Zisholtz Redux

Went to the grand re-opening of South Carolina State University's IP Stanback Museum and Planetarium last evening. SCSU is an historically black university founded in 1896, and the only one in the country to have an art museum and planetarium housed in the same facility. Ellen Zisholtz is the director, and she has a solid reputation for promoting the arts in the communities she serves. She has done it again, with fantastic success. What a forward thinking idea - to marry art and science! Personally I have always thought the two should go together. My earliest inspirations came from science and astronomy, and in grade school my subject matter seemed to lean toward big suns and stars, later galaxies and star systems. Yep, I was a nerd, and worse, an artistic nerd!
The art collection is impressive, from Romaire Bearden to Philip Simmons. A good place to visit to get inspiration that spans the universe.

Freaky

You know, watching the news can freak a person out. So much heartache, death and destruction - after a while it can sap your inner spirit, cause you to wonder about our fellow humans. Art, for me, has become like a soothing balm on all the wounds I see. It is the one common denominator, the one thing that, if given a chance, can unify. We will always have differences of opinion about politics or religion, business models and ideals, even about Monet or Dali or Escher or Grandma Moses, but the one thing we can say is the urge, or need (imperative may be the word closer to my thoughts) to create goes across all cultures, all socio-economic barriers; is the unifier. From the Paleolithic cave drawings to Calder's 3 dimensional pieces, we have a rich, positive force within us. This gives me hope when Iraq robs me of sleep, or another's stolen away innocence drives tears from my eyes.