Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
Table of Contents:
Autobiographical
Lollygagging
What a wonderful word. To amble and even ramble in a lackadaisical way. As in “Don’t lollygag, now.” But indeed, my age, the 70s, is a luxurious time to lollygag. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkle were a popular singing duo in the later 60s and early 70s, and in 1967 they recorded a song titled […]
Lords of the Dance
Well, actually a Lord in the British hierarchy of nobility is not all that high of a status. ("Lord" is how Marquess, Earls and Barons and their sons as well as the sons of Dukes are addressed.) But really I’m referring to third- or other lower order spirits of each dance, as if each dance […]
Losing It a Little
I’m still pretty sharp and productive, but my kids notice that sometimes I repeat myself. But I have been consciously making choices about not paying as much attention to conversations. When I start to lose interest I allow myself to drift into my own thoughts. (I learned this morning that Winston Churchill did the same!) […]
Low-Grade Mysticism?
As I’ve been contemplating the nature of some more vivid dream images, it occurred to me that I’m experiencing in dream-imagery some aspects of the lower levels of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Semi-mythically speaking, “my” angels—the super-conscious forces, personified, of whatever is “growing” me—have been reminding me increasingly of the seemingly infinite horizons in […]
Make a Splash!
This cartoonist Wiley Miller sometimes expresses wonderful truths. I particularly liked this one. It was a fair description of my life other than a moderate mis-caricatur-ization of my adolescence. Mine was less goth on the surface, more dorky. And the last phase may be age-ist, the cliche of the cane and all. But the joy […]
Mandala As Primal Diagram
Circular, vaguely or finely symmetrical drawings that usually show a center and a periphery—such are called “mandalas,” a word used in India. They recognize that certain kinds of art can stimulate meditation. I began drawing mandalas when I was about 30 years old. I was influenced in 1972 by a book titled “Mandalas” by Jose […]
Mandaladoodle
You may have noticed that my drawings and mandalas are less than perfect or professionally painted. This is for several reasons: (1) Ideas come thick and fast, and so I get impatient. (2) I confess to being a little lazy. (3) I want to get this out to you while they’re still fresh in my […]
Mandalas
For the last several years I’ve become especially intrigued with the art form of mandala-making, and especially my own form, which often involves making variations of nine circles in a circle. (See a recent example). This has no intrinsic meaning other than it appeals to me intuitively, but were I to try to put into […]
March is Bustin’ Out All Over
I checked in with the powers-that-be, and was able to connect with one “Neo-Demetria,” who told me she was an assistant to the archangel in charge of Springtime; in turn, she checked the map and schedule and said, “A-yup, in central Texas Spring started two weeks and four days early, rounding off the hours and […]
Mature Love
I’m having a love affair with my own wife! Yay! It’s a mature kind of love, not young love— that’s why I bother writing about it. Nothing need be in secrecy. Mature adults can be deeply, sweetly in love.. I get a kick out of her. I get a kick out of thinking of nice […]
Maturity Becoming Obsolete
The very idea of “maturity” as having “grown up enough” is passing. We live in an era of exponential development where, by the time someone has grows up, the world has changed. The maturity involved in being fully “mature” keeps receding, like the horizon. “Maturity” has advanced beyond us, and even the best of us […]
Meadow Masters
Well, this is in the fooling-around sub-section, but it’s also myth-making, or giving a poetic spin on nature. We have two big ol’ trees who thrust their limbs in a gesture of “you go, kid” over the meadow. Those who project evil in the world will see these as going “boo” like Halloween monsters putting […]
Meaning-Making
We all make meaning as instinctively and intuitively and largely unconsciously, just as we generate the illusion of a self and other illusions, such as reality being out there (objective) rather than in-here (subjective). The unconscious mind is unbelievably fast and powerful—this Freud got right, Groddek even more so, and contemporary psychologists, while disagreeing with […]
Mild Social Learning Disability
f I’m so smart, why am I so dense? I have a little bit of social learning disability, a term I used for a borderline form of mild Asperger’s disorder. It’s enough so that I annoy people who think that I’m ignoring their feelings when really I mis-perceive or really fail to perceive those unspoken-about […]
Mockingbirds’ Songs
I love these guys: They’re my totem animal. I like that they improvise, and do it so well. One of my mentors, the noted philosopher Charles Hartshorne, was also an ornithologist who wrote a book titled “Born to Sing.” He suggested that while birds may not have much capacity for reflective thought, they do have […]
Morbid Humor
I generally try to accentuate the positive, as the song lyric goes, but when I was younger (and still, a little) I cultivated a degree of morbid humor. I liked the characters of the cartoonist Charles Addams and the gross stuff in the EC horror comics line. In my own fantasy-art I have imagined various […]
More About Mandalas
I was discussing my own use of mandalas with a lady who has a website about this subject, in addition to producing her own very beautiful designs. Her questions evoked some thoughts that I’ll share with those of you who might be interested. I started drawing mandala-like designs—somewhat circular and symmetrical—around 1966. One fun drawing […]
More About My Brain-Cell Projection
My friend Allan wrote about the picture of the cell shown here on my blog a few days ago: “Hmmm. If it’s a single cell, it’s got a lot of inclusions. Think supercomputer with each cell an organic integrated circuit module. That should push your brain components into the yantabyte range of memory and storage […]
More God-Talk
I speculate. I dare to do this, because nobody who has any authority that I respect says thou shalt not speculate, and anyway, it’s not about you or others, it’s just witnessing to what works for me. If it stimulates you, if you agree in any way, or you find you disagree, it’s all grist […]
More Kabbalistic Tree of Life Pictures
In a previous post I put up some of my Tree of Life pictures. Here are some more. This was done some 37 years ago, or thereabouts. It’s based on the way the snake symbol travels “down” and “around” in manifesting. The ten spheres of activity are portrayed in geometric designs. I’ve enjoyed exploring the […]
Movin’!
ll has been a-flurry! We sold our house in Sun City Texas and are planning to move to mid-coastal California, San Luis Obispo, half-way between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The railroad stops there, and we hope to use it more. So much “stuff” to pack. It’s our precious treasures! It’s our crap! It’s mixed. […]
Multi-Perspectival Man: Historical Background
2nd episode: Multi-Perspectival-Man didn’t come crashing out of the sky in a rocket ship. He emerged naturally in his human form as just this guy, a product of cultural evolution. But, wait! What about his ancestry, and the world in which they lived? I mentioned earlier that there’s a lot to distract one nowadays. Yes. […]
Multi-Perspectival-Man!
Chapter 1, in which our hero is introduced. (Pronounced multi- per-spect-ai’-vuhl (with the accent on the ai syllable): This postmodernist, sort-of hero’s main superpower is that of bending reality to his will—at least in his own imagination. In ordinary life, he remains disguised as mediocre-man, an unassuming drone in the great hive of humanity. But, […]
My “Shadow” Complex Cartoon Characters
“The Shadow” complex is the English word for what Jung called all those parts of the usually unconscious psyche that are repressed, that are incompatible with healthy self-esteem. Yet I am somewhat aware that I played with characters associated with this complex in some of my old drawings and cartoons. I’m a bit embarrassed about […]