“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(See the copy of the first draft of my letter on page 31. A brief history: Last month our friend Marie Colucci let a local dentist, Dr. Lodico, whom Jane and I have not met, borrow an abstract painting of mine to try out in his office. A couple of weeks ago, on August 31, Dr. Lodico sent payment for the painting, with a request to see more abstracts for his office. Tonight’s object is a first draft of my reply to his letter, and is dated September 12.

(Disarray can refer to the jumbled appearance of my letter, used as object, with its crossed-out words, etc. Jane thought that disarray could also refer to the fact that abstract paintings are mentioned in the letter; to some people abstracts would be in disarray, as compared to conventional paintings showing things in the usual sense—flowers, houses, trees, etc.

(“A main turnabout, or a connection with Maine.” The turnabout connection is correct. In the letter used as object, I inform Dr. Lodico that I’ve changed my mind about sending the abstracts to the Mount Savior exhibit, and plan to submit other kinds of paintings instead. This makes the abstracts available for the doctor’s inspection, and perhaps purchase.

[...] We discussed my abstract paintings briefly, speculating on the reasons people were attracted to them, and Seth came through briefly at 10:30.)

[...] For you the abstracts also represent excellent exercises in the free flow of spontaneity, and this benefits your other paintings also. [...]

[...] What you call abstract art tried to reverse that process, but even the abstract painters did not believe in the world of the imagination, in which there were any heroic dimensions, and the phase is largely transitory.

In a fashion, those stylized figures that stood for the images of God, apostles, saints, and so forth, were like a kind of formalized abstract form, into which the artist painted all of his emotions and all of his beliefs, all of his hopes and dissatisfactions. [...]

The idea should be an abstract philosophical concept. [...] Contemplation of an abstract nature often leads further into valid psychic experience. [...]

[...] They take instead planned distortions, which can cover up such inadequacies, or frankly abstract works.

[...] If I had not told you this you would pass it by, thinking they wanted only abstracts, or your, is it—pop art?

[...] To you, knowledge in the abstract means little. [...]

[...] She said she felt that “his” abstract idea behind or beyond the term coordinates, was far removed from our earthly experience.)

When a belief in an abstract term seems to negate another abstract term, it may simply be because your acceptance or expectation is not expansive enough to include both.

[...] The wavy lines of the cancellation are close together, and in the abstract could symbolize anything such as trees, etc. [...]

[...] The scene on the front of the postcard consists almost entirely of oval components in the abstract: The sea spray, the clouds, even the rocks in the foreground. [...]

[...] It might be said the abstract shapes of the letters in Portland, Maine, within the circular postmark, are angular. [...]

[...] There are also paintings — so-called abstracts — unconsciously produced, many by amateurs, that are excellent representations of such inner organizations.⁴

4. As an artist myself, I’ve occasionally wondered if some abstract paintings could have such origins. [...]

[...] There is behind such seemingly undirected, abstract tumult and energy, direction that cannot be intellectually perceived, but can be intuitively sensed. [...]

From the sound, the assaulting onrushing sound of traffic, if you listen you can emerge with the prize—perhaps an abstract, with the pulsating sounds transferred to rhythm and color; or perhaps again a portrait, here, of a compulsive personality, driven, and yet behind it all the purpose which is not easily seen, and the reason.

(“And an abstract design.” [...] Bert first got Jane interested in teaching; he is also an artist, and paints abstracts.

[...] A C and a J. And an abstract design. [...]

Your portrait of Ruburt, for example, appealed to many people who did not appreciate your abstracts. Those who appreciated your abstracts did not appreciate the portrait. [...]

[...] The painting was rather abstract, but hinted at a Middle East background, and the head was in a turban of sorts.

[...] And in other ways to lesser degrees, through abstract thought, through art of any kind, the physical human being, having been formed by consciousness, in his own way then working through and with matter, constructs other fields or planes of attraction, which according to their abilities expand.

[...] Though numbers are abstract they can serve our purposes well here. [...]

Knowledge does not exist, ideally, in abstract terms. [...]

[...] When I have perceived the emotional charges connected with any given experimental object, then my first step in interpretation involves such abstract forms.

[...] As you should know, there is a difference in the type of mobility of an objective painting, and an abstract one. [...]

(“Abstract” art done in this manner would be an attempt to appeal, to generate an emotional response—in other words action on our plane—on a subconscious level. [...]

You can accept completely abstract work, and do it well, though you would not be satisfied with it for a great time. [...]

(Jane said she had felt her facial expression change, as described; at this time the data began to change, she said, from the abstract into an emotional personality who was responsible for it. [...]