I’m not an artist nor the son of an artist (though I am the cousin to a couple). But, I’m intrigued by art. This isn’t just a “go to a museum and stare” sort of interest. It’s a realization there is something in the practice of art, something which spurs and reveals the soul in a way that bypasses the intellectual filters we attach to most verbal efforts.

This present page has fulfilled its function of providing a written discursus of my inner being, mostly because such a task must be regularly updated so as to best discover the trends and flavors of the moment, rather than just those times I can or am willing to fit in a moment of introspection.

In writing a paper on Illuminated Manuscripts a few years back I decided to do a very worthwhile thing. Rather than merely reading articles and books on the topic so as to get an academic bent to my efforts I also got out some pens and ink, bought some books on doing illumination, and settled into a brief flurry of drawing, learning the worth of symbols through the physical interaction.

I was surprised by the insights I gained, both in the work and in the time spent mulling by drawing. It forces a person to slow down and focus, in a way the pervasive listlessness of the Internet always seeks to rob.

So, in my curious situation with tools beyond my measure I’m thinking I might try an experiment of seeing how these tools take my measure. I open the program most every day, and most every day something comes out. I’m thinking these somethings say something, and over time, they might reveal the inner life more than my introspective analysis can. Some of these have already shown up in my Present Matters “change of pace” category, but I hope to keep a more steady selection going here.

I realize now there’s a lot of flurries and loneliness and indistinctiveness in what I am producing. I’m curious as life trends differently if I will also reflect something new.

This is an experiment, a journaling through art, even as I’m not an artist, which might make the efforts even more expressive in their psychological revelations. At the moment this page is a little hard to get to from anywhere else, with the more visible address saying Morning and Evening is closed. For the time being I’m leaving it like this, perfectly fine if anyone does show up here, but also pleasantly content with it being hidden behind some sticks and leaves.

Maybe not. We’ll see.