G. Steve Journal

Wired For Beauty

Fascinating article in the NEW YORK TIMES by Lance Hosey on "Why We Love Beautiful Things." Turns out we may be genetically wired to respond positively to natural beauty.  We've written about this before, passing along a thesis found in the book "The Art Instinct" which made a similar claim.  Here's an excerpt from the TIMES article:

Certain patterns also have universal appeal. Natural fractals — irregular, self-similar geometry — occur virtually everywhere in nature: in coastlines and riverways, in snowflakes and leaf veins, even in our own lungs. In recent years, physicists have found that people invariably prefer a certain mathematical density of fractals — not too thick, not too sparse. The theory is that this particular pattern echoes the shapes of trees, specifically the acacia, on the African savanna, the place stored in our genetic memory from the cradle of the human race. To paraphrase one biologist, beauty is in the genes of the beholder — home is where the genome is.

 

Inner Essence

I was speaking recently with a collector who was attempting to choose from among the hundreds of images we include on the gallery website.  He described looking through every image and said that although he couldn't articulate it exactly, it seemed to him, as he clicked through image after image, that there was a "personality" evident that was more than the subject matter would suggest -- something abstract and transcendent. 

I was flattered -- he has a discriminating eye -- and thanked him for the observation. Later in the week I came across this quote that described, perhaps better than he could, what he experienced:

Beyond the beauty of external forms, there is more here: something that cannot be named, something ineffable, some deep, inner, holy essence. Whenever and wherever there is beauty, this inner essence shines through somehow.
                                                                                                                                — Eckhart Tolle

 

Even More

Came across this refreshing encouragement by Pop artist Andy Warhol:

“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”


Filled Up

Came across an inspiring video interview with photographer Jay Maisel:

"When I go out I try very hard not to pre-determine what I'm going to do, and I want to go out as unprepared as possible so I can get filled up with what the world has to offer, and the more I can be influenced by what's around me the more fun it is for me."

" I don't have a hidden message -- I like looking at life -- life is very beautiful to me.

 

The Story

Rebecca Mead, in a recent NEW YORKER article, writes about Walter Murch, film editor and sound designer (Apocalypse Now and English Patient) who is working now on a documentary about the Large Hadron Collider, which, among other things, has been used to prove the existence of the Higgs field and the Higgs boson particle. 

When asked whether his work on the film has led to a greater reverence for the universe, Murch replied:

"I think of a Muriel Rukeyser quote, where she says the universe is made of stories, not of atoms.  The tension is between finding ever more detail about atomic structure, and the story.  It could be the equivalent of somebody looking at an old film, and realizing that the film came from a projector, and discovering that there is an image in the projector, and that it's made of molecules of grains of film, thinking, If I finally get to the heart of that, will it tell me where my story comes from?  While we know these are two separate universes."

"It may be that our story, whatever that is - existence -- depends on the Higgs boson and atoms, but it depends on it the way the film depends on the molecular structure of the celluloid. That just happens to be the medium through which it is manifest, but the story predates the film and, in fact, actually created the film itself."

Make Your Soul Grow

Found these trenchant words of advice on Swiss Miss:

“Go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an an enormous reward. You will have created something.”
                                                                                                                                - Kurt Vonnegut

Meaning?

If one chooses to think of creative endeavors -- music, poetry, painting...etc. –- as languages in their own right, then it has to be the height of indiscretion to ask the artist to try to describe the work using another wholly insufficient alternative language.  This is one reason artist's statements are predictable nonsense, inspiring tortured verbiage and smacking of obfuscation.

So I enjoyed reading this refreshing and cogent reply by composer Aaron Copeland when asked about his work:

“The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, ‘Is there a meaning to music?’ My answer would be, ‘Yes.’ And ‘Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?’ My answer to that would be, ‘No.’”

                                                                        — Aaron Copland, What to Listen for in Music, 1939

Uncertainty

Just read an excellent interview in the NY TIMES with longtime street photographer Alex Webb -- here are a few choice observations:

My photography at its purest is about response, about visual exploration, about discovery. On one level, if I knew what it was I wanted in advance, I'm not sure I would choose photography as a medium. Part of what excites me about photography is its very uncertainty, the fact that it is not just the photographer, but the vagaries of the world that result in the photograph. If I had a greater inkling of just what I wanted in advance, why not choose a medium where there is much greater imaginative control, like painting?

I feel the space, the light, the color, the form and the scene simultaneously. I'm not thinking, I'm sensing the street. For me, color isn't just about color, light isn't just about light, space isn't just about space, form isn't just about form. I'm intrigued with the emotional and sensory tenor of these elements.

 It's not just up to me whether a photograph will be successful. The world is my collaborator as well. I believe it was Charles Harbutt, in his afterword to "Travelog," who wonders when he's looking for a photograph if perhaps that same photograph is also looking for him.

Live Your Life

Driving back to the studio some months back, shortly after children's book author Maurice Sendak died, I heard a past interview he did with Terri Gross on her radio program "Fresh Air."  It was a very touching exchange - one of those radio moments when you realize you could have missed your exit - and so when I found an illustrated version of it (thanks, Swiss Miss) I thought I'd share the link and transcribe some of the dialogue:

 

I'm beginning to see nature …

It's something I'm finding out as I'm aging -- that I am in love with the world, and I look right now as we speak together out my window, in my studio… and I see my trees, my beautiful, beautiful maples are hundreds of years old  -- they're beautiful, and you say, " I can see how beautiful they are -- I can take time to see how beautiful they are."

It is a blessing to get old.  It is a blessing to find the time to do the things:  to read the books, to listen to the music…

Live your life,
Live your life,
Live your life.

Good News

I've been personally working in the gallery for over a year now and one unexpected pleasure is chatting with gallery visitors about their lives and learning of all the good things going on that never make the news. 

Though these personal anecdotes may not be "newsworthy" by most standards, I've found they provide a welcome antidote to the barrage of negative stories we learn about every day -- the ones that start to make us believe the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

Among some of the stories people have shared: sponsoring a young persons college education, completing work on the 60th house in the area built by Habitat For Humanity and organizing an event to raise money for those who have met some setbacks.  Not to mention the steady stream of rescue dogs that find love from a caring household.

In that vein, here is a link to a mashup of security camera videos that have captured little vignettes of people demonstrating their better selves worldwide - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Happy New Year.