Jung

Gastronomica Reader :: Wikimania 2012

The Gastronomica Reader
Univ of California Press, 2010.

What fun to find that the Gastronomica Reader , which includes my long article about Diana Kennedy and Mexican organic farming,  is on a book list run by an Estonian web-librarian!

Fun because this connects directly to last week’s Wikimania 2012 in Washington, DC where I met a wikipedian philosophy doctorate from Estonia named Raul Veede.

Synchronicity and random serendipity are the most reliable indicators I follow in order to avoid the contrived pressures of marketing, crowd control, greed and aggression.  Long live the randomness of the internet and the global volunteer efforts of wiki writers everywhere.

P.S.  If you’ve ever used Wikipedia, consider making a donation. Wikipedians are volunteers. Donations support the infrastructure and service costs.

Art Emerges with Mystery

“Every creative artist is a unique individual who has (her) his feet firmly planted in mid-air.  He uses all his negative energies — tensions, anxieties and other vulnerabilities — and transforms them into rich reservoirs of positive forces, from which (her) his art emerges carrying with it the mystery and wonder of the unknown.”  Michael Ponce de Leon

Who is Michael Ponce de Leon, I wondered, as I copied this quotation from an exhibition of Jung’s metaphysical work The Red Book at the Library of Congress, Autumn 2010?  Clearly an artist who understands process of transformation, consciousness and catalyst creation.

The New York State Archives answered:

  • Ponce de Leon, Michael, 1922-
    Michael Ponce de Leon papers, 1943-1979
    1.0 linear ft. (partially microfilmed on 2 reels)
    Microfilmed portion must be consulted on microfilm. Use of unmicrofilmed portion requires an appointment and is limited to Washington, D.C. storage facility.Printmaker, cartoonist; New York, N.Y. Correspondence; sketchbooks; writings; photographs; drawings; exhibition catalogs and announcements; and clippings. 

    REELS N69-127 & N70-14: Correspondence relating to Ponce de Leon’s service as a cartoonist with the U.S. Air Force during World War II, his trip, 1967-1968, to India, Pakistan and Southeast Asia sponsored by the U.S. State Department to encourage better relations through art, his teaching appointments and exhibits; journal notes and writings concerning his trips to India, Cambodia and Thailand, his own work, teaching, Norwegian graphics and the art process; sketches and cartoons; sketchbooks containing figure studies, still lifes and sketches of Indian life; clippings, exhibition catalogs and printed material; and photographs of Ponce de Leon and his works of art. Correspondents include Elmer Davis for the O.W.I., critic John Canaday, art historian Jacinto Quirarte, and others.

    UNMICROFILMED: A congratulatory letter from David Goddard upon receiving a Guggenheim award, 1967; photos and slides of Ponce de Leon’s work, a slide of him in a workshop, and photos showing his metal collage intaglio printing technique; exhibition catalogs and announcements, reprints, clippings, miscellaneous notes, three cartoon drawings, and an intaglio, “There’s a Time.”

    35mm microfilm reels N69-127 & N70-14 available for use at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan. Material on reels N69-127 & N70-14 lent for microfilming 1969 and unmicrofilmed material donated 1977-1979 by Michael Ponce de Leon. Reels N69-127 & N70-14: Originals returned to Michael Ponce de Leon after microfilming.

    Subjects: Prints — Technique — 20th century.; War in art.; World War, 1940-1945 — Caricatures and cartoons.; Hispanic American artists.