Beauty Emerging
In my two decades as a full-time artist, the primary questions that have motivated my work remain as open as ever. How do we bear the dark realities of contemporary culture, as they become ever more surreal and overwhelming? As our collective shadow side grows and amplifies, the mind risks turning further toward cynicism, egoism and disconnection. What is the antidote to help us stay in contact with our humanity, to find internal balance, and contain our rage, grief, and the anxiety of our own powerlessness?
In the frame of these questions, I have come around slowly, even reluctantly, to acknowledge the transformative power of beauty. I say reluctantly because turning toward beauty at a moment such as this feels counterintuitive, irresponsible, and smacks of denial or avoidance. Of all things, why beauty, and especially now? As the poet John O’Donohue says: “Beauty, first because we are desperate; and second, because perhaps it is the fact that we turned away from beauty that got us into this mess in the first place.”
I have come to see beauty as a kind of star by which to navigate forward. I don't propose it as a way to ignore or bypass our problems; in fact just the opposite. Beauty can help us stay connected on a basic level with what matters, offering a true source of guidance, wisdom and courage. Beauty opens a channel to the deepest parts of our individual and collective selves, where the core of our humanity lies. At this crucial moment of uncertainty and mental chaos, beauty can anchor us, give us perspective, and help us evolve our relationships with each other and with Life itself.
By beauty, I mean it broadly: the complex miraculous exquisiteness of the living world, in all of its forms and scales, from the microscopic all the way to the cosmic, including each one of us. Beauty reminds us that we are more than just human; we are beings, alive and conscious, in an infinite museum of unimaginably fantastical artworks made by an unknowable artist. The wonderment we experience in beauty's presence can bring a mental and emotional luminosity that crosses all lines of politics, language and culture. Beauty can open a doorway home to our natural state of gratitude and love for the living world, and for the miracle of our own life. Beauty doesn't provide a solution to anything; but it can serve as a spacious container where our hearts are invited to pause, listen, and remember.
~cj, Punta Arenas, Chile, 2024