Thursday, February 24, 2011

Search for beauty

"Beauty comes from giving personal expression to deep currents within us."
Ian Roberts in Creative Authenticity

I have changed this post since I first put it up earlier this afternoon. Kitty Wallis sent me an insightful email in which she helped me focus again on what I am doing here in the studio. Thank you, Kitty, for taking the time to read and inquire and comment and communicate! I appreciate you so much!

In the photo above you can see some of the explorations I have done in the last few days. Taking those simple shapes from my color sketches and notan and feeling my way around them. Some are better than others. Some are really awful. One or two are ready for frames. If they were all good, I would know that I am not pushing hard enough, exploring deep enough, lifting and reaching beyond what I know to what I am trying to know.

This is a part of my search for beauty.

In my own mind, beauty is imperfect, and unapologetic about it. Beauty is honest without cruelty. Beauty is compelling. Transcendent. And utterly irresistible.

6 comments:

Celeste Bergin said...

Love this photo of all your pastels and ideas....!

SamArtDog said...

You know me--post a photo of a pastel box, and I'm hooked. Add some explorations and deep thoughts, and I'm all lined up and sunk. Another beauty of a post!

Katherine van Schoonhoven said...

Celeste: I think I might want to put cork on that wall so that pinning things up will be easier.

Sam: no more pussyfooting around! Time to jump back in the deep end.

Sarah Bachhuber Peroutka said...

Katherine, I deeply appreciate your candor and quest-ful spirit!

Suzanne said...

I love the idea of placing all the pastels of this project together. It visually stimulates even more ideas plus when doing so you were able to see which ones didn't carry as much significance as others. That's why I turned my feet but just couldn't turn my head!

Katherine van Schoonhoven said...

Sarah: thanks for noticing!

Suzanne! So sorry you took the tumble in my studio yesterday! I hope that your knees aren't bruised. Glad to know that your thoughts are filled with new ideas!