Dominate nature or sympathy for the beast? Impose or fit in? Does nature care, or is nature indifferent to our concerns? Leave no trace or create a road?
n
George Inness: His work is a reflection of the 19th
century urge to represent nature as a manifestation and revelation of the
divine. For Inness, a sacred identity imbued places. These notions were mixed
in with Manifest Destiny, which was a belief that there is a divine approbation
to develop the land. He was a visionary man, not illustrating a religious
vision or biblical event, but a more metaphorical vision. To him all nature was
symbolic, full of spiritual meaning. He aligned with Swedenborg’s idea that
there is a spiritual world lying beyond the realm of bodily senses. It is more
real. According to this belief, everything in the natural world possesses a
spiritual identity.
For Inness, the true end of art is not to imitate a fixed
material world or condition, but to represent a living motion, an inner life, a
personal vital force. Many Hudson river school artists valued the role of
particular places more than the engagement of the artist with his subject. He
wanted to awaken an emotion.
Are they finished? “no great artist ever finished a painting
or statue” and the less information the artist presents, the greater is our
active role as participants in the artist’s project. He felt he always had the
right to change the work, even if someone had already bought it. “Do you think
that because you paid money for the work that it belongs to you?”
While
acknowledging that the Latter-day Saint focus on Church and family is
appropriate, Elder Steven E. Snow of the Seventy said he hopes members of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also give high priority to how they
treat all of God’s creations.
“[We
will] be held accountable for how we treat one another, the community in which
we live, and the land that surrounds us, even the earth itself,” said Elder
Snow, who was one of four participants in a panel discussion Wednesday, October
10, 2018, at an environmental stewardship symposium at Utah State University.
“That stewardship has never been more urgent. Our generation, more than any
other, has the ability to irretrievably change the land.”
The state of the human soul and the environment are interconnected, with each affecting and influencing the other. The earth, all living things and the expanse of the universe all eloquently witness of God. (lds.org)
“For it is expedient that I, the Lord, should make every man
accountable, as a steward over earthly blessings, which I have made and
prepared for my creatures. I, the Lord, stretched out the heavens, and built
the earth, my very handiwork; and all things therein are mine.” Doctrine and Covenants 104:13-14.
So, how we care for the earth, how we utilize and share in its bounty,
and how we treat all life that has been provided for our benefit and use is
part of our test in mortality. Thus, when God gave unto man “dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all
the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth,” Genesis 1:26. it was not without boundaries or limits. He intends man’s
dominion to be a righteous dominion, meaning one that is guided, curbed, and
enlightened by the doctrine of His gospel—a gospel defined by God’s love for us
and our love for Him and his works. The unbridled, voracious consumer is
not consistent with God’s plan of happiness, which calls for humility,
gratitude, and mutual respect.
According to LDS scripture, there is a
corollary between the selfish, materialistic man out to hoard money, material
possessions, and/or the man with irreverence for life—and pollutions (spiritual
or temporal) upon the face of the earth
Elder
Marcus B. Nash
