Redefining Beauty

I heard an interview of a musician who was asked if he was trying to redefine beauty.  It made me think about the subjective view of beauty.

When I am painting, I am putting my feelings about the subject down.  Every painting is painted because I see beauty in the landscape I am painting.  My feelings and thoughts about the subject and my expression of their beauty are specific to me.  They are a lifetime of experiences distilled into the effort and the immediacy in the moment of my painting.  All of these experiences may push me in a direction but it is the feeling about beauty at the moment of creation that is my biggest influence.  Yet this influence as pervasive as it may be is so hard to define in words.  It is like an invisible hand guiding my work.  It is at a deep subconscious level.

My experience and ability are always moving and changing.  As I continue to grow in my ability to handle my medium,  my ability to express changes.  My ideas of beauty are always on the move and my skill to express them is changing as well.  This moves my evolution of beauty forward. 

Every day I paint seems connected to all the days that have come before.  Every day beauty is defined on my terms.  Inside my mind what I consider beautiful changes slowly.  This is demonstrated by tendencies within subject matter, color, and technique.  My ideas about beauty and my ability to express them are never in sync.  My ability to express them is limited.  That limitation compromises the communication of my ideas to a certain extent.  It is easy to pinpoint the limits of my ability.  I am not sure what my limitation to perceive beauty is.

Beauty is redefined every time I paint.  I am taking something that is beautiful to me and I am trying to express my unique impression of that beauty.  None of my paintings would be considered a literal interpretation.  They are a combination of impression, expression, and personal interpretation.  Everything involved in my creation of art is in a state of flux.  

When I am creating art, I am moving towards the fullest expression of what I think is beautiful.  Redefining beauty is not taking something that I find unattractive and trying to make it beautiful.  Redefining beauty is taking a subject that has enough attractive elements, using my perception of that beauty, and  pushing those elements forward through my medium.

By my definition creation of art is the redefinition of beauty.