Glenn Michael Morley is a Canadian painter and photographer who discovered his passion for art unexpectedly. Born in Canada, he earned a degree in mathematics and history at the University of Toronto, before working as a product development engineer. Yet despite this professional background, Glenn always appreciated the work of the Impressionists, especially Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissarro, as well as artists like Louis David and Raoul Dufy.
It was in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the United States, that Glenn decided to take up painting. One very cold day, he came across van Gogh's Gear art store, run by artist Steve Syverson. Having no background in oil painting, he asked shop regulars for recommendations and left with enough paint, an easel, canvases and brushes to begin painting. He then lived in an old industrial building converted into a condominium, with 28-foot-high ceilings and a large window overlooking the city's man-made canal. The soft and unique light of this place inspired Glenn to create much of his work, which is often imbued with the ambiance of this place.
The first work he did, "Mother of Pearl", was created simply by letting inspiration guide colors. Glenn never took painting lessons because he felt the technique could too often stifle creativity and emotions. He wanted to focus on color and let his creativity run free, not trying to imitate a past style or create something with a specific meaning or meaning. For him, the important thing was to create colors and to be guided by the rhythm and the movement of his arms.
Today, Glenn Michael Morley is an accomplished artist, whose work is infused with his passion for color and creativity. He believes that location and environment have an impact on his work, as they influence his mood and emotions, which are then reflected in his painting.
I discovered a music-making program online called BandLab.com and composed this short jazz-inspired gig - Dizzy Gillespie would be smiling I think
Chess - for those aficionados amongst you I am certain you already know what I will say here about this intellectual adventure - the allure of chess is undeniable - for some not all - it is certainly available to everyone but HOW you approach the game will likely result in whether your appreciation for it is just in passing or deep - the great thing about Chess - and there are many - is its accessibility to all - that there are no directions on HOW best to play - certainly there are suggestions but no matter how closely you stick to these the game almost always results in a "new position" that you either do not know or even one that has never been known to have been played before - and it is at these times when the good and not so good players become evident - I think it is close to oil painting in that while you can study art and take countless lessons there is no guarantee you will ever be more than an average painter - chess players are certainly developed but to some extent they are born - some say you need a good memory or calculating abilities - strategy - tactics - memorised lines of play - others argue for positional play and certain practices that should be adhered to - none of which can guarantee you success - countless chess prodigies have surfaced over the centuries and countless more have faded into obscurity - one thing that chess demands more than any other is I think consistency - most players can have a good game now and then but top elite players maintain that level game in game out - the World Champions tend to be the strongest players mostly because they are the most consistent - their level of play rarely drops off - the effort required however is astonishing and this is why I think so many chess prodigies fail to develop into Champions - year after year they cannot maintain or improve their level of consistent play - the advent of computer chess has of course had a huge impact on the game as computers can now play at 3300+ FIE ranking levels while the greatest human players flirt with 2900 - new and intriguing strategies are being uncovered and no doubt the resurgence and boom of chess is attributed to the computer access between individual players and also with others around the globe offering unprecedented enjoyment for millions - I recently followed the Candidates Tournament which was postponed - a group of (8) top players hold a round robin competition to decide who will play the current World Champion Magnus Carlsen - for myself my acquaintance with chess is to play a single game each morning against the computer Level 10 which is comparable to a GrandMaster 2600+ FIDE ranking - I have lost 334 straight games - I have taken no lessons but have relied on metrics - I monitor what the program considers to be Best Move and Blunders - my approach has been not to focus on playing better but on reducing my Blunders - I soon witnessed a dramatic improvement - next I focused on increasing the number of moves each game that were played before I was check-mated - here too I have improved - there is a website agadmator.com who reviews top level games and I started to watch how the GM played the game - I have never studied the game formally nor read any books on strategy or tactics - but using these methods I have definitely improved my game CONSISTENCY - I still lose but I am losing less worse than I did 334 games ago - I am making more Best Moves more often and fewer Blunders as well as pushing the computer to longer games - it is quite rewarding exercise and I recommend this fascinating game to everyone - the history of the game is abundant and you can observe games from the past and see how strategy has changed - I do not have any memorised openings or middle and end game strategies - I simply play positional chess ensuring defence-first - completely opposite to how I played at the beginning which was full out attacking style - I guess 334 losses will do that - hopefully I start to win some games soon - consistently so
work on my Mathematical Treatise has progressed now to some 176pp - which is nearly double what I had originally projected but the opportunity to explore numerous areas has presented itself and I have grasped it with both hands and held on tight for the intellectual adventure - that is probably one of the great benefits of mathematics - you can explore and undertake challenging adventurous activity without leaving your small study room - our imaginations unleashed has to be one of the most tremendous capabilities we have - akin to reading a great novel - you can transport yourself around the world - into different historical periods and settings without leaving your seat - sure it is great to physically be immersed in adventurous activities but intellectual adventures can be just as rewarding and exhilarating - I had always hoped to pursue some of the areas I have recently visited but it is quite time consuming and too often the luxury of time to simply THINK is not available - I think it was Newton who when asked how he came up with his theories he replied "I thought about them .... for a very long time" - I am not sure in this digital and social media age that we tap into our intellectual and imaginative capacity as much as we did beforehand - to simply allow your mind to wander and explore and think freely - deeply and long on a single topic - certainly it is a gift we all have but sadly one that we do not all use or use often enough - who hasn't been whisked away on some imaginative adventure while reading a great classic novel ? - thinking is without doubt the most demanding physical exercise you can do - and like any exercise - the more we do it - the stronger we become at it ...
underlying ALL scientific and technology breakthroughs is mathematics - some people may not think there is much "real" or to use today's overused word - pragmatic - benefit to proving the Twin Prime Conjecture - who cares about a stupid twin prime anyways you yourself might be wondering - however - the twin prime conjecture is basically a complex "problem" that has until now been unsolvable - why? - because either our contemporary mathematics simply does not know how to handle it - OR - we simply do not know how to use contemporary mathematics in a way that can solve it - the first requires "new mathematics" - the second requires new understanding of existing mathematics - my proof generates both avenues of knowledge - some of the mathematics utilised is "new" - some is ancient - some is migrated from other fields - combined I have created a proof that resolves a problem that many leading mathematicians in the past have described as "chaotic" - mathematicians tend to seek patterns and harmony in the world - when confronted with something that does not conform to our mathematics we are basically shocked - yes mathematicians do freak out over such things - when you think everything in the world can be described mathematically - to find some problem that fails to conform - you get nervous - by proving the conjecture I have created a system or model that untangles the "chaos" - but chaos exists in many fields - one that comes readily to mind is medical - the body is quite straight-forward but also immensely complex - immunology is the study of the immune system and how our bodies deal with pathogens - a virus or cancer for instance or an allergic reaction - we have acquired some knowledge to date but there is much more that remains problematic because we do not have the mathematical models to express what we observe in research - or - what we observe appears random - chaotic - no discernible patterns seem to exist - in short we have the case of a "biological" twin prime conjecture ! - based on my undergraduate studies in Physiology and Immunology I am convinced that mathematicians or at least their research work needs to be more readily accessed by medical researchers who are dealing with similar types of problems but in a biological context - it is quite likely my research will offer something to a medical researcher who is trying to express or understand a biological process that can only be described as chaotic - mathematics is a wonderful topic of immense epic struggle and elegant beauty - but it is not something that is only confined to intellectual adventurers - its applications are immense - OK - you might not get too thrilled about twin primes but a major breakthrough in cancer or other pathogen-bourne diseases should be something everyone can get excited about - that is one reason we study and research mathematics with such passion and fury !
for those of you whom have participated in academic research and writing in mathematics you might well appreciate the challenges you face when you have completed your research and have confidence in your results - to then be faced with the task of writing - how do you best explain your results clearly to others so they will understand - it seems at first to be a minor problem - after all the research and results should be the most difficult undertaking - if you had the opportunity to express your results to others in an open discussion that would come easily enough - writing about it however - so that it is precise concise and clear to others is not so foregone a conclusion as you might think - that has been the challenge - thanksfully the paper is now nearing completion after more than four years of effort - of course with mathematics you are essentially building a structured argument to prove a hypothesis - as such you are continually faced with nervous moments when your entire structure is perilously close to collapsing - hinging on an otherwise minor result - having weathered countless logical shocks there is then that moment when you finally stand back - releasing your long-held grip over it - and observe the structure - standing free-from - alone - on its own merit - this is the moment when you realise your victory over the previously "unknown" - having conquered that which others have also attempted to conquer and failed - it is akin I think to the mathematical equivalent of a Mount Everest moment - standing on top of the mathematical world and looking around and observing the mathematical universe in its sheer elegance and grace - awe-struck by its magnificence - the countless endless hours of hard effort of "the climb" having blissfully faded from memory - that is the moment I am now experiencing - hoping to soon publish my results ...
today likely represented the greatest shuffle my website has ever known since it was first created just over a decade ago - as some of my viewers may have noticed in the "new" gallery arrangement - Art Majeur has blocked numerous ( 28 / 112 ) images on my website claiming they are not "art" - I have had a long and somewhat volatile discussion with them over this as their actions come across to me as near-censorship - as I stated - why interfere? - why not just let the people decide what is "art" by either viewing or not those works that they consider "art" rather than having someone(?) at Art Majeur make those decisions ! - their argument was that if the work did not fit into one of their "categories" it had to be removed - the alternative was to chuff it into the "news" section - I found this small consolation - there is no category at all for poetry and most of mine were blocked - after further consideration I could appreciate their point to a degree and duly deleted a few of the more obvious offensive "images" - however - much of the work you will now find in the News section is what Art Majeur has blocked - this includes my original historical writing + mathematical writing + original piano composition ... none of which is considered "art" despite my viewers obvious interest - I did consider leaving the website over this but have instead chosen to simply comply for the time being - it is difficult to create a website like Art Majeur to cover ALL the multitude of creative and artistic mediums that exist - where we - they - draw that "line" is a very difficult question to answer - I was told that my submittals represented a tiny percentage and hence no category exists for such works - I think that is somewhat unfair but rather than simply hut shop I have endeavoured to carry on for now - I have decided to delete the entire Phase One Gallery since it was meant to be an oil-painting + music + film project with (3) more Phases - my current life circumstances have made that less feasible since 2012 so I will simply mothball it for now - I am not allowed to submit the Piano CD nor the accompanying Textbook for that Phase so the decision was nixie - ALL of the original (40) oil paintings still reside in the four seasons Gallery - I have created a Poem Gallery with some "special" input by Art Majeur to allow them to not be blocked - this seems mostly temporary though so you might not see any more poems - the Poems textbook is blocked because it is only an "image" - lastly we have the photography Gallery with the original photographs allowed and a few carry-overs that were spared the "censors" knife - in all there are now only (80) works instead of (112) works - a 28.574% decrease - not much I can do save to setup my own website and include ALL my works which is something I will consider in the future if Art Majeur does not relax their strict category rules or open up new categories to accommodate artists like myself - apologies for all the turmoil - there may be a bit more coming but THAT is what has caused the outcome you now see - for better or worse? - as I stated - anything that brings interest to and from the viewers should be seen as a positive but Art Majeur does not agree - I will give them the opportunity to adjust as I have adjusted to their demands and we will see what the longer term outcome is - for now - please continue to enjoy the reduced website ...
as a historian it is v. difficulty not to get excited about the surreal archaeological record that is Pompei - it is breathtaking time machine back nearly 2000 years - I was able to travel this past weekend to visit this remarkable historic site and was left shaking my head to even imagine something like this "frozen in time city" could exist - correct - Pliny the Younger Letters do say August 24th but that has now been updated two months forward and the error is most likely due to transcription - not Pliny - for those who have not been I will give a brief summary - the first thing that strikes is the overall size - this is an entire city - not a few houses or blocks - it goes on for quite a while and will take you a good number of hours to even walk through half of it with only a modicum of interest - next is the amount of otherwise accessible sites that were closed for no apparent reason - it seems unfair for the operators to do this when you consider the remoteness of the location and for many it will be their only chance to see it - I personally do not see why so much was closed - that was a minor disappointment - what was opened however was stunning - vivid coloured frescos on the walls that literally speak to you from a different time and world - you stare in awe at the detailed paintings - surely this is not the work of a Picasso or Michelangelo but they are all spectacular - even those that have faded or are tiny - to see anything like this in situ is a marvel and worth the expense alone to get here - but there is more - the floor mosaics were in most cases well-preserved and quite frankly not in comparison to some of the elaborate Greek period efforts that I have seen but it certainly gives you a "lived-in" sense of standing and seeing what those fated people saw just before their demise - the falling pumice and ash was said to be up to 7m in depth and the sheer weight of it collapsed most buildings so if you can imagine a city of 2-storey buildings with only 1-storey now remaining - that is Pompei - the caved in roofs tended to damage the wall murals by pulling them off - recall also that this site was re-discovered in 1592 and has since then suffered some loss via looting and poor excavation practices not to mention exposure to the elements after having been buried and preserved for so long - the next thing that strikes you is the main roads - large irregular shaped volcanic rock with unruly gaps between and as bumpy as a roller coaster ride - I did not expect the roads to be so worn and grooves from carts cut so deeply into the rock - you will also see a lot of volcanic rock in the building's walls - either side of the road is a raised narrow walk that is a chore to walk on with tourist hordes rushing to and fro hence the rough road left my feet aching by end of the day - you have numerous large preserved public buildings - a seat-worn Amphitheatre and the barely rebuilt Forum - less known is that Pompei was already reeling and in recovery from a large earth quake on February 5th 62AD - so much so that much of the buildings were still in disrepair when the big one hit in 79AD - the Forum in particular was already in a state of disrepair and recovery work was slow - every so often along the roads you had people in open store front buildings selling food in large amphora ready-made and embedded in counter-tops - pull up a seat and you get your food not much different from your road side vendors today - wealth and status was exhibited by the number - size and quantity mosaics and murals on your floors and walls - whether or not you had a courtyard and whether your high ceilings were supported by equally impressive pillars or not - regular folk - slaves quarters and the poorer homes were invariably without much of this - temples existed with sculpted statutes sitting in numerous portals embedded into the building walls - only a token few are left in situ and these are likely copies - next up is advertising and graffiti painted onto the stuccoed walls of the streets - written in Latin I cannot translate for you but to see this again really connects you to the place and time in a way that no museum can offer - to imagine that the person who wrote this could never have imagined it to have lasted so long is certainly assured - it looks like it was written on the walls just yesterday - stunning? - absolutely - there are barred-in sections that house the endless finds within the site - you see pottery - amphorae's - a complete wooden cart - tables - countless fragments in rows and shelves of boxes all numbered and labelled - everyday utensils abound and also items to make bed - wines etc and then .......... you stumble upon the cast victims - there the lie bodies retorted in various poses of struggle - pain and abandonment to their fates - some are readily recognizable in their features as men - children - dogs - pain and agony written on their chiselled rough-hewn faces - what a horrific final few minutes their lives must have been - you walk further to the necropolis and see elaborate marbled crypts of wealthy citizens or centurions - local court vineyards have been replanted and are selling Villa dei Misteri wine today - a hotel and ancient ristorante with courtyard ponds ad leisure rooms exist ran by a wealthy widowed woman - other aspects such as small burrowed portals that lead from houses underground suggest subterranean storage rooms - you have to marvel at the sophistication and the serenity of the site - it is alarming to see that places of so much historic death and destruction such as here in Pompei and in the Somme have today been eerily submersed in a peaceful quietness that is almost deafening - what I have forgot to mention is that all the while - in the background - covered in a low grey cool mist is the shadow of it - Mount Vesuvius - its entire top obliterated and only an outer rim remains overgrown - it is still active and has erupted far more than just this single epic event - you can read Pliny and his accounts - you can YouTube some videos to get a better feel for what is said here but until you visit - for some reason - none of it seems to hit home and impress like a visit can and does - history has to be experienced not just watched or read about - visiting historical sites is an experience you cannot recreate in words of images - you truly connect with Pompei when you are there and you leave saddened for the people whose lives and entire city was snuffed out within a few days - its a difficult journey to get there but worth the cost time and effort - it teaches so much and yes - it IS a time machine experience - like no other
Titanic Casualty Data Table I was skimming through some Titanic websites the other day and came across a Passenger Casualty List which showed the surname - forename - age - sex and class of the victims - as is well-known now the majority of casualties were from 3rd class passengers ( 536 or 64.4% deaths ) as the 2nd ( 173 or 20.8% deaths ) and predominantly the 1st class ( 123 or 14.8% deaths ) received preference for the far too few lifeboats - however - as a historian when you see a long list of names such as this - it is sort of meaningless or lifeless and seems to have more within it to tell - the statistician in you wants to analyse it to see what else can be said - surprisingly when you do this you learn far more about the composition of those who died than just a simple figure of 832 passengers and 685 crew members who were not included in the Passenger List - Titanic legend has it that the first and in most cases the last to board the lifeboats were women and children - it is presumed that most of the deaths on board were therefore male - what does the Passenger Casualty List suggest when we analyse it for the age and sex demographics - the Data Table shows the breakdown - of the casualties a staggering 199/832 or 24.005% were under the age of 20 - of these 40 or 4.825% were under the age of 9 - almost all were 3rd class with some 1st and 2nd class passenger exceptions - another thing to notice is that the sex of the children was nearly equal - 45% F and 55% M - the youngest was 4 months - the sex split however rapidly changes as the age increases - for the 10-20 year olds we see a 22% F to 78% M - the majority who perished 559/832 or 67% were between the ages of 21 to 50 - the split for ages 21 to 30 was 14.6% F and 85.3% M - for 31 to 50 years of age we see near identical 15:85% split - the number of elderly passengers > 50 who perished was comparatively low - 71/832 or 9.9% - the split was 9.9% F to 90.1% M - given that so few 3rd class passengers survived - it bares record that there were simply fewer Female 3rd class passengers than male to begin with who were immigrating to America to start a new life - the fact remains - a far too high percentage of the deaths on Titanic were children or youth - what else can be stated is that these deaths were not unrelated - often as was the norm in the early part of the 20th c. families were large compared to today's small families - hidden in this dreary List that most likely most often receives only a cursory glance from the website visitors is the fact that the entire (11) member Sage family perished - so too the (9) member Andersson family - the (8) member Goodwin family as well as all (6) members of the Rice - Scoog - Ford and Panula families - wiped out and completely lost to history - by studying the names of the List you can see several other grouping - often mothers were travelling alone with their children - young couples - brothers or cousins can be seen paired together - it is a common practice in history texts to only list numbers in tragic events such as this or The Great War - but these cold digits tend to have no associated faces or lives attached to them - ironically it is my use of those very same numbers that has extracted from it those very lives that are glossed over - that are lost to history - the aftermath of the Titanic is in some ways far more intriguing than the event itself which highlights and captures so well the face of modernity for us and which is why I think this epic tragedy will last much as the Greek tragedies have done so - the real-life tragedy of the Titanic will still be told a millennium from now - it will survive far longer than the (4) short days the ship did ... it contains ALL of the elements of a modern day Greek Tragedy - there were (2) passengers - most likely brothers named Henry and William Morley - as far as I know unrelated or nonetheless very distant relations to myself - included also amongst those Passengers who perished were: (1) Captain - (1) Major - (3) Colonels - (2) Reverends - (5) Fathers - (1) Don (Spain) and (4) medical Doctors - one of these a Canadian born in Hamilton having studied at my alma mater - University of Toronto ( class of 1906 ) - a certain Dr. Alfred Pain as if a worse surname for a Doctor could ever be given !
FollowYouFollowMe in 2010 the entire "self-driving" vehicle technology was still quite novel and not on the roads - my thinking on the problem of modern city highways - particularly in North America - was the failure of drivers to maintain a consistent distance between vehicles under all driving conditions - if we consider the railway system - the cars are mechanically linked to each other - the question I asked myself is could we - using the then already introduced technology of ABS and Speed Control add internal sensing and control systems to the vehicle to link up with a vehicle in front and behind via sensing systems that would control the braking via ABS and the vehicle speed via speed control so that a continuous line of vehicles could be linked to each other in a "train" that would operate under a determined highway speed based on real-time monitored road conditions - the "train" would brake and speed up uniformly as one unit of up to 100 linked cars - I called it FollowYouFollowMe and the control system I proposed was already existing technology - it simply needed to be integrated into the vehicle and then programmed to control the ABS and speed control - none of this is or was technically infeasible - any Control Engineer would agree with this assessment then as now - it CAN be done - for a vehicle to enter and exit from the train signals would be sent to "disconnect" from the train and a wider gap would be opened by having the following car and all others attached to it reduce their speed automatically to allow the driver to transfer out of the train into the "off-ramp" - the gap would then be closed by the following car and all others linked behind it speeding up - similarly - an on-ramping procedure would allow for new cars to enter into the train - in short - ALL highways would ONLY require (2) lanes in either direction - one for the train and the other for entering and exiting the train - this would eliminate the massive 6-8-10 or more lane super highways we currently have in BOTH directions for some busy cities - this technology would also nearly eliminate accidents from the train as all cars would be controlled equally to brake and retain the distance to each other - a "safe distance" would be set and maintained by external control as a sensing system would also be installed on the meridian to control the train speed based on road conditions - emergency situations would use ABS braking to ensure no skidding occurred - no one could "speed" because the train would set the speed - today's self-driven technology could even more readily adapt to this idea - in short you would eliminate stop-and-go traffic - transit times across cities would always be optimum and known - highway accidents which are often fatal would be virtually eliminated - pollution would be greatly reduced as all of the vehicles would be operating at maximum engine speed and producing minimum pollution - as no cars would be sitting idle hence the pollution counts would drop - ALL of this can be implemented and have a massive impact on society but ............
I did propose this concept idea to the Government of Canada Leadership Grants Program but their reply was for me to invest MY money and they would provide limited funding until the project was successful - point being if it became successful - who needs government assistance ! - not enough is done in Canada and other countries to support sound ideas that generate new opportunities and jobs - struggling Engineers can certainly not also bankroll their innovations Mr and Ms. Politics - while governments TRY to boast and brag about how supportive they are towards innovation and R&D research - the TRUTH is they stay out of the picture until you are successful then rush in with a token grant to ensure they can put their Made in Canada badge on the product and boast in their political pamphlets and propaganda as to just how much they have contributed to Innovation in Canada - in short it is NOT enough but that is another story - a sad commentary when so much government funding is frivolously wasted on token social programs to help people who are unemployed instead of helping them to help themselves - sure I am biased in this opinion but that bias is sadly lacking in government circles in most countries - governments are FAR more eager to send out welfare or EI pay cheques then to support initiative and innovation that generates job and wealth for the country - FACT
the difficulty in being an design engineering analyst and a consultant at that - is the sheer number of engineering programs on the market these days - each company tends to have their own preference and as you move from contract to contract you are forced to either learn the new program or find another contract - worse still - in the engineering analysis work that I am most often involved - there are now multi-program suites - sort of like your MS Office suites - one for CAD - another for FEA finite element analysis - one for meshing - another for CFD computational fluid dynamics - another for post-processing and on it goes as no single program tends to offer the full complete package - the end result is that I have now learned well over 30+ engineering programs in design and analysis in my career to date - often the programs are relatively stable so that if you were working with it a few years back and upgrades occur the GUI and methodology have most often not altered too much so you are able to get back up to speed quite quickly - other times - the program completely alters its GUI and methodology so that a program you "knew quite well" a few years ago is suddenly a complete new program animal - of course if you suggest you know the program and then are suddenly confronted with this re-make it can provide for some challenges - the key however is to not focus on the program or GUI itself but the underlying principals of ALL such programs - solid modelling CAD is based on but a few fundamental principals so it should not matter which program you are using - surface modelling is the same but has more capability and complexity but often can be broken down to similar base principals - FEA is FEA regardless of what program is being used - if you profess to only know one FEA program then you do not know FEA at all !!! - CFD is the same and if you focus on the core principals of what these programs DO rather than on HOW they do it - you should be able to literally get on any program you have never worked with and soon be up to speed as if you are a seasoned expert - OK - easier said than done but that is most often the situation I find myself in repeatedly throughout my career - flexibility is key to being a consultant - my most recent work I was tossed into a completely new engineering suite and had to learn (6) programs at project pace without any training - scarce program manuals access and no one to ask questions - I did not panic - I just migrated - I took the core principals of similar programs I had used and looked for the GUI correlation - whether the button had now become Blue and changed its Name should (did) not matter - I knew that what I used to do before was now converted into a blue button with a different name - if you can re-wire your brain hard drive in this fashion you will quickly succeed to "learn" the new program on the fly - if you can drive a KIA you should be able to drive a Ford - driving an F1 car however IS different but still - a car is a CAR - throttle - brake - clutch - steering wheel - shifter ... done
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8ySQaPP0o
my interest in film-making remains unabated - save for my commitments on other interests at this moment I have had to put my upcoming documentary style film ON HOLD - but the creative impulse still exists and if you copy&paste this weblink into your browser or go to YouTube and search for it under my name - you will see this latest effort - a series of still photos in a timed sequence creates an illusion of motion placing you on the train as the sunsets in the distance with the silhouetted background framed by the blood-red tinged sun - I was going to enter this work into a film-making contest but it fails to meet the duration guidelines - - - > personally - I like to watch it ( maybe I am biased ? ) and hope you do as well - enjoy
as with most artists here I am sure you have had your fair share of fraudulent activity - it takes a certain type of person and personality to engage in such activity - it seems to me that there are strong undercurrents of a sceptical cynic who is likely someone who is a failed artist and they target those successful artists on here who they deem to be more successful than themselves - in order to attempt to assert their self-deluded belief in their superiority they send fraudulent messages to those artists they themselves inwardly aspire to be like but have failed miserably to attain - they outwardly display high levels of bitterness and jealousy towards others who are more successful than they - their insecurity leads them to devise what they consider intelligent schemes to otherwise "dupe" legitimate artists in a sad attempt to make-up for their obvious artistic short-comings - all-in-all it comes down to pathetic attempts to try to outwit and out-hustle legitimate artists - the easiest way we can all protect ourselves from such deviance is to do plenty of research whenever an inquiry to purchase your work comes calling - read up on Art Majeur's comments and do a lot of Google research on the latest fraud schemes being used on PayPal - Certified Checks and other methods of payments to ensure you are not a victim of the failed artist - it is not good to be too cynical and jump to conclusions but I would suggest most inquiries on Art Majeur are fraudulent - I do believe there are legitimate inquiries as well but before you get carried away - do your homework - I tend to look at it like this - in an indirect way if they are trying to steal your work it is a compliment that they value it so highly - but for them the ultimate pay-off is to lead an artist into a fraudulent transaction whereby they have led you to release your work and the funding trail is a water bucket full of holes - if you do suspect something better to be cautious than overly optimistic - if it sounds fishy - smells fishy - tastes fishy - it most likely IS fishy - ask the buyer a lot of questions about themselves - their address - their interests in your work - have they purchased other artists work online - does their IP location match their stated city location etc ...
... you may recall a few blogs ago that I had mentioned some new and exciting developments in my recent mathematical research work - literally a Fish on the Hook - I felt I had something big and significant but could not distinguish at the time if it was an old tire or a large fish indeed - well those who are familiar with such endeavours will appreciate the number of dead ends and blind alleys your efforts can lead to and the dispiriting impact this can have on you - the tendency for your work to become all-consuming as you seek ways and methods to get over theoretical hurdles - after more than 2 years of effort I can state that I have concluded as of last night 20:42 PM a detailed and complete outline for the proof of the long outstanding Twin Prime Conjecture (TPC) - a proof that has eluded mathematicians for centuries if not longer as it is not clear when this problem was originally stated - "prove that there are infinitely many twin primes" - Euclid proved there were infinitely many primes (300 BC) so we can suggest this problem has some legs as well - it is an annoyingly difficult and challenging problem because it seems almost certain to be true but resisted proof by so many - using novel geometric and algebraic means I have first analysed the basis for prime number generation and extended this knowledge towards an inquiry on proof of the TPC - I am certainly not alone in being a mathematician who has claimed to have "proven" this elusive difficult Conjecture but my proof is as close to self-evident as one can imagine - it does not take extensive mathematical knowledge to read comprehend and appreciate the soundness of the proof - however - the underlying theory is quite deep and novel - think of Einstein's famous E = mc^2 - simple formula ... deep deep theory - I used indirect methods and novel techniques to develop insight that is based on my own understanding - my first priority was to completely ignore the current literature on the topic as I think it biases your own efforts and directs you down paths already explored - the most fulfilling and rewarding way to do mathematical research is alone - blind and from first principals - teach yourself and you will learn the subject first hand - what's next? - to complete my current writing of the 55 pp Treatise on this topic and then to submit it for publishing - this will include a full and detailed historical background of the TPC proof from its inception - next summarize the proof and place it in purely algebraic terms to submit to a mathematics Journal such as Annals of Mathematics for peer review and hopefully publishing - exciting times indeed - I will update as things progress
I visited the Monet exhibition today and it was quite good - several new works (for me) and some were impressive as can be expected - there is this thing with Monet paintings that I suggest you try next time you see his works - begin your viewing directly in front <0.5m distance close to his work to see and admire the multiple colours he uses and brush texture detailing - then you MUST stand quite far back - perhaps 3-4 m and allow your eyes to focus and you will see the 'same'painting in a new light - then try this unusual perspective it is something I noticed in the Guggenheim gallery with his Gare St Lazaire work - change your stance to about 1m and view the painting off to the right with a 30 degree angle to wall - then change again and do the same from the left side - you will see astounding depth of a 3D variety that is not visible from the other two perspectives - you also may well see a 'new painting' from each side as it will literally come alive to your minds eye - the reason is based on the texture and style of his painting - different angles of viewing give off and reflect different colours as many of his works were quite heavy in their paint application with strong and deep texture - I would say of these the least satisfying manner to view a Monet painting is the first up-close proximity directly in front - yet most people view his paintings in this manner - the skewed side perspective does not work with every one of his paintings - on those where he used a different technique or a flat-brush style you will not see this effect - but try these 4 different perspectives the next time you get a chance to see his works and you will come to better appreciate his work - as I said to a colleague - Monet may not be the greatest painter ever but .... whom was better? - also - notice his use of rose petal pink in many of his sky motifs and unusual blue hues in many of his ground settings - they are subtle and almost imperceptible unless you look for them - a bit of Monet eye trickery with colours
in my current consulting role I am designing and developing electro-opto-mechanical systems - that prompted a graduate course study in Optics via MIT online open courseware - at first optics quite frankly seems a bit boring unless as a child you were completely enthralled with a magnifying glass - telescope or microscope - there IS that part to it - the rudimentary - but where it gets more interesting is in the study of the medium itself - light - and how optical lens - mirrors - apertures - prisms and the rest affect the light path particularly when arranged in a large set linear array of optics - there are two levels of study: the geometric and physical optics - you can consider it sort of traditional and modern split - the latter however brings in the electromagnetic properties of light and also includes modern theory of light as quanta - you have no doubt heard of lasers but while quantum optics includes this - I think there is still more on offer - in short it has some fascinating applications and interest - as my paintings are in general focused on the creation of colour - the study of optics reveals the critical role light plays in brining out those colours - I think painters - someone like a Monet for instance were inherently experts in light to be so skilled in creating colours and combinations of colour - many of his paintings strongly reflect the interplay between light and the colours he painted - perhaps we could call classify him as an "optical painter" such was his deep understanding of light - it is quite clear he was extremely sensitive to light and the colours it produced in his eyes - his shades of colours or more apt the breadth and depth of his colour pallete reflect this ...
... of course you have your near misses - your successes and your something-less-than-sucesses whenever you consider doing an Adventure - without the risk it would not be adventurous but whom counts on that risk going against them? - few - I had a nice three week leave in February 2018 and decided to visit India that soon became transformed into Nepal and a 2 week trek through the Himalayan Mountains to Everest Base Camp - Problem #1 - I have NEVER trekked in my life never mind in the Himalayan cornucopia - Problem #2 I had zero trekking gear Problem #3 - I have been at altitudes of 2500-3000m road cycling up some mountains but Everest Base Camp is set at 5380M and was new oxygen-deprivation territory for me - Problem #4 my hiking boots would be brand new never worn and fully expected to be blister-city for the expected 6-8 hour daiy trek over harsh terrain except for the greatest hiking boots in the world - Merrell MOAB - that lterally saved my feet from pure HELL - Problem #5 - it was off season and COLD temperatures with little electrcity and less heat anywhere on the trek except your sleeping bag which even though rated for -20C left you awake at night shivering even WITH a base layer on - Problem #6 Lukla airfield going IN and OUT is a landmine of problems due to weather and is rated the most dangerous airfield in the world with reason - Problem #7 - it COSTS a lot Problem #8 high altitude sickness - Problem #9 - Yak Cheese + Meat + Ice + Water + a LOT of food stuff you take for granted eating each day suddenly becoming a source of food poisoning Problem #10 - imagine walking up stairs two-at-a-time for 2.5 straight hours - that is what the physical demands were when going UP - reverse that when going down but imagine like you are falling with only your feet stopping you and each and every harsh bracing jolt driven through your body and back Problem #11 - I did it WITHOUT ANY pharmaceuticals - no Diamox - no PILLS at all - Problem #12 - 3 AM deep-breathing exercises each night for half an hour to help acclimatize to the rapidly thinning air - Problem #12 - off-days of "rest" that included friendly 600-900m hikes up steep scenic rock outcrops which were great but very cold and windy - Problem #13 - watching an Everest movie one night about Uwe Gianni Goltz who climbed Everest sans oxygen and summitted in 2008 but died shortly thereafter on the descent Problem #14 - Khumbu IceField >4000M Cough and the HUGE impact it had on your already diminshed oxygen supply Problem # 15 - lack of hiking poles - I repeat - NO hiking poles !!! Problem #16 - expensive bottled water that got more expensive te higher you climbed and at 3L minimum a day to fight dehydration set you back plenty - Problem #17 - blazing ahead of the group only to find yourself taking the wrong turn in the trek and being left in the middle of nowhere and feeling sort of LOST Problem #18 - the smell of kerosene gas in the teachouses each day and night was nauseating Problem #19 - becoming very disorientated due to altitude sickness and falling over in the hall on the way to the bathroom at night - never mind walking on the rocky outcrop trek - Problem #20 - only being able to maintain a trekking "pace" of 30 steps + 30 breathes for hours on end Problem #21 - watching Sherpas dance up the Mountains with 20-30kg strapped to their backs Problem #22 - contracting pneumonia Problem #23 .......................................................... you get the picture - it WAS an Adventure - some day I write a book !!! - if you are wondering - did I make it to the Everest Base Camp? - dude - of course I did !
adventure is really a personal defintion that defines you to a certain degree ... climbing Mount Everest can be seen as one example of extreme adventure but surely others are equally demanding and risky ... on a personal level your "adventure" is one that expands and extends you beyond your known comfort limits ... levels of risk are undoubtedly higher but so is personal reward ... in a way you could say we conquer our fears or we get it wrong and nature perilous and unforgiving conquers us ... almost always it begins with a step into our unknown - I have stood at threshold a few times and then stepped across it - canoeing on Lake Superiors stunning coastal north shore with whitecaps visible having been so inspired by renowned Canadian outdoorsman Bill Mason - taking my tiny 14' fiberglass canoe into such chop was exillirating however one misstep would have dumped me into the 40-45F water soup and the sheer rock cliffs were no place to beach - paddling one sunny day along a large rock strewn beach on my left was a thin line of small rolling swells water and sky - I erroneously became transfixed on the beac scene not realizing the water depth decreased precipitously - the sound of a train suddenly caught my right ear - I turned abruptly to see an ominous 4' vertical wall of water only milliseconds away from slamming into the right side of my canoe that was parallel to the wave - on instinct alone I slammed my paddle as hard as I could down on the gunwales just as the wave made impact - I felt a large slap of water on my right cheek dislodging my paddlers hat as the wave violently breached the gunwale and rocked my craft but ... somehow - I stayed upright and survived this rogue wave to paddle another day ...
the engineering project that has lasted 15 months is now over - imagine re-directing 50 - 60 hours a week to other things - at least for a while until the next contract role materializes - most of this available time and energy will be directed to completing the re-write of my Article Treatise on Morley Primes and the Morley Prime Number Sieve which unbeknownst to most of my visitors has undergone extensive re-evaluation - what to include and not - if you have written articles at any level you may well appreciate the challenege to condense months or a year of research work into a concise10-12 page summary - it can be done - but I have found my Treatise suffering from excessive detail to the point that the page count was exceeding 24pp. - far too large an article to get published so ... we re-write - the question you beg to answer has to be reposed until you get it right - so I am currently in the re-write phase and now have enough time + energy to not fall asleep at my desk each night after 10-12 hour days of work - at least for a short while - time to make hay while the sun is shining - the challeneg of course is to review all of the research work and attempt to condense it - no small task after 15 months of mostly peripheral attention - but I have already began to do this with good results and once you are in the flow of writing it simply pours out onto the page - there should be some sort of writing rule that if you are struggling to write a sentence a BIG sign should appear in front of you saying "you are going in the wrong direction" - but the previous momentum at times blindly TRIES to carry you forward and the vertical wall only gets higher - right now the flow is flowing so hopefully I can complete it - the back-half of the paper is complete and ready to go - it is the front-half that has undergone radical revision time and time again - primes being such a rich and deep topic what happens is you keep dicsovering new and interesting tidbits so new material develops for other articles ... I already have a good basis for a new article but I have cautioned myself to STOP article writing hereafter and return to complete my Thesis post-haste as it has sat idle for far too long - 65% of it is now complete and the remaining 35% is a re-write ... stagnating papers - been there done that no thanks
well ..... for those who have experience as an Engineer enmeshed in a large project you can appreciate better the 60+ hour work weeks - week after week - month after month - and the mundane life you tend to come to lead - work-eat-sleep ad nauseum - it leaves little energy and time for much else - and that is just how it is - no complaints - why complain? - if you can imagine coming home at 7:30-8:00 PM at night after working 11-12+ hours - having a small snack of banana and jogurt perhaps - studying your mathematics for a mere 15-30 minutes before going to bed to awaken at 5:00 AM as your daily routine - then you sort of get it - that has pretty much been the case for me since November 2016 - 6 days a week - on the 7th day I get to do a bit more research work on Saturday based on the past week's contemplation ... I am firm believer in the unconscious mind at work so some slow progress is being made - but not nearly what could be done without being under this level of workload - I have done worse - I vividly recall one project where standard work weeks extended up into the 70+ hour range - one peak week of 92 hours near completion I arrived home just after 1:00 AM - filled the bath full with nice hot foamy bubbling water - proceeded to fall asleep - in the tub - and then was shocked awake at 4:30AM when the water had turned cold - dried off - got dressed and went back to work another 12+ hour day - yes - YES - the professional glamour of it all !!!
why so silent? - quite simple - WORK WORK WORK - I am currently engaged in a large project with continous 55-60 hour work weeks which saps most energy for much else - it's a bit of a grind this engineering at times but work has to come first - so most other things creative are in idle mode right now waiting until projects near completion and some free contemplation time reappears ... hopefully soon as my Mathematics papers await !!!
