METROGADFLY symbolic art: Defining moments...

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Defining moments...

Lecture No. 3

My life in art began in a lecture center at Illinois State Normal University sometime in the fall of 1960 I had just enrolled after two years at a local junior college. My art knowledge was limited to what a small southern Illinois community could provide. There was a fine museum in St. Louis, but travel and economics made the trip problematic. The lecture topic that day was "abstract expressionism." What a remarkable day! Jackson Pollack, De Kooning, Hoffmann! My eyes were were glazed over with powerful and unique visions. I attended the Action/abstraction exhibit at the St. Louis Museum recently and that moment was rekindled and the experience was truly inspiring.

That day in the lecture center was a defining moment. A moment when my eyes were opened and my mind was engaged. All students need an defining moment. I like to call it a "jolt to the cerebellum". These moments can not be planned or anticipated. However, as teachers and parents we can provide an environment that will foster moments of insight.

Jean-Paul Bunny
Copyright 2009 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr

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Artist statement:

My art work is personal iconography. The imagery has been developed over fifty years. My vocabulary of icons enables me to generate hundreds of images without conscious effort. The ideas flow on the paper much like automatic writing. I generate the images in sets of 10 to 20 and have produced several series of 100 or more. Many of my original works are photographed or scanned and the images are manipulated with image software.An essential aspect of my work is the connection of my work to the world. The internet has allowed me the opportunity to find very esoteric connections.

"May the squiggle be with you"

Dear Ronald Isom

David Engstrom here, author of TSS Blog and co author of The Complementary Nature. I wanted to thank you for including the squiggle symbol on your blog sidebar. I like your blog, and will add a link to it in our drop down menu under TSS Links/Excellent Blogs.

By the way, my wife and I both love your use of curmudgeon on your artist profile. It is our word of the day.;)

In case you use facebook, here is a link to The Squiggle Sense facebook fan page, which you with your interest~knowledge of symbols, would certainly be a welcome addition. This fan page is a small step towards expanding the dialogue that my mentor, Dr. J. A. Scott Kelso and I have had running now for the last 18 years, on the complementary nature.

We could certainly use a curmudgeon or two in our ranks!
Again, very nice to see squiggle there on your blog.
As we say more and more, "May the squiggle be with you!"

Sincerely,
David A. Engstrøm

THE SQUIGGLE SYMBOL

THE SQUIGGLE SYMBOL (~) The Squiggle Sense: This is the squiggle symbol. We use it in our syntax, or ‘way of writing’ complementary pairs. For example, supposing that yin~yang, body~mind, cooperation~competition, friend~enemy, individual~collective, are complementary pairs. In each case, two inextricable, dynamical complementary aspects are written with the squiggle between them, indicating their inextricable, dynamical complementarity. While this is a unique application of what we often call ‘the squiggle sign’, it is not the first time that it has been used to communicate complementarity, as is revealed by studying other uses and meanings of this symbol.

Acorn theory

James Hillman's 1997 book, The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling, outlines what he calls the 'acorn theory' of the soul. This theory states that each individual holds the potential for their unique possibilities inside themselves already, much as an acorn holds the pattern for an oak tree. It describes how a unique, individual energy of the soul is contained within each human being, and is displayed throughout their lifetime, and shown in their calling and life's work when it is fully blossomed or actualized.

The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling

Inner Work Blog: C.G. Jung on Symbolic Life: “Health calls for the all-embracing vision of myth, as expressed in symbols. If the symbol is lacking, man’s wholeness is not represented in consciousness. A symbol cannot be made to order, as the rationalist would like to believe. It is a legitimate symbol only if it gives expression to the immutable structure of the unconscious and can therefore command general acceptance. So long as it evokes belief spontaneously, it does not require to be understood in any other way."

METROGADFLY gift suggestion

The Red Book W. W. Norton & Company: "The most influential unpublished work in the history of psychology. “The years, of which I have spoken to you, when I pursued the inner images, were the most important time of my life. Everything else is to be derived from this. It began at that time, and the later details hardly matter anymore. My entire life consisted in elaborating what had burst forth from the unconscious and flooded me like an enigmatic stream and threatened to break me. That was the stuff and material for more than only one life. Everything later was merely the outer classification, the scientific elaboration, and the integration into life. But the numinous beginning, which contained everything, was then.” C.G. Jung

Molly Brogan, author: Our Own Asemic Symbolism Leads Our Way: I firmly believe that we each have within us a pattern of archetypes or symbols that lead us in our conscious and unconscious recognition and responses to them. The symbols we see in our dreams over and over are much like the symbols we see in our waking life again and again. Can we pay attention to them differently than we do now, and what would we learn if we do? One of my favorite contemporary artists, Ronald Isom makes this idea of asemic symbolism integral to his artwork. He sees it like this..."

The Map of Beauty Translates

Spiritual Growth Form

"Ronald illustrates his intuitive semantic reactions to his symbol systems. His paintings and drawings are kinetic in ways that allow us to FEEL what he feels. Organic in inspiration, his artwork brings us to our own symbolic systems, as they emerge and fly free, allowing us to see and know our own semantic responses. In this way that the symbols of Ronald’s artwork brings us to ourselves and allows us to FEEL, I aspire, as a writer, to bring my readers into their intuitive core, and allow them to explore the possibilities of their lives, through the eyes of my characters..."

commentary by Molly Brogan