Surrealism Art

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The artistic style of surrealism began as an official movement shortly after the end of the first world war. In its infancy, it was a literary movement, but soon found its greatest expression in the visual arts. In general, the style focuses on psychological states which resemble dreams and fantasy. The artists were influenced by psychological research of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, who sought to explain the workings of the mind through analysis of the symbols of dreams. Instead of using psychoanalysis to cure themselves of any disturbances, the surrealists saw the unconscious as a wellspring of untapped creative ideas. "A dream that is not interpreted is like a letter that is not opened" is a famous quote from Freud. The surrealists were less interested in interpretation of their dream symbols than they were in the expressive capacity of such states.

The surrealists admired the artwork of the insane for its freedom of expression, as well as artworks created by children. They admired previous artists such as Henri Rousseau, whose naive and self-taught works always contained an element of surreal fantasy. In addition, they looked for inspiration from masters of the Renaissance such as Hieronymous Bosch and Pieter Brueghel, whose fantastic elements can easily be described as surreal. The word "surreal", in fact, means "above reality". In other words, the artists believed that there was an element of truth which is revealed by our subconscious minds which supercedes the reality of our everyday consciousness.

There are actually two branches of surrealism. One group focused on creating realistic representations of dream-like states; the other preferred an abstract style. For now, I will focus on three masters of representaional surrealism.

(from: http://www.eyeconart.net/history/surrealism.htm)
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We've survived many catastrophes. According to legends, we people are in our fifth creation -- destroyed four times before. Each time it has been the Shapeshifter -- what you might call `sorcerer' or `prophet' -- who led us out of the abyss."

--Vieja Itza, Mayan healer-shaman

Shapeshifting

Shapeshifting, transformation , transmogrification or morphing is a change in the form or shape of a person, especially:

* a change from human form to animal form and vice versa
* a change in appearance from one person to another

Shapeshifting is not considered scientifically or medically possible, but it is a common theme in myth and legend and a popular theme in science fiction and fantasy stories. Some conspiracy theories claim that alien reptoids are capable of shape-shifting.

"Shapeshifting" often refers to characters who change form on their own, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, while "transformation" (TF) refers more commonly to externally imposed change of form, whether by magic or sufficiently advanced technology. There is no settled agreement on the terminology.
Shapeshifting - Shapeshifting in myth

Popular shapeshifting creatures in myths and legends are werewolves and vampires (mostly of European, Canadian, and Native American/early American origin), the kitsune or were-foxes of Japan, and the gods, goddesses, and demons of numerous mythologies, such as Loki from Norse mythology or Proteus from Greek mythology. It was also common for deities to transform mortals into animals and plants.

Although shapeshifting to the form of a wolf is specifically known as lycanthropy, and such creatures who undergo such change are called lycanthropes, those terms have also been used to describe any human-animal transformations and the creatures who undergo them. Therianthropy is the more general term for human-animal shifts, but it is rarely used in that capacity.

Other terms for shapeshifters include metamorph, skin-walker, mimic and therianthrope. The prefix "were," coming from an Old English word meaning "man", is also used to designate shapeshifters. Examples are "werewolf," "weretiger," etc.

Almost every culture around the world has some type of shapeshifting myth, and almost every commonly found animal (and some not-so-common ones) probably has a shapeshifting myth attached to them. Usually, the animal involved in the transformation is indigenous to or prevalent in the area from which the story derives. It is worthy to note that while the popular idea of a shapeshifter is of a human being who turns into something else, there are numerous myths about animals that can transform themselves as well.

Examples of shapeshifting in classical literature include many examples in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Circe's transforming of Odysseus' men to pigs in Homer's The Odyssey, and Apuleius's becoming a donkey in The Golden Ass.

Shapeshifting - Notable mythological shapeshifters

* Bouda -- hyena-men of Africa
* Encantados -- according to stories from Brazil, they are "the enchanted ones," creatures from an underwater realm, usually dolphins with the ability to change into humans
* Kitsune -- werefoxes of Japan; werefox myths abound from other countries such as China, Korea, Vietnam, and even the United States, but "kitsune" refers specifically to the Japanese variety
* Loki -- Trickster god of the Norse pantheon
* Nahuales -- In Mexican lore, shamans that have shapeshifting abilities, usually turning into coyotes, wolves or jaguars
* Nagas -- snake-people of Asian countries, especially India & Nepal; may appear either as transforming between human and snake, or as a cross between the two (such as the upper torso being human and the lower torso being serpentine); some Nagas may also assume the form of dragons
* Manakeet -- a mythlogical creature that appears in the video game Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. Takes the form of a human who can transform into a dragon at will.
* Proteus -- a Greek sea god who was capable of changing his form to avoid being captured
* Runa-uturungu -- werejaguars from Argentina (regional name), also spelled runa-uturuncu
* Selkie -- Seal-maidens of Irish/Scottish myth.
* Thunderbirds -- huge birdlike creatures described in the lore of several Native American tribes; some thunderbirds turn into human beings
* Vampires -- corpses who can turn into wolves and/or bats
* Wendigo -- a shapeshifter from Canadian legend
* Werewolves -- humans who turn into wolves
* Yaguareté-abá -- werejaguars from Argentina (regional name)
* Zmei -- Romanian mythological creatures, similar to Ogres
* Zeus -- Head of the Greek pantheon, who routinely transformed into various animal forms and had sexual congress with human women to beget half-god mortals.

Shapeshifting - Shapeshifting in fiction

Shapeshifting can be a rich symbolical and narrative tool and shapeshifting fiction has been around at least since the days of ancient Greece. Today, the theme appears in many fantasy and science fiction stories. Both occasionally feature races of shapeshifters, and both magic and technology can be used to impose a change in form.

The word "transmogrification" has been popularized by the eponymous device used in Calvin and Hobbes

Shapeshifting - Notable shapeshifters in fiction
See werewolf novels and list of werewolf movies for lists of fiction featuring werewolves.

* Beorn in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth is a skin-changer, a man who could assume the appearance of a bear.
* Mavin Manyshaped and her son Peter in Sheri S. Tepper's True Game novels.
* Morph and Mystique in the Marvel Comics universe.
* Odo, one of the main characters of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
* Zam Wesell in Star Wars, appearing in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, from a race of shapeshifters called Clawdites.
* T-1000, an evil robot with shapeshifting abilities from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
* Many types of shapeshifters occur in Laurell K. Hamilton's novels in the Anita Blake series, such as werewolves, werejaguars, wererats, and even a wereswan.
* In the Harry Potter series, trained Animagi can transform at will into one specific animal, and so far each example in the books has taken a different form. Metamorphmagi including Nymphadora Tonks possess shapeshifting abilities which have been only sketchily defined so far. There is also a creature called Boggart which will transform itself to his opponent's biggest fear. When not confronting any humans, it has no definite shape.
* D. M. Wind's novel The Others is about a group of shapeshifters from another dimension who can turn into any animal at will, though they usually take the form of either wolves or panthers.
* Many of Jack L. Chalker's novels involve one or more transformations; he wrote an essay on physical transformation as a metaphor for various psychological changes, included in his short story collection Dance Band on the Titanic. This theme is used several times in the Jerry Cornelius stories by Michael Moorcock, as well as in works by Robert Sheckley, Nina Kiriki Hoffman and others.
* The Animorphs series is about a group of five kids who are able to "morph" into any animal they have touched and purposely "acquired" its DNA. The Animorphs received their powers--rather, technology--from a scientifically advanced alien species called the Andalites.
* Martia from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
* Shang Tsung, an evil sorcerer who can copy the appearance and abilities of his opponents in the Mortal Kombat video game series. Also, fallen Elder God Shinnok of the same series, who posseses the ability to imitate any person down to the voice.
* The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, in which the main character wakes up to find himself transformed into a monstrous vermin.
* Beast Boy, Metamorpho, Plastic Man, and Amazing Man in the present-day DC Universe, as well as Chameleon Boy/Chameleon of the Legion of Super-Heroes and other natives of his home planet, Durla.
* The wolmerrelle, a race derived from men and wolves in the Ruin Mist world, are shapeshif

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The mind which plunges into Surrealism, relives with burning excitement the best part of childhood. (Andre Breton)

One can understand why Surrealism was not afraid to make for itself a tenet of total revolt, complete insubordination, of sabotage according to rule, and why it still expects nothing save from violence. (Andre Breton)

Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision. (Salvador Dali)

Instead of stubbornly attempting to use surrealism for purposes of subversion, it is necessary to try to make of surrealism something as solid, complete and classic as the works of museums. (Salvador Dali)

Surrealism sought to maintain its autonomy and the right to continue its own particular investigations into ways of changing consciousness, the role of the unconscious within the social body, and the current state of language both visual and verbal. (Dawn Ades)

The vice named surrealism is the immoderate and impassioned use of the stupefacient image or rather of the uncontrolled provocation of the image for its own sake and for the element of unpredictable perturbation and of metamorphosis which it introduces into the domain of representation; for each image on each occasion forces you to revise the entire Universe. (Louis Aragon)

Surrealism... in its broader sense... represents a spiritual crisis that stems from the ideological developments of the nineteenth century, and has succeeded in producing a technique of writing and painting that conveys a materio-mystical vision of the universe. (Anna Balakian)

Surrealism is born of a consciousness of the derisory condition allotted to the individual and his thought, and a refusal to accommodate oneself to it. (Jean-Louis Bedouin)

The mind which plunges into Surrealism, relives with burning excitement the best part of childhood. (Andre Breton)

One can understand why Surrealism was not afraid to make for itself a tenet of total revolt, complete insubordination, of sabotage according to rule, and why it still expects nothing save from violence. (Andre Breton)

Surrealism is embedded in the everyday, in the daily experience. (Katharine Conley)

Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision. (Salvador Dali)
Share this quote with a friend · More quotes by Salvador Dali

Instead of stubbornly attempting to use surrealism for purposes of subversion, it is necessary to try to make of surrealism something as solid, complete and classic as the works of museums. (Salvador Dali)
Share this quote with a friend · More quotes by Salvador Dali

Surrealism! What is Surrealism? In my opinion, it is above all a reawakening of the poetic idea in art, the reintroduction of the subject but in a very particular sense, that of the strange and illogical. (Paul Delvaux)

Surrealism: An archaic term. Formerly an art movement. No longer distinguishable from everyday life. (Brad Holland)

My idea of a perfect surrealist painting is one in which every detail is perfectly realistic, yet filled with a surrealistic, dreamlike mood. And the viewer himself can't understand why that mood exists, because there are no dripping watches or grotesque shapes as reference points. That is what I'm after: that mood which is apart from everyday life, the type of mood that one experiences at very special moments. (Ian Hornak)

Three men riding on a bicycle which has only one wheel, I guess that's surrealism. (Dong Kingman)

Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn't insanity. Surrealism to me is reality. (John Lennon)

To be a surrealist... means barring from your mind all remembrance of what you have seen, and being always on the lookout for what has never been. (Rene Magritte)

Surrealism was a perception of reality over which reason was denied the opportunity to exercise confining restrictions. (John Herbert Matthews)

Surrealism to me has always been the "stuff of dreams." These are the things we see when we close our eyes and drift off to other places. (Michael Meissner)

Surrealism is merely the reflection of the death process. It is one of the manifestations of a life becoming extinct, a virus which quickens the inevitable end. (Henry Miller)

Surrealism is not a school of poetry but a movement of liberation... A way of rediscovering the language of innocence, a renewal of the primordial pact, poetry is the basic text, the foundation of the human order. Surrealism is revolutionary because it is a return to the beginning of all beginnings. (Octavio Paz)

Surrealism is a bourgeois disaffection; that its militants thought it universal is only one of the signs that it is typically bourgeois. (Susan Sontag)

Surrealism in painting amounted to little more than the contents of a meagerly stocked dream world: a few witty fantasies, mostly wet dreams and agoraphobic nightmares. (Susan Sontag)

Surrealism can only deliver a reactionary judgment; can make out of history only an accumulation of oddities, a joke, a death trip. (Susan Sontag)

Refusing to idealize, the Surrealists awakened a sensitivity to the arbitrary and the unusual. (Sidra Stich)

-on Salvador Dali...
It is not only the deceptive calm of the surroundings that is troubling but the clarity of the unreal and fraudulent character of that which is seen. (Sidra Stich)
Share this quote with a friend · More quotes by Sidra Stich

Surrealism! What is Surrealism? In my opinion, it is above all a reawakening of the poetic idea in art, the reintroduction of the subject but in a very particular sense, that of the strange and illogical. (Paul Delvaux)

Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn't insanity. Surrealism to me is reality. (John Lennon)

Surrealism is not a school of poetry but a movement of liberation... A way of rediscovering the language of innocence, a renewal of the primordial pact, poetry is the basic text, the foundation of the human order. Surrealism is revolutionary because it is a return to the beginning of all beginnings. (Octavio Paz)

To be a surrealist... means barring from your mind all remembrance of what you have seen, and being always on the lookout for what has never been. (Rene Magritte)

Surrealism is embedded in the everyday, in the daily experience. (Katharine Conley)

Surrealism... in its broader sense... represents a spiritual crisis that stems from the ideological developments of the nineteenth century, and has succeeded in producing a technique of writing and painting that conveys a materio-mystical vision of the universe. (Anna Balakian)

Surrealism is born of a consciousness of the derisory condition allotted to the individual and his thought, and a refusal to accommodate oneself to it. (Jean-Louis Bedouin)

All of these quotes derive from: http://quote.robertgenn.com/getquotes.php?catid=297

How to Forgive Your Father by Michael Jackson

July 13, 2009 in Uncategorized | Tags: child, childhood, Children, forgiveness, How to Forgive Your Father, Love, Michael Jackson, Oxford, speech, unconditional love

From a speech given at Oxford University, March 2001 by Michael Jackson. My deepest thanks to Catherine Coy for sharing this remarkable speech with me.

Thank you, thank you dear friends, from the bottom of my heart, for such a loving and spirited welcome, and thank you, Mr President, for your kind invitation to me which I am so honoured to accept. I also want to express a special thanks to you Shmuley, who for 11 years served as Rabbi here at Oxford. You and I have been working so hard to form Heal the Kids, as well as writing our book about childlike qualities, and in all of our efforts you have been such a supportive and loving friend. And I would also like to thank Toba Friedman, our director of operations at Heal the Kids, who is returning tonight to the alma mater where she served as a Marshall scholar, as well as Marilyn Piels, another central member of our Heal the Kids team.

I am humbled to be lecturing in a place that has previously been filled by such notable figures as Mother Theresa, Albert Einstein, Ronald Reagan, Robert Kennedy and Malcolm X. I've even heard that Kermit the Frog has made an appearance here, and I've always felt a kinship with Kermit's message that it's not easy being green. I'm sure he didn't find it any easier being up here than I do!

As I looked around Oxford today, I couldn't help but be aware of the majesty and grandeur of this great institution, not to mention the brilliance of the great and gifted minds that have roamed these streets for centuries. The walls of Oxford have not only housed the greatest philosophical and scientific geniuses - they have also ushered forth some of the most cherished creators of children's literature, from J.R.R. Tolkien to CS Lewis. Today I was allowed to hobble into the dining hall in Christ Church to see Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland immortalised in the stained glass windows. And even one of my own fellow Americans, the beloved Dr Seuss graced these halls and then went on to leave his mark on the imaginations of millions of children throughout the world.

I suppose I should start by listing my qualifications to speak before you this evening. Friends, I do not claim to have the academic expertise of other speakers who have addressed this hall, just as they could lay little claim at being adept at the moonwalk - and you know, Einstein in particular was really TERRIBLE at that.

But I do have a claim to having experienced more places and cultures than most people will ever see. Human knowledge consists not only of libraries of parchment and ink - it is also comprised of the volumes of knowledge that are written on the human heart, chiselled on the human soul, and engraved on the human psyche. And friends, I have encountered so much in this relatively short life of mine that I still cannot believe I am only 42. I often tell Shmuley that in soul years I'm sure that I'm at least 80 - and tonight I even walk like I'm 80! So please harken to my message, because what I have to tell you tonight can bring healing to humanity and healing to our planet.

Through the grace of God, I have been fortunate to have achieved many of my artistic and professional aspirations realised early in my lifetime. But these, friends are accomplishments, and accomplishments alone are not synonymous with who I am. Indeed, the cheery five-year-old who belted out Rockin' Robin and Ben to adoring crowds was not indicative of the boy behind the smile.

Tonight, I come before you less as an icon of pop (whatever that means anyway), and more as an icon of a generation, a generation that no longer knows what it means to be children.

All of us are products of our childhood. But I am the product of a lack of a childhood, an absence of that precious and wondrous age when we frolic playfully without a care in the world, basking in the adoration of parents and relatives, where our biggest concern is studying for that big spelling test come Monday morning.

Those of you who are familiar with the Jackson Five know that I began performing at the tender age of five and that ever since then, I haven't stopped dancing or singing. But while performing and making music undoubtedly remain as some of my greatest joys, when I was young I wanted more than anything else to be a typical little boy. I wanted to build tree houses, have water balloon fights, and play hide and seek with my friends. But fate had it otherwise and all I could do was envy the laughter and playtime that seemed to be going on all around me.

There was no respite from my professional life. But on Sundays I would go Pioneering, the term used for the missionary work that Jehovah's Witnesses do. And it was then that I was able to see the magic of other people's childhood.

Since I was already a celebrity, I would have to don a disguise of fat suit, wig, beard and glasses and we would spend the day in the suburbs of Southern California, going door-to-door or making the rounds of shopping malls, distributing our Watchtower magazine. I loved to set foot in all those regular suburban houses and catch sight of the shag rugs and La-Z-Boy armchairs with kids playing Monopoly and grandmas baby-sitting and all those wonderful, ordinary and starry scenes of everyday life. Many, I know, would argue that these things seem like no big deal. But to me they were mesmerising.

I used to think that I was unique in feeling that I was without a childhood. I believed that indeed there were only a handful with whom I could share those feelings. When I recently met with Shirley Temple Black, the great child star of the 1930s and 40s, we said nothing to each other at first, we simply cried together, for she could share a pain with me that only others like my close friends Elizabeth Taylor and McCauley Culkin know.

I do not tell you this to gain your sympathy but to impress upon you my first important point : It is not just Hollywood child stars that have suffered from a non-existent childhood. Today, it's a universal calamity, a global catastrophe. Childhood has become the great casualty of modern-day living. All around us we are producing scores of kids who have not had the joy, who have not been accorded the right, who have not been allowed the freedom, or knowing what it's like to be a kid.

Today children are constantly encouraged to grow up faster, as if this period known as childhood is a burdensome stage, to be endured and ushered through, as swiftly as possible. And on that subject, I am certainly one of the world's greatest experts.

Ours is a generation that has witnessed the abrogation of the parent-child covenant. Psychologists are publishing libraries of books detailing the destructive effects of denying one's children the unconditional love that is so necessary to the healthy development of their minds and character. And because of all the neglect, too many of our kids have, essentially, to raise themselves. They are growing more distant from their parents, grandparents and other family members, as all around us the indestructible bond that once glued together the generations, unravels.

This violation has bred a new generation, Generation O let us call it, that has now picked up the torch from Generation X. The O stands for a generation that has everything on the outside - wealth, success, fancy clothing and fancy cars, but an aching emptiness on the inside. That cavity in our chests, that barrenness at our core, that void in our centre is the place where the heart once beat and which love once occupied.

And it's not just the kids who are suffering. It's the parents as well. For the more we cultivate little-adults in kids'-bodies, the more removed we ourselves become from our own child-like qualities, and there is so much about being a child that is worth retaining in adult life.

Love, ladies and gentlemen, is the human family's most precious legacy, its richest bequest, its golden inheritance. And it is a treasure that is handed down from one generation to another. Previous ages may not have had the wealth we enjoy. Their houses may have lacked electricity, and they squeezed their many kids into small homes without central heating. But those homes had no darkness, nor were they cold. They were lit bright with the glow of love and they were warmed snugly by the very heat of the human heart. Parents, undistracted by the lust for luxury and status, accorded their children primacy in their lives.

As you all know, our two countries broke from each other over what Thomas Jefferson referred to as "certain inalienable rights". And while we Americans and British might dispute the justice of his claims, what has never been in dispute is that children have certain inalienable rights, and the gradual erosion of those rights has led to scores of children worldwide being denied the joys and security of childhood.

I would therefore like to propose tonight that we install in every home a Children's Universal Bill of Rights, the tenets of which are:

1. The right to be loved without having to earn it

2. The right to be protected, without having to deserve it

3. The right to feel valuable, even if you came into the world with nothing

4. The right to be listened to without having to be interesting

5. The right to be read a bedtime story, without having to compete with the evening news

6. The right to an education without having to dodge bullets at schools

7. The right to be thought of as adorable - (even if you have a face that only a mother could love).

Friends, the foundation of all human knowledge, the beginning of human consciousness, must be that each and every one of us is an object of love. Before you know if you have red hair or brown, before you know if you are black or white, before you know of what religion you