Alchemy of Clay

 Nancy Kubale, potter

Today's quote:

I don't know which Greek philosopher might have said there are certain constants which are shared as values by all civilizations, all people...and it may not have been Greek.  Beauty, Truth, Love, etc.

So today's constant, I choose to celebrate Beauty.




Whether hiking a mountaintop, strolling by a lake or river, or enjoying an artist's image, each of us appreciates beauty from somewhere deep inside us.  Of course we have our own taste in regards to what we most like, but the constant is that we all know we like something these things have in common.

Beauty just is.  By itself.  To be seen, heard, smelled, imagined, tasted, touched!

As a visual artist I see what appeals to me, and translate it into shapes and colors that I hope appeal to others.  It's a driven impulse in me, to share that connection.  I am happiest thinking that someone else will someday see something I've made and enjoy it also.

I've got other "constants" to share...more on future blogs.

Today's quote:

If you are an artist, or creative in any manner, you know how the appreciation of beauty can hit you. 
Maybe you learned about it from looking at a sunset, or listening to a bird.  But the beauty that is created by nature, or by a person through a painting or a symphony, lets our lives be a bit richer.

Panther, Kalanchoe, Geranium in window

I think it's also important for the continuation of life.  Maybe not for a single individual, or even a single species, but that's something scientists and Darwin might argue.

For me beauty isn't just the frosting on the cake of our lives, but something that allows us to pause and move from simple survival strategies to a place that gives us a reason for being.

Simple survival...food, shelter, comfort, safety from enemies that would do us harm, health enough to provide the things we need, and then some sense of why we are.  That's where I think beauty speaks to us. We need intellect in order to appreciate more than just the survival instincts. .

Lavender, Amaryllis

Now that many of us have tightened our seat belts for a bumpy ride that we're imagining about to happen, we need to know that our survival is intact.  And we need to know that art and nature are in tune with our survival. Are they? Well, the good news is that they are not totally subject to the whims of any political entity.  Yes there can be rules made (laws?) and enforced (I'm reminded of Robert Motherwell.) But there is also the sense that as long as one person survives to see that sunset, or to smell a rose's fragrance, or to hear some bird, or the breeze in some tree...then beauty survives as well as life.

Does beauty itself help the continuation of our species?  I guess I have to have faith that there will always be beauty...even the thought of it can survive when we live in the bleakest environments.

Today's Quote:


 

 I bet you thought I was going to post some flowers.  Or maybe a gorgeous landscape.  Ha!
This lovely young beauty posed for a July 4 celebration, I am guessing, because I can't remember.  She is a cousin of mine, who has recently been in touch again after *** years.  I'm so glad to see her smiling face from this visit back then.  Unfortunately it's the only shot I have, and there were other cousins also there, who I missed getting photos of.

 OK, here is the butterfly bush.  I really haven't seen any butterflies to speak of this year.

I still am waiting for the sunflower to bloom.  It's over 6 feet tall now.

OK, here are the flowers, for another kind of beauty.

Today's quote: