Aesthetics of the Invisible World

Apr 29

Supreme honor and real happiness lie in self-respect, in high resolves and noble purposes. ~ ‘Abdu’l Bahá

Supreme honor and real happiness lie in self-respect, in high resolves and noble purposes.

~ ‘Abdu’l Bahá

(via matilda3663)

Life is resilient.  Life is fragile. ~ü [Image: Stephanie Hillson Fragile Light]

Life is resilient.  Life is fragile.

~ü

[Image: Stephanie Hillson Fragile Light]

(via yama-bato)

Apr 28

When Being Your Best Means Being Destructive:

Many creative individuals have faced this.  From mathematician Paul Edrös to musician Kurt Cobain.  The reason for their creative success is often confused with the drama of their life story - so much so that the tortured artist has become an archetype.  There is a true sting to the social rejection that many creatives face.  There are also the economic risks we take in reaching for a life more expressive than most.  These factors can compound and create a downward, self-destructive spiral.  

The resulting work lies somewhere on a scale that runs from self-indulgent to total sincerity.  In an insincere world, where self-awareness and exploration are disparaged, people are drawn to some honest candor.  The tortured artist feels the sudden rush of acceptance and the spiral inevitably continues.  The destructive hand got you to the point that no other force could, suddenly you’re trapped because this is the part of you that’s venerated, the part that people love, and the best of who you are.

I’m not sure how I’d react if my work was ever recognized on a larger scale.  Perhaps I’m fortunate - I work to imbue my films with spiritual sincerity, a sense of beauty, and a veneration of life and all its simple problems.  These aren’t the hallmarks of the tortured artist that people love to lament.  I figure that as long as I’m bucking the trend, I’ll never have to worry about the trappings of sudden success.

~ü

Degas’ Ghost En pointe. Center stage front. Her tutu is a plumed chrysanthemum, delicately balanced on dual stems. She traces the air with pale fingertips, as if to memorize it as woman— not the swan she soon will become. We flocked to see Nureyev that night, expected to grow damp with rapture from his fierce Neapolonic leaps, head tilted cockily in the fury of his futile heroic dance. We only saw her… This flower. This reluctant swan. Degas white, pinned under a dimming spotlight. Fluttering and lifting. Dipping and fading. Then, abruptly, the vacant stage. ~ Pris Campbell (2005) [Image: Edgar Degas Prima Ballerina (1876)]

Degas’ Ghost

En pointe. Center stage front.
Her tutu is a plumed chrysanthemum,
delicately balanced on dual stems.
She traces the air with pale fingertips,
as if to memorize it as woman—
not the swan she soon will become.

We flocked to see Nureyev that night,
expected to grow damp with rapture
from his fierce Neapolonic leaps,
head tilted cockily in the fury
of his futile heroic dance.

We only saw her…
This flower. This reluctant swan.
Degas white, pinned
under a dimming spotlight.
Fluttering and lifting.
Dipping and fading.
Then, abruptly, the vacant stage.

~ Pris Campbell (2005)

[Image: Edgar Degas Prima Ballerina (1876)]

Degas’ ghost [Image: Tasha Tilberg photographed by Paolo Roversi]

Degas’ ghost

[Image: Tasha Tilberg photographed by Paolo Roversi]

(Source: irere, via sereudipity)

Apr 25

“As I grew older, I understood that instructions came with this voice. What were these instructions? The instructions were never to lament casually. And if one is to express the great inevitable defeat that awaits us all, it must be done within the strict confines of dignity and beauty.” — ~ Leonard Cohen

(Source: journalofanobody, via effluvitality)

The New Aesthetic is a purported artistic manifesto that gained traction at this year’s SXSW.  Its most pervasive presence is this Tumblr embodying post-postmodernist mentality using 21st century tools.  In general, the post-postmodernists reject the notions of beauty and grotesqueness as a way to directly engage the human soul.  They favor the use of familiar symbols and popular (usually American) culture; they adore a piece’s process and intent over the actual resulting artifact.  Like good disciples of Warhol, post-postmodernists inevitably use scale or variation and repetition to make objects absurd and engaging.   At their best, post-postmodernists are commenting on a larger consciousness.  It is difficult for me to see past the reductive nature of most of this work.  Art is a scientific pursuit for me, offering insights into individuals that, over time, comes to reflect the culture as a whole.  That honest assessment of the soul is filled with analysis and experimentation, gut feelings and reflective thinking.   I’ll cede that some of this can come through popular culture but in the larger scheme, there are laws at play, there is order and there is entropy in the universe that informs what is beautiful and what is not.  It is much larger and more mysterious than the culture in which we reside.  This is where the action is.  The rest is trivia. ~ü [Image: J. Seward Johnson Forever Marilyn Chicago, IL]

The New Aesthetic is a purported artistic manifesto that gained traction at this year’s SXSW.  Its most pervasive presence is this Tumblr embodying post-postmodernist mentality using 21st century tools.  In general, the post-postmodernists reject the notions of beauty and grotesqueness as a way to directly engage the human soul.  They favor the use of familiar symbols and popular (usually American) culture; they adore a piece’s process and intent over the actual resulting artifact.  Like good disciples of Warhol, post-postmodernists inevitably use scale or variation and repetition to make objects absurd and engaging. 

 At their best, post-postmodernists are commenting on a larger consciousness.  It is difficult for me to see past the reductive nature of most of this work.  Art is a scientific pursuit for me, offering insights into individuals that, over time, comes to reflect the culture as a whole.  That honest assessment of the soul is filled with analysis and experimentation, gut feelings and reflective thinking.  

I’ll cede that some of this can come through popular culture but in the larger scheme, there are laws at play, there is order and there is entropy in the universe that informs what is beautiful and what is not.  It is much larger and more mysterious than the culture in which we reside.  This is where the action is.  The rest is trivia.

~ü

[Image: J. Seward Johnson Forever Marilyn Chicago, IL]

Apr 23

My Ethos:

Make every action pure in its intention and deliberate in its nature.

~ü

He’s sometimes pretty, she’s sometimes handsome. It doesn’t matter as long as fashion is somewhere between utility and trend: in other words, honest. ~ü [Image: Frida Kahlo]

He’s sometimes pretty, she’s sometimes handsome. It doesn’t matter as long as fashion is somewhere between utility and trend: in other words, honest.

~ü

[Image: Frida Kahlo]

(Source: roymtz, via thambos)

“The way I need to look, it’s a very personal thing,” Pejic explains. “When I started experimenting, it was to make myself feel happy, to look in the mirror and be satisfied. I never did drag or anything like that. It was always that I wanted to be pretty, to look beautiful, as a girl would want to.”

“The way I need to look, it’s a very personal thing,” Pejic explains. “When I started experimenting, it was to make myself feel happy, to look in the mirror and be satisfied. I never did drag or anything like that. It was always that I wanted to be pretty, to look beautiful, as a girl would want to.”

(via sereudipity)