Finding beauty means finding joy
Beauty is found in Science, Art, Nature & it brings joy to all of them!
Last week I was on my yearly winter hike, this time in Norway.
I apologize for skipping my weekly Newsletter, cos I didn’t take my laptop & I drove 12 hours straight back home on Sunday.
I was dead :D
Now I am recovered & back on track again!
And I honestly don’t know what to write about.
Should I share my trip insights?
What about my art-developments?
I could also share the course-preparations that are going on
And some interesting perspectives on Science and Art…
In the end, I will write about “Beauty” because it was the most overwhelming realization I had recently, and it kind of fits all those topics.
Why? Because I realized these:
Beauty doesn’t need much: white snow, blue sky, yellow sun: most beautiful scenery imaginable.
Creating Art for the sake of creating something beautiful is enough, even if beauty is the only reason for this Art to exist.
Simplicity is beautiful & it connects people. Jargon & special-fancy vocabulary is overrated.
Science needs Art, badly! Basically: if you display your science in a crappy & ugly way, instead of hiring someone who makes beautiful scientific illustrations for you, the failure to get a grant or get published is on you.
AND, on top of that: Beauty creates Joy! In your heart & in your life!
a beautiful landscape you emerge yourself in makes your feel joy.
looking at a piece of art you find beautiful brings you joy
connecting to people causes joy
beautifully & clearly visualized science brings thee joy of understanding!
I lived my life, thinking beauty is superficial, its not necessary.
When it comes to my own art, I never allowed myself to create something for the sake of beauty.
It always needed a purpose: a gift, a task, homework, etc.
When I realized that Science needs Art, I had the perfect justification for making art again: ‘I share scientific knowledge so that art of mine has a purpose!’
Here some examples of scientific illustrations I did for clients:
While I always saw the beauty in nature & landscapes, plants, flowers, people and art in general, I never allowed myself to make something “only” beautiful.
And you know what it robbed me of?
To feel joy, just for the sake of feeling joy myself! My art needed to bring joy to others! By being a creative gift, an illustration for their work etc.
I am realizing while writing this that it’s pretty messed up!
Cos when I am in nature, when I look at a beautiful flower, when I have a beautiful interaction with a loved one: I feel joy! A lot of it.
But when it comes to me, just painting for my own joy, without having anyone externally judge it as beautiful, I didn’t allow that for so long!
More specifically: I never painted just for myself, 35 years long! And I always loved to paint & be creative.
Luckily, 2-3 years ago something shifted & I started to paint, just for myself! I am still doing it till now.
And I am slowly realizing, that the feeling has settled inside of me, that its okay to do it for my own enjoyment. I mostly love abstract art, but I am trying all kinds of art, exploring, here some examples:
You know, for me, being educated as a Scientist, even though I grew up with an Artist dad, these realizations are a big deal.
The first time in my life, I am also putting Art above Science, logic, knowledge & rationality.
I was always very in tune with my feelings & intuition, but I did not allow it to enter into the realm of my own artistic expression. I allowed my Science career to show me that Art is valuable & needed, rather than my feelings of joy & concepts like beauty.
It is a very freeing feeling to allow myself to just create, paint, explore and put all reason aside!
And then be filled with joy, which swipes off to all other parts of my life as well!
So what I wish to be able to convey with this post today is: if you know and feel you have a creative side inside of you, be it painting, crafting, pottery, writing: do it! Get back to it! Even if its just 10 minutes every day!
If it brings you joy, that is enough reason to do it. You don’t need any other justification! No logic, reasonability, nothing!
The only thing that counts is: Beauty & the Joy it creates within you!
Love,
Daria
Great post Daria! It resonates with something I was thinking about yesterday and wrote up as a piece for our local community newsletter here in Tasmania. Maybe I’ll post it here on Substack too, but your post has much more and offers me some encouragement for my artwork, which has been a bit dormant lately.