W W W W  World Wide Web Witness Inc. Home Page   Contents Page for this Volume  What is New

CHAPTER FIVE

ART, ARTISTRY AND ACTUALITY

A Dialogue

I wonder about you arty types, said John.

What and why do you wonder, Charles ?

Well why don't you just accept that there is beauty and get on with living.

Beauty is one form of living: you see it in endless remarkable design in bird's feathers, supplemented by their avine fluency, mobility of manner, speed of adjustment, almost limitless endurance in many cases, delight of song: they are entities awesome in the number of felicitous combinations of architecture, mechanics, engineering, mathematical provisions, constructive marvels, art work on the breast and wings, notable decision making as with magpies, enormous gifts as in lyre-bird imitation, and are altogether a number, like a new recording of some famous concerto, on DVD, but better, for they yet live, and relate continuously as they live; and yet remain the same.

So be it. I am with you here; I simply hate the tendency to IGNORE and not even attempt to explain such things. It has a source.

Some deal directly with that; I seek as an artist to specialise in the presentation that the eye of wisdom and wit may see the same where it is, appreciate and delight in it; and yet, with all that, see the procedures of ruin which threaten, so very quickly, whether in environmental degeneration making life hard for such prodigies of creation ...

You say 'creation'. Just as well you are not a High School teacher.

I would not sell my soul for ten times their salary; nor call chance what is merely a misnamed piece of illogical presumption and anti-empirical supposition.

Tell me about how you see it in terms of an artist.

Certainly. You see there is the stippling school, those remarkable impressionists who sometimes could create colour, atmosphere, nuance, subtlety of suggestion, impelling vision with the simplest ingredients, dots and the like.

So there is the very simple medium (relatively, for the material of matter is itself a poem of grandeur in its very law-abiding continuity of form and function); and there are highly sophisticated results.

It is scarcely too much to say that the use of the dots with the brush is a direct piece of irony: with so little, one can create so much. When I paint, it IS a creation, and I know it for I do it, and when I do it, I know what happens.

What does happen ?

I see, feel, intuit, discern, am even gripped by a vision, a dream, an idea, a thought,  all of this and more, and then I have an urge to express it, am impelled by a sense of loveliness or magnificence, or sometimes, realism, or a mixture, and things arise with a dynamic awesomeness in my mind. I am arrested, impressed, like clay with a hand, see, sense and ponder wonder, and then with a working which transcends mind, but does not fail to use it, in my very spirit I grasp and create, like a child before a music teacher.

It is called creation, and so it is.

Of course, every dot, when I do that type of painting, has significance, like the pores of the skin. They are not what skin is, but their presence is a material for its expression and  maintenance. Skin is not only pores, but what is between pores, not only a surface, but a living surface, not only capable of being penetrated, but of being repaired, not only in layers, but in meaningful layers with particular functions each one and jointly: it is a multi-partite organic expression of cover and containment, interface and both interaction and  conservation.

It is in itself another wonder.

Indeed! It has multiple uses, place in the almost endlessly mutual compartments and flow in the body, is an organ amidst organs, an inseparable part of a whole, drafted in language, made competent in code. That code is part of a grand code all in one language in its major thrust whatever the creature concerned, incorporating the creative mode for continuation over time. That comes by the translation of code into new exemplars, so that logic, energy, direction, protection, sequence, availability of means for commands' fulfilment, all is present just like engineers and architects, mathematicians and sculptors all present, yet made unnecessary, since all this work has been translated into a prescription, written with perception, applied in conception, creative in kind, an evocation of past work, set in program, capable of repetition without addition over thousands of years. Such is he DNA and all that is associated in its layered complexities.

But your works do not take thousands of years.

It might continue for that, as does the work of creating the vision which became man, and making it work. By making it happen, and then making it continue, being maintained, these are as different as making a fortune, and receiving its interest, or calls for new contributions for its manner of maintenance.

My work differs in this, that it is not a prototype, but the thing itself. It does not make new pictures like itself, but is satisfied or I am satisfied when there is but one, and it may take an hour, or a week, or even a month; but its time of surging and resurgence is quite short, since in creation there is this vision and vigour, this sense of completeness just fulfilling itself, and it seems to seize time and to make it its own. Then it can get on with lasting, as does the universe; and in this, there are multiple pitfalls, for while we can think of permanence, there is much to deny it, unless we get the key.

If you could make ONE and have it translate and  reproduce itself, with the programming sensitised to hold fast each expression of your vision, and so without intervention or further thought from yourself, continue your exploit, what of that ?

That would involve together with my creation, the creation of a mode for its representation, continuation and renewal in new copies, but not an original. That is technical, and it has its limits; this is art.

As you stipple, what is the content of your thrust, energy, dynamic and finesse as you put down these little things ?

Each dot is seen as a representation in miniature, of a whole, and the means merely makes the whole more manifest by making the bits so ridiculously meaningless in themselves, that the creative constraint impelling them to conform beyond themselves to the vision, the constraint of mind and spirit, becomes the more obvious by contrast.

Do you sense or see the vision ?

Of course, but not all the time. At times, the mind becomes occupied with a part, and although AWARE of its being part of a whole, can become concentrated on that part; yet in creation, for all that, never once in spirit does one forget the whole, for that is the purpose, the plan, the outcome of schema, the result being forged. In a way, it is rather like getting a car out of a bog. You have on objective; it is clear, not subject to questions. You want out. Then you gather bracken, or strips of bark, or sand, or combinations, and dig, or make room for additives, or establish some kind of a base to enable more grip when the faces of tyre and material meet; but you never really lose sight of what you are about, why you are about it and the desired end for the use of all these constructive units, mere nothings when without their point of service to the end in view.

So it is with a racing car, or an aeroplane, like the famous case of the Spitfire: you have the vision, idea, manifest need, or enhanced thought alive with energy and conception, and then you implement it. It may take a time, months even, but that is nothing compared with the time you hope it will last; for construction on theme and vision is one thing, and maintenance of what you have done, is quite another. They have different parameters, points, energy application, purpose and entirely act in mutuality, the one in being created according to creative power in all its interstices, and the other in remaining created; or in the case of the human body, being procreated by means made immanent, and displayable in code.

Yes, there is code and content in meaning, there is conceptual expression held in it, overall control of all code units, power to command and get results (not like some flimsy dictator whose troops do not even obey him), system available for contributory functions, space and time for investment with the results, laws of matter for due application and functional contribution, laws of logic for successful enterprise through many, manifold media, and then above all, the point and purpose of the creative agency, whether man in a painting or car, or the maker of all the components and potential for systematisation and conception and creativity, in the first place. Start with nothing, you stay bankrupt and worse, for then you never had anything, and indeed you cannot even BE there, to have it!

Indeed! Start with what it takes, and what it is, the everlasting entrepreneur and eternal maker,  takes the time deemed appropriate in making our time and  space to contain what is willed; and it will create in realms spiritual, mental and material, with or without vision, understanding, wit, multiple interactive display units and creative beings in the resultant, as it will. It will however NOT create these things without the causal capacity to do so, each level by level superimposed, sequenced, submitted to whatever other components of the entire creative thrust may be formed, units within units, styles upon styles, information types upon information controls. This is done by work, and this is done by energy, and this has to BE there, or NOTHING will be done, because then it cannot be. Without the capacity to do work, which energy is, there IS no work.

Magic is for children. Creation is for creators.

Yes, the creation of all the mini-means of creation and maintenance^*1 is for the heights of intelligence and directive ability, as that of matter, with its laws and fixtures, forms and inabilities, limits and provisions, with that of subsidiary minds, and the logic in application which monitors their application in such a universe as this. The correlation of mind and matter and spirit in one integrality is a further requirement for the fiat of creation. The need is simply profound just as it is profoundly simple.

Everlasting energy, with everlasting capacity to USE it, and make it have formats in a limited system, has always existed. It is not delimited for then there is the necessity for the one who so delimited it, if you like to be logical, rather than rovingly irrational. This energy is spiritual, unlimited, just as your thought and aesthetics and priorities are not a matter  of matter but of discretionary discernment, with power sullenly to disobey the realities of our universe, splendiferously to seek to improve on them, or simply, accepting them, to find their Maker and consult with Him about it all. There is something on that in It Bubbles ... Ch. 9.

When I create, it is no matter of matter but of mind, and not merely mind, but my spirit, which can use or abuse reason, and in my spirit I have invisible but powerful considerations of motivation and inspiration, and with these I employ and deploy what matters I will, whether of mind or matter itself, or some combination. These are the gifts that I have and I use them.

You are a specialist in creation.

And I love creativity and so its source; and when I find that the Bible depicts this Creator in a testable way (for we were not given minds for nothing), and I test it, and in an historic interface, so that remedy for the woes of visionless force which can mar man and make him murder like a devil, appear, why then, quite simply, this being the written explanation, exhortation, information just as the DNA is for the body, I take it and live, as in Proverbs 1:23-23, and as seen ignored in John 5:40.

When I learn from this same Bible that He even encourages me to come, invites, I am frankly overwhelmed; but then, my sensibilities were not created for nothing, nor was my mind. My appetite there finds truth, my mind finds an answer to all and for all, and I rest in His royalty, worship Him in His kindness, and relish His mercy. It is well to realise that we too are not bits or anything like it. Driving over the pieces employed and deployed in our existence, there is the vision, the integrality, the objective result in mind, and when I have the privilege of meeting my Maker at this level, and finding He even loves me, it is  a bloom on the peach, a sunset of magnificence on the day, a dawn of wonder for it; and I live as I am formed, courtesy of God, in His presence in an assured mode, that is written.

You mean the Gospel of grace ?

Nothing less, nothing changeable and nothing without vision back of it, as in Galatians 1, and as Paul says, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision," in Acts 26:19, when speaking to a King. He also says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast..." (Ephesians 2:8-9). When it comes to gifts for living, I am not ashamed to receive them, for after all, I am in myself completely a gift, a sports car donated, without any contribution from me, and even my parents acted only by procreation, this being in itself a functioning gift for making the gift. I love the Father of function, and the Word that envisaging, creates; and most of all, the mode of creation of a new heart, for without this, the old life is depreciated; whilst with it, there is a new Life Spring for the time when seasons are past and an everlasting fulfilment of the model is reached, where demise is no more, pain has no more meaning or place, and the direct presence of God becomes as clear as the sun on a fine day. It is as in I Corinthians 13, in mode and in result; and as for me, results I do not trivialise. I am one myself; but this is far better; it is directly personal and not programmatic.

If God has done this for me, what will I not do for Him! and if He is thus my Saviour, why would I not admit it ? It is like admitting that I paint; but in this case, I am the painting and He is the painter.

NOTE

*1 As to maintenance, old pictures can deteriorate, as can old genes, and these do; and energy becomes less available, because of entropy, and what created it all has done wonders in the creative expression for maintenance, and equally made sure that there is no eternity in the mere structure, for it is to convey from eternity to the brink of eternity. Entry there for life is an issue facing the human creation, a wonder for its elevation as a spiritual being, and a challenge for its follies, resultant from that eminence, through abuse of it.

Hence the creation deteriorates in time, in this way and in that, as in the Second Law of Thermodynamics (I find this covered in TMR Ch. 1), which might have been the First Law of Creation, but is not, since creation is not by law but for it. Actually, there is the First Law, one of the conservation of matter and energy. These laws simply mirror the results of a creation which HAS BEEN DONE, and a result which does deteriorate as Isaiah pointed out in 51:6.

Things now are THERE, a deposit, as the Bible says. There had to be put there. They run down. They have their place, and run their race, and man does so in terms of purpose and plan, hope and vision, or schemes and subtleties, depending on the case. Then it is over and the results are found. The One who created has created ways for being and for maintenance, as also for ending; and the good news is that the end is merely the end of the trial period in its amplitudes; and then creation has its ultimate conservation, the current mode dismissed (II Peter 3), and the new and enduring one achieved.

Results for creation are of many kinds: the thrust into existence firstly; then the ways of maintenance, including procreation;  the method of transcending the  trappings for the truth, and finding in the Creator, the salvation He offers, and for which He laboured also, and not in vain (I Corinthians 5:17-21). As with the material simplicity, E=MC², the simplicity is there; it needs to be realised. And this is a holy imposition to cover our position, that as the highest of all the creations involving material format, we are responsible for what we do, and may refuse; and if we refuse the simplicity that disguises the profundity of the Gospel of grace from the love of God, and His mercy proffered through the attainment of redemption on the cross, and dissolution of dissolution in the resurrection, then so be it.

It is not that it was not offered.