Venus of Willendorf
(thx to Wikipedia for this image
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_of_Willendorf)
Is this the first work of art? Who created her 25,000 years ago? What stone age thought arose in the mind of the artist? Someone has suggested a cult of mushrooms that look like this woman. Did someone trip on psilocybin and turn stone into human? There is little dispute that the shaper of the Woman of Willendorf wanted to influence reality.
Wonder was the inspiration--a sense of wonder in the fertility of the female. It is the same sense of wonder that inspired the creation of another later stone age artwork: Stonehenge. Round like Willendorf, it was an attempt to connect to and to influence reality. Sun and moon, the marvel of the Cosmos, the meaning of life embodied in stone similar to the substance of Venus. The mind of humans transfomed stone to art as it turned from Neanderthal instinct to shaper of reality, to a higher (stoned) consciousness.
Stonehenge
Photo by Jack
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