamic, athletic and surprisingly very spiritual in the way the surfers regard their sport and their waves.

Take a look.

Billion Year Old Carbon


We are stardust
We are golden
We are a billion year old carbon
and We need to get ourselves back to the garden.
Joni Mitchell, Woodstock

Isn't this perfect Memento Mori stuff? I was listening to the radio--and heard this lyric and thought I should capture it now. Love it.Am working away on what does the spirit look like when its released. Does it look like the puritan spirit effigy? does it have a face? wings? Does it fly as in the analogies we hear in literature, in music, in the religious tradition? Can a spirit see? Or does it just exist? Does it leave us? or stay? Do they watch us? guide us? Do they have choices? Are they the spirits that stay your hand or prevents mishaps or hurts? Do they emerge complete or do they evolve, change and grow when they are separated from the physical?

More later>>

Brrrr.


Was feeling a bit rough around the edges yesterday and spent it horizontal. I apologize for no entry--but maybe you wouldn't have wanted one as the cranky level was pretty high. It is frigid here. I have all the studio doors closed and actually turned up (!!) the heat...and honestly, I think the bunnyfur hat with flaps over my earphones is going to have to happen. And the fingerless gloves. It is hugely embarrassing looking..but hey. Its me and the home team and Erich. They have seen it all.

Living in a big old house is always teaching you something. Today's thought is, if you are fantasizing that the folks in 1848 were spending their winters wearing muslin frocks you have another thing coming. This is a big brick house. Should have some insulative qualities. Underline should. Our heating system transcends anything they had. We have brand new storm windows and caulking. We have storm doors and weather breaks. And...there are never too many layers of fleece, hats, scarves. Brr.

Was fascinated to learn about the Sacred Heart which was in the stained glass at the Catholic church along with emblazoned on the plaster statue of Jesus. I always thought it was Latin/Spanish and it isn't. Wiki clarifies:

The Sacred Heart is a religious devotion to Jesus' physical heart as the representation of the divine love for humanity.

This devotion is predominantly used in the Roman Catholic Church and also used in the Anglican Church, particularly among Anglo-Catholics. It also stresses the central Christian concept of loving and adoring Jesus. The origin of this devotion in its modern form is derived from a French Catholic nun Marguerite Marie Alacoque, who said she learned the devotion from Jesus in visions.


The Sacred Heart is often depicted in Christian art as a flaming heart shining with divine light, pierced by the lance-wound, surrounded by a crown of thorns, and bleeding. Sometimes the image is over Jesus' body with his wounded hands pointing at the heart. The wounds and crown of thorns allude to the manner of Jesus' death, while the fire represents love.

I am going to draw a bunch. It is going to fold into Memento Mori. I just need to figure it out. --Love works. Divine love for humanity works. Works outside of the catholic tradition. Actually, Love for Humanity is needed always and forever. However, how are my thoughts of the puritans going to bump up against the papist tradition? Can the baroque coexist with the spartan? Can a tradition that shuns imagery (puritans) bump up against one of the centers/inspiration for imagery and representations? Maybe a little black ink can smudge in the grey areas? What do you think? I don't have any idea. Just like the stuff.

The whole catholic service was so theatrical. So about symbols and explaining with sound, smells and words, those abstractions that one cannot entirely fathom or grasp. Those sounds and smells and words are clues to the ephemeral, spiritual and not understandable. Those are the clues that confirm to those with faith that the transition has happened from one state to the other, confirmation of the tenets of their belief, confirmation of the spiritual. 

I grew up in the Presbyterian church devoid of embellishment in faith. However, the detail added by the architecture, windows and even the vestments transcended that of this simple catholic service. There was far more theatre, but it focused on the works of man and not the bigger picture--those of God. I mean, there was more attention brought to the offering being collected and brought to the altar than that of communion...with 12 deacons of the church dressed in wool cutaways complete with grey pocket squares, who would collect money in sterling silver dishes and walk in six pairs of men, pretty much in lockstep to lay it upon a sacred spot, the place where the sacrement was prepared was pretty obscene. And while the moneychangers were collecting in the temple, the extrordinarily robust pipe organ with pipes in the front of the church and in the back would groan and trumpet, swell and then restrain , incidental music that was either hard to follow or too big for the room...drawing attention to itself versus pushing for an understanding or reflection from the congregation. Phooey. If you like that kind of community, its perfect for you. For me, it doesn't move the needle towards a better relationship with a bigger idea and power. Its more about the coffee break and pagentry.

But isn''t this what most people expect?

Towers of Silence


I was reading about funerary traditions and ran into the Towers of Silence, the way the Zoroastrians dealt with their dead. Wiki says:

Towers of Silence are circular raised structures used by Zoroastrians for exposure of the dead. There is no standard technical name for such a construction. The common dakhma or dokhma (from Middle Persian dakhmag) originally denoted any place for the dead. Similarly, in the medieval texts of Zoroastrian tradition, the word astodan appears, but which today denotes an ossuary. In the Iranian provinces of Yazd and Kerman, the technical term is deme or dema. In India, the term doongerwadi came into use after a tower was constructed on a hill of that name. The word dagdah appears in the texts of both India and Iran, but in 20th century India signified the lowest grade of temple fire (cf. Fire temple).

The term "Tower of Silence" is a neologism attributed to one Robert Murphy, who in 1832 was a translator of the British colonial government in India. It is not the literal meaning of "Avestan (sic) dakhma" as suggested by the Encyclopædia Britannica. While the stem dakhma- does exist in the Avestan language, its meaning there is not conclusively established. The contexts indicate a negative connotation and that it does not signify a construction of any kind.

Totally out of our western context. Fascinating to me.

Saying goodbye.

We had the fortune to attend a friend's father's funeral this morning. It was a very beautiful, pared back catholic service with all the traditions (referred to by my mother as the "bells and smells") highlighting and illuminating the symbolism of the faith, the spiritual and all of those things abstract but tangible during these times. I was very moved to be part of this passage of this quiet man whose strength in his faith, belief in his spiritual journey, a rock for his family and how all of this was celebrated in a manner that honored his life. The priest brought such a focus on the liturgy the way he read and sang it--focusing on the transformation of the wine into blood, and the bread into Christ's body, highlighting the sanctity of using incense and holy water to bless the body and spirit of the man who has gone. The readings were significant as was the homily--with the priest linking the way this man lived his life in his faith to Peter in a reading from the Bible. It was poetic the way he brought the broad and philosophical down to the individual--but did it he did with a gentle grace. I was touched in the almost shaker like simplicity of the service, the absolute heart that was prevalent in the church and the sense of peace in his transition. It was memorable. I am blessed to have been able to be there.

May he rest in peace.