sarah's Arty Dreams

I made a grave mistake-I used a quote from a person that I was too uninterested to look up and investigate before applying it to my 'about page'. Alas, this morning I studied the quote carefully and realized that I love it more each time I see it. It goes as follows....

Humor is our way of defending ourselves from life's absurdities by thinking absurdly about them. Lewis Mumford (1895 - 1990)

I researched Mr. Mumford and thoroughly enjoyed reading about this architectural critic who has contributed greatly to the study of modern America. Mumford was a strong believer that an urban environment will not survive without preservation of organic human purpose. He has written 30 books, and Mumford was also an artist sketching and creating water color paintings that are now stored at the Monmouth University (site). His take on the building of the World Trade Centers was also very interesting and not surprisingly true.

Lewis Mumford (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) was an American historian of technology and science. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a tremendously broad career as a writer that also included a period as an influential literary critic. Mumford was influenced by the work of Scottish theorist Sir Patrick Geddes. Mumford was born in Flushing, New York and graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1912. He studied at the City College of New York and the New School for Social Research, yet he became ill with tuberculosis and never finished his degree. In 1919 he became associate editor of The Dial, an influential modernist literary journal. He later worked for The New Yorker where he wrote architectural criticism and commentary on urban issues.

Taken from here.
picture credit here and here.
Brief biography of Lewis Mumford here.

Now here is my quote...

Study history to understand the present and to know what to expect in the future with little surprises.~Sarah Bell~