A Musing upon Art and Beauty
Oh, hello...*yawn*...I've forgotten how good having nothing to do feels...I mean, besides the normal chores, school, homework for science and piano and discipleship. But really, evenings spent in leisure are incomparable.
I'm sure there's some great Oscar Wilde quote about that...it's bugging me that I can't think of one. While showing a genius for witty dialougue, his worldview was unfourtunate. He was a follower of a philosiphy called Aesthetisism, that everything in life should be dedicated to creating Beauty. At least I think that's what it was, not exactly sure. I really shouldn't be talking about things I only know a little about, I'm sure it causes nothing but trouble.
But anyway, worship of Beauty and all that. Purely Art-wise, I lean towards that view of things. When some soulful artist is espousing their lofty goals about how they want their paint-splattered canvas/experimental sculpture/untitled series of cleverly arranged lightbulbs/name-your-strange-art-form-here to get across their society-shattering, earth-moving, message to the masses, I'm sitting in the opposite seat wailing "But it's not pretty!".
Whereas hand me a simple but elegant clay sculpture, a photo of a rose in a good light, or a few lines of charming, understandable poetry and I get all warm and fuzzy inside. It wasn't made with a purpose in mind, other than to simply capture and portray a snippet of the beauty the artist found around themself.
As an artist, I can't "create" anything that God hasn't first. He tinted the first rose, sculpted the first mountain, spoke the world into existence and wrote, directs, and stars in the greatest play in history. Our lives.
But that's where Oscar Wilde missed the mark. He stopped at worshiping Beauty for itself, not looking to the original and only Artist. His way of thinking led the the belief that if everything that looked good, was good and honorable, then everything that feels good cannot possibly be bad, so why not indulge yourself?
He enjoyed much popularity in public life, owing to his brilliant plays, poetry and being one of the most charming dinner guests in London, but due to a accusation of homosexuality (which apparently was true) and ensuing lawsuits (which he lost), spend most of his later years in prison, a sad and lonely man broken of his arrongance. After his release he went to France, where he died suddenly of acute meningitis only 3 years later.
I found after quick search at Bible.com, a verse, very apt, but one I'd never thought of in this light before,
"Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen. " -Romans 1:24-25
Amen indeed.
I'm sure there's some great Oscar Wilde quote about that...it's bugging me that I can't think of one. While showing a genius for witty dialougue, his worldview was unfourtunate. He was a follower of a philosiphy called Aesthetisism, that everything in life should be dedicated to creating Beauty. At least I think that's what it was, not exactly sure. I really shouldn't be talking about things I only know a little about, I'm sure it causes nothing but trouble.
But anyway, worship of Beauty and all that. Purely Art-wise, I lean towards that view of things. When some soulful artist is espousing their lofty goals about how they want their paint-splattered canvas/experimental sculpture/untitled series of cleverly arranged lightbulbs/name-your-strange-art-form-here to get across their society-shattering, earth-moving, message to the masses, I'm sitting in the opposite seat wailing "But it's not pretty!".
Whereas hand me a simple but elegant clay sculpture, a photo of a rose in a good light, or a few lines of charming, understandable poetry and I get all warm and fuzzy inside. It wasn't made with a purpose in mind, other than to simply capture and portray a snippet of the beauty the artist found around themself.
As an artist, I can't "create" anything that God hasn't first. He tinted the first rose, sculpted the first mountain, spoke the world into existence and wrote, directs, and stars in the greatest play in history. Our lives.
But that's where Oscar Wilde missed the mark. He stopped at worshiping Beauty for itself, not looking to the original and only Artist. His way of thinking led the the belief that if everything that looked good, was good and honorable, then everything that feels good cannot possibly be bad, so why not indulge yourself?
He enjoyed much popularity in public life, owing to his brilliant plays, poetry and being one of the most charming dinner guests in London, but due to a accusation of homosexuality (which apparently was true) and ensuing lawsuits (which he lost), spend most of his later years in prison, a sad and lonely man broken of his arrongance. After his release he went to France, where he died suddenly of acute meningitis only 3 years later.
I found after quick search at Bible.com, a verse, very apt, but one I'd never thought of in this light before,
"Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen. " -Romans 1:24-25
Amen indeed.
posted by quirkychild at 11:26 PM
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