Look Closer

Quiet, unassuming, subtle. This work is about finding beauty in things that don’t demand attention, things that only demonstrate their allure when one stops and takes the time to admire them. I wanted to explore a kind of beauty that can be personal and idiosyncratic. This work is not only a pursuit of aesthetic appeal, but an exploration of a feeling. My work was largely inspired by the Japanese aesthetic and philosophy of Wabi-Sabi. It is based on the idea that everything is incomplete, everything is imperfect and everything is impermanent. It calls for acceptance of that fact and asserts that these qualities are a source of beauty. Wabi-Sabi places great emphasis on nature and it’s cycles and processes. Leonard Koren writes that it “is about the minor and the hidden, the tentative and the ephemeral: things so subtle and evanescent they are invisible to the vulgar eye.” He also describes things Wabi-Sabi as things that "inspire a reduction of the psychic distance between one thing and another thing; between people and things." These two phrases resonated with me and were loosely in my thoughts when making this work.