"Viewers are often wrongfully seduced by beauty. Art is not beauty; rather it is the deepest expression of emotion in the moment."
Lucian Freud.
Same said 3 centuries earlier by Keats:
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
(... Well, apart from the fact that putting your hand in a flame's not a very good idea ... Oh, and knowing a bit of "what the Romans did for us" ... but that I think just about covers it)
But, back to Beauty 'n' Truth ...
The Guest House - By Rumi
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honourably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them all at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Always check your inner state
with the lord of your heart.
Copper doesn't know its copper,
until its changing to gold.
Your loving doesn't know majesty
until it knows its helplessness.
A Friend Indeed by Kate Newlyn 2013
We'll all probably aware that one of the healthiest things we can do is to acknowledge our emotions (even - or especially - the most painful).
To acknowledge them instead of blocking them off/pushing them away is to be absolutely truthful with ourselves.
From this: not only good health, but true Art will come.
"Emotion recollected in tranquility" (thank you again Wordsworth)
Observing the emotions (as the image of my sculpture above suggests) is one of the keys to meditation too.
This "Friend Indeed" is both parts of oneself - the suffering (the mind-based ego that has lost touch with the Now) and the Watcher (acknowledging, allowing, letting things be)
More later on how we go about doing this in our lives ...
"Emotion recollected in tranquility" (thank you again Wordsworth)
Observing the emotions (as the image of my sculpture above suggests) is one of the keys to meditation too.
This "Friend Indeed" is both parts of oneself - the suffering (the mind-based ego that has lost touch with the Now) and the Watcher (acknowledging, allowing, letting things be)
More later on how we go about doing this in our lives ...
