by Marty Coleman | Jul 15, 2009 | Beauty - 2009, 2015, Rabindranath Tagore |
Day 3 in my week of beauty. Collect them all, win prizes!
There is something compelling about beauty. We want to possess it.
To a child, the beauty might be a flower, but it could just as easily be a
frog or a stone. It is filled with wonder and we want it. We want to touch
it and hold it and examine it and play with it. We want it to indulge in
it. The hardest thing to do is to let beauty just be. To enjoy the object,
person, event, whatever it is and not try to hold on to it, to capture it.
I know, I should talk. I am an artist and photographer. I spend my time
thinking about how to capture it. But I also have learned to let it pass by.
I have realized that there is an endless supply of beauty. I will never be
without it, I will never be unable to see it. I know from past experience I
have barely had a day gone by without seeing beauty. It might be the dress
my wife wears as she goes to work, it might be the way my cat is curled up
in the sun, it might be the incredible spiky beauty of the weed I haven’t
pulled in the backyard.
Try indulging in beauty today without trying to capture it. Let it walk by and
respond by just smiling and saying I am happy there is beauty in the world
and I got to experience it today.
“By plucking her petals you do not gather the beauty of the flower.” – Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1941, Indian Author, Nobel Prize in Literature 1913.
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by Marty Coleman | Jul 14, 2009 | Beauty - 2009, 2015, Franz Kafka |
Day 2 in my week long series on beauty. If you have any great beauty
quotes send them along!
I love coming across explanations that just make perfect sense. This
one does. Being able to see (and appreciate) beauty is a sure sign a
person is curious, enthusiastic and joyful in his or her way of looking
at the world. It means they have the desire to explore because they
know there is a reward. The reward is beauty.
“Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” – Franz Kafka, 1883 – 1924, Czech writer
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by Marty Coleman | Jul 13, 2009 | Beauty - 2009, 2015, Jean Kerr |
I am starting a week of beauty. I know what you are thinking, ‘but you
are already so cute Marty, you don’t need a week at a spa’. You are
probably right. I think I will forego the spa and just spend the time
drawing and talking about beauty instead.
The idea of beauty is problematic for an artist. If the artist is to be
honest he or she would have to say that outer beauty matters to them.
After all, they are creating objects that have outer beauty. They are looking
at the outside of things and giving their interpretation of them. They
are attracted to beauty. Beauty, of course, is defined differently by each
artist, but it is still a searching for and appreciation of beauty. Not
inner beauty, but outer beauty. The appearance of things.
So, how does an artist reconcile that desire to linger and study objects
of beauty and create objects that are also beautiful with the desire and
need to see the hidden beauty in things and people? How does an artist
build that appreciation for deeper beauty, the inner beauty while promoting
the value and worth of outer beauty?
Good questions.
“I am tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin deep. That’s enough, what you do you want – an adorable pancreas?” – Jean Kerr, 1922—2003, American author and playwright
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