Aesthetics

In Good Company

             By

Linda Lee Greene

                                                                        “Aesthetics”

My dictionary lists four definitions of the word “aesthetics.”  Number one is given as the way something looks, especially when considered in terms of how pleasing it is [outward appearance].  Number two takes a more general approach with an idea of what is beautiful or artistic [idea of beauty].  Three focuses on academics with the study of the rules and principles of art [study of art], and four the branch of philosophy dealing with the study of aesthetic values, e.g. the beautiful and the sublime [study of beauty]. 

               These definitions suggest to me that not only can we find our individual pathways to aesthetics in art, but also in literature, music, Mother Nature, among others.  One of my living/breathing resources for incorporating it into my life is the Grove City Arts Council.  Town Center of Grove City and City Center of Columbus, Ohio, where I live, are about eight miles distant from each other, and both are vital components of the celebrated arts community of Greater Central Ohio.  My first and brief membership in the council was in 1985, but as circumstances in my life then precluded my continuing commitment, I dropped out.  I found it again though when I just could no longer do without the purpose and the direction it would be instrumental in bringing to my life, and I rejoined it in the fall of 2009, and have been an active member since then. 

I was one among several new members of the council that fall.  For reasons I suspect related to my own, that of needing desperately to find validation as artists, new members have continued to flock to the organization, swelling it from a traditional membership of perhaps fifteen or so to currently approaching forty.  Its mission statement reads:  “The Grove City Arts Council is comprised of a body of artists and art enthusiasts who are dedicated to sponsoring venues for diverse artistic expression, supporting young artists through the Art Scholarship Fund, and promoting interest in the arts in Grove City.” 

                Encompassing a diverse group of highly talented fine artists, photographers, and crafters, we meet once a month to avail ourselves of the networking opportunities brought to the table by our members, as well as by outsiders, showing our artwork in group shows, and raising money through our special events for our Art Scholarship Fund.  Without question the scholarship program is our proudest achievement for we have the opportunity each year of supporting the college art educations of three or four high school seniors slated for graduation from the four high schools within the Southwestern City School District. 

                Our legacy of three decades of investment in the futures of our young people, of enhancing the attractiveness and the quality of our communities, these traces we are leaving of ourselves for the betterment of tomorrow’s world—traces of the beautiful and the sublime, enhance the quality of our individual lives, as well.  When life’s other pressures threaten my commitment to the council, I remind myself that a large part of living life whole and wholly is to “feel pleasure in the pleasures of others…to [have] a capacity for concern about events not directly related to our self-interest,” to quote Judith Viorst in Necessary Losses, and in my own words to respond to that pull of my fellow members and those kids, all of whom rely on me to help them realize their dreams.       

                A busy month awaits the Grove City Arts Council.  Friday, March 24, 2012 will feature our yearly special event, Night on the Town, the total proceeds of the fund raiser, as always, deposited to the Art Scholarship Fund.  Held in Grove City’s Town Center, your ticket avails you of a production of Neil Simon’s beloved play, Lost in Yonkers, to be shown at Little Theater on Broadway, art installations at Sommer House Gallery and Dreaming Tree Galleries, live music, and more.  For tickets, contact Sommer House Gallery, Inc. (614) 871-4620 or log onto www.sommerhousegallery.com

                Old Town East, a refurbished, historic neighborhood in Columbus will find many of us in a group artshow hosted by COBENICK STUDIOS GALLERY & EVENTS, 66 Parsons Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43215.    The artworks will be on exhibit from Saturday, March 31 through Tuesday, April 10, 2012.  Starting at 8:00pm through 11:00pm on Saturday, March 31^st, the event will be launched with an open-to-the-public reception whereby you will have the opportunity of meeting the participating artists.  For further information about the reception and exhibit, call (614) 260-2021 or log onto WWW.COBENICKSTUDIOS.COM

Ranging in age from late eighties to early twenties, the group of first-rate, devoted, and caring human beings of the Grove City Arts Council is infused with abiding vitality and enthusiasm, each one whose life purpose, to an enormous extent, is expressed in his/her Shining Creations as well as in efforts to support young people on the same path.

If you are interested in learning more about the Grove City Arts Council, its programs, and to view samples of artwork of some of our members, log onto www.GroveCityArtsCouncil.org

Linda is the author of the soon-to-be-released novel, Guardians and Other Angels, published by Saga Books.  She is also the co-author with Debra Shiveley Welch of the suspense novel, Jesus Gandhi Oma Mae Adams also published by Saga Books, and available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com.

To view the online gallery of Linda’s artwork, which includes several recently completed paintings, log onto www.gallery-llgreene.com

“He Has as Many Gods as Stars”

In Good Company

My life as an author and an artist is highly rewarding in many ways that are essential to the nurturance and evolution of my Soul.  Among the rewards are the extraordinary individuals with whom I come into contact during the course of my artistic pursuits, persons who light my way through the products of their exceptional talents, at times the sharing of their expanded minds, and often, the offerings of their open hearts.    

My work as an interior designer also opens the doors to me of many homes of new people on a weekly basis, and now and then in that endeavor, hearts are opened to me as well, hearts full of treasures that inspire me, that astound me, that make the light of my journey brighter and clearer.

                Books, artwork, films, Mother Nature, among other things, support my journey, too.  Viewing the films of Turner Classic Movies for instance, especially stories of a historical nature, is one of my favorite ways of boning up on history.  Those old, black and white, story-driven movies speak to my storyteller’s heart.  The Great Depression and World War II are genres I especially appreciate.

I’ve created this blog as a means of introducing to you the individuals and activities in whom I hope you will also find aids in your journey.  It is my desire as well to give validation to the Luminous Souls and the Shining Creations in whose good company I am blessed to find myself.  I begin with Theodore “Ted” Waterfield:

“He Has as Many Gods as Stars”

My introduction to Ted and his lovely wife, Mary Catalano Waterfield, occurred when I was engaged in an interior design project with them.  Having chosen to remain in their home during their retirement years, they are making changes in it to accommodate that goal.  I was able to assist them in an aspect of that venture.  During our time together, Ted very proudly showed me three of his father’s superb paintings.  Two of them were prominently displayed on walls of the home of Ted and Mary, the third one featured on a little book of Ted’s poems he published several years ago, a book titled, “Sandusky Bay,” named for the area from which Ted hails.  Recognizing that here was a couple for whom art and books are central to their quality of life, I took the opportunity to invite them to an artist’s reception the following Sunday, the event to take place at a nearby gallery.  A number of my own paintings were exhibited there among works of art of several of my artist associates of the Grove City Arts Council, a group of artists, photographers, crafters and art appreciators active in the art scene of Greater Central Ohio.  I told them, as well, about my book, Guardians and Other Angels that is scheduled to be released in the coming weeks, explaining to them that it is my second novel.   Ted responded, “I’ve also written two novels, both of them very bad.  I’m actually much better at poetry.  I write a poem a day and post it on my website,” he continued as he discreetly slipped a business card into my hand.  I had the strong sense that I had just met a kindred spirit with whom I needed more contact for the good of my Soul, and I engaged him in a short conversation about the process of writing–about the process of creating any form of art.  My intuition about him confirmed, I slipped his card into my bag as I was leaving and was able to log onto his website a couple of weeks later. 

                As I read some of his poems, it was as if the energy of the Universe, the entire spectrum of its vibration coalesced in his words and sang to me through my computer screen.  This man knows things that everyone needs to know, I said to myself.  I decided then and there that Ted just had to be my first guest on my blog.

When we talked by telephone to schedule the interview for this posting, I suggested a morning hour on an approaching day.  “Oh no!  That won’t work!   I exercise religiously six mornings a week.  You see I’ve had three stents put in my heart and I think the exercise is keeping me alive,” Ted replied.  With this statement Ted revealed to me that here is a man intimately engaged with his own mortality.  I wondered if it was the motivation behind his drive to write a poem a day.  When a few weeks later, we met at his home, I, with my tape recorder and tablet, Ted, with his big and wide, open heart ready to tell me “His truth,” as he calls it, he confirmed to me that my hunch about his motivation was right-he doesn’t want to leave this life with all of his words still inside of him. 

I asked Ted what message he would like to impart in this treatise.  “Think like an angel and not a brute.”  It might also be the title of one of his poems.  He added, “If I’m loved, I want people to get something from it.  I want it to be a very happy experience for them.”  He ended our interview by saying, “Judge me by who I became, not by what I went through getting there.”  Read on and you will experience in Ted’s poems what he has gone through, and where he is now, a place anyone would envy.  These poems are published with the permission of their author.   

Bread on the Water

I shove longings into crevices

and they grow flowers.

I reach for clouds

and snowflakes fall.

Wind gushes

over the brim of goblets.

Stories open

their beginnings and ends

in beautiful pauses.

I am made whole,

allowing night

to begin and end,

and dawn to return

with yellow hands.

                                                                      Theodore Waterfield

Life is Long

One day, I thought,

life is short.

And then a rain began

to fall in me.

A wind began to blow

and tear the world apart.

The dirt pulled on my feet

and the life I had lived

became a stranger’s life,

a life I had led long ago,

somewhere else,

and in a twinkling,

in a flash of a smile,

I knew I had outgrown time.

I could never hope to know my life.

It was too huge,

too mysterious,

too sweet and sad,

and comes to me like riptides,

flashbacks into falling,

as if someone asked,

is life short?

I would tell them,

it is long,

terribly distant,

and full of notes to myself,

not to forget,

no matter the cost.

                                                               Theodore Waterfield

The Light of St. Peter’s

It was a basilica of marble and light.

My feet hurt,

but not as much as my heart.

Beauty is a giant spear.

It is lightning in the eyes.

On the steps

I looked across the great plaza,

to buses, cars,

streets running like tributaries

from a glowing lake.

People wandered,

solitary,

in pairs,

or like tribes crossing a desert.

What had I expected to find?

The hollowness of hills?

It was here.

The sound of a shore

and the sighting of a sea?

It was here.

A bazaar of people looking for their souls,

taking pictures,

murmuring like the wind in the trees?

It was here.

Or my own unexpected sense

of looking behind a door,

and finding the faces of mysterious beings,

Michelangelo,

Peter

the remote faces of Jesus and Mary?

It was here.

And they said nothing,

letting the words be my own,

their vision

whatever I brought

from the valley of my life,

into this vast church,

the soaring dome,

an arcade of hope

of unquenchable thirst

in stone, paint, mosaic,

showing the arms of God

looking for his children

like a father,

hopelessly in love.

                                                                Theodore Waterfield

Where Are the Poets

Why do scribblers write poetry and poets write nothing?

Because there’s death in confronting beauty.

Wounds no one can bear.

A search confronting inevitable loss.

Poets hide lest they be eaten,

thrown in the sea,

consumed by the flames of the faithful,

ridiculed by fools and realists.

They are fragile beings

who whisper, I am fog looking for shape.

Laughter looking for joy.

I have as many gods as stars.

Words fly from my heart

like birds looking for a country

where they are not hunted.

I write poems of air,

and die without remains.

Words drowning in silence.

                                                                                                                                         Theodore Waterfield

   http://www.theodorewaterfield.com

By the way, Mary and Ted came to my artist’s reception.  It was so sweet of them considering we had only just become acquainted.  Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you, and especially to Mary and Ted Waterfield.

To view the online gallery of my artwork, log onto www.gallery-llgreene.com