This website is the visual companion to my book Contemplative Beholding: A Way of Life and Love (Lindisfarne Books, SteinerBooks, 834 Main Street, PO Box 358, Spencertown, New York 12165). The images on this site provide focused occasions for beholding with the art of works of art, including painting, sculpture, and architecture. Together with the book, they offer a resource for embracing multiple ways of knowing; of engaging with the world, with nature, and with each other.
I intend the combined act of reading the book and beholding with the images to initiate a contemplative process of change, growth, and transformation; a journey leading us to a point of renewal—a threshold of love—in our turbulent world.
Images on the website are keyed to prompts in the book that identify them by chapter and image number (for example, the first image in the first chapter is numbered 1.1). With an image open on the screen, you may shift your focus back and forth between it and the book, taking as much time as you need to read and behold with the image before moving on. (To enhance these contemplative beholding occasions, enter “full screen” view when engaging with the images.)
An “Advance screen” prompt in the book is your signal to clear the image from the screen, to “Return to the book,” and continue reading until prompted to access the next image in the chapter. At the end of a chapter, the “Advance screen” prompt in the book is your signal to proceed to the “Exit Images” screen. Clicking on the X in the upper right corner will return you to the image index; scrolling to the bottom of the image index will allow you to link back to the contents or proceed to images for the next chapter.
Although in this dual format contemplative beholding with the art of works of art is deliberately separated from the act of reading, it is neither detached nor isolated. At times, the experience of determined contemplative beholding will reach beyond the limits of more familiar verbal description, analysis, interpretation, and reflection to open moments of poetic insight and enduring wisdom.
To help guide these contemplative beholding occasions, I offer opportunities for you to reflect and meditate on passages that I have offset from the main text (like these two paragraphs). They also provide clarification or gentle instruction on how to proceed.
I intend the path of Contemplative Beholding to be flexible, with freedom to move at a comfortable pace or repeat a section if desired.
Prepare now to engage with the images by going to the Contents page.