"Summeries #6"

".......this crumpled mass called material casts a shadow,
and the shadow belongs to Light."

Louis Kahn

When I used to think about time, I would frame it in beginnings and endings. Which opened me up for all sorts of disappointments and sadness and dashed hopes. Because everything was confined. New things were destined to become old things when caught between the bookends of stops and starts, births and deaths. Now I think about what I am calling tumbling durations. It isn't about time like tick-tock today yesterday tomorrow time. And I'm telling you from personal experience that you can lose twenty years in a twinkling with that kind of time relationship. I'm guessing you know what I mean. No, I'm thinking of time as an entity: with a personality. I'm thinking of entities of time wrestling and scrambling all over each other. Coming up to a boil and down to a simmer. Overlapping durations that may not have even moments extricated save to hold them to the light, those moments. Those moments that are frozen as experience and then melted away as memory. Those moments.

“Actualized Dreams” #13.

I was trying to bring up the precise word: duo? dua? due? It wasn’t clear to me until the concept of synchrodental came to mind, and I knew (recalled?) that all three words would in fact, be correct. What was that sketch? Where the distant future and the distant past overlapped in what you might have termed the near future and the near past. That someone else might refer to that as the present seems oddly confining …….good times.

“Actualized Dreams” #14.

Tooling down the interstate towards Harmony and Union Grove, like that was gonna happen. You know, like when you got 10 hours under your belt and your destination starts slipping away? Time warp’s got nothing on that kinda situation. That’s when you took to designing the Roar Shock Test, to grade out just how loud the Old Man could actually yell… Yeah….good times.

“Actualized Dreams” #15.

I woke up missing you. And yet so very excited about the choices that you were continuing to make. But then, like you always said, “Multiplicity deserves mystery.” The water meandered from the spring head to the inland waterway with the ocean shimmering beyond. I saw it all of a once and thought about forgiveness as a fluid stream of awareness. Forget, hell. You’d call that a stagnant situation….good times.

All work by Tom Schulz, unless otherwise noted.

Please leave comments as you feel so inclined. Tom can be reached via the World Wide Web. tomschulzartist@gmail.com, tom@empathinc.com. Please join Empathinc. on facebook by clicking here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/empathinc/

"The God and The Universe Conversations". Week Eighteen

"The Sacrifice of Isaac"
Part Two


“If you are not coming to put into question everything you do,
I don’t see why you’re here.”
Jacques Lacan


"My Shadow"© 2005
Gesso, shellac, watercolor on paper mounted on canvas.

^"9When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and^(E) laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son." Genesis 22, The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989

"Boo Kini"© 2004 by Isaac Schulz
Acrylic on Canvas

From the Editor: It is our current observation that sacrifice most often ends up being a way of making a demand. As in, "I'll give something up in order to evoke the results that I desire." In humanity's darkest past, when humans sacrificed humans to appease gods, and then to appease God, there was a mimetic power and control in the action. Today, while we deem our society too moral to practice human or even animal sacrifice, we embrace the same symbolic significance through ritual, sport, politics, and entertainment. Essentially, like Abraham, we are all too willing to take the knife to the throat to that which represents the very essence of our love. Maintenance of a violent cultural tension creates both victims and surrogate victims. Every time we place someone in harm's way, we make a human sacrifice. Every time we turn away from someone in need, someone perceived as different, or every time we stare, badger, and bully......we make a human sacrifice. How do you enact sacrifice, Pilgrim?

"Heat Lightning"© 1992
Pastel on Paper

“About sacrifice and the offering of sacrifices, sacrificial animals think quite differently from those who look on: but they have never been allowed to have their say.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

This concludes Week Eighteen of

"The God and The Universe Conversations".

All art and writing by Tom Schulz unless otherwise noted, or unless it is so cool
he will try to get away with claiming it as his own."The God and The Universe Conversations" are based on Tom's protracted reading of Process and Reality, by Alfred North Whitehead.

The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to
sacrifice what we are for what we could become.
Charles Du Bos

"The God and The Universe Conversations". Week Seventeen.

"The Sacrifice of Isaac"

"Apogee and Perigee Reminders"© 1999
Oil on Wood

“How long will we fill our pockets Like children with dirt and stones?
Let the world go.
Holding it, We never know ourselves,
never are air-born.”
Rumi


"The Quality of Boundaries"© 1999
Oil on Wood

⁶Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. ⁷Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Genesis 22, The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989

Weisiger Chapel, Presbyterian Hospital, Charlotte NC
Concrete and Black Walnut Altar, LED lighting, etched Acrylic Panels
In association with Hospice and Palliative Care 2009

From the Editor: A common contemporary definition of sacrifice is: to forfeit (one thing) for another thing considered to be of greater value. In ancient Hebrew, the root of the word for "sacrifice," korban, is kuf, reish, beit. This root means "to draw near." Let's look at Abraham's and Isaac's dilemma in that regard. To draw near. Even as a child, I thought that Abraham's obsequious acceptance of God's dictate was admirable. But flawed.Yet, what I have only come to understand of late, is Isaac's relationship to these dueling 'fathers'. Isaac was capable of toting a load of sticks up a mountain. So he was stout. Surely he could have rasseled down his old man and avoided getting trussed up beneath a drawn knife. But he participated. He drew himself into proximity of a life threatening and yet also transformative situation. He said, "I see the wood." Then asked, "Where is the lamb?"
Rather, we should ask, "Where is the would?" Where is the motivation to take a stand and place oneself in a sacrificial posture - to draw near?
And instead of ramming towards altars, should we be considering alters? The Third Way; the Unimagined. And in community, could we become an alterNation? A collection of specific entities willing to be sacrificed and yet ask, "Where is the would?" In The God and The Universe Conversations, God states that, “Anything that serves as a catalyst for novel invention is invaluable in God’s view”.
Where is your WOULD, Pilgrim? What draws you near?

Workers prepare to assist at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant."We are not in a position where we can be optimistic. We must treat every development with the utmost care."

The birds don't alter space.
They reveal it. The sky
never fills with any
leftover flying.
Li-Young Lee Book of My Nights

This concludes Week Seventeen of

"The God and The Universe Conversations".

All art and writing by Tom Schulz unless otherwise noted, or unless it is so cool
he will try to get away with claiming it as his own."The God and The Universe Conversations" are based on Tom's protracted reading of Process and Reality, by Alfred North Whitehead.

"One man gives freely, yet gains even more;
another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty"
(Prov.11:24).

"The God and The Universe Conversations". Week Sixteen.

Sitting quietly, doing nothing, not knowing what is next and not concerned with what was or what may be next, a new mind is operating that is not connected with the conditioned past and yet perceives and understands the whole mechanism of conditioning. It is the unmasking of the self that is nothing but masks — images, memories of past experiences, fears, hopes, and the ceaseless demand to be something or become somebody. This new mind that is no-mind is
free of duality — there is no doer in it and nothing to be done.
Toni Packer


"I-77, Exit 30 / Dust Landscapes"© (detail) 2010
Watercolor on Paper
Autumn Missed Subset

FROM THE EDITOR

14.) And finally: Use all your oil. This of course refers to the parable of ‘The Wise and Foolish Maidens. The idea is that the maidens that burned their oil in preparation for the coming of the Prince were perhaps optimistic, but should not be used as a foible for the other maidens (as if waiting around and shining no light would be the better action). We thought it might be just right somehow to ‘use all your oil’. Since then Tom has been thinking about the idea of the ‘fool’. And thinks that this level of foolishness –this enthusiasm if you will - may be illustrating not an opposite but an equal and perhaps viable ‘way’. After all it is the wise AND the foolish. The and here may be seen as an equivalency. After all, if we are exhorted to fully participate in life why sit around in the dark. Also, did not the wise maidens allow themselves the free illumination in the light of others?"

from "THE PORCH TRANSCRIPTS - CONVERSATIONS IN THE DARK WITH MY BABY" Compiled 10/23/03. Note: these recordings were originally written on a Harper’s Magazine in ballpoint pen. Conversants include Sheila Ennis in her current position of Goddess, and her adoring husband (Tom Schulz) working in his capacity of SAA (Supreme Administrative Assistant).

"Serenade" (detail). From "The Mockingbird Triptych"© 2011
watercolor and gouache on paper

“Appetition”

“In terms of an Entities personal life-history, where does Desire become a motivating initiative?” asked The Universe of God. “Is Desire an aspect of the Creative Process?”
“Oh”, that’s tricky for an Entity - desire”, responded God. “An Entity can be consumed by a Desire to create and fall under the thrall of the Desire. Maybe it would better serve if the Entity were to discover the underlying novelty of a situation or set of circumstances and match the novelty of the surrounding environment.”

“Like that Autumn thing we got going on the planet Earth!” declared an enthusiastic The Universe.

“Process and Reality - The Interview”©
Video Sketch 2010

Both God and The Universe liked this:

“It is easy to overlook this thought that life just is. As humans we are inclined to feel that life must have a point. We have plans and aspirations and desires. We want to take constant advantage of the intoxicating existence we’ve been endowed with.

But what’s life to a lichen? Yet its impulse to exist, to be, is every bit as strong as ours-arguably even stronger. If I were told that I had to spend decades being a furry growth on a rock in the woods, I believe I would lose the will to go on. Lichens don’t. Like virtually all living things, they will suffer any hardship, endure any insult, for a moment’s additions existence. Life, in short just wants to be.”
Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, Black Swan, 2003

In a Stolen Boat,
push off what seemed safe: The fishing dock,
pitch pines, children glazed to sheen
by ruthless summers. Past

the jetty, past the past, to open sea—
all violet and green, that choppy path between doom and luck—
Put your back into it, and row.
April Bernard, "Romanticism" 2009

This concludes Week Sixteen of

"The God and The Universe Conversations".

All art and writing by Tom Schulz unless otherwise noted, or unless it is so cool
he will try to get away with claiming it as his own."The God and The Universe Conversations" are based on Tom's protracted reading of Process and Reality, by Alfred North Whitehead.

"The God and The Universe Conversations". Week Fourteen.

"Come to the edge," he said.
"No, we will fall," they replied.
They came to the edge.
He pushed them . . . and they flew.

Apollinaire

"The Mechanics of Crepe Myrtle"© (detail) 2011
From the "Revisiting My Nature" Series

From the Editor:
What holds us back? What stops us from moving, caring not the direction (or even the dimension for the adventurous)? Many of us might cite fear as a primary barricade impeding us from living into some perceived freedom. But fear of what? The unknown? Try making a list of what is known to you and what is unknown to you and get back to us on that. We must not let our dreams calcify. As Flannery O'Connor wrote in her 1953 short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find", "She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life." Whose hand is holding the gun to your head, Friend?

"Societies of Entities"© 2011
Digital Photograph
From the "Revisiting My Nature" Series

“Our Cosmic Epoch”

“The Universe hates to be obtuse," began The Universe, “but The Universe is still tripping on this idea of Disorder. If there are intertwining Societies of Entities, like planetary systems or galaxies, then wouldn’t their most effective form of existence require only Order? Wouldn’t that be the Prevailing nature of that Order?”
“Well.” God said, “Well, a prevailing Order can create Chaos through Dominance. But Dominance is not a creative action, except only in the sense that it can create Disorder by not respecting Harmony.”
“Oh, and that is Dissonance?” asked The Universe.

“No”, replied God slowly, “Dissonance is part of the balance. Dominance just shows a lack of key understanding.”

"Spiritus"© (detail) 2008
Latex Housepaint, Gesso, Silver Leaf on Paper
From the "Prayer Painting" Series

“Geometrical Order of Nature ”

“Abstractly speaking, God, does God require that The Universe believe in God in order for God to exist?” questioned The Universe.
“A belief system certainly has its intrinsic flaws”, opined God. “Suffice it to say that God is fulfilled by a considerate and involved relationship with The Universe as God currently exists in connection to The Universe.”
“That sounds like a lot of responsibility on the part of The Universe”, whined The Universe.

“Or just good livin’”, responded God

"Air on the Dirac Strings"

“There comes a time when the bubble of ego is popped and you can’t get the ground back for an extended period of time. Those times, when you absolutely cannot get it back together, are the most rich and powerful times in our lives.”
Pema Chödrön

Links:
On Rules
Context
Old/New

This concludes Week Fourteen of
"The God and The Universe Conversations".

All art and writing by Tom Schulz unless otherwise noted, or unless it is so cool
he will try to get away with claiming it as his own.
"The God and The Universe Conversations" are based on Tom's protracted reading of
Process and Reality, by Alfred North Whitehead.

"The God and The Universe Conversations". Week Thirteen.

“To be an abstraction does not mean that an entity is nothing.
It merely means that its existence is only a factor of
a more concrete element of nature.”
Alfred North Whitehead

"Abstract" 2006
Cast Concrete, Bottle Lid, Polymer Stain on Concrete

From the Editor: Boundaries establish a binary conundrum - one is either inside the demarcation or outside the demarcation. Which reminds me of my favorite joke when I was a kid. "Two horses. One is running the range, and one is in the corral. Which horse sings Don't Fence Me In? The Answer? Well neither, silly. Horses can't sing." But in the unimagined land, horses can sing, and fences can come down. Entire Sciences are embraced and renounced and then held dear. The forgotten are re-membered, borders are crossed and erased and reconfigured. In the unimagined land reside my thoughts and dreams and aspirations til they percolate through my permeable walls and are set free in action. As Ken Wilber says, "The boundary between self and not-self is the first one we draw and the last one we erase.”
Imagine that.

"Moments in History - The Fall of the Berlin Wall"
Carston Cumbrowski 2008

“Mereotopology”

“Would it be prudent for The Universe to recognize that as an Entity, The Universe is best defined by its boundaries?” wondered The Universe.
God chewed on this question for a bit, and responded thusly: “a boundary can exist as a matter of necessity as an extension beyond that which is not included within the boundary.”
“Once again, The Universe hears God speaking in circles”, replied a confused The Universe. “The Universe is regarding the interiority that is The Universe.”

“Yes”, answered God, “and God intuits that The Universe’s concerns are justified. And those concerns are the vectors discerning what is there and transforms it to what is here.”

"Angel Oak Study #10" 2011
Polymer Stains on Canvas
From the "Revisiting My Nature Series"

“Closure Operators”

“Back to order”, commenced The Universe, chuckling at the unintended double-entendre. “Isn’t there indeed an order in Nature? And if so, can it be formed?”
“There are sequential elements in the interactions of Entities that create societies of intertwining Orders. But these societies are not isolated. Take for example a language that is first acquired and takes an historic route in its developed usage. Over time, this language may come into disuse as overlapping societies of Entities implement new prevailing languages. This is a type of Natural Order”, intoned God.

“Sounds like Greek to me”, retorted The Universe.

“When traveling is made too easy and comfortable, its spiritual meaning is lost. This may be called sentimentalism, but a certain sense of loneliness engendered by traveling leads one to reflect upon
the meaning of life, for life is after all a traveling
from one unknown to another unknown.”
Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki

Links:
On Restructuring Habit.
Context.
On The New Land.

This concludes Week Thirteen of
"The God and The Universe Conversations".

All art and writing by Tom Schulz unless otherwise noted, or unless it is so cool
he will try to get away with claiming it as his own."The God and The Universe Conversations" are based on Tom's protracted reading of Process and Reality, by Alfred North Whitehead.

The God and The Universe Conversations". Week Twelve

"That's how you came here, like a star
without a name. Move across the night sky
with those anonymous lights."
Rumi

From the Editor: One of the first rules of navigation required that one keep in sight of familiar landmarks. Early seafarers kept to the shore. The Phoenicians and the Polynesians turned their gaze to the heavens and made the stars their fixed points. Currents, trade winds, Astrolabes and Sextants. The compass and its mystical attractions. Lodestone, maps and now, the GPS. All giving us greater points of focus. But as Helen Keller said, "Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." As such we must let loose the moorings that tie us to the shores of our familiar lands. We must run the risk of sailing off the edge of our known worlds. In every moment.

"Just One Particle" (detail) 2008
From "The Spidey-Hole Series"

“Interferometer”

“Oh, does God remember back in the day when God was the Judgmental God, but still liked a good joke and would be all like, “Order in The Universe!” and “Tighten that Asteroid Belt there, Mister”, reminisced The Universe. “Good times. But really, God. There must be Order in The Universe or The Universe would implode into Chaos, right?”
“God recalls when a young The Universe feared even the concept of Chaos”, said God. “But Order is a generic term. Vague. A specific order aspires to a full Ideal, which then, must include Disorder. The attainment of a generic Order that does not include Disorder is, of course, only partial and there we are galaxy deep in Disorder.”

“God is Out of Order!” bellowed The Universe. Then laughed timidly and said, “Yeah, good times.

"Angel Oak Study #5" 2010
Digital Photograph

“The Essence of Concrescence”

“The Universe is curious if God is satisfied”, said The Universe, fishing. "The Universe means this is a spectacular circumstance in which to be an Entity!”
“God comprehends the question”, answered God. “But in this moment, God is aware that if an Entity is aware of the Entity’s own satisfaction, then the satisfaction would become a component in the process of being satisfied, thus altering the satisfaction.”

“WOWZA!’ exclaimed The Universe. “That’s some crazy data embedded in God’s proclamation!”

"Things to Forget" (Detail) 2008
From "The Spidey-Hole Series"

“Ontological Mapping - for Joe Spencer”

“So, The Universe”, queried God, “The Universe stated a belief that movement was a type of progress - heading ever forward. Is that still the case?”
“Oh yeah, totally”, responded The Universe quickly. “Isn’t that the way of things? A trajectory of understandable causal events.”
“But doesn’t that leave out the ebb and flow of Becoming and Collapsing?” asked God, politely.
“Got it, God. Events transpire like a sine curve - regarding not an overarching mediating agency……..right?” replied an immediately tentative The Universe.

“More like a sign curve, to God”, laughed God.

Sly & the Family Stone Public Rehearsal 1973
"Everybody is a Star"


“Symbolism is no mere idle fancy or corrupt degeneration:
it is inherent in the very texture of human life.”
Alfred North Whitehead



Source: Hubblesite.org



This concludes Week Twelve of
"The God and The Universe Conversations".


All art and writing by Tom Schulz unless otherwise noted, or unless it is so cool
he will try to get away with claiming it as his own.

"The God and The Universe Conversations". Week One.

Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.

from The Sayings of Muad'Dib by the Princess Irulan
Frank Herbert, Dune

The God and The Universe Conversations. Week One.

“Small Important Things”

In order to create a Universe, the initial ingredients might be overlooked if the grandiose concept of the end result leaves significant minutiae unrecognized. But that observation is most likely appropriate to any Conversation.

“Reciprocity”

So God said to the Universe, “Let’s work together to make a situation where you reflect all that I am and I imbue the reflection with all that you are.” And the Universe (being young and old all at the same time) replied, “Won’t that be overly complicated for the inhabitants?” And then God and the Universe laughed at the same time (as often happens) and said in unison, “We’ll call that The Great Mystery, and let them sort it out!”

“Sun Dog”© 2010

Photo by Isaac Schulz

So the Universe said to God, “Do you think I’m showing off? You know - the cloud formations, autumn foliage, comets and what not?” God had to ponder, cause why rush into anything when you have infinity squared? Then God responded to the Universe, “Heck no! Shine away! Make a spectacle of yourself.” The Universe took that as a type of permission and did just that.

“Exchange”

So basically then, it seems that every conversation is (of course) a conversation between God and The Universe. This vignette stars Sparkly Pegasus playing the roll of Sparkly Pegasus. No Unicorns were washed or dried during the making of this video.

It is as true to say that God transcends the World, as that the World transcends God. It is as true to say that God creates the World, as that the World creates God.

Alfred North Whitehead

All art and writing by Tom Schulz unless otherwise noted, or unless it is so cool he will try to get away with claiming it as his own.

"Call and Response: Fractal Convergence"

"In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed."

Charles Darwin

"Plastic Landscape"© 2009

From "The Systemic Amazement Factorial"©

"Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern."

Alfred North Whitehead

"Fractal Fireflies #11" © 2009

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

“Most people don’t realize there’s this call and response going on,” Dr. Lewis said. “But it’s very, very easy to talk to fireflies.”

Blink Twice if You Like Me, by CARL ZIMMER

Published: June 29, 2009

Read entire NY Times article here

"Dance of the Sylphs" © 2009

From "The Systemic Amazement Factorial"©

In my neighborhood, dusk evolves slowly into night. The commuters cease their commutering, the joggers complete their joggering. The goldfinch dines once more on thistle, and then disappears into the verdant undergrowth.
In my neighborhood, the new couple walks their two dogs. He shakes the rain from the overhanging crepe myrtle. She squeals in feigned distress and he laughs in a low voice that belies his intention.
In my neighborhood, TV screens, laptops, Ipods and cell phones emit a ghostly beckoning from living rooms and dens.

"Fractal Fireflies #10" © 2009

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

In my neighborhood, stories are read and children are tucked in.
"Night, night."
Ice trays are cracked, and bags of chips are opened.
"Sweet dreams."
Fireflies imbue the shaded lawns with their own mesh topology,
"I love you."

"Structure and Content Comparatives" © 2009

Acid and polymer on concrete. with shale, powder coated aluminum


Recently, I uncovered a trove of my paintings, some of which date back forty years. As I shuffled through each image, I realized that I have been using the same post relativity imagery during this life time of visual pursuit: grids, circles, squares - the light behind the trees. All redundant interconnections serving to attract some Hidden Other. What I strive so to attract I have yet to be able to Name.

What do you endeavor to attract, human?