Beauty in Art
Mysterious Forces #1
In the modern era of art, beauty is considered by some gallerists, critics and educated art professionals to be a trivial and even a poor criteria for defining a piece of art as “good”. According to some, art should be thought provoking, innovative, shocking or in some way uncomfortable in order to have value. Yet, as humans we enjoy looking at beautiful things.
As artists, beauty silences us. It causes a pause, even if momentary, and a presence. Beauty engages us and we do not want to leave it. In the creating of art and the viewing of art, we are engaged and inattentive to anything else. The art nourishes us visually and internally. The beauty of art is beyond words and even the words we use to describe it are not enough. It is often why as artists, we are at a loss to “describe our work”.
There is a silence in the creation of art. Even if there is music, words, sounds or external stimuli the artist creates from a place where there is patient, meditative, silent knowing. This is when the most authentic work is born. And the beauty we each find in our artwork is unique to us. Is it the way the paint ran down the paper, the feel of the brush stroke, the unexpected mark that you fell in love with, or the feel of the clay in your hands? Whatever it is, it’s enough. It makes us present. It makes us content. It brings us back to the studio again and again. That’s the beauty of the art - in the silence of creating it.
I have had a few remarkable experiences in my life where I was in a complete bubble of silence. Not just a serene natural setting or a quiet house but, an all encompassing silence. I have been in a room full of 200+ people and should have experienced the roar or everything going on around me all while being completely enveloped in silence. It’s surreal and remarkable because I can count these events on one hand. But, I have also had these moments in my studio. Brush to the paper, artwork pinned to the design wall and unexpected visual surprises that make me smile and say “yeah, that’s why I do this.”
The next time you view art that really engages you, I hope you notice the silence, even if momentary, that it produces. That is where the beauty is, where there are no words to describe it.
Mysterious Forces #2
