Brilliant Emergent I and II

"Brilliant Emergent I" and "Brilliant Emergent II", each acrylic on cradled wood panel, 8" x  10" x .75".  Ready to hang.  Available at The Salty Teacup


​“I believe that in the process of locating new avenues of creative thought, we will also arrive at an existential conservatism. It is worth asking repeatedly: Where are our deepest roots? We are, it seems, Old World, catarrhine primates, brilliant emergent animals, defined genetically by our unique origins, blessed by our newfound biological genius, and secure in our homeland if we wish to make it so. What does it all mean? This is what it all means: To the extent that we depend on prosthetic devices to keep ourselves and the biosphere alive, we will render everything fragile. To the extent that we banish the rest of life, we will impoverish our own species for all time. And if we should surrender our genetic nature to machine-aided ratiocination, and our ethics and art and our very meaning to a habit of careless discursion in the name of progress, imagining ourselves godlike and absolved from our ancient heritage, we will become nothing.”
― Edward O. Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge

Brilliant Emergent I

Brilliant Emergent II

Well that was a long quote!  But if you were able to get through the entirety of it, there is some incredible wisdom in there, from a scientist and writer I adore.

Wilson, a myrmecology expert, has me thinking about the brilliant emergent animals we are as humans in our Old World state.  And also how very out of touch with that we become as we advance technologically.  Here I sit, contemplating these words that I read on a computer and then copied, pasted and saved with technology.  To communicate with you, dear reader, via, ahem, technology.  Oy!

Wilson's words are tinder for the fire that is our need to get out into it - away from these buzzing, beeping, flashing things and into the wild.  Into the swamp, the forest, the fields, the ocean, that lake, that park over there or even your own back yard.  Connected with the primordial feel of wind and sun and rain on skin.  Connected with being...disconnected.  And so avoid becoming nothing.

Get out there today....I'll meet you.  Let's get gloriously disconnected.

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​About the art:  let's tell this story in pictures...

Congratulations to Dotty S. -  Wonder Mike chose you to win Monday's comment give-away!  Look for a little something sweet in your mailbox. :)