Too good to be true?
NO, and it is yours to discover!
What is this heart healthy, zero calorie find?
What indeed? The answer: beauty.
Beauty comes in a myriad of expressions. A couple ignoring their electronics and looking into each other’s eyes at a table in the mall food court. Baby toes. The memory of a shared secret. A cool breeze after a long hot summer. A warm breeze after an icy winter. A blue feather on a gray sidewalk. Pink pebbles. Books. A well worn journal. Grammies.
The sky is not the limit but the beginning.
Freely and often we label people, places and things beautiful. Still, too often, we fail to recognize beauty. We confuse pretty and beauty. Pretty is wonderful in and of itself, but pretty can quickly slide into shallow.
Pretty requires Photoshop and airbrushes. Beauty glories in imperfection. Pretty is fleeting. Beauty endures. Pretty is skin deep. Beauty comes from a deep core.
Both inspire tears.
I aspire to create beautiful paintings. The process tends towards intimidating because the blank paper itself is quite beautiful. My mark disrupts the perfection of the pristine paper, the well stretched canvas, the birch panel. It is uphill from the first mark.
I changed my diet. No more processed, sugar-coated lies about the frivolity of beauty.
Beauty is not extraneous.
Beauty is not dessert.
Beauty is the main course.
Beauty feeds the soul.
Watch for your pink pebble.
Smile at the couple in the food-court.
Sit with a painting. Be well fed.
Next time I will share some of my process and some of my painting vocabulary. Thank you for sharing your time with me.
