Sunday, February 20, 2011

On Aesthetics

There are some days when I have this intense desire to paint or draw. I desperately want to put pen and brush to paper; I want to watch bold black strokes darken and take shape. I want to drench the paper with colour, watch it spread and deepen. I want to forget the world outside, and live inside that canvas, in a private world of my very own aesthetics.

So what's holding me back from doing this? It's those twin T's, of course - Talent and Time. One isn't good without the other, right?

Do I have talent? I don't know. I will never know, unless I give it the time it needs. Do I have time? No. There's too much going on in my life. I've looked at my days, tried to find a couple of hours to spare...but I'm already overstretched.

So - since I'm a practical person - I've decided to set aside my desire to paint, until the time is right.

Meanwhile, I will surround myself with beauty.

It is easy enough to do that. There is beauty everywhere, if you just choose to look. Beauty in art, architecture, music, plants, forests, animals, daily life.

Beautiful door at the Crafts Museum

Bangles at Kinari Bazaar

All I have to do, is to absorb the form and colour and motion I see around me, and carry that around in my head. I'll have my own little beautiful world, then, won't I?