Cleansing the doors of perception
Symbols: The alphabet of human thought
Ronald D. Isom © 2010
If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
William Blake
: "'I do not behold the outward creation... it is a hindrance and not action.' Thus William Blake--painter, engraver, and poet--explained why his work was filled with religious visions rather than with subjects from everyday life. Few people in his time realized that Blake expressed these visions with a talent that approached genius. He lived in near poverty and died unrecognized. Today, however, Blake is acclaimed one of England's great figures of art and literature and one of the most inspired and original painters of his time."
A Divine Image
Cruelty has a human heart,
And Jealousy a human face;
Terror the human form divine,
And Secresy the human dress.
The human dress is forged iron,
The human form a fiery forge,
The human face a furnace sealed,
The human heart its hungry gorge.
William Blake
1871 oil painting “Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds” is one of the works in the exhibit exploring how Darwin’s theories on evolution and natural selection permeated artistic images of the natural world.
