Inspired by Nature's example

          Nature is indifferent to the morality of the forms she sustains and gives birth to - she is objective and seemingly alienated about the cruelty or injustice one species inflicts upon another.  Practiced objectivity, then, is something I learn from her, as well as other people, and is yet another thing I have in common with her. 
          So a tradition of estrangement and alienation could be said to be inherent in life and common to everyone.  Bridging it is a challenge that can be met in a variety of mediums - merging ideas with form, pulling these two together in art, is one of those ways.

          Faulting Nature for her indifference is akin to faulting me for having a brain - both have inherent methods of operating that are productive and bountiful.  How can I resent Nature's means of expression, the means that give birth to a prolific abundance and variety that enriches me and gives me shelter?  We weave blankets from her cotton and wool keeping us warm while she needs to cool.  She provides us with the means to shelter ourselves from her "inhuman" methods.  But her methods are ultimately hospitable. 
          Civilization has spared me much of her terror, her cruelty.  But often, even during an earthquake, I just marvel at her power.  In the end I submit my body to her, leaving with her that part of me physically dependent on her.  Ultimately I lay under a blanket woven of soil.  But that part of me conscious of my separateness from her moves on, released to its own mysterious destiny.  Even then I may be able to visit her spaces in the same way I visit my own past.

          Even though I do not copy the visible world directly in my art does not mean I lack regard for it.  I convinced myself that depicting new objects and ideas in paint is the best way to honor the diversity I see.  Why should I paint a flower when Nature makes one so much better?  Will my painting ever smell as wonderful as a narcissus or stocks?  No. 
          I cannot sustain the desire to paint a thing that Nature makes so completely and so well.  I can sustain a desire to express my measure of reverence for the diversity she so clearly reveals.  The earth is a unique entity; we know of no sister planets.  Every individual living on her surface participates in this rare and wonderful setting.  Inspired by Nature's example I am compelled to contribute to this uniqueness.  Reverence is what disallows me from duplicating either the work of my ancestors or the handiwork of Nature.

          The capacity to think, ponder, consider and reflect is what makes me distinct from Nature.  This distinction sets up a condition of inherent duality which every generation is challenged to consider.  Social consciousness mediated by thought and feeling and then translated into action - transformed into tools and products - is what gives us civilization. 
          The state or relative health of civilization can be understood by studying "how man shapes and handles physical substances," because it can be assumed his thoughts and feelings are represented materially.  What I do materially, then, betrays and reveals how I reply to my contemplative distinction from Nature. 
          If I consume or produce without reverence for her, than I reveal a lack of capacity for reverence, a general lack of respect that is more than likely a reflection of my attitude toward myself.  Nature users are really no different in character then people users.  An industrial tycoon who is servicing human needs may actually have a great reverence for Nature.  A barefoot surfer who relishes walking on a colony of anemones as a cushion for his feet does not.  His attitude is the weapon he uses against her. 
          Even though the surfer is not shaping a marketable object, he is revealing a negative social consciousness by the manner in which he behaves toward a relatively defenseless creature.  It is in this way that one's behavior toward objects becomes a measuring rod of social consciousness.     

          Reflecting about the ties between action and attitude by developing an awareness of how they tutor one another is one of the primary activities that distinguish me from other mammals.  But if reverence is not an active component of my reflections, then it cannot become a component of my actions.  Without an intermingling of values and action, I cannot express reverence for anything no matter which medium I use.  Reflection is the activity that allows this intermingling to occur and is precisely what distinguishes me from organic Nature.