Friday, January 10, 2025
ESSAY - "PRESERVE THE MOST PERFECT BEAUTY", SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS
However, I have to specifically disagree with Sir Joshua on this one, "If you mean to preserve the most perfect beauty in its most perfect state, you cannot express the passions, which produce (all of them) distortion and deformity, more or less, in the most beautiful faces."
I CAN understand, in his era an artist's representation of a face in a stylized manner WAS the cat's meow. There was even a time when I might have agreed with him (and had a lot fewer years and wrinkles and scars).
Even more so, however, I have come to believe that many of the "passions", some of which ARE ugly, are also what help make us "human"... I like humans. I think I would rather see a passionate human, than a stylized one.
Sorry, Sir Joshua.
Labels: art, beauty, donovan baldwin, essay, Joshua Reynolds
Thursday, January 09, 2025
POEM - CRIES OF THE DANCER
Of sunrise or sunset is just right,
I can smell a campfire,
Hear the cry of plaintive violins,
The claps and cries of the dancer,
As she whirls, her brightly decorated skirts
Flaring, sharing the exciting beauty
Of night, fire, music,
And her dance.
SPONSORED BY
Labels: beauty, campfire, dancer, poem, poetry, scarlet and gold, sunrise, sunset, violins
Monday, November 11, 2024
OPINION - FINDING OUR OWN BEAUTY AND WISDOM
Sometimes we read something, hear something, and think, "How wise that is!" Yet, it's been my experience that often the wisdom is not IN the statement that we heard or read, but, in our acceptance, recognition, or evaluation of it.
Often, we are finding the wisdom in ourselves that, perhaps, we couldn't see, or did not have the words or images for.
When we look at art, no matter how skilled the artist, or lovely, or compelling, the scene or subject, it's our own reaction, our acceptance, recognition, response, that makes it "beautiful", or "perceptive" or "avant garde" in our eyes and mind. The wisdom is often within us. The beauty is within us.
Oh, sometimes we need a little help finding it, seeing it, or maybe are missing a few pieces, but, that's why we read, walk in the woods, hum along to music, speak with others... or sit and watch the world, and wonder about it... finding our own beauty and wisdom.
Labels: art, beauty, donovan baldwin, opinion, wisdom
Monday, December 18, 2023
HER NEW BEAUTY - A POEM
His touch, his sculptor's hands, revealing lines she'd missed,
Melody upon sweet skin, where discord used to twist.
His eyes, two mirrored pools, displaying newfound grace,
A new universe of stars, reflecting on her face.
Years, she thought herself in flawed and fractured form,
Drab canvas bedaubed with doubt, untouched by sun's bright storm.
He came to her with whispered praise and awe within his gaze,
Transformed mundane self image, and lit her hidden flames.
He heard her hidden symphony in her whispered sighs,
The strength behind her fears, the fire in her eyes.
Each delicious stolen kiss filled him with delight,
Revealed her many wonders, hidden out of sight.
She at last emerged from self-inflicted shade,
Embraced herself, the woman he saw, unafraid.
His love, through an alchemy, it seems,
Turned uncertain woman into a moonlit dream.
Each move that she makes now reveals her sculptor's art,
Beauty he showed her, poetry, beating in her heart.
Hands touch how his touched, and she thrills inside,
Masterpiece he brought to life, bathed in love and pride.
No tool or iron or wood changed her mortal shell,
By molded by acceptance, and words her love would tell.
Even in his mirrored gaze, she finally saw,
The awesome beauty he adored, her... without a flaw.
So let the sunbeams dance upon her form,
This woman, loved and seen, no longer lost in storm.
For learning from his love, she's found the way to be,
Her own heart's symphony, wild and beautiful, and free.
-----
Copyright December 18, 2023 by Donovan Baldwin
Labels: beauty, donovan baldwin, poem, poetry
