Tag Archives: philosophy

A Tidbit from Dad…

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Jerry and daughter Irene at observatory in Australia — at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia

Jerry and Irene at the Siding Spring Observatory, Australia, while on our total Eclipse Tour of 2012.

My daughter Irene invited me to be a part of her art blog. I consider it an honor to do so. A very brief description of me:

I’ve been around here for 77 years. I have three major loves of my life, my children, science, and spirituality. Before retirement I worked as a rocket chemist, an organic chemist, a biochemist, and a clinical chemist. I plan to draw from my life experiences and observations to give you little tidbits of information I have encountered, that you may wish to reflect on as an artist. – Jerry continue reading

Three Golden Rules for Art Scrappers

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a miniature patchwork quilt, made from my old dresses. Irene Rowely

Patchwork quilts are a good example of “use what you have”.

Here are three golden rules to be an “Art Scrapper”, and an environmentally-aware artist.  I know that artists do not always like rules,  so you can also call these three guidelines, or philosophies, on turning old scraps into fine arts and crafts:

Scrapper Rule #1. Use What You Have. continue reading

Island Wisdom Part 2 – Peace and Patience

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beach girl in Puerto Plata, near the brand new Amber Cove port, copyright by Irene Rowley

On the beach in Puerto Plata where I got the carved fish. March 2015

I am a humble traveler and artist, not an expert on Caribbean art and music. Before I traveled to the Caribbean, I only knew about the islands through reggae music and popular lyrics by Bob Marley, such as in the wonderful song, One Love, One Heart… continue reading

Island Wisdom Part 1 – Everything Counts

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AFI [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

Botanical Garden, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

I’ve been reflecting on this blog and what secrets to share as the year draws to a close, and one of the key pieces of wisdom I can share with you now. Here it is: I learned from a quiet shopkeeper in Puerto Plata, the Dominican Republic, that whole cultures  are made and supported from art scraps.

Puerto Plata is a city on the north side of the island and just a few hours from the Haitian border.  Christopher Columbus settled in Puerto Plata,  founding the first European-American colony in this very region. So as a traveler I walked on historic ground and wondered deeply about how cultures survive for centuries… continue reading

The Zen of Seeing, with a Cat

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drawing-1980s-015_webI recommend the books,  The Zen of Seeing and The Awakened Eye by Frederick Franck, to artists and art lovers everywhere. Essentially Franck tells artists to let real life guide your drawings. Using the principles of  The Zen of Seeing, I sketched my cat G.B., doing my best to remove my ego and preconceptions from what I drew. continue reading