Real Finishes

Beauty is the Counter Culture Big Brain Smart Head™ podcaster Rafe Donahue catching me on the record saying all the absolutely wrong things about economy, industry, so-called human progress, and the greatest of taboos: Beauty. Object and Enjoy! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/buf…

To comprehend WHAT architectural Modernism is as an aesthetic expression, one must first understand WHY it came into being. And that is a long and storied intellectual journey that has yet to my opinion been satisfactorily articulated. Thus, my current book project.

In this seventh essay in our series on philosophical conceptions of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness St Augustine assimilates in his life’s work of synthesis much of Classical philosophy into an ethic of Love and Christian theology. open.substack.com/pub/acraftsman…

One of our current projects, a design for a new hotel in South Texas:

Form follows Femininity The Ionic has been characterised as the matronly Order of Classical architecture open.substack.com/pub/acraftsman…

New Testament and Early Church Conceptions of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness In this sixth essay in the series, philosophy elides into theology with early Christian perspectives that will continue to expand and refine themselves during the Medieval period. open.substack.com/pub/acraftsman…

Classicism’s Status Quo A perspective of where we’re at, how we arrived here and where we might take the world if we have the courage… open.substack.com/pub/acraftsman…

The reading of philosophy will make you a better thinker but not necessarily a thinker of your own thoughts. It is best approached with an abundance of caution, if not outright hostility. - something Schopenhauer would’ve said

In my 5th essay in the series on philosophical conceptions of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness we consider the views of the Stoics and Neoplatonists: substack.com/@acraftsmansph…

What Modernism defines as Contrast & Juxtaposition. When statutes preclude the destruction of “historic” architecture, an alternative is to violently violate it so long as the accretions are theoretically reversible. By analogy, rape is considered a lesser offence than murder.

Traditional architecture manifested an internal unity and harmony with its surroundings because it was practised as a universal art, as opposed to the  contemporary generalised collection of mechanical specialties.

Are we to believe that pain, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder? A mere subjective experience? Unreal?

A simpleton is the most effective means for propagating an ideology. Their conviction can be as convincing as their zeal, contagious.

An Architectural Utopia Aesthetic cleansings, machines for living, and the freedom of limited choice substack.com/@acraftsmansph…

You’re not paranoid if they’re really out to get you. Art into Industry Artisan into A.I.

This fourth essay in the series on Truth, Beauty, and Goodness in Western Philosophy considers transcendental metaphysics from a Jewish religious and philosophical perspective open.substack.com/pub/acraftsman…

Man over Machine “Traditional handcraft is nothing less than the material embodiment of love; a physical souvenir from a spiritual sojourn.”

Pour mes amis francophones, le regard d’un artisan sur le monde actuel: open.substack.com/pub/realfinish…

The Socratic Faux Pas It is one thing to claim something is true if it accords with reason. It is quite another to dismiss or undermine something because it cannot be established on rational grounds.

Escribo principalmente en inglés pero hay unos cuantos artículos relacionados con el tema importante de Artesanía traducidos por mis amigos hispano hablantes: open.substack.com/pub/realfinish…

The third essay in my ongoing series on Philosophical Conceptions of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. A weekly Sunday release on Substack: open.substack.com/pub/realfinish…