Category Archives: THE VERMEER WOMEN

Vermeer: Portraits of A Lifetime explores the life of the world famous Dutch artist, Johannes Vermeer. This book reveals observations that have never before been made about his paintings, his life, his friends and his family. This website is dedicated to revealing observations about the life and paintings of Vermeer, and the women featured in his painting — his family. As you will discover in the pages of the book, and in this website, Vermeer was a family man. His paintings are filled with portraits of his wife, Catharina, and his elder daughters. He and his wife produced 15 children during his life, most of whom survived. All but one were girls.

...and other stuff, ALIEN INTERVIEW BOOK, ART, LIVES, SHERLOCK HOLMES: MY LIFE, SOUNDS, THE BIG BLEEP, THE OZ FACTORS, THE VERMEER WOMEN, VERMEER REVEALED

LISTEN CAREFULLY

January 13, 2024 LRS

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

I love to listen to audio books! It allows me to “read” a book while doing other things, like driving, walking, shopping, washing dishes, vacuuming the floor, doing the laundry, feeding the cat, working out at the gym, sitting outside on the patio, and other “mindless” activities that require very little attention. I listen to one audio book every week, or more. You can get a very affordable monthly subscription from www.Audible.com. Every month you can download one or more books and listen to them on your phone, iPod, iPad, computer, or MP3 player.

Try it for FREE for one month!

...and other stuff, ART, INSIDE THE BOOK, LIVES, POETIC NONSENSE, READING MATTER, The Real Johannes Vermeer, THE VERMEER WOMEN, VERMEER REVEALED

DELUSIONAL or HERETICAL?

January 5, 2024 LRS

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

“I am very sure that my new book, Vermeer: Portraits of A Lifetime, will be considered by many people to be delusional or heretical. Many will dismiss my observations and comments because they don’t follow the dictates of “authoritative research” or the opinions of art “experts”.

This book may threaten persons who have a financial vested interest in the Vermeer paintings that still exist today, as their livelihood or financial well-being depend to some degree on the value currently assigned to the paintings.

Although the monetary value of Vermeer’s paintings have been vastly inflated, in part, due to the mystique created by authorities or speculators, it is not my intention to devaluate them. It is not my intention to invalidate property that was sold or bartered by Vermeer and his wife, Catharina, hundreds of years ago. Quite the contrary.

My intention is to honor the lives of Johannes, Catharina, their eleven surviving children and Maria Thins, his mother-in-law and patroness.

This book does not represent or endorse any financial, spiritual, religious, political organization or practice or philosophy of any kind. All personal observations and opinions offered by the author herein are purely and solely personal opinions, with no other source than those noted in the footnotes or appendix.

Any and all individuals or organizations from whom research and/or opinions have been borrowed or sited for referential purposes in this book are not affiliated with and do not in any way acknowledge the validity of or endorse the findings or assertions of the author or publisher of this book.

Finally, this book is not intended for people who have a vested interest, or who “know best”. Personal observations, whether visual, empathetic or conjectural, of the author about the life and death of Vermeer, 300 years after the fact, are wholly subjective.”

Vermeer: Portraits of A Lifetime https://itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/vermeer-portraits-lifetime/id569744974

Paperback book —

AUDIOBOOK — http://www.audible.com/pd/Arts-Entertainment/Vermeer-Audiobook/B009NVX2PM/ref=a_search_c4_1_4_srTtl?qid=1392802819&sr=1-4

...and other stuff, ART, FREE ADVICE, LIVES, MOVING PICTURES, READING MATTER, The Real Johannes Vermeer, THE VERMEER WOMEN, VERMEER REVEALED

PAINTING LOVE AND LIGHT

December 31, 2023 LRS

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

This documentary film (below), narrated by Meryl Streep, is a academic analysis of many of the paintings of the Dutch master artist, Johannes Vermeer. Throughout the film the question is asked of the “expert” commentators, all of whom are technical experts in the mechanics of oil painting, “What makes a Vermeer painting a Vermeer painting?” Ironically, none of the “experts” know the answer to this simple question. In my book Vermeer: Portraits of a Lifetime“, I reveal the simple, yet profound answer to this question.

Vermeer and his wife, Catharina, had 15 children. All but one were daughters. The subjects of Vermeer’s paintings are almost entirely of his wife, and daughters. Nearly all of his paintings were created in his own house, owned by and shared with his mother-in-law, Maria Thins. The male subject of many of his paintings is his best friend and neighbor in Deft, Holland — inventor of the microscope and the camera obscura — Anthony van Leeuwenhoek. (seen in the paintings The Geographer and The Astronomer, et. al.)

Technical analysis notwithstanding, what the “experts” fail to comprehend is that Vermeer painted his beloved family members and dearest friends in his own home. In addition to technical expertise, the visual aid of the camera obscura — which revealed the hidden patterns of light in objects — Vermeer painted love of his family, his home, his life, his personal universe. What makes “a Vermeer a Vermeer”? Love and Light.

I will be traveling to visit the home of Vermeer in Delft for the first time in a few weeks. I am very much looking forward to seeing and feeling his love and light.

...and other stuff, ALIEN INTERVIEW BOOK, ART, FREE ADVICE, INSIDE THE BOOK, LIVES, POETIC NONSENSE, READING MATTER, SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE BIG BLEEP, THE OZ FACTORS, THE VERMEER WOMEN, UNIVERSES, VERMEER REVEALED

MY PERSONAL READING LIST

September 22, 2023 LRS

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Decline and Fall of Rome

Here is a list books I read (I usually listen to the audiobook version) during the last two years (in no particular order). There may have been others, but these are most worthy of mention. I have read many of these books more than once, as I consider them to be seminal works of English literature, or fundamental to an understanding of Life, Universes and Other Stuff.

I have discovered that not all “spiritual” books are necessarily spiritual. Likewise, I find that some books in the science fiction and history genre reveal a profound

understanding of the nature andbehavior of humans. For example, there is no doubt in my mind that foibles and follies described in The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon reveal in painfully absurd detail the reality that the humans who populate modern Western civilization of Europe and the United States are the very same beings who built and destroyed the civilizations of Rome and it’s immediate predecessor, Greece. And, we are the very same spiritual beings who build and destroy every civilization, life after life, again and again, in the Eternal Now.

The more things change, the more humans remain the same. If you have read the book Alien Interview, you will understand the cyclical nature of human insanity and the wicked wizards and witches
behind the “curtain of lies” that perpetuate our stupidity, brutal depravity and the inability to confront the evil beings who perpetuate our pain. Factually, the serpentine parasites who enslave the “untouchables of Earth” are terrified that innocent and honest inquiries of children and small dogs will expose and depose them from their brutal thrones of power, control and possession of the physical universe, without which they would perish in the frigid, eternal dark from which they were spawned! Likewise, The Age of Reason, by Thomas Paine and the books of E.E. Doc Smith and Robert Heinlein reveal profound understandings of philosophy and spirituality that are forbidden, and unknown, in religious texts on Earth. Reading the autobiographies of Yogananda, and Gandhi, and Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain exposed me to “Spiritual Skyscrapers” who tower with magnificent wisdom and courage above the barren landscape of human inhumanity.

Such beings, who demonstrate the most powerful empathy for their fellow beings, are magnified in contrast to a race of spiritual monstrosities (the “Edorians” of The Lensman Series, for example) as elucidated with demonic eloquence by Hitler in Mein Kampf. Although the “bad guys” are just as powerful and “intelligent” as any “good guy” they are utterly and irreversibly antipathetic to every spiritual entity in every universe, including themselves! I suspect that the game of “good guys” versus “bad guys” is simply an eternal, intergalactic struggle for survival between two equally opposed races of spiritual beings who originated in different times and places, but who now coexist in the space / time continuum of the physical universe.

Alien Interview cover Personally, I have grown weary of mortal games. I write books that suggest alternatives to the physical universe logic of dichotomies: life /death, good /bad, black / white, life / death, up /down, in / out, etc.,. I prefer the “illogic” of immortal spirits, infinite possibilities and unlimited imagination! Life, and Universes, and Other

Stuff are created from and sustained by the “no-thing” of Eternal Spiritual Beings. However, I have read that the spiritually ignorant physicists of western universities are finally beginning to “grok” that Quantum Mechanics has been known and understood by the Vedic sages and gurus of India for more than 10,000 years. Light, energy, matter, forms and spaces are contrivances of our own imaginations.

In spite of all the books I’ve read, I have, as yet, not discovered the solution to escaping the “Wheel of Life”, or the Cycle of Birth and Death. I hope that the books I am planning to read during the next year will provide me with some real answers, as I’m not getting any younger. Religious lies and rhetoric notwithstanding, not a single author of a book I’ve read has died and returned to tell us how to “escape from Earth”. If you have read a book that verifiably solves this problem, please let me know. I will add it to my list of “must read” books.

— Lawrence R. Spencer. October, 2013.

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The History of The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire (Unabridged), by Edward Gibbon

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein

The Cat Who Walked Through Walls, by Robert Heinlein

Strangers in A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein

Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures, by Virginia Morell

The Art of Happiness, by Howard C.Cutler, with the Dalai Lama

Mein Kampf, by Aldolph Hitler

Vermeer: Portraits of A Lifetime, by Lawrence R. Spencer

The Skylark of Space: Skylark Series #1, by E.E. Doc Smith

Skylark Two, by E.E. Doc Smith

Skylark of Valeron (#3), by E.E. Doc Smith

Skylark DuQuesne: Skylark Series #4, by E.E. Doc Smith

The Lensman Series, (6 books) by E.E. Doc Smith

Triplanetary

First Lensman

Galactic Patrol

Gray Lensman

Second Stage Lensman

Children of The Lens

The Spacehounds of IPC, by E.E. Doc Smith

The Oz Factors, by Lawrence R. Spencer

Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Valis, by Philip K. Dick

Alien Interview, Edited by Lawrence R. Spencer

The Dying Earth, by Jack Vance

An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, by Mohandas (Mahatma) K. Gandhi

1,001 Things to Do While You’re Dead: A Dead Persons Guide to Living, by Lawrence R. Spencer

The Bhagavad Gita, by Phoenix Books , Barbara Stoler-Miller (translator)

The Big Bleep: Mystery of A Different Universe, by Lawrence R. Spencer

Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius, by Marc J. Seifer

Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda

Our Occulted History: Do the Global Elite Conceal Ancient Aliens?, by Jim Marrs

My Inventions, by Nikola Tesla

Flatland, by Edwin A. Abbott

Sherlock Holmes: My Life, by Lawrence R. Spencer

Ubik, by Phillip K. Dick

Vermeer: Portraits of A Lifetime, by Lawrence R. Spencer

The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break: A Novel, by Steven Sherrill

Winter of the World: The Century Trilogy, Book 2, by Ken Follett (partial)

Coming of Conan The Cimmerian, by Robert E. Howard

A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1, by George R. Martin

The Dispossessed: A Novel, by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: The millennium Trilogy, Book 1, by Steig Larsson

The Vortex Blaster, by E.E. “Doc” Smith

The Republic, by Plato

Fall of Giants: The Century Trilogy, Book 1, by Ken Follett

The Confession: A Novel, by John Grisham

Sherlock Holmes: My Life, by Lawrence R. Spencer

Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman

Enders Game, by Orson Scott Card

Autobiography of Mark Twin (Unabridged), by Mark Twain

American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

Tao Te Ching: A New English Version, by Loa Tzu, translated by Stephen Mitchell

The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers, by Will Durant

You See But You Do Not Observe, by Robert J. Sawyer

The Age of Reason, by Thomas Paine

The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1 and 2, by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Valley of Fear, by Arthur Conan Doyle

His Last Bow, by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Under the Dome, by Stephen King

The Rape of The Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing, by Joost A. M. Meerloo, M.D.

The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters, by Frances Stonor Saunders

The Magus of Strovolos: The Extraordinary World of a Spiritual Healer, by Kyriacos C. Markides,

1984, by George Orwell

Animal Farm, by George Orwell

The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov

The Rise of The Fourth Reich, by Jim Marrs

The Face, by Dean Koontz (and, about a dozen of his other books in years past! )

Meditation on Living, Dying and Loss, by Graham Coleman with the Dalai Lama

Tick Tock, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge

Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson

Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson

Dracula, by Bram Stoker

ART, INSIDE THE BOOK, The Real Johannes Vermeer, THE VERMEER WOMEN, VERMEER REVEALED

VERMEER — AN EMPATHETIC EXPLORATION

September 19, 2023 LRS

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Paintings of Johannes Vermeer exhort a mystic awe in the human soul. Aesthetics, women and mystery are each a glue that have baited many of the most powerful traps in history. Vermeer combines all three. Almost nothing factual is known about the painter personally, or the bevy of enchanting women he painted.

Compounding the mystery is the puzzle of identifying the people he painted so repetitively. Apparently, they were nearly all his wife or daughters! Moreover, they were portrayed at various ages in their lives, over a span of twenty-two years during which he and his wife produced an family of 15 children, 11 of whom survived! As a consequence of their common genetic similarities in their physical appearance, they also shared clothing, hair styles, and jewelry. Add to this monochromatic puzzle are identical rooms, windows, lighting, furniture, fixtures and the themes surrounding them. The resulting maelstrom of similarities make differentiating one person from another a near impossibility.

Most of his work, apart from the paintings produced during his six year apprenticeship at the Guild of St. Luke, were portraits of his wife, family and a few close friends. Vermeer never painted his family members, or his self-portrait, with the intention of selling them, any more than you and I would think of selling photographs or home videos of the members of our own family.

He painted people in his surroundings that were close at hand, familiar, and endeared to him. Mostly he painted for the love of aesthetics, and to innovate the technology of painting — to discover new techniques to more exactly render the myriad subtleties of light, and to endow love, and life on canvas, with colors and brushes. Like many artists before and after Vermeer, these challenges intrigued and consumed his interest, intellect and spiritual passion.

Apparently, during his own life, it never occurred to him that anyone would be interested in paying money for many of his paintings. Most of his paintings were still in the possession of his wife when he died prematurely at the age of forty-three! Astoundingly, they were never sold, even though he and his family were literally starving from the want of money to buy food!

According to the research of Vermeer scholar, Anthony Bailey, the value of Dutch money was as follows: “…a Dutch cloth-worker in 1642 got eighteen stuivers a day; there were twenty stuivers to one guilder, and a 6-pound loaf of rye bread coast about four and a half stuivers…”.

Imagine his shock and dismay to discover, 300 years later, that his paintings are worth many millions of dollars! Yet, during his own lifetime, he never earned enough from them to feed his family, and indeed, died from an overwhelming bought of depression because of it.

These facts confound comprehensive and compound the mystery of Vermeer.

In this book, I propose to travel this impossible labyrinth, to discover the long-hidden key to ancient riddles: Who were the people painted by Vermeer? Who was Vermeer, the artist and the man?

As though this were not daunting enough, I propose to do this, in part, by leaping the abyss of 300 years from the present year of 2008, returning through my own experience as an artist, a father, a husband and a man, through my own, personal life experiences, to re-experience the life of Vermeer, as though it were my own!

I do not claim that I am or was Vermeer. Such an assertion would be entirely subjective, impossible to prove, and irrelevant. As do myriad other people fascinated by his art and his life, I have a good deal of personal empathy and common life experiences that I share with this obscure man, as a father, as a parent, as an artist and as a spiritual being. I intend to employ this empathy as a tool of investigation and discovery: just as one might use a divining rod to seek out water in the desert.

As a lost dog uses native intuition to find it’s way home, I am searching for a lost self. As a tourist in Italy feels a sense of deja vu when visiting the Coliseum in Rome: one can almost smell the roar of blood spattering on the sand, and reel at the lust for pain and death oozing from the crowd! And thrill as a blade slashes and vomits entrails to the ground. The spirit writhing to be free of a mangled corpse crumpled in the dust.

I yearn to recover a lost identity. Vermeer.

Does the intervening distance of time make a difference in this investigation? Let me propose that time is only an arbitrary measurement of the movement of objects through space that has no effect or relevance here.

Has time changed the emotions of love, lust or hatred in ten thousand years?

When struck in the heart by a spear, does a great-great grandson not bleed just as profusely now as when his ancestor was struck down on a ancient battlefield?

Were the tears shed and anguish suffered over the dead child of our mother’s, mother’s, mother any less real than our own in the eternal now?

If I experience what another man has experienced, am I not, to that degree, that man myself? If I am willing to invade, permeate and be that experience, and to assume responsibility for it, is it not my own?

My experiment is to be Vermeer. That is, to return to his life and time to experience his existence from the perspective of subjective emotional, artistic, and spiritual experience in present time. To this degree, I am Vermeer.

To the degree that you re-experience his life with me, you are Vermeer. In truth, Any Man who is willing to be Vermeer, is, to that degree, Every Man.

— Excerpted from the book, “Vermeer: Portraits of A Lifetime”, by Lawrence R. Spencer