{"id":244651,"date":"2011-10-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-28T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/meeting-of-the-minds-club-raises-conversation-to-an-art-form\/"},"modified":"2011-10-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-10-28T07:00:00","slug":"meeting-of-the-minds-club-raises-conversation-to-an-art-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/meeting-of-the-minds-club-raises-conversation-to-an-art-form\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting of the Minds club raises conversation to an art form"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Cynthia Robertson | Reportero SDUN<\/strong><\/p>\n

Much of the art of conversation has faded with the advent of Facebook, texting and instant messaging. Such means rarely allow for good form of discourse on the important things in life such as art, philosophy, spirituality and science. The Meeting of Minds club aims to be a place for that.<\/p>\n

Every Wednesday at 7 p.m., a group shows up at Filter Coffee House in North Park. With lattes and giant cookies in hand, they look to Gary Grine, who founded the group, as he opens the topic of discussion.<\/p>\n

At the Oct. 19 meeting, 15 people sat to ruminate on Grine\u2019s pre-arranged topic: Pathologies and the Artist. He opened with the statement that neuroscientists look at creativity as synaptic responses among neurons.<\/p>\n

Members of the group suggested that behavior cannot simply be reduced to synapses. Grine agreed. \u201cBut wouldn\u2019t mental illness or the use of drugs or alcohol affect those synapses?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

Plenty of cross talk ensued, particularly about the work of Van Gogh. Grine said he recently watched a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d program on Van Gogh. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe program explored why Van Gogh [thought] like he did. His father died a crazy man, and he died crazy, too,\u201d he said, handing out a paper on temporal lobe epilepsy, a type of epilepsy from which Van Gogh suffered. <\/p>\n

Grine explained the epilepsy caused Van Gogh to experience intense emotions and to see vibrant colors.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo then why do we find Van Gogh\u2019s art so attractive if it is pathological? What makes good art? The first artist\u2019s print I ever bought was Van Gogh\u2019s \u2018Starry Night.\u2019 But a lot of people don\u2019t like his art,\u201d Grine said.<\/p>\n

Grine noted that Van Gogh was considered the \u2018village idiot\u2019 during his lifetime. That brought a sputter of comments about Van Gogh\u2019s art not being recognized until after his death.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, now look up on the wall behind you\u2026\u201d said a woman named Kim, who asked her last name not be used, to a fellow participant. \u201cWhat is that? A sculpture, a mixed media?\u201d Kim asked, pointing to a small rectangular piece of board with white objects glued to it. \u201cIs that art?\u201d she asked. <\/p>\n

Grine said, \u201cWell, I wouldn\u2019t hang it up on my wall. Nor would I put up \u2018The Scream\u2019 by Munch, and that\u2019s considered a classic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything that\u2019s passionate or painful can inspire people to create,\u201d Kim said, \u201cI\u2019ve written my own best poetry when I\u2019m depressed. I can\u2019t write at all if I\u2019m happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that means that someone has to be depressed to be able to produce art. But I do think creativity and sensitivity go together,\u201d said participant Joan Kurland, \u201cWhen artists do feel sad, it\u2019s just that they have a certain depth that maybe other people don\u2019t get to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they feel happiness in a different way, too,\u201d Kim said.<\/p>\n

Grine moved to the next question, \u201cWhat about other accidents of nature, such as being struck by lightning? There\u2019s some research about composers getting their genius after getting hit by lightning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kurland said she had personally experienced something similar.<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, I wasn\u2019t hit by lighting, but it was almost like it,\u201d said Kurland. She said that her mother took her to see \u201cThe Sound of Music\u201d on Broadway when she was five years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some reason, in the song \u2018A Few of My Favorite Things,\u2019 when they sang that line, \u2018then I don\u2019t feel so bad,\u2019 it was like something jolted inside of me. A few weeks later, I can remember lying on the floor listening to classical music and I felt this indescribable ecstasy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom that point on, composing and songwriting came easily to me. I\u2019m a concert pianist now,\u201d Kurland said.<\/p>\n

Grine thanked her for that story and everyone for coming. It was time to wrap the conversation up. <\/p>\n

\u201cI hope you have enjoyed the creative process here,\u201d he said. \u201cThe whole purpose of the group is to not be pedantic, but to ask questions.\u201d
\nKim smiled. \u201cThat\u2019s why I come here. I admit I don\u2019t know a lot about different things. I get to think about what we\u2019ve talked about,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

For a list of topics scheduled through the end of 2011, and for more information, visit www.civilizedconversation.wordpress.com\/meeting-of-minds-club.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Cynthia Robertson | SDUN Reporter Much of the art of conversation has faded with the advent of Facebook, texting and instant messaging. Such means rarely allow for good form of discourse on the important things in life such as art, philosophy, spirituality and science. The Meeting of Minds club aims to be a place […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":749,"featured_media":244650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Meeting of the Minds club raises conversation to an art form","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11593,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-no-images","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/749"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}