"Known" - acrylic on Arches 300 lb watercolor paper, 22" x 30".  Available here and at Artfinder.


The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen. - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross


I've been thinking about the word beautiful.  

To. me, beauty is more than what's on the outside.  It is the inner human landscape shining through to the outside.  Or, in the natural world, beauty includes the emotion the visual beauty arouses when we view it.  So this quote, which very aptly describes why so many of my beloved tribe are the. most beautiful people on earth, struck a chord in me.

And it was oddly wonderful to process this quote even as I was creating a figure painting.  The figure, drawn quickly in charcoal and then completed in acrylic paint, begins in a place of visual beauty (the human form) but is only complete because of  the intensity of the gaze.  I continue to hunt for emotion and attempt to capture it in the paint.

In the photo (left), you can see the size of the piece. But also that I am trying to figure out what the heck he is gazing at out there.  He hadn't told me yet.  But when he does, you'll be the first to know. :)

So I don't have a demo video for you today...but I have this amazing TED Talk on the power of awe and the role of art in creating it (thank you Mark H. for sharing this with me!).  Take a look!  I'd love to hear what you think. :)