[Personal Note]
I don't know if you recall, but I wrote an inspirational message to
everybody a few months ago. I have this thing, you see: I like making
people feel good about what they do. Weird, huh? Anyway, I found this a
few weeks ago and I want to share it with you to inspire you. OK?

[Introduction]
Did you know that the Pope has written to me, to Ken, to Lance, to
Gilles, and all of us here? Yes. The Pope wrote a letter to Artists this
year. I read it. I like it. I would like to share a few lines of it here
that touched me. It doesn't matter what religion you belong to. These
lines are universal. I have cut them randomly from the letter, so there
might not be too much continouity. I hope you like these thoughts as
much as I have. They are good. Please take your time when reading this.
Give yourself time to reflect on each one. If you can't read them all
now, come back later, the message won't go away.

Well, here we go:

//Begin

The human craftsman mirrors the image of God as Creator.

The artist has a special relationship to beauty.

None can sense more deeply than you, artists, the ingenious
creators of beauty that you are, something of the pathos
with which God at the dawn of creation looked upon the work
of His hands.

With loving regard, the divine Artist passes on to the human
artist a spark of His own supassing Wisdom, calling him to
share in His creative power.

Those who perceive in themselves this kind of divine spark
which is the artistic vocation feel at the same time the
obligation not to waste this talent, but to develope it,
in order to put it at the service of their neighbour and
of humanity as a whole.

Artists, the more conscious they are of their gift, are led
all the more to see themselves and the whole of creation
with eyes able to contemplate and give thanks, and to raise
to God a hymn of praise.

We are speaking not of moulding oneself, of forming one's
own personality, but simply of actualizing one's productive
capacities, giving aesthetic form to ideas conceived in the
mind.

In producing a work, artists express themselves to the point
where their work becomes a unique disclosure of their own
being, of what they are and of how they are what they are.

For him art offers both a new dimension and an exceptional
mode of expression for his spiritual growth.

The link between good and beautiful stirs fruitful reflection.
Beauty is the visible form of the good, just as the good is
the metaphysical condition of beauty. This was well understood
by the greeks, who, by fusing the two concepts, coined a term
which embraces both: kalokagathia, or beauty-goodness.

Within the vast cultural panorama of each nation, artists
have their unique place. Obedient to their inspiration in
creating works both worthwhile and beautiful, they not only
enrich the cultural heritage of each nation and of all
humanity, but they also render an exceptional social
service in favor of the common good.

The particular vocation of individual artists decides the
arena in which they serve and points as well to the tasks
they must assume, the hard work they must endure and the
responsibility they must accept.

They must labour without allowing themselves to be driven
by the search for empty glory or the craving for cheap
popularity, and still less by the calculation of some
possible profit for themselves.

All artists experience the unbridgeable gap which lies
between the work of their hands, however successful it
may be, and the dazzling perfection of the beauty glimpsed
in the ardour of the creative moment: what they manage to
express in their painting, their sculpting, their creation
is no more than a glimmer of the splendour which flared for
a moment before the eyes of their spirit.

The world in which we live needs beauty in order not to
sink into despair. Beauty, like truth, brings joy to the
human heart and is that precious fruit which resists the
erosion of time, which unites generations and enables
them to be one in admiration!

The Church refers to artists having "a noble ministry"
when their works reflect in some way the infinite
beauty of God and raise people's minds to him.

The Church needs art. Art must make perceptible, and as
far as possible attractive, the world of the spirit, of
the invisible, of God.

Art has a unique capacity to take one of the other facet
of the message and translate it into colours, shapes,
and sounds which nourish the intuition of those who look
or listen. It does so without emptying the message
itself of its transcendent value and its aura of mystery.

Artists are constantly in search of the hidden meaning of
things, are their torment is to succeed in expressing the
world of the ineffable.

With this Letter, I turn to you, artists of the world, to
assure you of my esteem and to help consolidate a more
constructive partnership between art and the Church.

The creation awaits the revelation of the children of God
also through art and in art. This is your task. Humanity
in every age, and even today, looks to works of art to
shed light upon its path and its destiny.

The Spirit is the mysterious Artist of the universe.
Looking to the Third Millenium, I would hope that all
artists might receive in abundance the gift of that
creative inspiration which is the starting-point of
every true work of art.

Every genuine inspiration contains some tremor of the
"breath" with which the Creator Spirit suffused the
work of creation from the very beginning.

Beauty is a key to the mystery and a call to
transcendence. It is an invitation to savour
life and to dream of the future. That is why
the beauty of created things can never fully
satisfy. It stirs our hidden nostalgia for God.

May the beauty that you pass on to generations still to
come be such that it will stir them to wonder!

//End

--
Anthony L. Bennett
http://welcome.to/TonyB

Graphics rendered
by the Dreamachine.

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TonyB wrote:

> The human craftsman mirrors the image of God as Creator.

If my early scenes are an indication, then God the Creator is an infinite
checkered plane.

:)

Simon
http://home.istar.ca/~sdevet

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Simon de Vet wrote:
> 
> TonyB wrote:
> 
> > The human craftsman mirrors the image of God as Creator.
> 
> If my early scenes are an indication, then God the Creator is an infinite
> checkered plane.

If triangles had a God, He'd have three sides. - Old Yiddish proverb 

-- 
Ken Tyler

mailto://tylereng@pacbell.net

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So much better to read something Pope John Paul has written or said than to see yet
another hand waving television appearence of his. Thankyou both.

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TonyB wrote:
> 
> [Personal Note]
> I don't know if you recall, but I wrote an inspirational message to
> everybody a few months ago. I have this thing, you see: I like making
> people feel good about what they do. Weird, huh? Anyway, I found this a
> few weeks ago and I want to share it with you to inspire you. OK?

Thank you for sharing this with us TonyB.

-- 
Ken Tyler

mailto://tylereng@pacbell.net

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Thanks TonyB, very enlightening :)

--
Lance.


---
For the latest 3D Studio MAX plug-ins, images and much more, go to:
The Zone - http://come.to/the.zone
For a totally different experience, visit my Chroma Key Website:
Colorblind - http://listen.to/colorblind

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On Thu, 17 Jun 1999 18:00:42 -0400, TonyB
<ben### [at] panamaphoenixnet> wrote:

>Did you know that the Pope has written to me, to Ken, to Lance, to
>Gilles, and all of us here? Yes. The Pope wrote a letter to Artists this
>year. I read it. I like it. I would like to share a few lines of it here

A lot of what he wrote sounds very nice. I agree with much of it, but
he seems to be completely negating the value of art that isn't
considered "beautiful" in appearance. There are serious works of art
that contain important and valuable messages. Not all of these are
pretty to look at, listen to, or experience (depending on the relevant
media involved.) To blindly chose beautiful art as the only truly
valuable art is shortsighted at best. I hope the Pope doesn't really
feel that way.

It's fine and good to encourage beauty, and I personally believe that
beauty should be encouraged, but to negate the importance of things
not beautiful would be wrong. Using a similar logic to the Pope's: If
God created all things beautiful and "not-so-beautiful", which of us
would have the nerve to tell God that his "not-so-beautiful" creations
are of lesser value simply because of our perceiving them as less
beautiful?

I need to point out that this is NOT an attack on the Pope. I repeat,
this is NOT an attack on the Pope. I respect the Pope as a sincere,
benevolent, and educated person. I just found this one little aspect
of his comments a bit out of balance. Perhaps if the Pope had written
a book on Art, then he might have gotten around to including a chapter
on the value of art that isn't immediately recognizable as beautiful.
Perhaps he has similar feelings as mine, but didn't get around to
saying all of them in the letter you read. The world may never know. I
just wrote this to augment what he has said, and not as any sort of
personal attack on the Pope, nor is this any attack on Christianity or
upon "beauty" itself. 

I just wanted to take a moment to point out that something doesn't
have to be traditionally beautiful to be valuable as a work of art.
I'm sorry for this long disclaimer near the end, but I wanted to avoid
any possible misunderstandings and resultant hard feelings.

I believe the world certainly has room for more beautiful things, and
I welcome their creation, but I also place value on many things that
would be considered "less than beautiful" by much of society. A
"balanced diet" is something to strive for, and the concept applies
equally as well to art. Having too much "eye candy" tends to make the
intellect fat, lazy, and ineffectual. Having none, can make one's soul
bland, sour, or bitter..


Later,
Glen Berry

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> 
> A lot of what he wrote sounds very nice. I agree with much of it, but
> he seems to be completely negating the value of art that isn't
> considered "beautiful" in appearance.

  One of the best photographs I have ever taken was of a barn in the country.
This barn was in a serious state of disrepair and was anything but beautiful.
Even with this going against it many I have shown the photo to agree that it
a very beautiful picture. I believe this supports your claim there is beauty
in ugly things and it is truly in the eyes of the beholder.

-- 
Ken Tyler

mailto://tylereng@pacbell.net

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On Fri, 18 Jun 1999 01:49:00 -0700, Ken <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> wrote:

>  One of the best photographs I have ever taken was of a barn in the country.
>This barn was in a serious state of disrepair and was anything but beautiful.
>Even with this going against it many I have shown the photo to agree that it
>a very beautiful picture. I believe this supports your claim there is beauty
>in ugly things and it is truly in the eyes of the beholder.

Yes, and there is also important beauty that is surrounded by,
seemingly inseparable from, and sometimes created from ugliness. For
example, in the movie "Schindler's List" there is the beautiful
concept of wanting to save the lives of fellow human beings displayed
against the harsh and ugly backdrop of war. Would we really appreciate
Mr Schindler's desire to see his fellow man be allowed to live in
peace quite so much, if it were not displayed against such an ugly
backdrop as that war? I think not. The "ugliness" of the movie is
arguably required in this case. The film's value as a work of art is
enhanced by the inclusion. I doubt that many people would call this a
pretty film, but many have called it an important film, and one of
high artistic merit.

Later,
Glen Berry


Trivia: When I get on the elevator that takes me to my internet
provider's third floor office, I notice it was made by the Schindler
company. I suppose the British would call this "Schindler's Lift".

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I forgot to mention perhaps the best example of non-pretty, but
important artwork, especially since this thread was started by a
letter from the Pope. Consider all the artwork that has been created
depicting or referring to the Crucifixion of Jesus. This is certainly
not a physically beautiful scene for many people to contemplate, but
many people place great value in much of the artwork that the event
inspired. I can't think of a more pertinent example than that.

At this point, I began to realize the verbosity of my contributions to
this thread and wondered why I spent so much effort on stating my
view. The answer is partly that I want to encourage people to live
balanced and thoughtful lives. I also feel that many POV-Users might
overlook art that isn't of the "eye candy" variety. At the same time,
many serious art critics dismiss much computer art as mechanically
generated "eye candy" and consider it to be of lesser value. I feel
there is a certain amount of shortsightedness in both situations.

I feel a need to speak on behalf of raytraced art that doesn't aim to
be pretty or be "eye candy", but pursues other goals. Currently there
isn't enough raytraced art of this variety. I would love to see some
artists achieve critical acclaim by creating High Art using
raytracing as their medium. In order to achieve this, we need to
create more types of raytracings than eye candy alone.

Later,
Glen Berry

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