One of the most interesting aspects of the warrior archetype is the conflict between being a warrior and a soldier. This is at the center of Aïda, Giuseppe Verdi's opera about a tragic love triangle between a princess, her slave and a mighty warrior. This week I returned to rehearsals as a member of the world-class Houston Grand Opera … Continue reading Conflict in the Warrior Archetype: Giuseppe Verdi’s Aïda
arts
Quote for Today: Chaim Potok
Art begins . . . when someone interprets, when someone sees the world through his own eyes. Art happens when what is seen becomes mixed with the inside of the person who is seeing it. ― Chaim Potok, The Gift of Asher Lev Read about Chaim Potok here.
Quote for Today: F. Sionil José
There is nothing in the world which an artist cannot recreate into something poetic, ennobling. And why do we read these things? They are not facts, they do not improve our business skills, our techniques in manufacturing goods, the management of a home. That is what most of you will be doing anyway. We read … Continue reading Quote for Today: F. Sionil José
Quote for Today: Ken Robinson
The arts especially address the idea of aesthetic experience. An aesthetic experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak; when you’re present in the current moment; when you’re resonating with the excitement of this thing that you’re experiencing; when you are fully alive. ― Ken Robinson
Of Mud and Poetry Contests: What Kind of Creative are You?
Flowers don't often grow in clay and piles of mud seldom win sculpture contests. Are you using your creativity effectively? Mud is a substance with a myriad of uses, from growing plants and housing animals to creating building materials and ceramics. Many traditions speak of man as created from mud, from the union of earth … Continue reading Of Mud and Poetry Contests: What Kind of Creative are You?
Collaborations with the Self, Nature, and God: Sharon Strong’s Masks
Sharon Strong is a psychologist, a painter, a performance artist and a maker of masks who studied at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Sharon has worked as a psychologist for many years, becoming attuned to faces, body language and the subtlety of movement. Her masks are designed not to conceal, but to reveal … Continue reading Collaborations with the Self, Nature, and God: Sharon Strong’s Masks
Quote for Today: Michael Chabon
Yet entertainment--as I define it, pleasure and all--remains the only sure means we have of bridging, or at least of feeling as if we have bridged, the gulf of consciousness that separates each of us from everybody else. The best response to those who would cheapen and exploit it is not to disparage or repudiate … Continue reading Quote for Today: Michael Chabon
