Beauty Chaser

For as long as I can remember I have been attracted to the beautiful.  Not necessarily extravagant, expensive, or exotic.  Rather a visual gift of beauty.  Whether it be a blossoming rose, my grandchildren’s sweet faces, an ancient cathedral, a painting by Georgia O’Keeffe, a cloudy thunderous sky, a field of sunflowers, snowflakes falling at twilight, a woven Navajo blanket, or the sunrise illuminating Garden of the Gods.  Beauty captures my attention and sparks a sense of hope. Do you think beauty is in the eye of the beholder or is there a general consensus regarding what is truly beautiful?  Perhaps a question to ponder and discuss over a cup of tea.

When I look at the intricate design of petals in a rose, I am in awe.  Each petal perfectly shaped and connected to the stem, soft as satin to my fingertips, and fragrant too.  Looking at a rose causes me to pause and also brings about a sense of wonder. 

“Beauty and WONDER are signs of life. And life calls to us.  It moves us from our spot. It says chase me!”  Timothy Willard.

There is much attention now on being a beauty chaser.  It is a thing..an awakening..people are craving something more than the digital world has to offer.  The sphere of screens is leaving an emptiness in the soul.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPhone, and laptop.  For functional purposes, not for discovering beauty.  A rose you find in a garden is much more lovely than the picture above, isn’t it?  Making art is a gateway to wonder and chasing beauty.  It does not have to be a masterpiece rather an expression of what you find beautiful.  Colors, shapes, design, texture all collide to make a unique creative expression.  If I look at a piece of art that I created, it reflects a moment in time.  Rarely would I have the ability to recreate it.  I find that intriguing.

As an example, this page in my art journal was created for The Secret Garden, an adult art journaling class I teach.   It is going to be offered in fall of 2023 as an in-person class.  I love this page but do not recall exactly how the first layers came together.  The flowers were stamped using the core of a head of lettuce and magenta acrylic paint. Lines were drawn with black sharpies, a fine point and medium point for the large flower and negative space.  I used a white gel pen to highlight within the black markings.  It’s the background that I cannot recall.  The blue, orange, yellow and lavender colors that work so well together.  How did I do that?  Honestly, I can’t remember.  More than likely, it started as what I call a clean-up page.  Using leftover paint to create the first layer in my art journal.   When I look at this page I remember the people in my on-line class, working together during COVID, encouraging one another, using items we had around the house for making art, using creative expression to settle our minds during an interesting moment in time, exploring mixed media together…..chasing beauty.

Patrick Bringley’s new book is part of my summer stack of books to read.  The title and premise of the book caught my attention.  He worked as a guard for ten years in the galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  This book is his workplace memoir and describes how he bonds with colleagues and the art surrounding his little world.  Sounds so good to me.  What is on your reading list this summer?  

Summer is the perfect time to step back, reflect and create.  Our recent rain showers have left their mark everywhere.  Each time I take a walk the blossoms catch my attention.  And then there are the sudden rainbows as the sun breaks through the rain clouds.

 

This summer I hope you find some time for chasing beauty. Take some time to smell the roses.  I know, it is a cliche, yet rings true in every sense.  A child looks at the world through a lens filled with wonder.  My hope is that as a fellow creative, you too, will be ignited by your sense of wonder.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a moment to read my thoughts on chasing beauty.