If your eyelids have grown heavy reading about the latest attack upon our Society and its principles of fair reward for effort made, then you may prefer to pass over this late addition.
A stranger wandering through our world will be forgiven for supposing its inhabitants have a uniformly low level of aesthetic appreciation, and I am not the first to comment on the apparent popularity of ugly constructions, ill-proportioned homes and bland places for work. A few minutes on the mainland are quite enough to explain why residents flee to islands offshore where restraint and moderation are more in fashion.
No doubt some of the blame lies on the Ease and Economy by which we create our surroundings. It costs nothing to create a thing, but it costs much to make it beautiful. Therefore many things are created without thought or plan, which are of dubious utility or value. I wonder if more care would go into the creation of a thing, and more thought to its protection, if the building materials were not so cheap? But that thought goes against the commonly held principles of our land.
Beauty draws attention to herself by her own virtues: modesty in scale and proportion, variety of invention, and faithfulness to the natural world. Those who wish to serve her must be careful observers, patient and determined builders, and thoughtful critics. She visits the artist rarely and only after much labour and effort has been sacrificed at her altar.
The creation of beauty is her own reward, but artists must eat or perish. If those who enjoy beauty (or profit from it) do not see fit to reward those who create it, then we will all live in a poor society indeed, and an uglier world.
Tuesday, 14 November 2006
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1 comment:
I do believe builders are inching up in their skills no matter where their starting point. Although an aesthetic sense might develop more slowly, still my belief is that our great Mainland is a Petrie dish for culture :D.
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