Our friend Thomas Ashcraft is an artist, naturalist, Electroreceptor, scientific instrument builder and radio astronomer who spends his time looking UP, recording the activity of meteors, fireballs, space dust and Transient Luminous Events — lovely and mysterious emanations of light — that have gained him some renown (bottom image) Here’s a wondrous accidental avian moment Tom’s…
Read MoreWhen Normal Equals Perfect
Our readers know Sally has been occupied lately with the serious illness of a close friend – namely, myself. Now recuperating, we’ve realized something about perfection: it does not mean being super-human or doing everything exactly right. It simply means means being normal. This revelation was amplified by our friend Thomas Ashcraft, a remarkable artist/science.
Read More‘the rules are meant to be broken’ + thomas ashcraft
K “Rules are there to be broken” is one of our favorite operating principles. We’ve learned a HUGE amount from seeing what would happen if we “broke the rules” and did things differently from the norm. It’s a practice: questioning the rules with a big “WHY?” and then, when we have an idea, asking “Why…
Read Morenew year’s eve: ashcraft’s shooting star + ‘winter’s tale’
(Video link at Heliotown) Two days before New Year’s, we came across this passage from Mark Halprin’s Winter’s Tale, describing the moment the old year turned into new: Then the hands of the clock started to race like the tortoise and the hare, and both reached midnight at the same time. The clock struck along with…
Read Moretom ashcraft’s sign: cures arise, remedies appear
For several years, this sign from Thomas Ashcraft‘s site Heliotown has been my browser’s home page. In all that time, I’ve never tired of it, nor become blind to it (though Tom has since made it invisible on his site, having moved on to other things). Every once in a while, a friend will be…
Read Moreashcraft’s music: d-i-y recordings of sun + planets
A good deal of our inspiration comes from seeing how other people improvise to get where they need to go, build what they need, figure out solutions. We also benefit mightily from things that remind us that there is a huge, endlessly creative universe out there, and that we are a part of it. Tom…
Read Morethomas ashcraft: artist as electroreceptor
Could the planet finally be ready for Thomas Ashcraft? He’s been called an “artist-scientist-philosopher”, “inventively creative almost beyond belief”; a “scholar-mystic“; “a romantic visionary”; “inveterate experimenter, artist and extrapolator”; none of these words do him justice. I’ve known him for many years and followed his work closely, so I was happy to hear a profile…
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