Captains of the clouds
Unaware of the directions given to Geesje to explore her less flattering sides by one teacher, an other teacher at the academy of fine arts made the following comment: “Your paintings look like you found them in the dumpster”
We like our ‘bad sides’ to be significant. Rubbish wasn’t the image Geesje was aiming for. Fortunately, Gouke Notebomer, with his great technical knowledge, could point to the cause of this dumpster-look.
Prussian blue pigments and paint doesn’t blend too well with all other colors. Even the smallest amount will pollute the clarity and density of some of them. So if Prussian blue is part of the palette, slowly but surely your paintings will become increasingly grayish and dull-colored.
The great-grandmother of Geesje, the mother of her father’s father, was a Prussian lady. Supposedly she was the first woman in The Netherlands who got a pilote license. Although she didn’t really master the skill well because on her first solo flight she crashed the plane.
She married someone who took the principled position that a man of his standing shouldn’t have to work for his money. So she looked elsewhere for finance and ran off with a bank-manager. When this man left her, she ended her live, thus marking the end of the roaring twenties.
Darkness in life
Another comment the artist sometimes gets, is about the darkness of her paintings. The subtile suggestion being that not only the artwork lacks moral and spiritual value but the artist as well.
Western thought on dualisme is based on defining the poles and making pairs of opposites; positive-negative, man-woman, light-dark, good-bad and so on. These inherent judgements forces us to take a side in every situation and keeps us from expanding our horizon.
How often can we say that the night is pitch-black, that there’s a complete absence of light? And do we not also find company and comfort in the hours of darkness?
The moon and the stars, they drive and guide the living. By learning their patterns, you can find your way. It’s true that in the obscurity we find the unknown. Darkness is the domain of the mystery. The realm of that what cannot be seen or understood but whose manifestations can be perceived.
The philosophy of I Ching knows no absolute yin or a 100% yang, they view yin and yang as one.
Blocking the sun
What can be more pleasant than to lie on a summer’s day in a field full of wild flowers, listening to the insects and the birds and looking at the sky. Seeing the clouds pass by and recognizing shapes and forms. With a friend beside you, you try to see what the other sees and visa versa and so you connect.
Lying on a sofa with somebody else sitting and analyzing your associations isn’t quit the same. That somebody else is keeping their thoughts to themselves, only to be shared with their colleagues. The purpose of their efforts is to further their careers and to fill their wallets. These self appointed captains of the clouds have no interest in connecting with a fellow human being.
Psychiatrists think that they have safeguarded themselves from the visa-versa aspect but the story of professor Jan Hendriks tells a different tale. As a counsellor of convicted pedophiles and child abusers, this academic felt no shame in seeking legal permission to treat his patients with manipulated foto’s of child-abuse. One of the goals being to further the social acceptance of people who have these particular desires. The professor wanted, us the people, to know that a desire in itself isn’t criminal. But we wouldn’t have known about these desires in the first place if it wasn’t for him telling us about them.
When finally the dutch government was ordered by parliament to look into the numerous and credible accusations of organized child abuse by top government officials and the way they were handled in the past, the Justice Department chose professor Hendriks to lead the investigation and to give his name to the commission.
And again psychiatrist Jan Hendriks felt no shame in producing a cover-up report that very openly, in broad daylight, down-plays the most horrific crimes.
We must however acknowledge that the professional gaslighters are very loyal to power. They show great diligence in silencing dissenting voices. And let’s not forget that the captains of the clouds gave substance to the phrase “The war on drugs”.