“Each [singer] . . . is as much a part of the tradition of oral epic singing as Homer”: the Purpose of the AmeriCamera Project October 31, 2009

This . . . is about Homer. He is our Singer of Tales. Yet, in a larger sense, he represents all singers of tales from time immemorial and unrecorded to the present. . . . [This] is about those other singers as well. Each of them, even the most mediocre, is as much a part [...]

Motive October 29, 2009

You like it under the trees in autumn, Because everything is half dead. The wind moves like a cripple among the leaves And repeats words without meaning. –Wallace Stevens photo by T.R. Hummer Some advice: do not paint too much after nature. Art is an abstraction; derive this abstraction from nature while dreaming before it, [...]

Mimesis October 28, 2009

No form of Nature is inferior to Art; for the arts merely imitate natural forms. –Marcus Aurelius photo by T.R. Hummer

“The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us.” October 27, 2009

photo by T.R. Hummer The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star. –Henry David Thoreau

“a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us” October 26, 2009

photo by T.R. Hummer Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end. –Virginia Woolf

“the skeleton always gets up and walks” October 26, 2009

The world dies over and over again, but the skeleton always gets up and walks. –Henry Miller photo by T.R. Hummer Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been [...]

O Fire, Lord of All the World October 25, 2009

photo by T.R. Hummer . . . the Persians, when they made sacrifices to fire, would present food to it on the altar while uttering this phrase: “Eat and feast, O Fire, lord of all the world.” –Jourdain Guibelet

The Red Queen Principle October 25, 2009

“It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.” –The Red Queen, Alice in Wonderland photo by T.R. Hummer “For an evolutionary system, continuing development is needed just in order to maintain its fitness relative to the systems it is co-evolving with.” –Lee van Valen, The Red Queen Principle

“and not his objects” October 24, 2009

photo by T.R. Hummer In his art man reveals himself and not his objects. –Rabindranath Tagore

“the mold of the body and mind” October 24, 2009

photo by T.R. Hummer The poet gives us his essence, but prose takes the mold of the body and mind. – Virginia Woolf