MICHELLE LOUIS
  • Home
    • Paintings >
      • Elemental Series
      • Verge Series
      • Oh Yes Series
      • Of Land and Sky Series
      • Earthscape Series
      • Blue Series
      • Trailblazer Series
      • Invisible Trails Series
      • Yin Sides Series
      • Geometric Series
  • Contact/Shop
  • Meet Michelle
  • Blog

Time- Do You See It?

11/19/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Seeing Time 321, 28"x 40" acrylic on canvas. ©2017 Michelle Louis
Chronesthesia is mental time travel. I'm not talking science fiction or magical thinking. It's the idea that mental time travel, both forward and backward- allows us to be aware of our place in linear time. Chronesthesia, theorizes psychologist Dr. Endel Tulving, gives humans the exclusive ability to recollect past events and plan for the future. He claims, "The kind of culture that Homo sapiens have created over the past 40,000 years or so can be produced only by individuals whose intelligence includes conscious awareness of the future in which they and their progeny will continue to live and survive."
    Things happen while I'm painting that tickle my inquisitive brain. I find these things irresistible - the centering I feel in front of a canvas, the transcendent moment when surface and paint and motion begin to meld into something that pushes me farther than I thought I wanted to go, the unconventional documentation of real experience in nature, and, the notion of "escaping" time. I look up, three hours have passed, and it felt like three minutes.  Not exactly what Tulving was talking about, but it got me thinking...
    Does the state we humans now find ourselves in prove Tulving is mistaken? How do we really use our intelligence, and how do we evaluate human versus animal intelligence? Without a long lens, it's too soon to know. My own mental time travels are just optimistic projections. But new research is demonstrating that dogs and other animals possess the same type of intelligence Tulving called "uniquely human." Perhaps we need to think more about learning from other animals rather than about how superior we are to them.
    What I do know is that the days have become excruciatingly short. Trees are laid bare to the bones, and the harvest is complete. Like other animals, it's time for us to gather together. Not necessarily to migrate or hibernate, but to create an attentive "now" - to be active and grateful, to celebrate family and friends and food, and the abundant Earth that sustains us. Happy Thanksgiving!

The paintings on this page are a selection from my recent
Seeing Time sequence. You can see more here.

Picture
Seeing Time 301, 20"x 16" acrylic on canvas. ©2017 Michelle Louis
Picture
Seeing Time 304, 20"x 16" acrylic on canvas. ©2017 Michelle Louis
0 Comments

    Author

    Artist and naturalist Michelle Louis has a vigorous curiosity about the natural world. Her abstract landscape paintings cultivate connection to the lands she explores.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016

    ©2022 Michelle Louis All rights reserved. Content and images are property of the artist.

    Categories
    art, nature, painting, artist, wisconsin, naturalist, hiking, walking, studio, blog

    All

    RSS Feed


  • Home
    • Paintings >
      • Elemental Series
      • Verge Series
      • Oh Yes Series
      • Of Land and Sky Series
      • Earthscape Series
      • Blue Series
      • Trailblazer Series
      • Invisible Trails Series
      • Yin Sides Series
      • Geometric Series
  • Contact/Shop
  • Meet Michelle
  • Blog