"Excuse me, Justice is Served"

"Why be just in a universe that is largely unjust?"

Lawrence Kohlberg

(October 25, 1927 – January 19, 1987)

"Our Guernica" (detail, "This is Art")©                                2006
Interactive Mural (currently located at Sanctuary Bar, Charlotte, NC)
Visual dialogue between artists Tom Schulz and Isaac Schulz.

Kohlberg used the idea of a child's proximodistal development (from the center outward)
to illustrate the concept of a human relatedness
that might ultimately evolve into the individual's
consideration of the welfare of others.

Many years earlier, Galileo developed a similar model of our solar system, but his heliocentric constructs were condemned by the Roman Inquisition in 1632.

Now, Stephen Hawking refers to this awareness of centrality to be the birth of Modern Science.

Such is the spiral of human awareness.

"Mosaic" (installation view)©                               2007

Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH

We ache to discover a center. 

The center is our Point of Beginning - from which the measure of all interactions may be calculated.

"At the Zoo" ©                                                                         2006

From "The Systemic Amazement Factorial"©

But, it may be prudent to work under the premise that there is more than one center. That there are as many centers as there are aspirations. 

As many centers as there are tears.

And that these centers overlap in the big moment.

"Fractal Fireflies #12 (Prayer Abacus)"©               2009

From The "Spidey-Hole Series, Fractal Fireflies Subset"

It is in the intersections of these overlapping centers that reside 

the most complex pattern of human relatedness. 

Here, the interactive connectedness of kindness may take hold,

Here, we may find solace in the invigorating comfort of shared narratives.  

For within this tapestry of histories is tenderly woven our own particular story.

Our story that need be shared to be heard.

"The idea here is to give people a new vocabulary, to speak in terms of resilience."

DR. MARTIN SELIGMAN, on a new Army program requiring that all 1.1 million of its soldiers take training meant to head off mental health problems.

NY Times 8/18/09

Read article here.

Where is your center, human?

"Striangulation"

"No, people don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. They know we can do better. And they want that choice."

President Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States.

"Fractal Fireflies #15 (Prayer Abacus)"© 2009

From The "Spidey-Hole Series, Fractal Fireflies Subset"

"Codependents believe they are somehow more capable than others who need their direction or suggestions to fulfill tasks they are responsible to complete."

Read more here.

Bronxscape - Construction Detail 2008

Parsons School of Design

Roof top "oasis" at a home for assisted living. A gathering space for those individuals that have 'aged' out of foster care.

I imagine that future Historians will have a field day analyzing what I refer to as our current World Situation. Perhaps they will weigh out our intentions. Critique our problem solving skills. Certainly they will document the many ways that we (as a Global Civilization) tended to hold onto that which we Know. I wouldn't be surprised if that tendency will be viewed not as respect for tradition, but as fear based decision making.

"Portal Study, Micro/Macro" © 2008

From the Spidey-Hole Series - Bloated Geometries

As we insist on maintaining our Mechanistic concepts of relatedness, we will always see our government, our jobs, our obligations and our responsibilities as something outside of our Selves. We will see the pattern of our lives in the classic model of triangulation. In this regard, we become a Codependent Nation.

Yet, we thrive within our communities. Our Book Clubs. Our ball teams. At our family gatherings. Openings. Concerts. We thrive with our friends, within the creativity of our hobbies and avocations.
Our Faiths, our Questions, and our Dreams.

I suspect that we can adjust to bouncing interest rates and meager rationing.
It may be possible that we can even live with diminished Hopes.
But Joy?

We can not. We must not.
Live without Joy.

"Toe River - Celo, NC" © 2009

From "The Systemic Amazement Factorial"©

Empathinc. understands that many topics included within this blog are taxing.

So.

Here is a quiet space. Please view this short bit of footage.

Experience the complexity of textures and sound, as you care to.

I'll put on some tea.

On the Nature of Deliberate Spaces

"Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again."
Joseph Campbell


"Prayer Wall" (detail) ©2008
Presbyterian Hospital, Charlotte, NC


"We have not been on a linear path of uninterrupted growth and prosperity.
We have successes and setbacks, fits and starts, and every now and then,
visionaries radically alter our trajectory."
Donald K. Jonas, Ph.D., Vice President, Novant Healthcare & Executive
Director, Presbyterian Hospital Foundation

From: CharlotteViewPoint, Volume 6. Read entire article here

Photo: ©2009 Mary deWit
Courtyard - Jack Matney Labyrinth: Presbyterian Hospital, Charlotte NC


As an artist, I am an advocate for the radical implementation of connectedness.
As a human, I am an advocate for the radical implementation of awareness.
As an artist, I believe that composition is essential as the art of arranging.
As a human, I believe that the field of existence is enormous.



Photo: ©2009 Mary deWit
"Prayer Wall" - sculpture and words by Tom Schulz ©2008


For me, creating is the proper warrior's stance.
And empathy the only valid sword.



Photo: ©2009 Mary deWit
"Prayer Wall" (detail)


To date, 28 separate groups (ranging from faith communities, nurses, social workers and Hospice volunteers) have chosen to collect the prayers that have been tucked in the niches of the Prayer Wall. These prayers then are released into a larger matrix of concern.

This is a spontaneous and organic outgrowth of a charged reality.

A charge that most likely
Whispers.

Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Tom Schulz

The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true.
J. Robert Oppenheimer

"Interferometer" 2008

From "The Systemic Amazement Factorial"©

When I draw or paint from a still life, or a model, I realize that every time I look away from the subject: I am working from memory.
The subject ceases to be real (in the sense of the 'realness' I am attempting to portray).

"Fractal Fireflies #14"© 2009

From The "Spidey-Hole Series, Fractal Fireflies Subset"

This is how I most often get lost in my way.

"PATH"© 2008
From "The Brilliant Notebook Codex"

"An understanding of a new relatedness will arrive, I believe, the more we come to recognize the entity which I call the self, or I,
lying within matter,
Lying within ourselves,
Lying, above all,
in the special relatedness between ourselves and living structure."

"Fractal Fireflies #13"© 2009

From The "Spidey-Hole Series, Fractal Fireflies Subset"

"It will arrive, because the existence of this entity I call the "I" can be confirmed by experience, and it will - I believe - one day become part of physics, part of our understanding
of the material universe,
which
reunites self and matter.
ourselves
with the world."

"The Nature of Order: an Essay on the Art of Building and The Nature of the Universe"
Book Four
The Luminous Ground.
Christopher Alexander