Presentation, rather than representation of the fourth dimension

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Athens earthquake

Acrylic and newspaper collage

©1999 Charlene Brown

I put together this collage after experiencing an earthquake in Athens in September 1999. It has been fitted into Chapter 3: Are artists better able to visualize problems and solutions? of the book outline I posted on November 4, accompanied by the following text.

As analytic Cubism (the process of fragmenting and abstracting artwork to give it a multiple perspective) progressed, Picasso and Braque gradually shifted to synthetic Cubism. Although still using all of the principles of Cubism, they then started making collages and assemblages. These new pieces further enhanced the idea of presentation, instead of representation, and the fourth dimension, time.

Painting cards - and an encouraging discovery

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Lake O’Hara X 2

Watercolour on 140 lb. cold press cards

©2013 Charlene Brown

When I painted the first four Lake O’Hara cards, I couldn’t decide which I preferred because the best bits weren't all on the same card.  I wrote that I might paint more in a couple of weeks… and then I’d have the best bits spread over eight cards. Well I only painted two more, this time in a more spontaneous style.  And once again, the parts that turned out didn't all find their way onto one card.

But one rather encouraging thing I’ve discovered, and perhaps there is a lesson here, is that every single card looks better standing alone, nowhere near another which may have a better waterfall or reflection or skyline or something.  

Virtual Paintout in Iceland

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Þjóðvegur

Watercolour

©2013 Charlene Brown

This month the Virtual Paintout is in Iceland. I wonder if anyone besides me headed straight for the famous Blue Lagoon… It must be the most photographed place in all of Iceland, and I thought it would probably be very paintable. Well, it turns out to be yet another place that the Google camera car didn’t really get to, and the view from the parking lot showed only the huge geothermal power plant – impressive, but not a pretty sight – with not so much as a glimpse of the huge expanse of warm cerulean water I had hoped to find.

Fortunately there turned out to be countless spectacular views of waterfalls and jagged lava  formations all along the south shore. Here’s a link to the one I painted.

Painting cards - decision time!

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Lake O’Hara X 4

Watercolour on 140 lb. cold press cards

©2013 Charlene Brown

   The first time I painted a set of cards, I experimented with two ways of taping cards to the board, folded or flat, and discovered when I removed the tape, a bit of one of the flat paintings ripped off.

   The next set of cards were all taped folded, two with only the back attached to the board, and two with all edges taped, resulting in cards with and without white borders. Not surprisingly, the flapping cards with only the back taped were really hard to work with… This time I attached them all folded and taped all round.

   My next decision is whether to paint more originals or make photocopies of the best one, and my problem is that the parts of the painting I’m happiest with are not all on the same card. I think I’ll paint more cards in a couple of weeks… but then I’ll probably have the parts I like spread over eight cards.

Virtual Paintout in a different light

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Lomnický štít after dark

Watercolour
©2013 Charlene Brown

Last month I did a second painting of Lima Peru, of an area that hadn’t been covered by the Google Streetview camera.  Because I was no longer limited by Google Streetview’s understandable lack of night scenes, I was able to select a striking night view of the Lima Cathedral.

I like the idea of painting night scenes, and decided to try re-visiting some of the previous Virtual Paintout locations I have done, and paint them ‘in a different light.’ In the case of Lomnický štit, I didn’t have a night photo available, so I just guessed what light might be available not long after sunset in this northwest-facing scene.

The second step in organizing a book

Inuksuk in Victoria Harbour |Watercolour and crayon |©2013 Charlene Brown

Explaining strange new ways of visualizing

Such as a curved universe

Or a parallel universe

 Or supersymmetry

Or fractals

In my first blog post about organizing a book, I mentioned I was following the advice of ChrisGuillebeau, who said the perfect introduction to a book often comes late in the writing process... I decided I should start lining up aspects of the book that I have already written about, and have been doing that for several blog posts now.

But… Chris also points out that when you work from the middle indefinitely, a manuscript will become disjointed, and it requires some effort to stitch it all together.  Before too long, you should draw up an outline. After that you will be ready to write an Introduction. 

So here’s my first stab at Step 2 – an outline.

The Fine Art of Physics

Introduction: Art and Science – the subjective and the objective

1.    History of breakthroughs in the arts and sciences – parallels and crossovers

2.     Is imagination more important than knowledge? – Einstein thought so!

3.     Are artists better able to visualize problems and solutions?

4.     Are artists more innovative, and capable of lateral thinking?

5.     The next Leonardo Da Vinci – with both subjective and objective genius

The illustration above, which I believe will fit into Chapter 3, shows excerpts from a computer-painted video, ‘The Theory of Everything’ that I made in 2008.  

The Theory of Everything, or Unified Field Theory, when it is finally formulated, will combine quantum mechanics and relativity, and could explain everything about physics.This would make just about anything possible – anti-gravity, time travel, inexhaustible convertible energy, teleportation… Strange new ways of looking at our universe are required.