Two blogs were posted over a year ago about Friday Arts Project vision “Beauty exists where Truth and Goodness meet Mystery. Art advances the celebration of this intersection.” In the coming weeks, in celebration of our 10th year in existence we will be re-posting these two blogs with revisions and other blogs about the mission and values of FriArts.
How do you define “Beauty”? With such a simple and wonderful word you would think it wouldn’t be that hard. But, try it, it’s not as easy as it seems.
I was preparing to lecture in Rock Hill, SC with Friday Arts Project’s. The topic of the lecture was Beauty. Two possibilities that I came across in my research were from Thomas Aquinas. He describes Beauty as having three characteristics: integrity (also can be called perfection), proportion (or harmony), brightness (or clarity). These are clear characteristics and help give a level of focus. But there is still the question of WHAT pieces of art have integrity, proportion and brightness? There still seems to be a subjective aspect when it comes to things considered beautiful.
This led me to Aquinas’ second definition which in Latin was “id quod visum placet” – “That which being seen, pleases.” At first glance this by itself would seem to mean “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. And there is a layer of truth to this, for example I like the color orange, but you may not. I prefer orange (which may explain why I married a redhead) but you may like blue or some other color, neither of these realities is wrong, just different.
But taking both these definitions of Aquinas’ together led me to think that there had to be a definition of Beauty that applies to everyone – that encompasses both the objective and subjective aspects. I landed on this: Beauty exists where Truth and Goodness meet Mystery. To summarize the meaning of this statement – truly beautiful art comes about when the artist is being truthful – about life, the world, etc. – exercises skill and talent (goodness) and allows the muse of the Mysterious aspects of life to command their heart, mind and artistic activity. This “Mystery” could be a personal being, like God, or it could be something less distinct like “love” or even something as nerdy as “The Force”.
Catholic theologian Hans urs von Balthasar described the virtues of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty as three sisters in a dance. He wrote that if Beauty were removed the other two sisters, Truth and Goodness would follow. We could probably say the same of all three, remove one and the other two will lose their ability to “dance”.
If artists approach their craft without one of the “sisters” the chances are the artifacts created will be less successful, lacking some of what Aquinas defines as beautiful. Artists keep Beauty present, just as a community needs lawyers, plumbers, gardeners, accountants etc. to help keep the other sisters in the “dance”. If artists are a vital part of a community keeping Beauty present through their tangible activities, how could a community not thrive? This is why FriArt’s vision statement is “Beauty exists where Truth and Goodness meet Mystery.”
When we – the leadership of Friday Arts Project – revisited solidifying the Vision-Mission-Values of the organization this statement seemed a natural fit. Beauty is our organizational muse, and engaging the great Mystery in a Truthful and Good way makes our lives and, we hope, the lives of our neighbors better.
Peace,
Kirk Irwin
