• Defining beauty

George Bellows – Cleaning Fish. 1913. Wikimedia Commons

“Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.”

Confucius

How to define beauty? There are many, many definitions of this concept and so much depends on the viewer and their ways of seeing and ways of thinking.

For example, the subject of the painting above is not one that is commonly associated with the beautiful, and yet there is considerable beauty in this work.

The artist has noticed aspects of this scene, and this topic, that are, indeed quite wonderful, despite the roughness and rawness inherent in the fishermen’s work. Paradoxically, it is in this coarseness that the beauty of the piece lies.

What do I mean by this? The artist has captured an aspect of real life in all its rough, gritty and authentic detail. We can almost smell the fish as they are gutted by the solid, hardy men, hear the seagulls’ frenzied flapping and their piercing cries as they grapple for fish scraps, feel the sea-wind and the heavy dampness in the air, taste the salty spray as it stings our faces.

All this is here, and more, portrayed through paint, making something unique and beautiful out of what might otherwise be regarded as an ordinary, maybe unpleasant, everyday scene, hardly worth a second glance.

“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

• The beauty of the imperfect

Male Papaw with Flowers and Imperfect Fruit – Marianne North. 1882. Wikioo

“There is a kind of beauty in imperfection.”

Conrad Hall

The paradox inherent in the concept of imperfection is that it actually creates character, individuality and innovation.

Look at the fruits in the image above; imagine how the painting would change if the fruits did not have any blemishes. What would be lost is a sense of authenticity, a feeling of realness and believability. Perfection only exists in fairy-tales, and pursuing flawlessness in our work and life can only result in frustration and a sense of failure.

What is beautiful about us as people is our humanity, our fallibility and our ability to accept our imperfections and those of others. Broken objects, broken people, do not lose the beautiful aspects of themselves because they have flaws and scars. In fact, these ‘scars’ can enhance their beauty, for they tell us of suffering, of learning, and of healing…

TazzaKintsugiChiaraarte. Author: Chiara Lorenzetti Kintsugi. 2012. Wikimedia Commons

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”

Rumi

The link between beauty and truth is manifest; ‘ugly’ wounds can be an ‘entry point’ for the most beautiful insights and the gaining of wisdom. Out of pain, and out of darkness, can emerge vision and light.

“In a dark time, the eye begins to see.”

Theodore Roethke

“Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.”

Mary Oliver

The poet Mary Oliver discovered that, in time, out of the gift of a box of darkness came some goodness, some light. This can be in the form of new insight, learning, friendship or life experience. Such awareness of the good that may come from bad is part of a process.

“A lot of what is most beautiful about the world arises from struggle.”

Malcolm Gladwell

This is a process of resolution, of healing, of working through our painful darknesses in life and moving into something lighter and brighter.

Once again, there is an implication in these words about beauty being related to truth. The poet, Keats, pointed this out many generations ago:

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

Keats. Ode on a Grecian Urn (1820)

Truth is, indeed, beautiful, even though it may also contain darker or more difficult aspects. For example, the month of November may reveal a late autumnal beauty, with its wonderful colours, its bounty, its harvest, and its frosty, crisp mornings, and yet it also signifies the imminence of winter and endings, the dying of the year.

November’s Harmony – Theodore Clement Steele. 1893. Wikioo

• ‘Walking alone…’

Girl in Garden. Edouard Vysekal. 1926. Wikioo

“The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The perceptive and sensitive souls amongst us may, indeed, find themselves somewhat isolated  in relation to how they perceive the world and its beauty.

They may notice what others miss and they may discover that people around them do not understand their perceptions or their ways of thinking. This can be a lonely place, set apart from the popular view, finding meaning and beauty in aspects of existence that others might disregard.

“Exquisite beauty is often hidden
in life’s fragile,
fleeting moments.”

John Mark Green

The compensations, however, lie in the wonderful experiences of finding beauty in the small, the natural, in the mundane, the subtle, the transient or the understated.

Heron at Grenouilles – Pierre-Eugène Montézin.(1874-1946) Wikioo

• Inner light

Jozef Mehoffer – Witraz. c 1906. Wikimedia Commons

“People are like stained – glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

These words remind us that our human beauty emanates from within, not from outside ourselves. It is related to qualities such as inner confidence, to authenticity, generosity, kindness, genuineness and honesty. Being self-assured and clear about one’s beliefs and principles, being self-aware and valuing ourselves, can mean that we radiate a kind of profound beauty that is not merely about superficiality or cosmetics.

This is the beauty that comes from self-acceptance, from being at peace with the self and the world. Of course, there are no absolutes, and none of us can really achieve a perfect state of such inner tranquillity and calmness. It is, however, something to aim for in life.

• Beautiful tears…

This final quotation, below, highlights the power of the beautiful to stir us, to make us feel emotional, to move us to tears. This is an overwhelming feeling, perhaps triggered by exquisite, awe-inspiring music, an orchestra’s sweeping crescendo, some brilliant harmonies, a new baby, the sight of the sea, sky, mountains, a magnificent and harmonious work of art.

Whatever arouses such emotion in you..I wish you the experience of some beautiful tears… 🙏

Image: Peggy Anke. Pexels

“Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.”

Edgar Allan Poe

© Linda Berman