Tag Archives: painting

Wordless Moments of Being

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Symbol Reader

Throughout my life I have been a collector of memorable moments. If I decide I want to capture a certain moment, I stop in my tracks and tell myself to register the impression. I do not have an eidetic sense, … Continue reading →

Posted in Painting | Tagged art, Dasein, Faust, Goethe, Heidegger, painting, Peter Doig, while, wordless | 18 Comments

Esse Est Percipere (To Be Is to Perceive)

Posted on October 19, 2014 by Symbol Reader

1.“…he [William Blake] did everything he could to make his figures lose substance, to become transparent and indeterminate one from the other, to defy gravity, to be present but intangible, to glow without a definable surface, not to be reducible … Continue reading →

Posted in Painting | Tagged allegory, archetypes, art, esse est percipi, myth, painting, perception, symbolism, symbols, William Blake | 20 Comments

The Erotic Watery Dreamland of Henri Rousseau

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Symbol Reader

“In 1910, the year of his death, Rousseau gave the world his last dream, his extraordinary painting Le Rȇve. In a moonlit jungle clearing, a naked woman lies on a brown velvet-covered couch. In attendance are she-lions, birds of paradise, … Continue reading →

Posted in Painting | Tagged anima, art, dream, Dreaming, goddess, Henri Rousseau, lotus, painting, symbolism, symbols | 24 Comments

Haunting Paintings: “Wind from the Sea” by Andrew Wyeth

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Symbol Reader

I saw this painting today and became transfixed by it. The wind has brought the smell of the sea and the birds on the old and frail lace curtain have momentarily caught wind in their wings. I felt nostalgia, melancholia, … Continue reading →

Posted in Painting | Tagged Andrew Wyeth, archetypes, art, “Christina’s World”, “Wind from the Sea”, Iris, James Hillman, painting, pothos, symbolism, symbols, Zephyrus | 20 Comments

The Art of Resurrection

Posted on April 20, 2014 by Symbol Reader

Today my thoughts were directed to the phenomenon of Greek “abaton”: “Also called a mundus or earth-womb, the abaton was a real pit, standard equipment in a pagan temple. Those who entered it to ‘incubate,’ or to sleep overnight in … Continue reading →

Posted in Painting | Tagged abaton, art, Blake, Bruegel, Christ, Christianity, Ciry, Easter, Gay, incubation, painting, rebirth, Rembrandt, resurrection, rising from the dead, Rubens | 15 Comments

Famous Paintings: “Anatomy of the Heart” by Enrique Simonet y Lombardo

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Symbol Reader

“The Spanish painter Enrique Simonet y Lombardo, in the last year of the nineteenth century, … produced an admirable canvas showing the anatomic exploration of a woman’s body. … an old man holds in his hand the heart he has … Continue reading →

Posted in Painting | Tagged Anatomy of the Heart, art, autopsy, Enrique Simonet y Lombardo, heart, painting, symbolism, symbols | 25 Comments

Botticelli’s “Mystic Nativity”

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Symbol Reader

Sandro Boticelli, Mystic Nativity This beautiful painting has been one of my favourites for many years. I was always touched by the beautiful twelve angels dancing in a circle at the top, the three angels gracing the roof and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Painting | Tagged art, Botticelli, Christmas, Mystic Nativity, nativity, painting, symbolism, symbols | 17 Comments

In Heraclitus’ River: The Mystery of Time

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Symbol Reader

1. Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes … Continue reading →

Posted in Time | Tagged A Sense of an Ending, a union of opposites, Alain de Botton, archetypes, art, astrology, Beckett, clocks, Eliade, eternal return, Heraclitus, illusion of time, In Search of Lost Time, Julian Barnes, literature, Macbeth, memory, novels, painting, Proust, quantum physics, Shakespeare, Switzerland, symbols, Szymborska, the collective unconscious, the unconscious, Time, time and memory, time symbolism, Virgo, Waiting for Godot, watches, Yacek Yerka | 35 Comments

My Name is Red: Between the East and the West

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Symbol Reader

A great painter does not content himself by affecting us with his masterpieces; ultimately, he succeeds in changing the landscape of our mind. Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk is a Nobel winning Turkish novelist, whose Sun sign … Continue reading →