You Are the Author of Beauty

Detail of a Dale Chihuly glass installation in St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S.A.

 

An excerpt from the book The Eternal Wonder, by Pearl S. Buck, © 2013 by the Pearl S. Buck Family Trust:

He put it to Mr. Kung.

“Sir, is the purpose of art the enjoyment of beauty, or is it to provide a sort of work, even though enjoyable, for the artist?”

Mr. Kung replied immediately as though he had already asked himself the question many times before. “Both–art is both labor and pleasure for the creator. It is a compulsion and it is a release, a joy and a demand. It is both male in its aggression into life, and it is female in its acceptance into life. It is one’s destiny, if he be the creator. It is the appointment of heaven when one has the gift. Art condemns no one. It portrays. What does it portray? The deepest truth, and in doing so attains beauty.”

My garden in Spring

 

I’ve been struggling with my creative self lately. Asking myself what is the point of painting these paintings that no one sees?– writing these lines that no one reads?

Why plant these gardens that fill with weeds and are encroached upon by the surrounding forest?

I might as well ask why I breath. 

There’s life in these gardens. They teem with it. There’s truth in these words. I strive for it. There’s beauty in these photos and paintings. My imagination sees it.

Why ask why?

Whatever you find your creative compulsion to be, and we all have them, let it flow.

Don’t judge your creations. Just create.

Don’t compare your creations to the creations of another. Appreciate both equally.

Respond with joy to the demands of your creative muse.

Let the creative life force flow through your fingers and onto the page, the instrument, the canvas, the earth beneath your feet.

You are sowing good seeds.

Nurture them. Feed them. Shape them. Share them.

Then stand back and read, look, listen, breath. That’s you there in that poem, that story, that music, that drift of sweet smelling flowers and foliage.

You are the author of beauty.

Believe in it.

 

©2016 by Ilona Elliott

The author (on the right), the beauty, (on the left)

 

 

 

• Posted in: Inspiration ♦ Uncategorized
• Tagged: Art, beauty, Blogging, Creative Writing, creativity, Gardening, Inspiration, Making Art, Music, Painting, Poetry, Writing