In your opinion, do you think of a dandelion as a cheery visitor, or as an unwanted guest? Is the dandelion a flower or a weed?
Share why if you wish.
Dandelion: Flower Or Weed?
Category: Beauty
Gardening: Flowers Or Vegetables?
When you are gardening, do you prefer growing flowers to see and smell, or fruits and vegetables you can eat?
Share why if you wish.
Gardening: Flowers Or Vegetables?
What Makes A Place Beautiful?
When evaluating a location, everything from an entire city to a single backyard, different people use different criteria. In your mind, what makes a place beautiful?
There are many ways of assessing beauty. As the saying goes, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. Specifically when it comes to a location, there are many ways of appreciating a space.
The classic understanding of beauty, that is, aesthetically pleasing, comes to mind. But even then, “aesthetically pleasing” might vary from individual to individual. Is a neatly trimmed lawn beautiful? How about an unusual building?
Related: Listen to an episode of the Intellectual Roundtable Podcast, where Lee and Michael discuss a related question: ‘What makes a place feel like home?’ We also discuss another question as well, ‘What beliefs do you have that might be wrong?’
A person might find utility beautiful. A space that is perfectly engineered to match its function could be considered appealing.
Alternately, you might find that the closer a place is to its natural state is the most appealing. Thriving plants and animals, along with fresh air and sunshine, might be most beautiful to some.
A different way of looking at beauty might be in how welcoming a place happens to be. You may find a place more attractive if you feel more at home or at ease when you are there.
In your mind, what makes a place beautiful? How do you make the places where you spend time to be more appealing?
Related questions: What is beauty? What makes a place feel like home? Which is the best state? How can we appreciate life more?
Truth Or Beauty?
Many individuals have pondered the ideas of truth and beauty, and some have even gone so far as to suggest that they are the same. What do you think?
Share why if you wish.
Truth Or Beauty?
What Is Art?
Art is something that plays a part in everybody’s life. Anyone, from any walk of life, can make or appreciate art. But what, exactly, is it?
There are several ways of thinking about art.
For example, it is that stuff that you go to see at a museum. From the paintings hanging on the walls to the sculptures on pedestals, you can go and look at Art, with a capital “A”.
But it is more than that, of course. At the museum gift shop, you can buy a print of some of the pieces, and hang them on your wall at home. Surely, a reproduction of a work of art is still art, right?
You might buy a painting from an artist who is not a household name. Or you might even paint something yourself. All those are examples of artwork. So it would seem that the pedigree of the person producing the work is not what determines if it is art.
Does intention matter? If I sit down at an easel, with a paint brush, I can produce a painting. The finished product might not be very good, but it is an effort of creation.
However, let’s say I find an elaborate spider-web in the morning, glistening with dew. Is that art? The spider that spun the web did so as an act of creation, but didn’t intend to make artwork — it was just following a biological imperative. Maybe I’m so impressed, I take a picture. Does the act of photography make it more or less artistic?
Perhaps only the appreciation matters. If someone appreciates something as being aesthetically pleasing, is that thing automatically a work of art? But doesn’t that mean that anything can be so classified? And if that is true, does that devalue what the word “art” even means?
Related questions: How important is the artist to art? Art: create or consume? When did you last push the boundaries of your comfort zone?