I like to tease anyone who asks if I do crafts by saying, “I feel making my bed is a major achievement and my contribution to beauty.” But I do appreciate the artistic spirit. Over my holidays I got to enjoy art in many forms. While at my sister’s I was able to admire her most recent quilt – she does amazing work with her needle as she hand quilts her beautiful, large creations. While at my brothers, for a family picnic, I was awestruck by his gorgeous garden. He has taken a bare, sloping yard and turned it into an oasis of flowering perennials. I was able to see the movie, “Far From the Madding Crowd” and was so moved by the beautiful cinematography. Last weekend, company for dinner came laden with a bouquet of flowers from her garden artfully arranged in a sealer jar, a perfect vessel for the swaggering daisies, hydrangea and mint. She also brought a jar of freshly made raspberry jam – truly a labour of love and art in its own form.
Last weekend our neighbourhood park was turned into a gallery of outstanding art as about 200 exhibitors displayed their creations to interested shoppers and lookers. The Muskoka Arts and Crafts Show is an annual event and has been a summer feature here for over 50 years. It is remarkable to me how people can take raw material and make such magnificent creations.
Frederich Nietzsche said, “We have art in order not to perish of the truth.” There is a spirituality to art, a feeling of joining with the great creative spark and melding our souls and imaginations to that impulse of life and beauty.
There is a bumper sticker that says, “Earth without art is just EH.” Good art has the potential to transform. Transformation takes us to a holy place. I am all for art.
You certainly have an art for writing, I missed your missives. Welcome back.