Proximity and study

Yesterday I awoke with a dream half stuck in my brain, and I had one of those moments when you realize that your brain is working out one problem by talking to you about another. I thought about attempting to study a stationary object while you're in motion...imagine looking at a star from a satellite traveling in a straight line through the universe. You'd take a looooooong time getting there, be in the star's proximity for a very short time, and then take forever moving away from it. To study any more, you'd need to get a new satellite. To avoid that you'd need to get into orbit around the star. But to do so you'd a) be following a non-linear equation, which easy math isn't too pleased about and b) need to get into balance with the star's gravitational pull (to stay close enough without crashing into it).The point is: the forces in life that act as those kinds of gravitational pull are tremendously valuable, in any medium. For example: I find it challenging to think about higher dimensions. I can get it for a second, but then it slips away. I need to learn the gravity around that. Or music--sometimes I can feel the chord that needs to come next in a progression, but I can only find it by going through the previous 4 bars and leading up to it. I can only hold it in my mind in the context of the approach. But then when I learn the song to a higher degree, I find the gravity in it.In summary: this is making me think of study not as learning the topics themselves, but as learning how to get myself into (and hold myself in) orbit around a topic for long enough to observe what needs to be seen.In that vein, here are two closeup shots of my current painting.