Favorite Paintings

[SilentDawning]

I have one I will post after I can find it and scan it. It's a blueprint of a butterfly. As you "read" the painting from left to right, the blueprint gradually becomes a full-color image of a butterfly.

I love its symbolism....one thing that I DID like from the temple ceremony (one of the few things) was the story of creation. How the video showed images of the creation before Christ actually created them. There was something about the idea of envisioning a "creation" and then making it come to life almost exactly as you envisioned it, that I find really energizing. This painting captures the creative process/feeling for me.

I first had that feeling when I composed a song for a jazz combo when I was a teenager. The musicians sight read it, and it sounded just like I heard it in my head. My notation of the song actually reflected what I had heard in my head, and it was a very Godlike feeling.

And then, a year ago, I read "On Becoming a Leader" by Warren Bennis. He gave a kind of verbose definition of leadership, which I shortened to this statement:

"Leadership is the process of turning vision into reality through the wise use of power".

I see the butterfly image as an incarnation of that phrase. With the butterfly not only symbolizing creation, but also indicating that the best leaders create things that followers can sustain without the leaders' influence (butterlies symbolize independence and freedom, as well as metamorphosis).

I've built a couple things in the last couple years in two organizations that are self-sustaining without me now, and generate significant amounts of money. That to me, is one of the most satisfying experiences -- to create something that people think highly enough to continue without you, and which benefits society -- evidenced by people's willingness to pay money for it long after you have moved on to new achievements.

And the painting/image I will share, when I find it, epitomizes that experience.

[nibbler]

I'll try an experiment. I'll delete my two posts if they become nauseating.

I took people's favorite paintings and created an animated gif out of them.

The first frame is only two colors, black & white.
The second frame is in grey-scale, 16 shades of grey (not 50).
The last frame is in color. Animated gifs have color limitations so the third frame isn't even as colorful as it could be.

I got a little Rorschach effect out of the black and white images. For instance, I didn't initially see the lady looking at the forest in Van Gogh's "Irises"

Posts with images to follow.

[nibbler]

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[nibbler]

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