The Nature of Art and The Art of Nature: The Pattern that Connects

What is Art? What is its purpose? This book, written for the general public, traces the history of art from early times to the present. Its 188 pictures and diagrams reveal the artistic devices that were developed over time. An analysis of each of eight famous portraits of women, presented here as a series that begins with Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and ends with Willem de Kooning’s Woman I, demonstrates each portrait’s “spirit of the times.” Art reflects people’s thinking, and this in turn affects their behavior. Having noted this relationship led the present author to spend half her lifetime researching what it is in great art that accounts for its harmony and wholeness. She discovered that art’s comprehensive “pattern that connects” is the same pattern that governs nature’s systems. Because this pattern exists as an archetypal figure in man’s psyche, it is applicable to human affairs. Praise for “The Nature of Art and the Art of Nature” “Your book is marvelous. There are many fresh insights. Congratulations.“—Leonard Shlain, MD, the acclaimed author of Art and Physics “My wife Anne and I have been tremendously impressed by the depth of your research and analysis, particularly your innovative approach, the sweep of your ideas, and your success in looking at wholes rather than focusing only on parts, as so many academics and writers do. The greatest need of thought in our time is integration, finding the pattern that connects, as you do so creatively.”—Harold Gilliam, San Francisco Chronicle Science Editor “You have a profound thesis here. It is quite amazing how you continue to add layers that deepen and broaden one’s insight into art and beauty. The interweaving of the physics and philosophy is seamless and creatively done. I will forever look at these pictures, and probably all pictures, with different eyes. ”—Mortimer Mendelsohn, MD, PhD, Director of Biophysics, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory “My experience with Eleanor Mac Gregor is that she approaches both her art and her philosophy with a meticulousness and tenacity that can only come from a deep passion for her subject and its message.”—Lila Klapman, sculptor, painter, and teacher “This book has a timeless and universal appeal. It is a monumental work. It should certainly be available to people.”—Marvin Chester, Emeritus Professor of Physics, UCLA “I am in awe! I very much like the format of using the portraits of women as a unifying—and human–device as you trace the evolving history of art throughout the ages. You write with great clarity, and that is no small feat when you are dealing with complex subject matter. In my opinion this book should be in every school and library.”—Marilyn Dunlop, Toronto Star Newspaper Columnist