Just wrote this up on the forum for the Grove of Two Coasts, but hey, I liked it, so I'm pasting it here too.

  The Potato Eaters--Van Gogh

Moonwriter and I were chatting (a dangerous things sometimes) and the reading list came up in conversation. Folks, let me tell ya, we have some required reading, but NOTHING like the founders had when they were going through their apprenticeship! ANYWAY. This idea occured to me to answer the question that some might have about "why do we need to read this ancient stuff"

Most of us will not have a problem with that, we like reading "ancient stuff" but why do it, we aren't going back to those ways anytime soon. I thought of Van Gogh, the artist. Think of his most famous paintings. They are beautiful, wild, "impressions" of the world around him. Starry Night is a wonderful painting, but it is not what we really see on a starry night. But then look at an earlier piece, like "Still Life with Bottle" or "The Potato Eater"  (Above)

and see how realistic they are. Van Gogh knew his stuff. He understood the foundations of art, how to create realistic pictures with balance, movement, composition, etc. all the things that make up great art. Then, when he had mastered the basics, he could stretch and create something new and amazing from it.....Starry Night, Sunflowers, Wheat field with Cypress, etc.

That's what we are doing, IMHO. We are learning our composition, our fundatmentals of our art, trying to see what the Druids of old did in a world where things weren't written down. (so the search is a tough one) THEN, we well be able to create our own new reality. Modern day druids. When we stand on the shoulders of the great pasts...be sure you know what makes up those shoulders before you reach for your starry night.