WINTER'S ICE

THIS PAINTING, "WINTER'S ICE" WAS SELECTED FOR EXHIBITION IN A JURIED SHOW AT THE SARASOTA ART CENTER. THE EXHIBIT RUNS FROM DEC. 2012 TO FEB. 2013. IT IS 24" X 30", AND IS ACRYLIC ON MEDIUM DENSITY FIBERBOARD

 

IN VIEWING ART ON THIS BLOG, CLICK OLDER POSTS AT THE END OF EACH BLOCK FOR MORE. 

FLOWER FANTASY 20"X 24" ON CANVAS

FLOWER FANTASY

http://downingart.blogspot.com - MY NEW ART BLOG

SEE MY NEW LES DOWNING ART BLOG AT -  DOWNINGART.BLOGSPOT.COM

WHERE I HAVE POSTED MANY MORE RECENT PAINTINGS.

STAINED GLASS

STAINED GLASS BY LES

NEW PAINTINGS

ALL OF THESE PAINTING WERE DONE RECENTLY, BY LES DOWNING, WITH MORE TO BE ADDED SHORTLY.

These are both small: 16" by 20"

SUN - 16" BY 36" Acrylic on canvas








SUNSET - 24" BY 48" aCRYLIC ON MDF

These are both 16" by 20














This is 24" by 24" acrylic on plywood

LES'S ABSTRACT PAINTINGS

These are both 20" by 24" arcylic on canvas


I STARTED DOING LARGE ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST STYLE PAINTINGS ABOUT NOVEMBER OF 2011. HERE I HAVE INCLUDED MANY OF THESE, AND WILL LIKELY ADD MORE IN THE FUTURE. LES D.

MANY MORE PAINTINGS.

THIS 3 FT. BY 4 FT. ACRYLIC ON MDF IS POLYURETHANED FOR OUTDOOR USE BY THE POOL.

MORE NEW ART - 20" by 24" Acrylic on canvas

This is 24"by 48" Acrylic on MDF (medium density fiberboard)

Carl Sagan's classic, "The Varieties of Scientific Experience." "There is an enormous amount we do not know; there is a tiny amount that we do. But what we do understand brings us face to face with an awesome cosmos that is simply different from the cosmos of our pious ancestors."

UPDATE FEB. 2009

HOLLY AND I HAVE NOW BEEN IN OUR NEW HOUSE IN SARASOTA FOR ABOUT 6 MONTHS, AND WE LOVE IT. I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON MY BOOK: "FRAGILE REALITIES - CONVERSION AND COMMITMENT IN CULTS AND OTHER POWERFUL GROUPS." I HAVE MET INTERESTING NEW PEOPLE THROUGH FREE THINKERS AND HUMANIST GROUPS IN SARASOTA. I COOK, WALK, AND WORK OUT AT THE YMCA REGULARLY, AND I AM SLOWLY LEARNING TO GOLF. LIFE IS GOOD.

I HAVE POSTED NEW PHOTOS OF HOLLY, THE HOUSE, OUR TRIP TO LONDON, EMILY, ETC. I WILL BE POSTING PHOTOS OF MY GRANDSON ELI, WHO IS NOW ALMOST TWO YEARS OLD.

CONTRIBUTORS: Thanks for your comments. I hope to keep up with this project now that I am retiring. Many of you I hardly ever see anymore. E-mail me. Let me know how you are doing. Les

Cottage Name Contest

Finally someone has suggested a name I like. Thanks Holly!

Here it is: "Les's Estate of Mind,"
or perhaps just "Estate of Mind."

Informally to be refered to as "The Estate."

I have not made the sign yet, so any other suggestions will still be considered.

Holly and her Sisters;Les;Les and Holly;Holly at Epcot;Holly at Beach

Les House - Now for Sale

This is the Oneonta house I am selling. Not shown are the new two-car garage to the left, and the new outdoor kitchen to the right.

THE PAST YEAR, AND WHO IS HOLLY?

Since I last updated this blog, I have had a busy and interesting life. Last summer, I lived primarily at the cottage, and had a great new deck added at the lake side of the cottage, and at the level of the cottage and porch, with a built-in recessed hot tub, overlooking the lake. I also got the new second level arched window finished, which also looks over the lake, from the master bedroom. I will post photos of the additions soon. Socially, I dated several women over the summer, and in the fall I started going with a Japanese woman who is an artist living in NYC. It looked like it might be serious, but by Christmas it was becoming clear that we were too dissimilar to make it in the longrun. I ended it and flew to Winnipeg to spend three weeks with Emily and Adam. Emily is pregnant and is working on her dissertation for her Ph.D. in Philosophy at Cornell. I had a great time with her and Adam.

Having had enough of cold climates, I arranged to visit friends, Kathy and Henry, and Rita and Foster, in Sarasota, FL., on the first break, at the end of February. Before going, in February, I started communicating by e-mail with a woman school teacher in Sarasota. We met and walked on the beach shortly after I arrived, and we saw each other nearly every day until I had to go back to NY. She came to visit NY and spend several days with me before Easter, and I went down there for a week soon after that. She is comimg up, as I said before, to spend much of the summer at the lake. Holly is terrific. It should be a very good summer.

I am selling the house in Oneonta, and improving the place at the lake to make it more houselike. I could live there, and probably will in summers, but I plan to buy a place in Florida, in or near Sarasota, where I will live at least in the cold months. There is much to do: move out of my office at the college, arrange to sell, move, or store, or discard, everything in the house so I can move out and sell it, renovate the cottage and move stuff into it, research the real estate situation in Sarasota with an eye to buying something there, and enjoy the summer at the lake with Holly, and with Emily and Adam and the new Baby - for the entire month of July and into August.

I love it! Life is sweet. Les

LES RETIREMENT

STICK A FORK IN ME. I AM DONE! ONE WEEK FROM TODAY IS MY RETIREMENT PARTY. TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY IS MY LAST FINAL EXAM. TWO DAYS LATER I WILL FLY TO SARASOTA, FL, TO SPEND A FEW DAYS THERE WITH HOLLY BEFORE WE DRIVE HER JEEP TO ONEONTA, WHERE SHE WILL SPEND MOST OF THE SUMMER WITH ME AT THE COTTAGE ON GOODYEAR LAKE. IF THIS NEW VERSION OF BLOGGER IS WORKING, HER PHOTO SHOULD BE HERE:

THIS MADE ME LAUGH...TANDEM STORY

A TANDEM STORY

Here's a prime example of "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus", offered by an English professor from the University of Phoenix: The professor told his class one day: "Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person
will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. (sic ... Think about if this is even possible!)
As homework tonight, one of you will write the first paragraph of a short story. You will
e-mail your partner that paragraph and send another copy to me. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story and send it back, also sending another copy to me. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and forth.

Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking outside of the e-mails and anything you wish to say must be written in the e-mail. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached."

The following was actually turned in by two of his English students, Rebecca and Gary.


THE STORY:

(first paragraph by Rebecca)

At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind
off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.

(second paragraph by Gary)

Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon
4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. " A.S. Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his transgalactic communicator. "Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far..." But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere
and blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.

(Rebecca)

He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had never had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4.
"Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel," Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She
stared out the window, dreaming of her youth, when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspaper to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. "Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.
(Gary)

Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace disarmament Treaty through the congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid Laurie.

(Rebecca)

This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic
semi-literate adolescent.

(Gary)

Yeah? Well, my writing partner is a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. "Oh, shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of FUCKING TEA??? Oh no, what am I to do? I'm such an air headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steele novels!"

(Rebecca)

Asshole.

(Gary)

Bitch

(Rebecca)

FUCK YOU, YOU NEANDERTHAL!

(Gary)

Go drink some tea - whore.

(TEACHER)

A+ - I really liked this one

My latest publication

FINALLY, AFTER A FEW YEARS SINCE I DID THIS WORK, A CHAPTER ON MY CUSP CATASTROPHE MODEL OF CONVERSION AND COMMITMENT PHENOMENA, AS THEY OCCUR IN CULT TYPES OF GROUPS, HAS BEEN PUBLISHED. HERE IS THE REFERENCE:

Downing, L. L. (2005). A cusp catastrophe model of cult conversions, in D.O. O'Leary and G.S. McGhee (Eds.), War in Heaven, Heaven on Earth: Theories of the Apocalyptic, London: Equinox. 221-235.

A Catastrophe Theory Model of Ideological Conversion and Commitment
Leslie L. Downing
State University of New York College at Oneonta

Abstract

Catastrophe Theory is used to model the effects of “Conversion Forces” and “Commitment Forces” on the nature of the transition to a new ideology. The model uses the cusp catastrophe behavior surface in predicting that conversion will be gradual, at low commitment, and stepwise, at high commitment; and that persistence of the original beliefs, in the face of increasing forces for ideological conversion, will be directly related to the level of commitment. A six-component model, based upon research in social psychology, delineates major conversion forces, and another, three-factor model, delineates major commitment forces. The relevance of the cusp catastrophe model for understanding the relationships between these various conversion and commitment forces and ideological conversion phenomena is supported by systematic review of case studies, and by relevant experimental research. The model is also compatible with major perspectives in social psychology, including research and theory on attitudes, dissonance and commitment, as well as research and theory in group dynamics, including conformity, ingroup/outgroup bias effects, and groupthink.

Excerpt from my book, Fragile Realities: Conversion and Commitment in Cults and Other Powerful Groups

NOTE: Many of you are aware that I have been working for a very long time on a book about religious cults and related matters. Here is an excerpt from the chapter on Commitment.


BOX #1: (An Excerpt from the Fragile Realities Book, by Leslie L. Downing)

" SELF-SELECTION AND COMMITMENT EFFECTS OF GEOGRAPHICAL RELOCATION"
When the 914 members of the People's Temple committed suicide, in 1978, I began looking into possible social psychological explanations of how individuals could be influenced to voluntarily participate in such an event. One early insight pointed to the set of possible influences that might have resulted from the many geographical relocations the group had been subjected to over a relatively short period of time. Jim Jones first established a following as a minister of a Disciples of Christ congregation in Indiana. When the liberal policies and the racial integration of his congregation brought on the disfavor of his parent church organization, he established the People's Temple. Shortly after, partly as a way of escaping from an inhospitable community, he about 100 of his followers, who were willing to quit their jobs and leave their friends and sometimes their families, packed up all of their belongings and moved to Ukiah in northern California. After becoming established in their new location, the people's Temple moved to a bigger church, this time in San Fransisco. The People's Temple seemed to thrive in San Fransisco, becoming larger and richer and more influential than ever, but the church had many critics and was under investigation by authorities for allegations ranging from real estate fraud to child abuse. Once again Jim Jones chose to move. This time he and about 1000 members of his congregation left the country to create a utopian agricultural commune in the jungles of Guyana, South America. After some time in this isolated jungle enclave, again being subjected to threats from outside authorities, Jim Jones instructed his flock to kill their children and then themselves in an act of "revolutionary suicide." While some may have done so only under threat of being shot, the audio recording made of the event suggests that the vast majority of members did as he asked without objection or complaint. How might all of these prior geographical relocations have been instrumental in bringing the group to such a point of unquestioning acceptance?
Let us return to the early church in Indiana. The congregation was initially fairly typical of a midwestern Protestant demonination. It was nearly all white, largely middle class, and politically conservative. It was diverse, with some dedicated frequently attending members, and many irregular members and even non-members, who came to church for holidays and on special occasions, but who had little commitment to it. As Jim Jones attracted more poor, uneducated and minority group members, the composition changed, but many of the original members stayed, especially those who were more liberal. The church membership was loosely defined. The boundaries between those in and those outside of the group were vague and permeable. While many were highly committed, others were only there out of habit or for the free food or shelter. In short, the church membership was like that of many Protestant congregations. It was heterogeneous and it had weak boundaries separating insiders from outsiders. It also had widely varying degrees of allegience and commitment of members.
SELF-SELECTION Now imagine Jim Jones announces that he and anyone interested in joining him are moving to California. Does everyone go? No. Does a random subset of the congregation go? No. Those who choose to go would have been self-selected based at least in part upon the intensity of their commitment to Jim Jones. HOMOGENEITY and INTENSITY. Those just hanging on would not have gone. Those who had strong doubts or suspicions about the leadership of Jim Jones would not have gone. Those who were just coming around for the free food would not have gone. As the congregation assembled in California, it would not have been the same as the congregation had been in Indiana. It was in fact much smaller. It was also, undoubtedly, more ideologically homogeneous. It would, as group, have been much more strongly committed to Jim Jones. This smaller, more homogeneous, and more intensely dedicated group would have had a much different internal dynamics than did the group in Indiana. INGROUP- OUTGROUP BOUNDARIES. Those who made the trip would have shared a common identity which distinguished them from all others, which allowed for a clear-cut separation between themselves, the ingroup, and others, the outgroups. Much research in social psychology confirms the importance of such boundaries for maintaining of idiosyncratic beliefs, and for promoting group dynamics such as might result in a group of people being capable of killing themselves when asked to do so.
ENHANCED COMMITMENT Suppose you are one of those who has chosen to move to California with Jim Jones. To do so you had to quit your job, which was a pretty good job, and you had to leave most of your family behind, most of them having refused to make the trip. You get to California and you discover that Jim Jones really has no plan for you. You have no job, and no good prospects for getting one. You have no family around to rely upon. Do you say to yourself, "Wow, this was a big mistake!" No. DISSONANCE EFFECTS ON COMMITMENT. In fact, the more you have sacrificed to make the trip, the more motivated you will be to find something about having done so that makes it all seem worthwhile. Increasing your faith in Jim Jones is to be expected, as is an increase in your commitment to stay in the group. Commitment to a person, a group, or an ideology will be directly proportional to the costs one has had to endure in order to assert one's connection to it. In chosing to move, the more you had to give up to do so the more committed to the person, group, or ideology you will become. Because you are likely to have given up friends, family members, jobs, homes, etc., you are likely to have reduced your dissonance by developing an even stronger commitment to Jim Jones and the People's Temple. This is the kind of effect demonstrated frequently in research on the theory of cognitive dissonance and dissonance reduction. BURNED BRIDGES EFFECTS ON COMMITMENT. A process very different from that of dissonance reduction involves commitment based upon the absence of or costs inherent in alternatives. One may be committed to Jim Jones in California precisely because one has no job, no family, and no prospects except those that may come from Jim Jones. When moving, it is usually the case that one systematically destroys opportunities to go back to where one started. The metaphor of burning bridges apparently comes from miltary operations where infantry men are committed to moving forward, against the enemy, and to not retreating. The commitment to moving forward is enhanced by physically destroying bridges after crossing them, thereby eliminating even the possibility of retreat. When one follows a religious group or leader, commitment is similarly enhanced by anything that reduces the viability of a return to an earlier position. In these ways, a simple geographical relocation may have tremendous importance for the nature of the group involved. Specifically, the group will with each move become more homogeneous. Its average members will, as a result of self-selection, be more favorably disposed to the leader or the ideology. The boundaries between ingroup and outgroup will become clearer. And and the commitment of members to the group will be enhanced, partly as a result of dissonance reduction effects, which will be proportional to the costs incurred in making the move, and partly as a result of the move having reduced the viability of alternatives, making members increasingly dependent upon the group. A group having these characteristics will be more susceptiple to the dynamics of social implosion. It will develop mechanisms, such as those involved in "groupthink," for stifling internal dissent, and for maintaining homogeneity. It will also become a victim of cognitive and perceptual distortions such as ingroup enhancement and outgroup disparagement. It will become more and more psychologically, and perhaps physically, isolated from the outside world, and its interpretations of reality will become increasingly idiosyncratic, laying the groundwork for beliefs and behaviors that are strikingly at odds with what would be acceptable to the surrounding society. How frequently have extreme groups or cults such as described been subjected to geographical relocations? Is this a rare event in such groups? The evidence suggests that this is a common pattern. Not only do such groups move, but they often move a great number of times in their development. The Heaven's Gate cult, 39 of whose members committed suicide in March of 1997, was one such group. Having separated themselves from their "containers," or "vehicles," meaning their bodies, they expected to be beamed up to a spaceship hiding behind the tail of the Hale-Bopp comet, which was to be at it's closest point to the earth about April 1, 1997. This group had been in existence since the mid-seventies. Its leader and many of the members had been with it for nearly 25 years. During that time period, the group moved itself dozens of times, across the country, from deserts to mountains, from the Northeast to the Southwest, from rural to urban areas, from living off the land to living in a million dollar rented mansion. David Koresh and the Branch Davidians also moved frequently. They spent considerable time in Australia, and they spend a year in Palestine, as well as occupying various residences in the American Southwest and in California, prior to their final destination, the compound in Waco, Texas, at which most of the membership lost their lives in a fiery confrontation with U.S. Federal agents.

Liz and Les, dinner party, 2003

Liz and I had many parties, which we both loved to do. This was probably one the the last ones we had prior to her sudden death on Nov. 11, 2003. I loved to cook and Liz loved to eat. A great combination I thought. She also loved to set the fancy table, and she did most of the clean-up after the party. We had terrific times with terrific friends, most of whom I still see regularly.

New and Old Cottage Livingroom

I removed the drapes and replaced them with rollup blinds, and got rid of the floral print upholstered furniture. It is much more to my liking, is much lighter and brighter, and now, with the blinds up, one can see the lake through not only the front windows, but also through all of the side ones. Even the pink walls, which I vowed to paint a different color as soon as possible, seem less pink! Maybe it is because of Adam's suggestion that I think of it as "dusty rose," rather than as "pink."

Adam in Canoe

Adam fishes from the dock, from the pontoon boat, and from the canoe (which we have due to the generousity of Johna). Adam has caught a great many small fish, mostly bass and perch, but is really after the parents of these little ones. They must be there somewhere!

Les's Pontoon boat

I often have my morning coffee just sitting on the back of the boat, watching the sun light the hills across the lake, and watching the morning mist rise in exotic tendrils from the lake surface. As fish jump making concentric circles on the still water, I think of Adam, who loves to fish, and as the resident eagle or the great blue heron fly by, I think of Janet, who loves to watch birds. The tranquility sooths my soul and calms my spirit.

This shot was taken a couple days after hurricane Rita hit Texas, and in its aftermath, we got enough rain to make the water level higher than it had been all summer. The lower dock, now partly submerged and a bit unlevel, will have to be taken out soon before it is ravaged by cruel winter ice floes. Next Spring I will probably build an entirely new dock system, maybe tied to a new deck on the lakeside of the cottage. Designing it this winter will be fun.

update blog members

NEW MEMBERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO COMMENT OR POST PICTURES, ETC. AFTER BECOMING AN OFFICIAL MEMBER.

Les Downing

Dept. of Psychology, SUNY Oneonta

(607) 436-3273 OFFICE; (607) 433-2954 HOME

WEBPAGE:

http://employees.oneonta.edu/downinll/lespage.htm

Cottage Name

Maryann and Richard Etkin have some clever suggestions, check out their comments.

"Les Stress Retreat" is close to something Janet suggested in the beginning, before I concluded the actual deal, the financing, and the and transfer of title. I thought at the time I was not really in need of stress reduction as I am usually pretty laid back. After the hassles involved in making it all happen, however, the name is looking more appropriate!

Do you have any suggestions? If so, click on the comments section and let's hear them.

Man in White

This is a photo of my latest collage, on an easel in my upstairs studio. It is 48" long by 14" high.

I am currently working on another large collage, Woman in White.

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE TO BLOG

http://www.blogger.com/home

GO TO THE ABOVE LINK,

Select Les Downing's Blog,

click post, and you get a screen like I am seeing now as I compose this note. Type in a title, and to post a photo, click the photo icon on the bar at the top, go to brouse to find a digltal photo file on your computer, select photo, and add a note about it, or a comment, in the box. Or skip the photo part and just do the title and comment, then go to the bottom and click PUBLISH POST. Done! Try it. Les

Lake Cottage update

Today the old owners are moving everything out, and tomorrow I can start moving things in. I will probably go up there today to see if they neeed help, and to kayak. I no longer have to carry my kayak around on the top of my car!

Camp ??? GIVE IT A NAME!

My new lakefront property, on Goodyear Lake, taken from the dock. This place is only 10 miles from my house in Oneonta.