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Subject:   Re: Follow ups to Sunday 20th Meeting Name:   samvado Date Posted:   Jan 22, 08 - 7:30 AM Email:   info@samvado.com Website:   http://samvado.com Message:   Second attempt at saying what inspires me to make art. Its still all about Nature and life as its writ there. In the a–z of ideas, it’s often fruitful to do a check on my own mindset. And for years it was all about the ecological disaster looming, especially trees. Slightly desperate work to wake up with. Now I feel people respond better to beauty than beast, though what can I say with the last elm tree for the next 150 years? It will be a signpost. The next level of exploration was after coming across Gurdjieff, whose comment was that most art is subjective, simply articulating the emotions of the artist. But that there is possible objective art, which he defined as having the same affect on everyone. An example is Taj Mahal, designed by Sufis. Rising to this view is a challenge that requires ruthless weeding of my own attitudes to art, to other artists, to everyone as a creative being and the whole marketplace of art as luxury. Art with wood as material, as medium and metier starts with life and how its traces are left as grain, as time and tide lines from the past. Also engrained in our mind. It’s a short step back to the vegetative first world we meatheads think we’ve left behind. It’s a radial world, heart as centre no left and right, just up is light, down is earth. Air and water complete this elemental, but without the green world’s daily continuous support we’re soon gone, back to dust. Hence I am interested to explore themes of life and death, our survival as life/species/individual, and the origins of dimorphism- the two forms by which procreation arises in some trees and in animals. Tree as metaphor for life is long established, and often involves a transgression by man to be put right. This is an early take on how we see ourselves, at least 7000 years old. Regarding man as latest evolutionary product rather than a personal bag of cultural constructs is a broader context and accounts for at least 99% of what, though not much of who he is, as DNA samples show. To explore Who took me to Zen and finding a Master. This enquiry is necessarily individual, how can I know who anyone else is? Years later I still can not say much about who, certainty falls apart in my hands. I can say more about life as this organism and just being at ease with that. The interdependence of all life, how we are all spun on this existential moment, how the mysterious energy of life penetrates every breath, these are my current marvellings. Still finding ways to share one’s viewpoint, that’s the art. My adherence to Ecology is only because it’s a basis for increasing awareness. It isn’t logical to make efforts to green all UK output, which even if we did would be less than a days Chinese output. It may be good for other reasons, but we know the oil will all be burned, faster or slower, before water power is released. We’re not that intelligent to cooperate. The basic problem with saving the world is – it’s not our world. We messed up a corner or two, but life has no obligation to save us as individuals or as a species. Ask any multinational, any general of any army, individuals are expendable; in a glut of people, there’ll be another one along in a second. Four are born for every two that die. That’s a doubling world pop in forty years. We ourselves feel expendable, victims of ruthless exploitation. It is already no longer our world, to control or to own as if we’re the only or top species. We have to become at ease with dying ourselves, as we are ok with other species – we save many of them to eat. As a slogan Save the World for Cockroaches will not attract many, but Save Everybody is impossible, we’re too demanding of resources. We’re fighting off competition from China while saving the starving 3rd world, feeding those means more of them next year, not more intelligent. China’s one child policy at least tackles the problem. Past precedent is Noah’s ark, Big Brother style and a kill off to find the winners……… but where will they sail to? Save the world? Save it from us, humanity, the silent meek are inheriting this mess.

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