Astronomical Pencil Drawings: Chinese and Western Elements, Planets, Moons and Stars by Goodman, John Oxenham

Astronomical Pencil Drawings: Chinese and Western Elements, Planets, Moons and Stars (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781537192697)

Vendor: John Oxenham Goodman
Product type: Books
Format: Paperback
$29.95
$29.95
$29.95
Subtotal: $29.95
Astronomical Pencil Drawings: Chinese and Western Elements, Planets, Moons and Stars by Goodman, John Oxenham

Astronomical Pencil Drawings: Chinese and Western Elements, Planets, Moons and Stars

$29.95
Astronomical Pencil Drawings: Chinese and Western Elements, Planets, Moons and Stars by Goodman, John Oxenham

Astronomical Pencil Drawings: Chinese and Western Elements, Planets, Moons and Stars

$29.95
Format: Paperback
Description
Description
x
This collection of over 1,000 pencil drawings by John Oxenham Goodman includes images of the gods and historical persons after whom the modern constellations, planets, dwarf planets, minor planets, moons and chemical elements were named. Astronomers, who have taken months or even years to decide on names for the heavenly bodies they discovered, might surely be interested in seeing these pencil drawings which number over 1000. They can now put visual images to the names they have chosen. The stars and planets are not only of interest to astronomers but to the whole of the human population of our earth. Astronomy can be popularized through art and the fascinating stories of gods, goddesses, legendary heroes and heroines. This book also contains pencil sketches of ancient Chinese heavenly bodies such as the 10 Shang Dynasty Suns, the Seven Luminaries, the 28 Lunar Mansions, the 9 Northern Dipper Stars and the 6 Southern Dipper Stars thus giving Eastern and Western perspectives of astronomy. Finally at the end of the book the Five Elements of ancient China are employed as suits in a Chinese version of Tarot using Mahjong symbols and concepts from China's 13th Century Ma Diao playing cards. I commenced these drawings in the summer of 1984/85 attempting to depict some of the Shakespearean characters after whom the moons of Uranus were named. It was in the 1980s while working in the University of Sydney Library that I had access to useful information on astronomy, Greco-Roman history and art, a prerequisite for someone wanting to depict the mythical heroes after whom the constellations, planets and their moons were mostly named. At first I wrote about each of these hundreds of mythical or historical figures and then began drawing the 88 Constellations. In 2006 I drew the remainder of the moons of Uranus which by then had grown to 27 and the moons of Neptune followed. It was only in 2010 after retiring and living in China that I completed drawings of the moons of Jupiter, Saturn and the other planets followed by the ancient Chinese planets and stars. Thus it has taken 30 years to complete this project which now incorporates a Chinese version of Tarot. This book is also a visual representation of the measurement of time using Chinese, Japanese and Western traditions. The 5 Elements of ancient China combine with the sun and moon to give us the 7 days of the week. Anglo-Saxon and Roman gods are depicted as representing the days of the week in the Western calendar. Then the animals of the 28 Chinese Lunar Mansions complete the lunar month while the 12 months of the year are represented by the monthly flowers on the Japanese Flower Cards (Hanafuda). The 12 Earthly Branches represented by 12 animals give us a 12 year period and when combined with the 10 Heavenly Stems they give us the 60 year cycle of the traditional Chinese calendar. Then there are seasons and China's 24 Solar Terms into which the year is divided as well as the 12 signs of the Western zodiac.

Author: John Oxenham Goodman
ISBN-10: 1537192698
ISBN-13: 9781537192697
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Language: English
Published: 08/20/2016
Pages: 348
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.03lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.72d
By John Oxenham Goodman
By John Oxenham Goodman
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John Oxenham Goodman was born in Australia in 1941. He is of English, German and Welsh ancestry. As a young man he worked in clerical positions in government departments but found these jobs routine and unchallenging. He studied Spanish and German and then travelled extensively in Western Europe crossing into Soviet occupied Berlin and climbing a mountain in Norway to view the midnight sun. These and other travel experiences opened his eyes to the wider world and gave him a broader perspective than that available in the geographical remoteness of Australia. Like many other Australians who have travelled overseas, he no longer felt isolated from the culture of the Western world. On returning to Australia he found employment in the Australian National University Library where he came in contact with many Asian people who frequented the university's Oriental Library. He developed an interest in Asian civilizations and in 1969 enrolled in the Asian Studies Faculty hoping to learn Asian languages and teach them. He first studied Indonesian and Japanese, as Chinese was then rarely taught in Australian schools. Eventually, in early 1973 he undertook an intensive course in spoken Chinese at the University of Canberra and then studied Classical Chinese at the National University where he began to learn the Three Character Classic and read parts of the Analects of Confucius. He finished his Indonesian and Asian Studies majors and studied Javanese and Arabic while completing a reading course in Dutch. After being awarded the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Honours) he went on to complete graduate diplomas in Education and Librarianship and he then majored in Japanese language at the University of New South Wales. He travelled frequently in Asia visiting Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. He worked in the University of Sydney Library in the 1980s and later taught Japanese and Indonesian in Australian secondary schools. He studied the Teaching of English as a Second Language at the Australian Catholic University in Sydney and then taught English to migrants who came mainly from China. He attended art classes at TAFE (Technical and Further Education) College in Sydney thus enhancing his lifelong interest in art and photography. After retiring in 2010 he lived in China visiting museums and temples (Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian) all over the country and this gave him fresh understanding of China's 5000 year old civilization.

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