Cause and effect

Some people think, Bliss, that some things are "meant to be."
Meant by whom?
Not me,
    The Universe

Ah ha - someone who agrees with me

Bliss
xx

Sitting on a beetroot coloured stool

Barter books and mural http://www.barterbooks.co.uk/mural.php
Beetroot and bleeding story
SLAA questions
Serpahine
Colleagues baffling behaviour
Madness
Tiredness in the extreme
Hungarian photogrphers.

And there's more to come
Bliss
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Seraphine de Senlis 1914 France

16 March - Wife of French minister Joseph Caillaux shoots Gaston Calmette, the editor of Le Figaro because he threatened to publish Caillaux's love letters to her during his previous marriage. (She is later acquitted.)

26 April - French legislative election held.

10 May - French legislative election held.

3 August - Germany declares war on Russia's ally France.

9 August - Battle of Mulhouse begins, the opening attack of World War I by the French army against Germany.

26 August - Allies withdraw from Le Cateau to St. Quentin, after Battle of Le Cateau.

29 August - French Fifth Army attack St. Quentin.

30 August - French Fifth Army retreat from St. Quentin.

25 September - Battle of Albert begins.

27 September - First Battle of Artois begins.

1 October - Battle of Arras begins.

4 October - Lens is lost, as French Tenth Army fails to hold back the Germans.

4 November - Britain and France declare war on the Ottoman Empire.

20 December - First Battle of Champagne begins.

What a sad sad story.






I have just watched the film of her story. How Wilhelm Uhde discovered her work around the same time as he had discovered Rousseau but the first world war meant that Uhde left Senlis and Seraphine. She was in fact his cleaner whilst he rented in Senli to escape his art dealing world in Paris. But being a German in France as the war broke out he had to escape.
He returned to discover Seraphine still alive and her prolific works better than ever.



Uhde then sponsored her but by this time she was seemingly quite deluded, which worsened. She ended up being locked away in a mental asylum. By the time she had her first exhibition in Paris she was locked up and Uhde asked not to disturb her. But he made her life more comfortable presumably with the proceeds from her exhibition.
It was so sad a story. The madness of creativity. Or is it a society that cannot tolerate anything other than the usual.
According to this version of her life story seh was completely deluded though and a danger to herself at one point.
Horrid to think that people are so judgemental and afraid. I am sure I would have been beheaded or something. Certainly locked away and not allowed to be just me.
So many people are less than normal but play along to fit in some how. And all the creativity and uniqueness is stuffed away just as if they have been locked up. So it begs the question just as to who is the saner??
I can see the wonder in her art.  I actually do like it. Some pieces better than others. It's unusual for it's time.  I can't locate a version of the one featured in the black and white photo of her with her painting. But this one is probably the most outstanding.

Ah ha found it - this one I like

Oh apparently she made her red paint with animal blood.

Bliss
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Witnessing the witnesses

Inner peace doesn’t come from how much you have, but from how much you appreciate what you have ~ Themis Eagleson

Amazing how I have read similar messages today from different sources.
I have had a wonderful day. Stimulating and educational. Eyewitness - the Royal Academy exhibition of Twentieth Century photographers.
What creativity I have experienced today. And how grateful I am to have had the experience. A witness to witnesses. The pleasure I have experienced is from within. Stimulated by external things but the emotion is within me. I have that to keep for as long as I wish to recall the moments today.

I had to buy the book - there was just so much to try and retain and I knew I couldn't so I have bought the book to browse and re-browse. Now this is where the longing got me. I know, I know. I just couldn't let that little bit of longing go. I am able to share the book thought with A and G. As I drove up to London, they bought me lunch which was lovely. The petrol was shared and the parking was free. I got a student discount into the Royal Academy and I got a student discount on the book. Tra la la!! :)
As I walked around I read and learnt that they were so innovative. Of course with globalisation much of the skills and creativity have been copied in various forms. But now I have seen where much inspiration has come from.
It was interesting considering some of the thoughts of Susan Sontag on photography. Not in connection specifically with the Hungarian photographers but in general. For example her views of Diane Arbus or rather American freakishness captured moments. She seems to have a rather negative (excuse the pun) viewpoint of photography. Mind you I have not read her essays - just a snippet.

I would like to write more and share some of the photos I particularly liked. I will but right now I need to go to sleep.
A lovely but long day.

Bliss
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Everything packed tightly into boxes

Beings naturally experience pleasure; but when pleasure is contaminated with craving, not releasing it creates frustration and tedious suffering follows.
Dhammapada v.341

Ajahn Munindo says ...
With the right quality of mindfulness at the right moment, we can see why and how attaching to joy and sorrow perpetuates suffering. We become interested in how to experience pleasure without making it 'my' pleasure or creating an 'I' that is having a good time. Wise reflection shows us that when attachment is taken out of the experience, happiness isn't diminished - in fact it is enhanced. When we are accurately aware, intelligence can function in the service of insight. If we appreciate how grasping at the pleasure spoils the beauty, an ease of being emerges.

Mmmm interesting. Of course loaded with my own issue of addiction, which involves craving, this disease so far cannot be 'cured' and therefore the wisdom is to not 'pick up'. However when it comes to food and relationships the cure is about having boundaries and this is where I can get a little confused. If it is possible to have boundaries and therefore engage with the behaviour that is supposedly addictive, why isn't it possible to have boundaries around substances etc??? It is a question that really I am not looking for an answer to yet it does get raised often enough to make me wonder. The thing is I suppose that the craving is for an instant gratification to avoid dealing with something at a deeper level.
Then there is sexual gratification. This is the most powerful 'reward' known to man. It's no wonder people get addicted to it. I think it is a more powerful addiction for men than for women. Some women I hear a total sex addiction. For me I truly believe that the sex element is more about being in a relationship or gratifying a man. However I have experienced the joy of sex and it has become intense for me within the relationship or liaisons (for example slavery).
So I think when I have re-read the above statement by Ajahn Munindo I am gaining this understanding - I am not sure how to put it into words. Craving is an indication that I am believing that something external to me is the cause of happiness or pleasure. And what is far healthier is when I realise that actually it I that have experienced happiness and pleasure within me. If I remove the externals I can still experience happiness and pleasure just through being and if I engage with that happiness and pleasure. The longing or feeling of being without seems to bring pain and loss and actually that is within me. Again I can be with that loss and pain but remove the feeling of suffering because of loss.
Mmm not sure I have made sense of things there. I can be a light and happy person without the need of anything at all. This emotion is within me and accessible at any time I choose. I can choose to be happy. When the clinical depression isn't on me I can easily do that. I can acknowledge when I am suffering and re-think that quite easily. I would never deny myself my emotions though. And often I think the Dhammapada is talking about not having the full range of feelings. But actually I think it is the opposite. The spiritual growth is to take a look at the feelings and what is behind them. Suffering the Buddhists say is a necessary part of the journey towards healing and well being. Just as psychologists say that any change has varying degrees of grief - denial, anger, sadness, bargaining and then acceptance. Depending of the attachment levels the journey through those five will be variable. Often when reaching acceptance it goes again. It's a process, not to be stopped but to be observed and permit.
That's what I think. I do read it though as if the way I do it is wrong and feelings are not permitted - That is loaded with messages from the past. I think religions and belief systems are so misunderstood. Actually I know it's a legacy of history - interpretations and re-interpretations BUT I think the Victorian era had a lot to do with puritanical living. There was a very exacting attitude. Perfectionism. And then two world wars after which a sense of "should be grateful" as people had survived such hardship. It's interesting to step back and see how social events and situations impact upon beliefs and cultures.
And of course with the world wars it was about science - more and more equipment to outsmart the enemy. I expect people had to ignore the effects on people because it was so enormous. Although there was research intot he effects of war such as PTSD. I wonder why there was so little assistance then for sufferers. I always think the army can't really acknowledge problems otherwaise they would become compasssionate and lose the aggression to teach men to be fighters and killers. I do think the army selects angry young men. Men who do not know they are so angry. The are ripe for the job. Dysfunctional backgrounds gerasped and turned into fighting machines. Obviously Natonal Service meant that men were swept along wven though thery weren't naturally aggressive - and of course the desire to defend the country.


"19th-century society (1840-1900).  Late 19th-century society inevitably influenced the outlooks of many early psychologists. In an era dominated in the UK by Queen Victoria, it is perhaps not surprising that nineteenth century society is seen as strict and regimented, with little opportunity either for women or for individuality.  However, it was also an era of inventions – from the telegraph in the 1840s through to the motor car, telephone, and great advances in engineering, in travel and in the natural sciences. It was also in this period that modern psychology came into being in a number of countries. As an era, it was one in which it was believed that everything could be classified, ordered and tamed, through science, engineering and medicine. Perhaps not surprisingly, measurement and classification were two important themes in the work of early psychologists, alongside the development of medical psychiatry and early studies of hypnotism and hysteria. The development of psychology in the late 19th Century is also important because there were no funded University posts in psychology until the end of the century. As such, early psychological research was (with some notable exceptions) generally conducted by 'gentlemen scientists' who tended to come from privileged backgrounds"

"World War I (1914 - 1918).  Psychology was first used widely in the First World War in 1917, when mass psychometric testing was carried out by the US Army. Psychologists also studied 'shell shock' or war neuroses (later recognised as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD)
It could be argued that applied psychology was effectively born during World War I. For instance, studies of fatigue in munitions factories were the first major industrial psychology studies to be conducted. Psychologists also worked on specific programs, like for instance, the selection of hydrophone operators best suited for 'hearing submarines'.  According to Hearnshaw (The Shaping of Modern Psychology, 1989), the work of psychologists during World War I “helped to establish the claims of applied psychology, and led to its continuation on a still small, but nevertheless significant, scale” (p. 200).  "

"World War II (1939-1945). The Second World War had two main effects on the development of psychology. Firstly, a diaspora of Jewish intellectuals from Europe arrived in Great Britain and the United States, and secondly, psychological research was funded, and used extensively during the war.\n\n1. The diaspora.  The diaspora refers to the scattering of Jewish people around the world before, during and following the Second World War. This scattering of intellectuals had a pronounced effect, not because of the psychologists who fled, but also because of the many US or UK psychologists who came into contact with many new ideas for the first time. This included not only fellow psychologists, but also philosophers, linguists and novelists.
As well as the Jewish diaspora, a large number of gentile intellectuals also left Germany and mainland Europe before and during the war, often for New York or London, where they interacted and greatly influenced the existing scholars. According to Peter Robinson, who edited a volume of essays dedicated to Henri Tajfel  “…it is thanks to the émigrés of Henri's generation that the field gained a foothold in the academic world” (Robinson, 1996, p. xi).  2. Applications of psychology.  Unlike the First World War, when the application of psychology began only towards the end, psychology was used almost immediately from the beginning of World War II. Also, unlike World War I, where most psychological input was in the selection of recruits or treatment of 'shell shock', during World War II psychologists contributed in a variety of different areas. For instance, psychologists worked on:
• Personality psychometrics – Psychologists devised tests used for the selection of 'officer material' and in the main combatant forces. In the UK, the War Office Selection Boards were set up in 1942 for this purpose, and by 1945 some 100,000 applicants for officer rank had been psychometrically tested. Also, during the war factor analytic techniques first applied on a mass scale – for instance, H.J. Eysenck studied 700 patients at the Mill Hill Emergency Hospital during the war. This research was the basis for his subsequent theory of personality.
• Psychiatric disabilities of war – For instance, work at the Tavistock Clinic on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Psychoanalytic theories. 
• Attitude research - large research programs on attitude change and persuasion were funded by the American Army during the war. Related research on leadership and group behaviour was also extensively funded during this period.
• Interaction with equipment – World War II was unique in its reliance on human operation of new technology, in areas as diverse as air traffic control, radar or code breaking. This led to psychological research into topics such as vigilance, training, stress and decision making. During this time, some old concepts (e.g. attention) were investigated with new vigour, while new concepts (e.g. stress) were developed as explanatory concepts.
• The rapid development of neuropsychology in the 1950s was very much based on studies of combat victim's head wounds and their subsequent psychological functioning"

This is information from OU - just a snippet from the Timeline that I find very helpful. So yes everything was very rigid and tidy. Scientifically, what was going on within the person i.e. emotions and thoughts were considered irrelevant. So just do away with it altogether. Not practical. And I think this has a lot to do with the ways in which stresses manifest so mentally these days. Illnesses that are draining because emotions such as anger and sadness are not permissible. It's all about gratifiation and feelng good all the time. Feeeling good is a part of a process but more and more society offeres ways to instantly feel good. Then what happens with the yin of yang the black and the white the positive and the negative. All of thes things are what makes a being wholesome. Without working throught the black the negative the yin then the positive, the white, the yang is less fulfilling.
Well that's my thoughts on it anyway.
Drop the instant gratification and work through what is actually gong on and then truly feel fulfilling gratitude.
If only I could practice this all of the time

Right off to London - if the B's are actually fit and ready.

Bliss
XX

Art History Lesson - St. Ives Colony

Christopher Wood - known as Kit Wood. He had left his home for Paris with desires of being the greatest artist the world had ever known. However, Diaghilev rejected the commission for the ballet Russe. Kit was in no mind to adjust. And so, with a heavy addiction to opium he returned to the UK. He met and befriended Ben Nicholson and they travelled to St. Ives to paint. 
Sadly he died aged 29. He jumped under a train and was killed. He was paranoid and mentally becoming quite unwell. His addiction to opium had escalated and no doubt contributed enormously to his mental instability.
He moved to St. Ives when a commission in Paris was not liked and he was in no mind to adjust his work. In St. Ives he met with Ben Nicholson.

 
In his time, no doubt this paintings were truly avant-garde. A move away from painting literally and a step towards suggestion. A flatness with depth. I have no idea how to describe that better.

Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth. They met and started a passionate affair, eventually marrying. They had triplets and as a result of the bombings in London moved to the safety of St. Ives. Later Ben had an affair claiming Barbara was only interested in her sculptures. It's so saddening that something apparently so passionate ended in such heart ache. She looked up to him greatly still apparently despite how badly he treated her.



Everything is so light. I learnt that his final studio was in fact bright white light. A stark whiteness.

I was thrilled by the description of this piece by Barbara. According to the art historian Dr James Fox, Barbara was accused of being abstract. But she said she had captured the bay of St. Ives. The shape has been curled around. The white represents the beach and the lines are the waves as they roll in. I think it's stunning. I want it of course. At least I would like to see it at some time.
She was commissioned to sculpt for John Lewis in London


Inspired by the standing stones in the area and to be found all over Devon and Cornwall. She remained in St. Ive and sadly died in a fire at her studio. Previously, she had been creating larger and larger sculptures. Her work was in demand. An unusual achievement really for a female to succeed as a sculptress. Considering her delicate look, there she was chipping away in a very demanding art form. She had assistants actually but if anyone visited they had to hide away.

Ben and Kit had discovered the prolific painter Alfred Wallis. I love that he was painting on anything he could find, bits of cardboard, drift wood etc etc.
He died in very lonely conditions. Such a pity. He was never taught to paint and his style was unusual at the times. He was to influenced by any academic points of view. He was painting without perspective. What he said was that he was painting as he remembered things. It seems sad he was having to deal with the loss through change via his art. I wonder if he was stuck?
 

The very tiny house is apparently meant to be his brothers house. They had fallen out so he took out his anger through his painting. How funny!




At one point during the Second World War, Piet Mondrian joined the St. Ives gang. Now this is interesting because when Barbara and Ben were leaving London, they bumped into Piet, they had beckoned to Piet to jump in the car and go with them. He refused, not liking the countryside.





Fleeing from Russia, Naum Gabo joined the accumulating group of artists. He struggled to acquire the artistic provisions he wanted. However he managed to persuade ICI to allow him to trial various new plastic they were experimenting with.
 So delicate. The shapes he said were inspired by everything around him in St. Ives - shells, rocks, coves, the sea ad so on.

  At the end of the war he left for New York.

Terry Frost returned from the war and wanted to get far away from his home. So St. Ives was suggested as a bohemian centre. It was supposedly rivalling Paris at this time.





His son Anthony Frost is also an artist.
I didn't like these quite as much.

Peter Lanyon arrived ....
He wanted to get close to the feel of the place. He ran up hills to be caught by surprise by the view. He lay beneath the sky. He got wet getting close to the sea. He stood on the edge of the cliffs and climbed rocks. Eventually he got his solo pilots licence and glided over the countryside of St. Ives. All influencing his works.
Sadly his glider crashed and as a result of the injuries he died 4 days later.


Art critic Patrick Heron put down the pen and picked up the brushes. A good friend of Lanyon's.He lived up on a the cliffs. A harsh area to live and endure the elements at their roughest.
His work was influenced by the views from the windows of his house and also doors influenced him.


He also took great pleasure in putting colours on colours. He found the painting of the last bit of white where a new colour met another precious on painted exhilarating

A very interesting art history lesson.
Now I would like to venture down there and visit the Tate St. Ives and also Hepworths gallery.
Yes I will see if there is a way to get there and maybe camp locally.

Bliss
XX

A little bit of grrrrrr - hahahahahahahaha

Becoming more self aware is a joy to behodl.
I sent an email to a friend eariler today owning that I hadbeen completely wrong about something I was adamant I knew to be right. I checked it out as a seed of doubt was implanted at the time and discovered of course that I was wrong. Embarrassing to me but hey! In my head I am thinking I am always so certain about things and this is just one of many thigns that actually I am often wrong about. A lesson to be learnt about being less adamant and more enquiring but also cutting myself a slack because I do make mistakes sometimes and that's OK. Attitude is something I think I can learn to adjust.
LIke I use in my opinion about things I like and dislike - a revelation in being able to own my opinion - I can also say I think or do you know .....?
Anyway I received an email that aroused a grrrrrr in me. The reply said that my friend hadn;t believed me anyway at the time and blah blah blah. I interpreted by this she thought my email was to impart correct information and that she would have been silly enough to believe me. I did not think that at all. I have a feeling she has a big issue about being taken in and defends against that. This is not the grrr - it's the seemingly misunderstood purpose of my email. But what I have realised the level of grrr I have is actually a layer over the embarrassment I feel. It would not even be a grrrrrrrrr more of an irritation that she seems to have misunderstood my intention.
Anyway I laughed at myself when I stoped to think it all through. I have no need to continue the communication. I can actually truly let it go. There is often this jibe from her and many many times I let it go with no need to explain further. I am not sure if that's rught or wrong to do. Does it mean that the full communciation channels are not open - or is it simply that there is no need to anallyse further.
As I own my embarrassment about the knowledge bit I can laugh more at myself. And ask for help in altering the way I present myself. I do no ever want to appear arrogant or egotistical as I do find it distasteful in others. I think I would just like to practice being more enquiring instead.

So whilst I needed to keep a record of this as otherwise I forget it seems the littel lessons I get along my path, it was also a grand deviation from the essay I am attempting to draft.

 

“...the straightforward account of classical conditioning ... is quite easy to explain on the basis of simple changes in synapses” Describe the simple changes and discuss the extent to which all forms of learning can be explained by these simple synaptic changes.

The thing is the information in the books puts it so succinctly it seems silly to re-write it in my own words - tee heeeeeee hahahahahaha. It's ONLY a 1000 words. And then I have loads of reading to do on a subject that should interest me greatly - addiction. And a brief essay and some questions.
So useful this course in understanding the very basics of what is occurring in the brain and body as we go ab out being human.
Amazing. Utterly amazing.

Bliss
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