Learn to see
One morning last week I decided to attend an exercise class that I discovered before Covid slowed us down. The class still functions with care and caution, and every once in a while I get brave enough — or decisive enough — to work out with the people I’ve grown to enjoy and admire. Most of them are seniors, a group to which I have had a hard time realizing that I belong.
I grabbed the last of my clean tights and a shirt from my “fitness” drawer, barely acknowledging that the tights were bright purple and the shirt was orange. The artist in me said, “this can work!”; the introvert was appalled. Without much time to spare I decided to keep the combination and head to the gym. No one in the class really cares what anyone else is wearing.
I hadn’t done a group workout for a while and it felt good to move within my allotted space, distanced but included with people who value fitness. After the last stretch I put my sanitized equipment in the storeroom. As I headed out, a lady joined me. “I was working out behind you and noticed your colors,” she said. I cringed slightly. “They were so beautiful and energetic that they kept me going!” I grinned sheepishly and thanked her, mentioning that I believe in the power of color.
Beautiful hues can keep us going. Color generates energy or brings rest. It affects emotion, attitude, and resulting action. Color communicates by association with ideas or institutions. The science of color is complex; its psychology is fascinating and widely applied.
I paint because I love developing ideas with color, becoming immersed in engaging combinations of pigment and paper. Using color is one way that I focus on beauty. Painting heightens my awareness of the beauty surrounding me whether inside my house or out.
Beauty isn’t just about color and subject. Look at the way shapes relate to each other, or dramatic accents of line; notice surfaces adorned by texture and pattern, or the flow of visual rhythm. Simple space is one of the most strikingly beautiful elements surrounding us. Beauty is living and dynamic, it interacts with our senses, becoming a personal experience that moves, softens, and enlarges the heart. An artist notices such things and shares the moment. The artistic soul sees.
Sometimes it is hard to perceive the beauty that continually woos us. We may feel overwhelmed by darkness and negativity because that's where we tend to linger. Beauty invites us to focus beyond information, to look away from numbing repetition and captivating sensationalism. We are offered the invitation to focus on whatever is true and honorable, that which is worthy of respect, right, and confirmed by God’s Word. We are summoned to think continually on what is pure and wholesome, lovely, and peaceful. We are told to center our minds on the admirable, that which is of a good reputation, excellent and worthy of praise (Phil. 4:8). We are called to be intentionally noble with our thoughts.
The commitment of Jesus to embrace and mend broken human nature gives power to our choices. He gives us the freedom to decide what will consume our attention. I can step out of the darkness of confusion and into the light of holy thinking. By beholding beauty, I am changed.
This is our ninth Ohio January; the cold and gray are at their worst right about now. Each year I begin to struggle with my certainty of the sway of beauty realizing that discerning the sublime isn’t just a “mind over matter” task. Even with my artistic mind-set there are days I just can’t find the up-lift I crave. Without sunlight my optimism crumbles.
Light.
The ability to see something as beautiful comes from light—
Physical light and spiritual enlightenment.
It is the first thing God created.
The full force of illumination.
The ability to understand, to be captivated, to be won.
Let there be light in our darkness.
I just looked out the window at the dawning of a new day. The ground is covered with frozen white which is beginning to glisten as the sun crowns the top of surrounding houses. Its warm glow turns my backyard into an other-worldly glittering pink. The effect lasts only minutes but it is enough to remind me of the Sovereignty behind this gift.
“Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.” — David Hume
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
