Monday, November 27, 2006

The Colour of Beauty


'Most people don't look...
The gaze that pierces - few have it -
What does the gaze pierce?
The question mark.'

(Henri Cartier-Bresson)

11 comments:

awareness said...

Very few have it I agree. Very few want it because the piercing gaze illuminates naked truth hiding behind the questions.

But a piercing gaze is not judgemental. Rather, it reflects acceptance.......the eyes speak soothingly with words of encouragement to the other person that it's alright to show the multi-hued truth.

Ellen said...

I worked with a girl who had a little saying posted on her desk that said: "Sometimes I sits and thinks, sometime I just sits."

I find myself repeating it like a mantra everytime I steal away a few seconds to gaze out the window to see the real world. Sometimes I don't need any real reason for doing so, I just want to touch base with my God.

Nikita said...

One day, one day I shall post a meaningful comment on this blog and not just stare at the screen like a lemon.

Trailady said...

So many would rather be blind and ignorant than see things as they really are and adjust their opinions. Great quote- love it!

The Harbour of Ourselves said...

I think maybe all the secrets, where we are shown just enough to imagine everything else, are held inside the weight and stillness of that gaze...

dana,
those things that hide behind the questions are the ever surprising beauties of our primal imagination.

ps, like the idea of multi-hued truth

ellen,
i think gazing out of the window to touch base is the visual Eucharist of things - our colourful world allows us to imagine beauty, that beauty which is the divine in all things

niki,
nothing wrong with lemons - not sure i write anything really meanigful - hopefully it might just be a place that from time to time allows a little colour into our bleakness

traillady,
In sonnet 27 Shakespeare has this beautiful quatrain:
Save that my soul's imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which like a jewel (hung in ghastly light),
Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new.

to truly see is pain as well as beauty - i think they are cousins

awareness said...

Can one even see beauty if one has not seen pain? Sometimes there is pain tucked into beauty. It's a bit like a kaleidoscope of patterns how they intersect and transform each other.......they co-exist as cousins, I agree. In fact, I'm wondering if pain and beauty are the reason behind the multi-hues.

It all depends on the angle of the gaze.

I love....... "surprising beauties of our primal imagination." I read that and thought of a painting of the Sirens. :)

The Harbour of Ourselves said...

i think they are inextricably linked, i know the hearts of many are broken and so our trust of any future has lost its innocence, the traditional structures of shelter shaking - we are thrown back on ourselves almost - my old mystic friend told me once that it is because we have neglected and misused the Beautiful that we now find ourselves in such terrible crisis

imfreenow.blogspot.com said...

Hey! Nice to meet someone from the UK! Thanks for stopping by. By the way, where's your full profile?

awareness said...

Hi Paul.

Perhaps crisis and the pain it bestows upon us is the impetus to seek beauty again. If we know the flavour and texture of beautiful, we are more desirous of seeking it out again, especially in times of crisis.

If we are still enough to hold the gaze.....if we can rely on our primal imagination as the potential for truth.

oh..........how does THAT make any sense? Philosophical mummerings on a freezing rain soaked Friday afternoon........ :)

The Harbour of Ourselves said...

ge,
my profile? I got bored writing about me in such a systematic way, i guess my full profile comes out in the rambled thoughts

dana, yeah it made sense - phylosophical murmerings? i guess my latest post is certainly that

Trailady said...

Harbour, I love that quote by Shakespeare. Thank you for sharing... :o)