search for beauty

A good friend of the family sends cards at the end of the year. She makes her cards by hand, and its always a treat to receive them. She's an artist, a very caring person, and her cards are some of the very few I save, year in and year out.

About six years ago, her year-end card said simply -

Search for Beauty

I don't know what it was about this particular card. In other years her cards have had wise, pithy, or profound sayings on them. This particular card stuck with me. I posted it above my desk where it stayed for years.

I remember wondering if it was an admonition, "Search for beauty!"? Or perhaps it was the title of a quest: "(In pursuit of the) search for beauty."? Or, knowing this friend, perhaps it was just a statement of herself, her life, her goals and how she lived.

Whatever it was intended to mean, I know that I took it to heart and made it my own. I actually considered using it as my blog's name. In some ways, it summed up a lot about how I felt about life. I grew up in NYC, which is not always outwardly beautiful but has a beauty of its own, sometimes hidden, if you look for it.

I designed a quilt, probably the best I've ever made, and called it Search for Beauty. I finished it in February 2002, and it hung in both the Empire Quilters Guild show in NY that year and the Vermont Quilt Festival later that year, where it won a red ribbon. It was a fusion of both Amish and Welsh style (in the piecing and the quilting, respectively), and it embodied what I love best about both of these traditions. I had a friend who is fluent translate the title into Welsh, the lyrical and unpronounceable result of which is Ymchwil am Brydferthwch.

(sorry for the bad picture, its an old one and it seems to show detail better if you click on it)

The card writing friend called last night, bringing to mind so many memories, especially those related to that special card and the saying that in some ways changed my life.

I thought about the phrase, realized that I needed to write about it, and then began to have my doubts. How can I say that searching for beauty is a worthwhile goal? Isn't this some kind of province of the privileged, available to those who have enough to eat and a roof over their heads? Those who live in affluent societies where there is leisure and Art and time to contemplate more than survival can easily devote some of their free time to goals of high intent.

Then I realized that one of the things that has always drawn me to handwork is the history behind it, and the almost overwhelming realization whenever I think about it that in so many different cultures, people took the time to make things of beauty. Even in circumstances that we would consider subsistence living, there usually is some form of adornment or decoration that is part of the tradition.

And beauty itself doesn't have to be thought of as limited to a visual effect. Beauty can be outward, as in art or decoration or someones looks. But it can also be a presence - a person's way of dealing with others can create beauty. By creating a mood in those around them - I suppose grace would work as a synonym, although the religious connotations to that word carry a lot of baggage.

Looking for beauty can be a way to look past someones faults, or past the sordid exterior of the street you're walking on. It can be as simple as taking hope in the birth of a newborn with all of her potential for good, rather than dwelling on the injustice in the world.

Sometimes it really isn't easy. People can be caustic and shallow, destructive and hurtful. I've dealt with what feels like more than my share of this in my life, and its usually a struggle for me to get past it. An optimist by nature, I am not. Sometimes I can, if I try, see past the pain that is causing someones hurtfulness and pity them. Sometimes I just look elsewhere, and try to find something that makes my heart sing. Something of beauty, wherever I can find it.

Comments

[Alda]

Searching for beauty is a noble quest. And as you so rightly point out, Cassie, it's not limited to outward appearances. It's a state of soul. Thanks for a lovely post.

[DebbieB]

The stitching in your quilt is drop-dead gorgeous.

The search for beauty, and the creation of it in (and sometimes out of) chaos, is what makes life bearable. And oh, when you find it unexpectedly, it makes the heart ache.

[Rachel]

Cassie, as always, you have found such lovely words to share something so meaningful. Joy and beauty are so difficult to touch on. Fear, doubt and misery are always more readily accessible. I think we all tend to associate beauty with luxury, but searching for beauty isn't just a luxury -- as you pointed out -- it is an absolute necessity and is most often found in the day to day activities of survival. I think that if we don't make seeking beauty an intention, it always comes to us as a surprise, but when we make it our purpose it is suddenly everywhere -- still a surprise, but oh so much more than that. Thank you for such a poignant reminder today...

[Chris]

Thanks for this thoughtful and thought provoking post. Reading it, my mind slipped to the tangent of the Navajo "Walk in Beauty."

That quilt is spectacular and amazing!!

[Laurie]

The part that intrigued me most was your point that cultures, no matter what the resources, create things of beauty. I wonder what it is about humans that drive us to do that.

[JoVE]

First, the quilt. thank you for suggesting to click on it. The quilting is exquisite. I can never bring myself to quilt a pattern that is shaped differently than the piecing but it works soooo well. I can see the welsh influence and the welsh name is a nice touch (hint: w is a vowel in welsh, pronounced like an enlish u).

Your overall post is also very thought provoking, not unusual for you. I am reminded of a William Morris saying (which I will not quote properly, I'm sure) about keeping only those things that are useful or beautiful. I think that our tendency in affluent cultures to separate utility and beauty is part of the issue you refer to. The useful can also be beautiful. For example, we have the luxury of making a quilt like that and then hanging on the wall, or storing it to be brought out for exhibitions. But the Amish and the Welsh traditions on which it was based made beautiful quilts and then used them. Yes there were everyday quilts and special quilts (for weddings and so on) but all were used.

[Annie]

It's a great saying, simple but profound in it's way. One way to look at it is not so much to actually search for beauty, but to notice the beauty every day, in the otherwise mundane...a sunrise, the smell after a rainshower, birdsong, the sound of children playing. Things that we normally take for granted, but truly are beautiful.

[Pumpkinmama]

First, the quilt is stunning, just stunning. I love this post. I would tend to think that THINKING about the search for beauty is probably the realm of those with priviledge, but I think we humans do it instinctively, whether we are in the lap of luxury or in the most destitute place imaginable.

[juno]

I have an aunt who has a collection of Southwestern pottery - really beautiful primitive things as well as stark stunning modern examples. I was visiting her once and her daughter (who is my age) was basically saying - I don't get this stuff. For her beauty and art are European things, first world things - a gothic church, a beautiful gown, an fine antique chair.
I said - no, no, look at the shape, look at the colors, look at the fact that even though this potter's life is without privilege in any modern material sense, she has taken the time from her survival to decorate her world with exquisite precision.

And that's it - if we are only about survival, what are we creating, what are we leaving behind? There has to be a search for something more than ourselves - it can lead to religion, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Pueblo pottery, Welsh quilting, cave painting, Ukrainian eggs, Venetian glass - these objects people have left behind that continue to inspire us, warm us, connect us to our pasts...long after the individual creator has passed into history.

[Carole]

I guess it sounds trite to say that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" when you have written so eloquently about the concept of beauty. But really, my experience is that when you LOOK for beauty, you FIND it. Which I guess is what you said, too, only much better than I.

[heather]

one of the things that strikes me most about integration of beauty across cultures goes to joVE's comment about use. i think that it's a shame that privilege allows people to have one set of belongings "for their beauty" and another - often, more disposable - set for their usefulness. to me, the regular use of an object of beauty might diminish that beauty (in one sense) over time as it becomes older and worn, but the same use makes it so much more beautiful because of the human imprint that the wear and tear adds to it.

[Jessica]

I think it is the search for beauty, where ever one may actually find it, is what so often makes life meaningful. For me with beauty comes passion and it's one of the main reasons I knit - I love the feeling I get from creating something beautiful from such simple materials. It is what helps sustain me in this crazy world where it can be so difficult to find beauty and passion - you have to take it where you find it. The feral knitter wrote a post recently that also touches on this issue of beauty and passion. You might like to read it - you both speak so eloquently. http://feralknitter.typepad.com/feral_knitter/2006/01/we_act_as_thoug.html

[Kim]

What lovely words you share with us today and your quilt is stunning! I have been yearning to do some quilting again, and your little quilt with it's beautiful stitching, reinforces that ;-)

[Evan]

To paraphrase Hamlet,

"There is nothing beautiful or otherwise but that thinking makes it so."

[Jan]

I just LOVE the Welsh quilting! Thanks for sharing that on another dark, gray day. A ray of sunshine!

[cari]

beautiful quilt. lovely post.

[margene]

You reminded me of the women who homesteaded the west and lived in hovels, lived day to day, worked the land and still made the most beautiful lace or embroidery...even snakeskin clothing. Beauty is all around we just need to be open to it, accept it and understand it is everywhere. Your post is as beautiful and complicated as the quilt you created.

[margene]

Maybe I should have said as complex as the quilt? You got the idea, right?

[martha in mobile]

Your quilting is so lovely -- full of care, thought and intent. And so are your posts. That's why I read your blog. Thank you.

[Ellen]

JoVE and Heather bring up an important (I think) point about the daily use of beauty. William Morris and the Arts & Crafts movement tried to make the point that you should have beautiful things around you for daily use. I sell handwoven blankets, throws, towels, etc, and am frequently told that my stuff is "too pretty to use". What does that mean? You don't deserve anything nice? Even my mother puts the stuff away in a drawer and won't use it. I don't get it.

[regina]

We are obviously biologically programmed to seek/need beauty. As a complete and utter optimist, I am of the mind that beauty can be found everywhere, even in the most mundane and ordinary surroundings. As to physical beauty, it is truly a double-edged sword: I know some remarkable people for whom many doors have opened simply because they're great looking folks. Of course, that does a number on their heads because they know that they're being judged on the most superficial of all criteria and not for the content of their character. I'm ashamed to admit that I've been guilty of that in the past and have understimated someone's intelligence precisely because she was such the glamorous beauty-queen type. I was dead wrong about her and learned a lot from the experience.

Great post, amazing quilt. Thanks for the food for thought.

[jess]

I love the quilt! It is gorgeous and intricate!

Cassie, much of what you said resonates with me. Slightly before my dad died, he told me that one of my strengths was finding and enjoying beauty in the world. And I hold onto that and think about it not unlike you and your "Search for Beauty."

[Martha]

"'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'"
John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn

[Lee Ann]

My search for beauty led me to the person I married two years ago, and I'm still surprised at the beauty a simple gesture from him can engender, because it's genuine. Keats got it right on that score. As for creating beauty, you've done just that with the quilt and this post.

[--Deb]

Yep. Beautiful quilt (the stitching is just stunning!). Beautiful post. I think there is definitely something to be said for humans seeking beauty where and when we can find it. It's not a matter of being able to afford luxurious things, but of a certain amount of grace in living your daily life--a farmer taking a moment to admire the colors of the sunset after a long day--a caveman painting on a wall--a red thread worked into a blanket. They're not necessarily "big" things, but they are the important ones, like love, like laughter. You can live without them, but . . . why bother?