A little moth asked the other day, what makes something beautiful? I wonder and doubt if I could ever give a fulfilling answer. As a topic it is almost too monumental to touch. Certainly to write about all at once. But maybe we can glance at it from time to time. So, a short visit.
Nov 12, 2022·edited Nov 12, 2022Liked by Simon Sarris
It's funny, I thought da Vinci's tale was going to end as a fable about beauty. Even though the stone was worn and battered, he fit harmoniously in a beautiful old road, like a building in Venice. In the forest, he was novel.
I walk to work along a creek in a gorge, on a stone path cut into the gorge wall and a bridge over the creek built with stones from the same gorge. The bridge and the path feel in a way like they've always been there. I've never quite been able to articulate what makes this place so special, but I think you name it here: the way they fit with the natural environment is what makes them beautiful. And maybe also how they feel respectful of that environment.
Your meritorious defense of history, nature, and beauty draw me in, but it is your humanism I like best of all: you critique your enemies humbly and without forgetting that they, too, did what they thought correct.
Very insightful and thought provoking. It seems to me that the themes raised and excellently explored here, can reach out way beyond art. Thank your these.
Sketches of Beauty, Shades of Remoteness
It's funny, I thought da Vinci's tale was going to end as a fable about beauty. Even though the stone was worn and battered, he fit harmoniously in a beautiful old road, like a building in Venice. In the forest, he was novel.
I walk to work along a creek in a gorge, on a stone path cut into the gorge wall and a bridge over the creek built with stones from the same gorge. The bridge and the path feel in a way like they've always been there. I've never quite been able to articulate what makes this place so special, but I think you name it here: the way they fit with the natural environment is what makes them beautiful. And maybe also how they feel respectful of that environment.
Your meritorious defense of history, nature, and beauty draw me in, but it is your humanism I like best of all: you critique your enemies humbly and without forgetting that they, too, did what they thought correct.
Very insightful and thought provoking. It seems to me that the themes raised and excellently explored here, can reach out way beyond art. Thank your these.