They say beauty is in
the eye of the beholder. Though I don’t know who ‘they’ are –who the first
people were to speak those words were –they were right. Beauty isn’t universal.
This could potentially be a hard concept to grasp because we are use to
refereeing to some things as beautiful. A butterfly is beautiful, a moth isn’t.
A baby is beautiful, a Chinese Crested dog isn’t. Society teaches us to define
things as beautiful or ugly, but what is beautiful to one person is trash to
another. Where I may find the history of the English Language to be beautiful
another will find it to be duller than a lecture on lettuce. Beauty is what we
are fascinated with; what takes our breath away, fills us with aw, and evokes
the desire to learn more or be a part of that which we perceive as beautiful.
Beauty is not universal, but art is. We often relate art
and beauty. We call Van Gogh’s Starry
Night and Michelangelo’s David
beautiful. When we think of art we think of beauty. We think graceful lines and
playful scenes, but sometimes art isn’t made to be beautiful. Sometimes it’s
made to be grotesque. Made to open eyes to a dark reality. Beauty isn’t what
makes art. Vases and paintings, sculptures and stories, aren’t put before a
jury who decides if they are beautiful enough to have the title of artwork, if
their creator deserves to be called an artist.
Art, my dear friends, is not the measure of beauty but
the unleashing of creativity. It is personal expression upon any canvas its
creator chooses to use. Paintings are art, writing is art, architecture is art,
fashion is art, dance is art, even the way you speak can be an art. Art is
creativity at work. It is a statement to the world, and it has the power to
change lives.
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