"Call and Response: Anonymous"

“There are worlds beyond worlds and times beyond times,
all of them true, all of them real, and all of them (as children know) penetrating each other.”

Pamela Lyndon Travers

THE CALL: I have a 'Call and Response" blog series going on. Would you be willing to participate? If you could somehow flesh out that how art inspired/inspires you - writing, examples, giving out for Thanksgiving, parenting - whatever. That would be great.

THE RESPONSE from Anonymous:

The summer of 2008, I had just quit my job at Lehman Brothers. I sat behind my computer screen with my jaw dropped as I watched Isaac do a live painting on YouTube. I had not seen this kid (now a man) in nearly 20 years but had always wondered where he had gone when we started high school. I watched another video and another one. It made me so happy to see him in his element, painting away, all the way in Japan. It was like seeing a big, gorgeous bird flying over the ocean. Like it didn’t have a care in the world and was just doing what God made him to do. I didn’t know where life had taken him after age 14, but I knew where he came from and was very proud of his accomplishments.

"I LOVE ROCK N ROLL"
Uploaded by disisisaac on Jun 6, 2008

There were a lot of reasons why I chose a legal education after dropping out of an arts conservatory. I had wanted to be a dramaturge and went to the North Carolina School of the Arts in high school and then to Purchase College for a year – both are highly respected institutions. My father’s extreme fear of poverty was somehow in my DNA. Then, there was the very real fear of poverty as well. We couldn’t (or wouldn’t) afford art school. I got caught stealing from the school cafeteria one day when I was really hungry and had no money.

At my house, art was something that small kids did. I stopped drawing when I was perhaps 10 years old. My sister’s dance major in college was “a lot of prancing around that would never pay the bills “ She switched to a science major and joined ROTC instead. There was a lot of screaming and crying about this issue, a lot of threats to pull funding from this dream or that dream – very real threats to kick kids out if they did not pursue a “real education” such as “business or engineering” that would put food on the table. Getting kicked out of the house was the physical consequence for following creative goals. But the shaming that a creative type would endure at our house is something I am still coming to terms with.

"ISAAC AND JUNKO"
Uploaded by disisisaac on Jul 5, 2008

Justifying my father’s position, he had been raised in a two-room house by an alcoholic abusive father with a third grade education. His dad was a hog auctioneer. He went to work in stockyards with his father when he was five. He went hungry a lot. Education and the ability to make money were important to him in ways that I will never understand. I’m grateful to my father for providing a life when I was a child where we did not do without things and were even sheltered from knowing the monetary cost of our standard of living. I think it’s important to be thankful for what’s good about your parents as you acknowledge the things about them that anger you. I think he really was trying to protect us by helping us to assassinate our little creative selves as we matured into adults.

"dream"

Uploaded by disisisaac on Mar 11, 2009

I went to law school because my father didn’t think I could finish anything “worthwhile.” I made a high salary for a few years. I know a hell of a lot about taxation of high net worth individuals and got to meet some of America’s most successful and talented entrepreneurs. But sitting on the edge of a trading floor, I used to imagine my boss as a gazelle being chased by tigers. (By the way, he totally deserved it.) To get through the day, I had elaborate fantasies about many of my co-workers as jungle animals. I was miserable and figured that no one else on the floor had strange daydreams like this to make it through the day. My creative self was pretty much DOA and this was its last ditch cry for help!

"STRIPE PROJECT"

Uploaded by disisisaac on Feb 2, 2008

So I quit. And when I got a little time on my hands, I saw Isaac painting, as naturally as breathing, on YouTube. And I had time to connect with all my friends from my previous life in arts school. And many of them were making a living and working as artists. How was it that all of these successful creative people felt they had the right to live their dreams? The right to paint all day, to design clothing, to write plays, and just to walk out of the house and say, “I am an artist.” It all seemed so brave to me. Didn’t their dads tell them to major in accounting, too? They must all be trust fund babies. Well, as it turns out, none of them were trust fund babies. What all of these friends had in common were parents who told them – or even better, showed them – that their creative dreams are God’s gift. I don’t know the dialogues that went on in these households, but I try to write them in my head so that I have a script for parenting my own child to realize his dreams, whatever they may be. Whatever the manifestation of them – you are the designer. You need to listen to that little voice and then go, go, go.

"Albatross, Tasmania"
Uploaded by jeffdjtube on Mar 1, 2007

Isaac’s dad, it turns out, is an artist. I am guessing the script at their house involved Dad painting stuff, maybe drawing and sculpting as well. Who knows – I wasn’t there. And I know that no parent-child relationship is perfect, but I envy the love and respect for life paths that I believe exists between the two of them. You can teach your kids to survive, or you can teach them how to live.

Willoree Ford. Third generation of artists working in the Spidey-Hole Studio.
In the background: part of the "Novena for Sendai" series (in process).

Oh, and you can also re-parent yourself as an adult. The bravest thing I did this year was to walk into a beginner’s art class and not run out the back door. And less scary, I allowed myself the luxury of beginning an art collection. I am sure that my parents would disapprove, which is a great indicator that it’s a fantastic idea. So self-indulgent, I just love it.

TOMSCHULZARTIST RESPONDS: Well gosh, Anonymous. You bring so much stuff to the conversation! Cultural stuff. Generational stuff. Happiness, pride, drama, fear, art, threats, shame, gratitude, misery, connections, invention and love.

So, let me share a story with you. You shared with me. It only seems right. That's at the core of what Empathinc. is about - fair exchange.

One day. Years ago ( I was the same age then as Isaac is now). I told Isaac, "Help me build a wood shed, you need to learn those skills." He replied, "Teach me to paint. That's what I need to know." Well, I don't mind telling you that I was in a tough place at the time, Anonymous. I didn't understand then that there is a perfection in the process of growing. I thought I was stuck. So I looked at this kid, and I thought, "What did he know? Was he just being lazy? My ability to design and build was paying the bills, for god's sake!"

But I knew he was right. I did need to teach him to paint. To let myself paint, and to know the complexities of what it meant to paint: to know that painting included concrete formalizing, abstract actualizing and and and - whole space.
Fathers.
Pass the beer nuts.

While comprehending both the conveniences and pitfalls of a Cause and Effect existence, here at empathinc. we prefer to live in a Call and Response Universe. This series is an exploration of that space.

Thank you Anonymous, for Responding to the Call.
"You can teach your kids to survive, or you can teach them how to live."
And you can show them the countless paths to freedom. Their freedom.
Good luck with that. Tom.

"Summeries #3."

TURN THE PAGE, PICK UP ANOTHER NOTEBOOK

“…This web of time—the strands of which approach one another, bifurcate, intersect or ignore each other through the centuries—embraces every possibility. We do not exist in most of them. In some you exist and not I, while in others I do, and you do not, and yet in others both of us exist. In this one, in which chance has favored me, you have come to my gate. In another, you, crossing the garden, have found me dead. In yet another, I say these very same words but am in error, a phantom…Time is forever dividing itself toward innumerable futures…”
Jorge Luis Borges (1899 - 1986) Garden of Forking Paths, Ficciones.

Yeah, picture this: a father and son in a skanky hotel in bumfuck upstate New York. And the son says, he says,"I am the creator of this reality and you are a character that I have created to serve my needs (or something like that)." And you're all like, "What the fuck? I raised you and made all these concessions and recessions and what not, and you deny my existence?" And he's all like, "That's the reality you are creating." And in this picture, you are the father. And you stop. And you get beyond all the things that carve you into the soap figure of your expectations and you realize that the kid has something going on.
We make notations and choices and reservations and these are the scaffold that support our realities. Trust your notes and letters. Fold yourself into the realities of your kids and your cousins and your friends and loved ones as if you were the most delicate of souffles, trusting that the yolk is always. And in all ways: on you.

“Actualized Dreams” #4.

You made every attempt to explain to me that no instance was disconnected and attendant to itself - that before any one circumstance collapsed, it was already overlapping another related occurrence. I continued to plait my lanyard, even as I gave you the benefit of the doubt…….good times.

“Actualized Dreams” #5.

I once remember hearing you say that your imagination had been jogged and then we laughed so hard cause I thought you meant that your imagination had gone jogging, which made us laugh even harder, because that was exactly what you meant. I drew a sketch of an endless cycle while you went on about the pitfalls of giving. What did you call it? Oh yeah, cheap grace…….good times.

“Actualized Dreams” #6.

I had the good fortune to hear James Forbes speak. Well he didn't so much speak as he elaborated. He was talking, I mean elaborating on the diminished vitality of self and all these unrelenting assaults on well-being. What did Isaac say? That it was like a cultural low grade fever? But anyway, it reminded me of your obsession with nitrogen fixing nodules and our need to re/leaf - to actually attach our disconnected selves back to the Tree of Life…….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 at:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/empathinc/475680795088

"Information Inversion Project: Week 3"

The chance of being killed by a shark is one in 300 million. The chance of being killed by airplane parts falling from the sky is one in 10 million.

Empathinc. Artist Noah Shark: Information Inversion Project. Week 3.

“Bioluminescence”

http://brilliantworldtokyo.blogspot.com/

“I make my own light.” Brilliant World. Noah Shark.

Empathinc. Artist Noah Shark: Information Inversion Project. Week 3.

“Real Men”

empathinc.blogspot.com

“Summer of Empathy. Time to make waves. Has my seal of approval” Noah Shark.

"Don't forget to look up"
Noah Shark

"Life Strategy 6: Basics of Boredom"

"Ennui Study"© 2008
Artist Isaac Schulz demonstrates a classic bored pose.

From "The Systemic Amazement Factorial"©

In our last session, we discussed "Life Strategy 5., Managing the Mundane." In this session, we explore "Life Strategy 6.,Basics of Boredom." Perhaps you have at one time or another experienced boredom. In this session we will Master the Art of Boredom. Think about what form that may take in your life. Take as long as you need.
Very Good.

Press Arrow to Play Video.
"Defining Boredom"© 2010
Video Sketch
From "The Systemic Amazement Factorial"©

When experiencing boredom, confronted by boredom, or are having boredom delivered directly into your core existence, we suggest using the Master Phrase, "Whatever".
Try saying that now.
Very Good.

Boredom Test: If you watch the entire video, you are probably bored.

Please use extreme caution with this Master Phrase as its sheer power may overwhelm many. We suggest alternating the Master Phrase with a simple shrug of the shoulder (see above).
Good luck with that.

Study, "Prayer Painting Project" (detail) 2007-Present
I wasn't compelled to use a pertinent image, so I just picked this one.
It's kind of cool. I guess.




“I didn’t expect His Holiness to have that down-to-earth quality,” he said. “I understand that more and more: holiness and practicality are not separate.
When something is down to earth, it means something is relevant.”
Nicholas Vreeland on the Dalai Lama




Next session:
"Life Strategy 7: You Can Do It!

This will complete this series of
Life Strategy Sessions.



All art on this page by Tom Schulz. Contact Tom@empathinc.com with comments or inquiries.

"Life Strategy 3: Manifesting"

“There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.” J. Robert Oppenheimer

"Our Guernica" © (detail) 2006
Collaborative Wall Painting
Tom Schulz and Isaac Schulz
Empathinc. Studio and Gallery. Charlotte NC.
Now The Sanctuary Bar.

Life Strategy 3., Manifesting

My younger brother, Billy, (who was born with Down Syndrome) often asks me, "Tom, how long you know me?"
My reply is always the same, "All your life, Billy."
His response is always the same. "Ahh", he says.

Press Arrow to Play Video.

"Terrific Manifesting"© 2010

Video Sketch

From "The Systemic Amazement Factorial"©

In this chapter, we ask you the reader,
"How long you been manifesting?"
The answer will always be the same.
"All your life...........All your life."

J. Robert Oppenheimer
1904 - 1967

Robert Oppenheimer's name has become almost synonymous with the atomic bomb, and also with the dilemma facing scientists when the interests of the nation and their own conscience collide.

We are all midwives delivering up our individual realities. While many of our concepts regarding the formatting of our manifestations were concretized early on, they are not necessarily default settings.

Manifesting is more powerful that we will ever understand.

Please learn to use great circumspection and compassion in its employ.

Our next Chapter is Life Strategy 4: Manifestation.

Find out more about Billy's fascinating life by purchasing Grown Man Now, by Dr. Jane B. Schulz here.

"Reality Check, Please"

Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.
Niels Bohr

Over the past few days, I have worked on the foundation of a new project designed by Ann Beha Architects. The SAS Music Building at the University of Pennsylvania. We have been looking for a particular set of timing, temperature and dryness. All things intersected this weekend. My task was to use polymer stains to both equalize disparate surfaces and materials and to create a sense of a particular wholeness. And also to speak the visual dialogue of the surrounding materials (a blend of the historical and the contemporary). The concrete was to maintain it's integrity as essentially what it was, but to be enhanced so as to be what it wasn't.

"Henry"© 2008
Water Media and Marker on Paper
From the 1850 Codex©

I have been reading a fascinating account of the relationship between physicist Wolfgang Pauli, and analyst Carl Jung, and was drawn especially to Jung's excursions into the concept of Alchemy. As it turns out, that becomes a foundational issue as well.




"Towards Sheryl's House - 7:05 AM"© 2010

Watercolor on paper

I contemplated our human ability to be actively involved in the creation or our particular and personal realities. I considered that this is a power that needs be exercised with particular consideration and intent.
That we are each of us Alchemists.
And that with this understanding comes a charge and a responsibility:
Transformational Realities are not just Reality - they are the system of intersections where we may discover our authentic selves.
In community.

Press Arrow to Play Video.

"The God of Small Things, Tokyo"© 2010

Video Sketch, Reading from "The God of Small Things", by Arundhati Roy

From "The Systemic Amazement Factorial"©

If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.

William Thomas

PS. Thanks for your patience. I just wanted to say that I painted something this weekend that probably no one will notice. Aesthetically, it's absence might have caused some consternation, but its presence most likely will not be a point of discussion. It wasn't on a canvas. It was done with material that doesn't even behave like paint, much less follow the rules of color mixing. It is quiet but not reticent. All in all, a very successful project by Empathinc. standards.

Alchemy:
In every moment, change is available.

"Self-Indexing Landscapes (for Sheila)"

"To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour."
William Blake
Augeries of Innocence

"#1 Pin Oak / Transmitter"© 2009
"Autumn Missed Subset"
from the Convenient Non-locality Series©

It would be easy for us to consider ourselves tight and complete packets. Closed systems wandering about in some vast landscape.
Our fear of invisibility might even, ironically, evoke a need to remain cloistered within ourselves. Necessarily separate and maintaining a discrete distance from all the bothersome chaos wrought by a world in constant motion.
Yet,
we are permeable constructions, we humans: impacted profoundly by the passing of seasons, the discourse of time, the perceived profanity of catastrophe.

"#3 Dogwood / Elizabeth Water Tower"© 2009
"Autumn Missed Subset"
from the Convenient Non-locality Series©

The original philosophies under girding the idea of Empathy regard how we humans occupy space. Tonight, as I rush through The Void upon a cathedral of verdant possibilities, I would like to embrace a concept of participation that I will now call apogenesis. Rather than think that my creative processes are an isolated and internalized mechanism of individual interpretation, I will take heed of the call to go out and be an integral member of a self indexed pattern of origin(ating). I will choose to breathe in the hues of the Autumn, and am looking forward to seeing your humble, osmotic selves made present in the golds and crimsons.



Dedication of Alan Bigelow Altar and Light Sculpture Presbyterian Hospice and Palliative Care Film by Isaac Schulz Brilliant World 2009

"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."
Jack London



Do you realize - we're floating in space?

Next week: invisible architecture.

"Calling for Response"

Emmanuel Levinas considered that when we looked into the face of the Other, we were looking into the face of God.

I'm thinking, this evening, that by turning our gaze on any Other  is to turn our gaze upon God.  Be it human or not, any state of Being may be considered Other, including our own shadow, our own core, our own Mystery - that which we are often so slow to explore.

Willoree                                                                November 2008

On the other hand, Theodor Adorno said that we may only know ourselves by knowing our fractured selves.

While I am no stranger to fractures - broken bones, divorce, death, fire, storms of many natures, and all sorts of pestilence, much of which has been by my hands alone, regardless of how I would prefer to view it in the moment.

Or now, in this moment, for that matter.

Bronxscape - Photovoltaic array 2009

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.

Perhaps, as is most often the case, we may come to perceive our intersections with Otherness in an Other way. As an extension of osmosis - a free exchange that interacts with both our interior and exterior extensions of our selves. A format of being that is not without boundaries. Rather, it exists as a method of respect -enacted.

"Fractal Fireflies # 5"©                              2009

From the "Spidey Hole Series - Fractal Fireflies Subset"

To see the world as marvelous is to acknowledge a praxis of participation. A healing practice that goes beyond the beginning and the end. That hears the tree falling in the forrest. That acts in thankfulness, not in the seeking of reward. For reward, like the right of way, is granted, not taken.

Carrie and Isaac, NYC                                2009

On the event of Carries graduation (MArch, Parsons)

First Corinthians:13(KJV), says, "for now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face.

 The human body is up to 78% percent water. Today, in Charlotte, NC, the humidity level was 65%. In this state of saturation, let us flow into and around one another.

Let us respond when called.

Go where we are sent.

Make few, if any assumptions.

And question everything.

Question everything.

 

"Aqueous Motif"                                                                  2008

Acid and polymer on concrete

"Red States, Blue States"

When the blue states this, and the red states that, then there becomes an overlapping of estates. This is the ruling of the grid. When a belief system becomes an affront to new beliefs, then it winds itself into barbed wire - that which is kept out then, becomes akin to that which is kept in. Osmosis is a funny, funny, phenomenon.

We are always on the eve of change.