Scientists tell us that the amount of functional DNA in our genes is about 3% and matter represents about 4% of Space.  So 3% of the genetic material in our cells is responsible for human kind. Four percent of Space is responsible for all of the matter. Does means that 97% of the genetic material and 96% of space remain relatively unknown and purposeless? What kind of pattern of reality does this perhaps suggest. Scientists focus on that part of the gene that results in humaness. The rest they assume is the result of past evolutionary trials and errors and has been 'shut off' for practical purposes.  Representational artists focus on the 4% of space that is matter. Are both overlooking something that is worth further exploration? Why are the two percentages so close?  A question to ponder.         

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One of the most interesting facts about the Egyptian Pyramids is the 'scale up and scale down' history of pyramid building. In just 60 years, based on historical accounts, the Egyptians went from a pyramid containing 330,000 cubic meters of material t0 one containing 2,600,000 cubic meters of material(Giza/ 4th Dynasty). In addition the complexity of construction progressed on a similar order. In the intervening time frame only two other pyramids were attempted and they were left incomplete both with less than 50,000 cubic meters of material. What happened that would have made this possible? We know even today that technology does not appear magically and certainly even if it did it would not be applied in a short period of time. The human time frame and change does not allow that to happen. What is of more interest is that shortly after the Giza Plateau Pyramids the Egyptinas seem to have, once again, lost their ability to construct. Of the 22 known pyramids that followed the largest is said to have contained about 275,000 cubic centermeters of materal and most all of the 22 are in worse condition than those of Giza.  If one did not know better it would seem that some bit of magic occured during the 4th Dynasty not to be heard from again. Is this like our Space Program that had its 4th Dynasty magic time in the 1960's only to lose its way? Or is it because of some other more profound reason. This is I think worth exploring as within it may lie a key to productivity and progress.        

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  I applaud Obama's new direction for space exploration. It provides NASA with a focus for its mission. It will also help to foster the development of the commercial Space Industry. It brings clarity that has been missing in the past. This will allow the creation of new captial investment in Space thus accelerating progress.

Clarity is one of the missions that I always thought was primary in realtion to an effective goverments role. People like clarity as it brings a sense of understanding and stability. In the case of Space we can now move forward with a greater sense and understganing of the role that each of us should play. No longer need the private citizen sit on the side lines. Rather than just promoting space as the next frontier we can now move with more confidence and in a more deliberate manner. While several entreprenuers have already sought to develop some direction in space it has up until now been in areas that create little value. We have merely been dabbling.  Value creation is now not only possible but probable. The first to move will be the first to gain. The new 'west' is calling and the new adventure is about to begin in earnest.               

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Lack of information, or emptiness, is one of the key precepts of Chinese aesthetics. It is the experience of having done the work of art that is important and not the work itself. Is that the case with the Pyramids? Was it more important to the builders to have done it than to have recorded the how and why? In the arts it is the undsaid that carries the energy through the piece. As Simon Leys relates in his book The Burning Forest, 

" It should be observed tht it is precisely emptiness that provides the best conductor for this current'.

This energy is Qi. So perhaps it is this the lack of information that is the best conductor of the current of purpose and awe that is expericned when confronted with the great Pyramid. It and not the Pyrmaid is the underlyng energy with which we are confronted.  

 

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" Extant Egyptian records, whether written or pictorial, throw no light on the methods employed by the builders of the pyramids either in planning or in constructing their monumental works."

So says I.E.S. Edwards in his famous book The Pyramids or Egypt. Logically this makes no sense. But whatever information they used to construct the pyramids on the Giza Plateau must also have been quickly lost as the preceding contructions reveal a lack of the same sophistication of construction methods.

It also makes no sense that within the great pyramid and others there is no writing or pictorial illustration. If we are to believe that the purpose of the pyramid was as a tomb then why did they not follow the same procss as was later followed in the Valley of the Kings. There the tombs were fully decorated? This lack of records or other ornamentation in regards to purpose and the methods of contruction may provide a clue rather than a mystery. What can we suggest if we look on this lack of information as a clue.

1. The information used to construct the Giza complex came from somewhere and was lost quickly.

2. Wherever the information came from it is not apparent from other sites of antiquity that have been excavated.

3. No burial has been found in any of the Giza Pyramids or, I believe in any of the others.

4. No technology has been uncovered that would suggest methods that would allow the construction of these objects on such a grand scale. Some ideas have been suggested but none is productive enough to have been the method used. 

5. Such knowledge/ information would seem to be a treasure of any civilization and would most likely be protected and passed down to succeeding generations.

6. There is no mention from succeeding generations that they recieved any information on how to build the pyramids.

7. Pyramids that followed the construciton of the Giza Plateau seem to be trial and error projects to reverse engineer the Giza constructions.

8. If the number of people suggested particiatied in the construction of the Giza Complex it would seem likely that one of more would have in some way recorded some information in regards to the construction.

9. The constructions seem to have come out of nowhere. There is no construction information available that records the earlier pyramid building leading up to the Pyramids at Giza.

10. The Giza Constructions are like seeing a balance sheet of a small company that during a particular quarter grows immeasurably and then shrinks back to its original state by the next quarter with no explanation. How could life have proceeded normally in the face of such an achievement?

11. To the lack of information is the clue. It tells us that something extraordinary happened that for some reason came from nowhere, was not recoreded and was never successfully replicated.

 

This mystery is a part of my directon in exploring the ruins of past and future.  I paint these ruins, as a part of the new Burning Forest Series based on the essense of what I feel versus what I know.  As I saw them for the first time a year and a half ago they are, and will remain, one of the most fascinating challenges both artistically and  intellectually.                   

 

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We are all familar with the ruins of anitquity and many of these are captured in paintings on my site. The interesting thing is to ponder what the ruins of our current civilization will look like to those who will ponder them years from now. This idea is the beginning of a new group of paintings on the subject of ruins that I will be working on as a part of the new Burning Forest Series. Ruins of the past and ideas of ruins of the future will portray what I believe to be an interesting reflection on the direction of our culure and its relationship to the ideas of time and space. The following is a quote from a recent article in Parabola Magazine on what it means to be human. 

" As the cycle progresses, or rather decends, the very nature of time and space changes. In earlier ages, space dominates; the forms of things are more important, more real than the changes they undergo; time is relatively eternal."

In antiquity this was true but as we have progressed to the current part of the cycle time has begun to take over and the quality of what occupied space has changed. A deep state of calm represents a time dominated by space while agitation dominates a culture dominated by time. This is reflected in the architecture and the resultant ruins. This is the thematic concept of my new group of paintings.

The paintings will begin to reach the site this month and will launch my new Buring Forest Series. I hope you enjoy them.       

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Kandinsky wrote on the sprirtual in art. He said that in all ages their is a subjective outer esxpression that comes from an eternal inner objective need to create. While the outer expressions change from age to age the 'eternal inner spiritual objective' remains the same and is univeral for all. Stated a different way the eternal is one place and one thing for all people and all times. It is held in common and uses the outward subjective to point the way in each era. Is it not the same for religion? Aren't all of our religions just the outer subjective expression of the true eternal objective need for spiritual expression? If this is true then we must be confusing the outer relative expression with the objective inner truth. We have, as C.S. Lewis once remarked, confused the first and second things. We have taken our relative outer expressions and considered them the eternal truth. In art this is very evident. Each period has its 'ways' of speaking to the times. A recent book entitled, Mindset, points out another problem that arises when we confuse the inner truth with the outer subjective reality. The author tells us that we live in a world that has two basic mindsets. The first is that of a 'fixed reality' where we are what we are and we cannont progress. The second is one of an 'open growth oriented reality' where we can learn to progress and change. Is this not the same thing that Kandinsky is speaking about with the inner objective versus the outer subjective? Do we understand that operating from the inner truth allows for growth and change? Or do we think that our outer subjective and relative situation  is the truth? All of the major problems and challenges of our world are tied up in the answser to these two questions. Art can point the way but we need to understand that it is only a relative expression of the underlying truth that has never changed. It is thus always a marginal reflection through a veil of undersatnding and is not to be confused with the one eternal truth.     

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Historically space art has been focused on the lesser of the contents of space. It has almost exclsuively focused on the material aspects of the universe. The ironic thing is that these material aspcets only make up 4% of the visible universe. Why haven't we focused on the other 96%? Because the 4% is more obvious. It is easier to create a representation of material objects than suggest what may be the contents of the other 96%. This leads me to another supposition. If it is true that man is a physical metaphor for the universe then 96% of us may be non material. In both cases I think it is this other 96% that the artist and poet tries to suggest. They suggest that there is 'something more' and it is a lot more! Most of us intutitively  feel this to be true. Perhaps it is the artists job to remind us and suggest the way to a partial understanding of the other 96%. 

I personally have turned the corner and will begin to explore the other 96% in both my space paintings and those of terrestrial focus. I think this is a better way toward progress and the possible creation  of forever paintings.       

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The golden section to some has represented logos or the male reproductive action. According to Peter Tompkins, in his book on the Secrets of the Great Pyramid, it not only represents this but also the logos of the gospel of St. John. How did the Egyptians see the golden section and why is it embedded in the construction mathematics of the Great Pyramid? Why do paintings that use the golden section and othe works of art appeal? I think that it is embedded in our sense of beauty and reflects a key to  the underlying structure of the universe. It is one of those universal 'somethings' that make sense and yet cannot be explained. The concept that I think it reflects is that of 'something from nothing' which as the scientists now tell us is the truth of our universe. As we now understand the negative energies exacty offset the postive.  You begin with nothing and you end up with something. A something that is endless as is the creative funtion that the Egyptians believed the golden section to be.      

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Having visited the Kings Chamber in the great pyramid I must admit that it first appears to be more of a sensory deprivation chamber than a place of burial. The Egyptian culture was focused on how the interior life manifested itself in outward actions. Therefore I  would not be surprised if these chambers, which we know were used for initiation rights, were also used by the priests to help their royal counterparts reach a deeper level of inner being. A level were a greater harmony exists and the truth can be seen. Silencing the five senses is necessary for this to be achieved and the chamber that I experienced would have been a perfect laboratory for the experiment. 

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