Float

My own immersion in music, the arcane and indeed ecclesiasticism led to impressions of an understanding of time travel. Using a knowledge of the physics of chordal structures, and based on a new principle uncovered, involving musical frequencies, harmonic resonance and the relationship of these things with the astral plane, it is believed that a time machine was constructed which is claimed by its maker to have allowed photographs to be taken of the past. Such images were gained by an approach and perspective significantly removed from any dependance on s^2=x^2+y^2+z^2-ct^2 where s stands for space-time and a Lorentz transformation invariant, ie the distance has the same value for all inertial observers. That space and time are aspects of the same thing, and that matter and energy are also two aspects of the same thing (E=mc^2), is nonetheless invaluable to all potential builders of time machines. My canvas adopts the milk float of yesterday as the potential time machine, combined with a visual concept of space. Venice-based Father Ernetti incorporated rather more than theoretical physics into his calculations when inventing his time machine camera that could focus into the past or future and take pictures of events from the time visited. My career as a professional photographer, life-long involvement in music, and later embrace of ecclesiasticism made the Benedictine monk’s approach to time travel at once comprehensible and something I naturally felt empathetic toward. Whether it was, is, or ever could be a reality, is not something I would conjecture  ― for I have already experienced enough to know that all manner of things are possible.

Carmel

Carmel revisited using mixed media, including original Sixties' portraiture taken at my studio using a plate camera and employing vintage methods. The female subject modelled for me circa 1967-1968.

Self-Portrait

Title: The Artist as a Young Man circa 2013 (third impression).

Sturmtruppler

Gethsemane

Then Jesus went with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with Him, and He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then He said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.”

Going a little farther, He fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Then He returned to His disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with Me for one hour?” He asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

When He came back, He again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So He left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

Then He returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners.  Rise! Let us go! Here comes My betrayer!”

Lourdes

The full title of this newly finished canvas, completed today on the anniversary of the Blessed Virgin's first appearance to Bernadette Soubirous at the grotto of Massabielle on 11 February 1858, is La belle Apparition à Lourdes. It can be viewed at my private retreat where it is permanently displayed in the presence of sacred relics of the saint.

The Beautiful Apparition from The Song of Bernadette (1943).

Bernadette Soubirous

Bernadette Soubirous (feast day April 16th) was born on 7 January 1844.

Lourdes is a village in France where the Blessed Virgin appeared eighteen times to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. Her  messages to Bernadette are ageless and apply to all of us today.

Bernadette seemed relieved that she was becoming less of a public figure following the visions of the Blessed Virgin. Several months had passed, and after receiving communion on the feast of Our Lady of Mount. Carmel, Bernadette felt an irresistible urge to return to the Grotto. Since the barricade was still in place, she and her aunt could not get as close to the sacred spot as they wanted, so they knelt in the grass, and the Beautiful Apparition of Our Lady appeared to her one last time.

Bernadette joined the order of the Sisters of Charity. Throughout her life she remained sickly, but attended patiently to her duties as infirmarian and sacristan. She died a holy death on 16 April 1879. She was thirty-four years old. Bernadette was buried on the convent grounds in Nevers, France. Her body was exhumed thirty years later on 22 September 1909 in the presence of two doctors, several appointed officials, and nuns from the local convent. When Bernadette's coffin was opened there was no odour, and her body was untouched by corruption.

A second exhumation took place on 3 April 1919. The body of the then declared Venerable was found in the same state of preservation as ten years earlier, except that the face was slightly discoloured, due to the washing it had undergone during the first exhumation. A worker in wax was entrusted with the task of coating the face of the Saint who had been dead forty years. The sacred relic (Bernadette's body) was placed in a coffin of gold and glass and can be viewed to this very day in the Chapel of Saint Bernadette at the motherhouse in Nevers, France.

http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/lourdes.htm

Lucy