#movement
“ For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfil themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree. When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars, all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years and the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured. And every young farmboy knows that the hardest and noblest wood has the narrowest rings, that high on the mountains and in continuing danger the most indestructible, the strongest, the ideal trees grow.”
- Hermann Hesse, Bäume. Betrachtungen und Gedichte
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Wassily Kandinsky Art, Composition VIII, 1923 VS. Inna Grebenyuk, Composition ХІVСМІІ, 2020.
SCRAW
The biggest benefit of creative movement practice is direct experience. When people experience physically and fully, they discover something greater than themselves. Direct experience sounds like a simple thing. Practically, it is on the contrary, it’s exceptionally rare. Life has its strange ways of educating us to turn our back on experience and move towards efficiency. We specify how to move, what we like to move and whereabout. This specificity is like saying to new movements “you have nothing to offer me”.
It is similar to spoken word. When babies and kids hear new languages they get curious and want to understand it. Serious adults, hear words that are different than their mother tongue and think “there is nothing there for me because I don’t understand it”.
Philosopher Kierkegaard argued that most humans live in the realm of ‘Human Concern’. This realm moves between representations of past, present and future. In between temporal considerations. “I came from X so if I do Y I will arrive to Z”. But X,Y and Z describe only a network of abstract ideas that point towards a representation of reality. A system of values based on disconnection, speculation and comparison. These temporal considerations lead to life lived in the eyes and the head. The realm of human concern is the opposite of direct experience. Direct experience is connected to the only expression that is unequivocally original, the expression of change.
Change is not a set of premeditated projects. True expression is discovered through what lies outside of us.
What is outside the realm of concern and the temporal? Meaningful discovery. The physical experiences that stay beyond the moment of their happening. They accompany us “timelessly” despite our inability to define what exactly makes them so special.
We don’t cage ourselves from meaningful discovery in a single day, we get habitually caged, gradually and slowly. Step by step we stop moving and stop taking risks. We stop taking leaps of faith.
Movement practice should be a leap of faith. To consciously become without trying to achieve. Leaping and moving towards what’s outside. Relearning that we don’t know much more than what we know.Movement Archery
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Playing at work.
Friends,
The reason I write is not just to inform (and occasionally amuse) you, but also to arm you with the truth so you can fight more effectively for the common good.
The forces undermining our democracy, polluting our planet, and stoking hatred and inequality have many weapons at their disposal — lobbyists, media megaphones, and money to bribe lawmakers. But their most powerful weapon is cynicism. They’re betting that if they can get us to feel like we can’t make a difference, we will give up — and then they can declare total victory.
Which is why we have to keep up the fight even when feeling deeply discouraged.
I’m not going to pretend. There’s a lot to be discouraged about right now — from Manchin’s torpedoing of “Build Back Better” to the surging Omicron variant of COVID-19 and the politicization of public health, from the Republicans’ assault on voting rights to environmental disasters all over the world. My message to any of you who feel overwhelmed, disappointed, or ready to drop out: I get it.
I’ve been in the trenches for five decades and sometimes I despair as well. Again and again over the years I’ve seen hard-fought dreams go up in smoke. Or been sidelined. Or ridiculed. Or I’ve watched them succumb to bribery and corruption. Two of the leaders I counted on most in my lifetime were assassinated.
But notwithstanding all this, we are better today than we were fifty years ago, twenty years ago, even a year ago.
I can point out so many examples in our own country, or all across the world, where movements that were once small and stacked against seemingly impossible odds, ended up winning and making America and our earth a better place to live. From Martin Luther King, Jr., to Mahatma Gandhi, to more recent examples like Stacey Abrams and Greta Thunberg, people have repeatedly changed the course of history by refusing to believe that they couldn’t make a difference.
It’s not only the famous leaders who are agents of change. Movements are fueled by individuals giving their time, energy, and hope. Small actions and victories lead to bigger ones, and the improbable becomes possible.
Nothing strikes fear in the hearts of those who want to prevent progress more than a resistance that is undeterred.
This fight, this struggle, all these big problems, can be exhausting. No one can go all in, all the time. That’s why we need to build communities and movements for action, where people can give what effort they can, and can be buoyed in solidarity with others. Strengthening our resolve. Sharing information and analyses. Fortifying ourselves.
Over the next few years the fight will become even more intense. We are even battling for the way we tell the story of America. There are those who want to go back to a simplistic and inaccurate narrative, where we were basically perfect from our founding, where we don’t need to tell the unpleasant truths about slavery, racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and all the other injustices.
But there is another story of America, one of imperfection but progress. In this story, which is far more accurate, reformers have changed this nation many, many times for the better. We got labor rights, civil rights, women’s rights, and LGBTQ rights. We got clean water laws and clean air laws, and health insurance for most Americans. We’ve torn down Confederate statues and expanded clean energy. We’ve got a new generation of young, progressive politicians determined to make the nation better. The list goes on and on.
The outcome of the fight ahead will not be determined by force, fear, or violence. It will be decided on the basis of commitment, tenacity, and unvarnished truth.
Here’s my deal. I’ll continue to give you the facts and arguments, even sprinkle in drawings and videos. I’ll do whatever I can to help strengthen your understanding and your resolve. Please use the facts, arguments, drawings and videos to continue the fight. To fight harder. To enlist others.
If at any time you feel helpless or despairing, remember that the struggle is long, that progress is often hard to see in the short term, and that for every step forward regressive forces are determined to push us backwards. Also remind yourself that the fights for democracy, social justice, and a sustainable planet are necessary and noble, that the stakes could not be greater or more important, and that we will — we must — win.
I wish you a restful, enjoyable, and restorative holiday.
Robert Reich
PS: If you’d like to join me on a (nearly) daily basis, please subscribe at https://robertreich.substack.com/
Rings by Murky.
When i die my body does not die with me. It awaits and transforms with the spreading paleness of stiffness. Like an arctic winter landscape each day draws closer and closer to the state of frozen.
The process of rigidity does not subdue until the final state in reached: stillness.
The body remembers its movement.
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It’s getting warmer out there but the movement continues! Too hot for a hat? Try a miniature pin instead. Hand knit to approximately 1 ½", these little nuggets of dissent are the perfect addition to your spring/summer look. These will be available at the @handmadetoledo Maker’s Mart in a few weeks and will be added to the shop soon.
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#dissent #dissentispatriotic #shepersisted #persist #resist #pin #pingame #pinstagram #accessories #shop #shopping #shopsmall #shoplocal #spring #summer #design #fashion #springfashion #summerfashion #womensfashion #womenstyle #knit #handmade #knitting #craft #ypsi #ypsilanti #annarbor #michiganmade #michiganartist #michigan #fiberart #yarn #yarnlove #movement #pink #hat #miniature
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Animation test WIP
#animation #houseof8stax #atestax #wip #anime #work #movement #film #art #cartoon #render #animate #animations #cartoons #motiongraphics #gif #gifs #animated #move #run #adobe #empire
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxqvlo0BcH7/?igshid=1b7g298ygtxvo
Jais Nielsen (April 23, 1885 - 1961) was a Danish painter and ceramics/glass artist. He was among the first Danes to absorb Cubism and Futurism/Vorticism into his art (he had spent 3 years in Paris from 1911 to 1914), and he shocked the Danish establishment by exhibiting works like this one:
Afgang!/Departure! - 1918 (oil on canvas). First shown at Charlottenborg, Fall Exhibition, 1918 - now at Fuglsang Kunstmuseum.
Gentle sea waves from the side island of Helgoland, called Düne. Original sharpness, photographed with moving camera, ICM by German based Manuela Deigert.
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