Ever wondered what the engine of a steam train looks like?

He stands keeping vigil outside a small stone chapel on the property of Daylesford Abbey in Paoli, PA. St. Francis always reminds me of our intimate connection to all that surrounds us, how we are made up of the same "stuff" that composes everything on this earth. Here, this statue lingers, weathered and becoming part of the environs, as a reminder to me that I am very much like the weathered stone; I too am growing with ivy and moss, and intimately a part of this world.

Art and Activism

Rachel and I recently attended a conversation with photographer Zoe Strauss and singer/songwriter Steve Earle on the topic of how art (particularly within their particular genres) intersects with their political activism. Both of these fascinating characters were closely involved with the Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU), who advocated for fairness for those on the welfare system in Philadelphia. Zoe in particular resonates with the struggle fought by the KWRU. if you get a chance, I suggest you look at her billboard project, or visit her blog, and you can really get a sense for what her photography shows. She shows people living in all sorts of situations; a woman smoking crack, or a naked man on a bed in a small Los Vegas apartment. She really shows the human condition as it really is. I think she said something along the lines that she shows what we don't want to see, something we tend to brush aside or overlook because it is painful or sad. She shows what is real. Both Zoe and Steve agreed that in order to fundamentally change our society, we need to stop ignoring the problems (KWRU). While Zoe worked directly to expose images of people, Steve wrote and sung to express the need to change. In both circumstances, art was the catalyst for change, exposing the weaknesses we have in our society, and highlighting the problems or needs. I believe that whatever your art may be, it is a platform and it is also an expression. You can use a painting of something whimsical or beautiful to start a conversation with someone. Whatever your medium, the purpose of the arts always should be to foster change in someone.

Sometimes I miss our old home on the Penobscot River.

Our former backyard.

My great-great-grandfather.

I recently came upon a picture of my grandfather's grandfather, George Elmore Bergen. I have not found very much information on the man, and since my grandfather's passing last year I was not able to ask much about him. What I have, however, is a wonderful photograph, where I can see some family characteristics in his face, mostly his eyes and his remarkable comb-over. The older I get, the more interested I become with my family genealogy. I know there must be many stories about these people, but most are forgotten. My task now is to begin to catalogue these stories, and make them available for future generations.

Romanticism Continued

When I last wrote on Romanticism, it was largely based on the lectures of Isaiah Berlin, and with that in mind, I can now move to the ideas of Frederick Tonnies, the german sociologist. He wrote an important book called "Gemeinschaft und Gessellschaft," or "Community and Society." These two ideas suggest different forms of life, the communal life and the post-Industrial society. The former being related to pre-industrial Europe, where there was an established order of lords and serfs, and where people were largely confined to their own families and villages. The latter became prevalent and the more modern mode when it became no longer feasible to live in small villages, when folks were largely forced to relocate to cities in order to find work. Life in Gemeinschaft was predictable, there was an established order of religion and family. In the Gessellschaft there was the chaos of the individual, where one functioned as an individual unit of society, apart from the family and the community. Emphasis in the latter was on self-worth, and not on the production value of the community.

In this light, we understand that the shift from Gemeinschaft to Gessellschaft propogated much of the Romantic movement. People like Thomas Carlyle and Thomas Hardy, or Sir Walter Scott, these men understood the trauma of the sudden shift, and thus was birthed Romantic literature, wherein one looked to the past or the fantastical as a crutch for the new and frightening world. Indeed, the Romantics were reacting to trauma, and created their own little worlds to alleviate the pain that society was experiencing, what with coal smog in the cities, to the degree one could no longer breathe. What better way to alleviate that wretchedness of existence than to read the chivalrous "Ivanhoe?" Thomas Carlyle wrote extensively of his travels to London with clear pictures of the chaos, where neighbor was pitted against neighbor, competing for wages. The new society was highly impersonal, many factory owners did not know the workers that they employed, they were commodities. Thus the Romantic period in art, where beautiful natural scenes were depicted, a stark contrast from the reality of machinery and smog. Also, there was a trend to paint popular cities and landmarks in ruins, perhaps an apocalyptic vision of what they wished would happen.

I believe that I have said enough on this issue, and perhaps from understanding this, we can also get a sense of the direction our society is moving today. We still carry the trauma and pathology from the Industrial Revolution, and there are many today who simply cannot adapt to this Gessellschaft world. This is identified as Neurosis, in the sense that Sigmund Freud understood. We are addicted to mood enhancers, to "happy pills," merely because we are so stressed, and are not adapting well to the demands we put on ourselves. And so we live our lives still in the Romantic, wishing for something else, and often not adapting.

Photographs for Friday, March 19th Art Walk

Romanticism

I am reading a collection of Isaiah Berlin's lectures on Romanticism. What is becoming more and more obvious is the fact that too often we classify or label Romanticism as a movement or an ideal. I am not sure, but I think Berlin would agree with me in saying it is not a singular event or movement, but an unconscious driving force brought to life amidst some of the ugliest times in history. Think of the French Revolution, Industrial Revolution in England, or the war waged between the Catholic church and the Protestant dissenters. There is much more at stake than freedom, and what we understand as Romanticism was born from these ashes. Romanticism is deeply individual. One would argue, successfully I think, that it gave way to how our society functions today. I do not necessarily mean in the capitalist sense, I mean the staunch American individualism. We have taken a steadfast and serene individualism, not budging no matter what the cost, and applied it to our modern lives where its true meaning is lost in our government. Think of the inability of our government branches to agree on healthcare, for example. This is not Romanticism. It is perverted, it is not honorable, it is ugly. The true romantic is a person of belief. A person who is not swayed by the populace, someone who may be willing to die for what they believe to be true and good. This is not motivated by greed, money, power, but by the heart. We have lost our hearts.

Ice