never-ending gallery

[Geoffrey]

pencil sketch

lady with the highway blues

[LisaLCFan]

pencil sketch [drunks in a midnight choir]

That picture could give people nightmares! (I don't see happy drunks singing -- I see people clawing at each other and screaming! Perceptions can be so different, can they not?)

[AlanM]

Just to show you that I am still here,
"You don't know me from the wind,
You never did you never will ..."
is my ringtone for unidentified callers.

Alan

[Geoffrey]

LisaLCFan wrote:
>Perceptions can be so different, can they not?
---
let's hope so. different interpretations of the same thing encourages discussion.
----------------------------------------------------------
AlanM wrote:
>Just to show you that I am still here,
>"You don't know me from the wind . . . "
>is my ringtone for unidentified callers.
---
so glad you are still here, alan! not everyone can edit a soundbite. audacity?
----------------------------------------------------------
-g

[Geoffrey]

woman who knows hardship

[Geoffrey]

more notebook illustrations

[LisaLCFan]

more notebook illustrations

Hmmm, two recent sketches featuring slim and pretty young women in provocative clothing and poses...

Various thoughts come to my mind, but I shall refrain from expressing them!

[its4inthemorning]

When I first glanced at "pencil sketch," I was expecting to see "Let's sing another song boys" as the title.

4

[Geoffrey]

LisaLCFan wrote:
>Hmmm, two recent sketches featuring slim and pretty young women in provocative clothing and poses...
>
>Various thoughts come to my mind, but I shall refrain from expressing them!

i don't really know how to respond to that, except maybe to thank you for being interested. it's always great to read what people think of these pictures
---------------------------------------
its4inthemorning wrote:
>When I first glanced at "pencil sketch," I was expecting to see "Let's sing another song boys" as the title.

someone else had a similar comment, so you are not alone. the picture was inspired by an acquaintance who asked what leonard meant by 'a drunk in a midnight choir'. i explained that it almost certainly referred to people leaving a pub at closing time. as you probably know, they often sing happily and loudly together without a care in the world as they stagger home.

[LisaLCFan]

...the picture was inspired by an acquaintance who asked what leonard meant by 'a drunk in a midnight choir'. i explained that it almost certainly referred to people leaving a pub at closing time. as you probably know, they often sing happily and loudly together without a care in the world as they stagger home.

Do they? I thought that was just a fictional thing that one sees in movies or TV shows, but I don't really have a lot of experience leaving pubs/bars at closing time, at least not in recent years (and in the past, I don't recall groups of people singing as they left for the night -- maybe it's different in other parts of the world). However, I do know that a lot of people yell and shout when they are drunk, at least, around here, and one can hear them bellowing in the wee hours when the bars/pubs close.

Am I the only one who saw your singing mob as a scene from a horror film? Perhaps it relates to my lack of experience with groups of singing drunks (mind you, neither do I have experience with groups of people clawing at each other and screaming, and yet...).

[Geoffrey]

LisaLCFan wrote:
>I don't recall groups of people singing as they left for the night -- maybe it's different in other parts of the world). However, I do know that a lot of people yell and shout when they are drunk, at least, around here, and one can hear them bellowing in the wee hours when the bars/pubs close.

i have stood on my balcony and witnessed it quite frequently.

>Am I the only one who saw your singing mob as a scene from a horror film?

as per today, you are the only one out of 103 people, but the drawing was not meant as a 'rorschach' test.
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back in the summer i mentioned that i was looking for a new home. at last, after many property viewings and being outbid several times, i have finally managed to acquire a place. it is not perfect, but very modern and suitable, two small apartments reconstructed into one (see layout below) - and the keys will be given to me on 1st november. the reason i say this is because i will probably be quiet for a short while. there is a lot to move, and it might take some time to fix an internet connection.

[LisaLCFan]

LisaLCFan wrote:
>Am I the only one who saw your singing mob as a scene from a horror film?

as per today, you are the only one out of 103 people...

Awesome! I love being different!

Your new place looks great -- hopefully you'll have a nice view from those two balconies! Good luck with the move!

[its4inthemorning]

A different perception: I see "Woman Who knows Hardship" as "Woman Who Knows Wisdom." IMO, your best "geometric drawing" thus far!

Your new home has a nice layout, hope you enjoy it. What will be your view from the balconies? Any golf courses close by?

4

[LisaLCFan]

A different perception: I see "Woman Who knows Hardship" as "Woman Who Knows Wisdom."...

That's a different type of "perception" than my having seen Geoffrey's singing mob differently than the rest of you: my perception was primarily and literally visual, a sensory perception, and it was not dependent on knowing anything about the personal history of the people depicted, but merely on how they looked to me in a picture -- I literally "saw", with my eyes, screaming and clawing people. Of course, sensory perceptions are interpreted in one's mind, and how each person's mind deciphers their own sensory perceptions will be unique and based on how their mind functions and on everything else that they have ever experienced, etc., but the initial perceptions are what may be described as "raw" or "new" -- they are simply sensory data that enters the mind through the senses. In this case, my initial perception was sensory and visual, for, other than recognising Leonard Cohen, I never had any previous thoughts about the people in that drawing -- all of my thoughts about them were brand new, based on what I saw when I looked at the picture with my eyes (which was information/raw-data that my mind subsequently interpreted as being something rather horrific!).

Your "perception" involves knowing about the person depicted, before having seen the drawing, and thus you "saw" her based on your knowledge and understanding of her and her life. You therefore used the word "see" figuratively (as many people do), in the sense of "understanding" or "knowing" ("seeing" with the mind, not with the eyes), which has nothing do with visual perception -- if somebody simply mentioned her name, without any visual representation, you might immediately think of wisdom, whereas Geoffrey might think of hardship, but again, you'd have to know about her and her life to make that assessment, for it involves a lot of information that is not purely visual.

Mind you, if Berkeley (George, the British Philosopher) was right about Idealism, then everything is actually mental, and what we think of as the objects of our sensory perceptions are really nothing more than mental images and ideas in our minds (or in someone's mind). If that is the case, then how I used the word "see", and how you (4) used the word "see" is not really all that different, for we would both be referring to mental ideas of some sort, without the line that I was drawing between visual objects (like drawings) and mental ideas like knowledge of another person's life. Of course, if one takes philosophical Idealism to one of its potentially logical conclusions, then it can lead to solipsism, in which one can only know one's own mind, and thus, even if other minds do exist (and they may not -- there would be no good reason to think that they do), one could not know anything about them. And therefore, to say that one knows about the life of another person would be no more than saying that one has a variety of ideas in one's own mind that they associate with another person, but that other person is actually no more than just a part of the mind that is having the ideas about them. Of course, using Berkeley's own motto that "to be is to be perceived", then, if one perceives another person, in any way, then that other person would exist (they would "be"), even if their existence consists of nothing more than ideas in the mind that is perceiving them.

"Perception" is such a loaded word, and such an infinitely complex concept, which can happily lead to one questioning and wondering about virtually everything that one thinks that one knows about the world, existence, and pretty much everything! Many people have written many books and articles about "perception" -- absolutely fascinating stuff! Cheers!

[Geoffrey]

i wanted to comment on what has been written, but got carried away talking on the phone and sketching. have to shower and get ready to meet people at eikenosa in one hour. today marks the end of summertime, according to my almanac - stay warm. back soon as poss