Beauty

OK I'm still thinking and still sick so stop reading now if you don't feel philosophical. You have been warned!

Two quotations have been running through my head today both by Keats. 'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever' and 'Beauty is truth, truth is beauty. That is all there is on earth and all we need to know.' This last one may be misquoted as it is over forty years since I learnt them for English Literature A level. And that is what I want my work to be....beautiful. This is why some of the pieces of fabric I dye can move me immensely because to me they are beautiful. So what is beauty? To me it means something that is harmonious, has balance and works together as a whole. This could be a sunset or a hole in the ground! To someone else it might mean something completely different. This is why the art I like, be it paintings, sculpture, or quilts has to have meaning. I am not moved by the abstract unless it works well being harmonious and balanced and the colours are in tune with the whole. Abstract for the sake of abstract doesn't work for me. I love the works of Rothko and Klee because everything is balanced. This is the hardest thing with my own work...getting the balance right. It doesn't matter what it is from a piece of silk ribbon embroidery to a fused wall hanging but sometimes that elusive all powerful sense of balance just won't come to fruition. I know when I've got it right and that is such a rewarding moment. Some of the works of art which are now passed off as 'of the moment' and the thing to be doing appall me as there is no sense of art in them.(My opinion again here.) No sensitivity, no form and none of that all so important balance. Will they be remembered in centuries to come as is the work of Turner, Cezanne, Fragonard, or Hogarth to name but a few? I think Turner would turn in his grave if he could see some of the entries for the Turner prize at the Tate and some of the winners! Why is it that beauty and the natural world are seen as being passe and trite? Flowers, leaves, landscapes have been done over and over again but then so were cherubs and madonnas in the past but they(the paintings) are now and were then revered and treated as special. Surely if a piece is done well, not blindly copied, and is executed with soul then it has merit of its own? Just because one doesn't personally like a piece of art work it is possible to see the beauty in it ...if its there! What brought this on? I don't know. It was just something that I couldn't get out of my head. Possibly a comment I read recently that only women's institute members still embroidered flowers! This was written in a very derogatory manner as if flowers were beneath any serious artists interest! To revert to my hippy past -Whatever turns you on baby! - but make it beautiful!

I might be better tomorrow and then I can get back to doing some work and stop thinking! grin I'm going to play with my Captured Light pictures in PS now and stop annoying people!

Note: Only part of my brain is working on this! Tomorrow I might have a different view point! Or be coming from a different angle!