Universal Rhythmic Flow

Thomas Wilfred started experimenting with the concept of light has art in 1905, so when I read this quote; I was amazed that it came from so early in the 20th century, -

"Shall we . . . use the new art as a vehicle for a new message (and) express the human longing which light has always symbolized, a longing for a greater reality, a cosmic consciousness, a balance between the human entity and the great common denominator, the universal rhythmic flow?"

(-Thomas Wilfred, quoted in Art & Physics by Leonard Shlain, p. 263)

The universal rhythmic flow is part of what I try to express with my painting, and in my mind this ties in with the concept of transcendentalism expressed through art. Dictionary.com defines transcendentalism has:

2. Also called transcendental philosophy. any philosophy based upon the doctrine that the principles of reality are to be discovered by the study of the processes of thought, or a philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual above the empirical.

To me, this is the concept that the artists' work is the process for revealing and understanding the true nature of reality, not disregarding science, but adding to it. Some of the roots for these ideas can also be found in the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Thoreau, and William Blake to name but a few.