“The beauty of nature presents itself again and again, like endearments softly punching at my heart; gentle reminders to let each moment arise and to commit myself again and again to love instead of hate and to be brave instead of scared. All the while I know that there is a light beyond all lights that is the light we cannot see. That is all we need – the Light we cannot yet see – and to believe in it.”
IG: rosie_nunney
Hommage à Claude Monet
Daniela Bretscher: “I take digital and analogue photographs. The picture ‘Hommage a Claude Monet’ is from the series Double Density, which I took in Berlin. I took the photos with my Rollei 35 SE and exposed the same film twice. In the first round I only photographed yellow objects and in the second only blue ones. This resulted in photos that were partly planned and partly left to chance and have a beauty of their own.”
Daniela’s quote: “Beauty is only created when there are irregularities and shadows that give things structure and depth. There is beauty everywhere, but beauty can only be captured with luck.”
This photographic series by Belgian photographer Vincent Lagrange captures the inherent humanity of animals and highlights their emotional depth and the beauty of Mother Nature. The photos offer a detailed, intimate look into the lives of these animals.
These photos not only reveal the striking similarities between animals and humans, but also remind us of the intense bonds we share with nature. Just like us, animals experience a range of emotions, form social bonds, and exist in a community. These images remind us that we are not alone on this planet, but rather closely interconnected with the animals around us.
The series not only showcases the beauty of animals, but also reminds us of the importance of conservation. The grandeur and majesty of the images inspire a sense of wonder and respect for the environment, and a desire to protect and preserve it for future generations.
You can still visit the gorgeous exhibition Between Us until April 23 in Leonhard’s Gallery, Schuttershofstraat 34 in 2000 Antwerp. Don’t miss it!
So pleased to announce that I’m in the jury again of the Global Design Graduate Show, as Founder of Beauty without Irony and Beauty for a Better World.
The Global Graduate Show is a project of ARTSTHREAD in collaboration with Gucci.
This year I will be judging in the Fine Art / Photography / Craft categories, all 3 categories that are very close to my heart.
There will be judges for Digital, Visual Comm and Film / Fashion, Accessories and Textiles / Product, Architecture and Interiors / Fine Art ,Photography and Craft.
Open to apply!
The Global Design Graduate Show in collaboration with Gucci is open to all art and design students (undergraduate and postgraduate) graduating this year 2022 (Southern hemisphere graduating after October 2021) in any related discipline, located anywhere in the world.
The Global Design Graduate Show 2022 is your chance to share your creative work alongside your peers from around the world and get it judged by industry leaders.
Who can enter?
Open internationally to all art and design undergraduate or postgraduate students graduating in the Academic Year 2020-21 – i.e. October 2021 to July 2022.
Entry: Free to apply
Deadline to apply: August 31, 2022
Kim Jones: “Somewhere over the North Pole is beauty”
IG @mrkimjones
Pure Beauty personifies letting go of any conditioning.
Beauty can arise from moments of crises by staying in the end result of a life you love.
My hopes for humanity in a post Covid world is to stay in the positive of possibilities to manifest their dreams.
One of our favourite artists is British Mark Titchner and we love this banner. What do you think, is he right?
Europe is full of traditional festivals, where strange figures, vegetation spirits, wild men and monstrous creatures appear.
Many of these characters are extremely ancient and popular, with rituals associated with seasonal and agricultural cycles.
These are some of the photos taken by Charles Fréger, a photographer who has traveled for years portraying these masks that he collected for his book “Wilder Mann”.
See all the gorgeous photos and read more about the artist here: https://www.charlesfreger.com/portfolio/wilder-mann/
Our actions are like ships which we may watch set out to sea and not know when or with which cargo they nay return to port. (Iris Murdoch)
You go out into the world where mankind is challenged more than ever before to prove its maturity and its mastery not of nature but of itself (Rachel Carson)
It is vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves, there is none such. It is the bog in our brains and bowels, the primitive vigour of nature in us that inspires that dream. The notion that we are neither human nor inhuman is a liberation. We are a collage of species that came together a bit bizarre and ridiculous…. (Emmanuele Coccia)
I live I die I will be reborn (Luchita Hurtado)
Sylvie Franquet: “This is a tapestry to illustrate this collage of wildness and human, a sort of pure state, a true state, an innocence, a beauty in the wildness with all the sprites dancing in the bushes… a dream of wildness and beauty, a better world where we are just part of nature… and an ode to the healing power of the needle”
IG @ sylviefranquet
Andre Sicht: “True beauty can be found in nature. In the forest, for example.
This song is inspired by this beauty.”
IG @a.sicht
Hannelore Knuts: “Co-parenting in action to keep all of us sane -and a little bit crazy”
IG@hanneloreknuts
Simon de Pury: “Since the pandemic I have been flying far less. On my way back from Bodrum, where I conducted an auction for the Naked Heart Foundation of Natalia Vodianova, the plane flew through these clouds. I never cease to be fascinated by the ever changing beauty of clouds. It makes me dream and reminds me of baroque paintings. As a child and teenager I used to dream incessantly. So much so that my parents used to say ‘Il est dans les nuages’”
IG @simondepury
Tim Vanhamel: “There is only love. So called ‘ugly’ things, inside or outside, are only love in disguise. Beauty is not symmetry, it is love! Everywhere…”
IG @tim.vanhamel11
Karin Hanssen: “What makes us beautiful is our honesty, imperfection and vulnerability”
IG@karhans
Nature reflects in people and people reflect in nature. Installation artist Rob Mullholland beautifully captured this symbiosis through his mirrored figures in the forest of Aberfoyle, Scotland. The mirrors reflect the deep history of how the forest and people needed to make way for lumber provision for a nation that was rebuilding itself.
With the installation, Mullholland wants to pay respect to and repopulate the forest with the effigy Aberfoyle forest’s people. Text by Emma Baetens
‘Eye of An Artist’ is an inquiry into the artist’s definition of beauty and captures the opinions of 19 artists at different stages of practice offering their views.
This documentary forms part of the art project ‘Beautiful: The Exposition’ that questions the interpretation of beauty in art, especially from the standpoint of the artists.
The project, true to its description as an exposé, saw the combination of:
The artists include:
1. Chief Dr Mrs Nike Monica Okundaye – Batik & Adire textile designer
2. Professor Peju Layiwola – Art Historian, Adire textile designer, Sculptor
3. Muraina Akeem – Sculptor
4. Ayoola Mudasiru – Painter
5. Ayoola Omovo – Painter
6. Ibe Ananaba – Painter
7. Oliver Enwonwu – Curator, Gallerist, Painter
8. Sadiq Williams – Painter
9. Iyunola – Painter
10. Godwin Samuel – Painter
11. Raji Babatunde – Painter
12. Ugonma Chibuzo – Painter
13. Adekile Mayowa – Hyperrealist
14. Yusuff Aina Abogunde – Painter
15. Emmanuel Odumade – Painter
16. Abinoro Akporode Collins – Sculptor
17. Adeojo Oluwaseun – Painter
18. Sylvester Aguddah – Collagist
19. Augustine Nwoke – Painter
Kenni Ekundayo: “I believe beauty to be an (intentional) creation of a creator that is designed to be enjoyed by the beholder. I see a dress that I think is beautiful, I believe it was designed to be perceived as exactly that by the dressmaker; same goes for when I interact with a work of art that I believe to be beautiful—the artist produced it to be viewed and enjoyed as that. It is what led to the creation of this film, to interrogate and document the creator (artist)’s opinion and interpretation/presentation of beauty.”
I would like to approach the concept of pure beauty through the image of my drawing I submitted. This drawing has a lot of meaning for me and although it’s one of the first ones I did as a professional illustrator, it is a perfect drawing done at the perfect moment. I was still starting out as a fashion illustrator drawing live at the backstage and getting a phone call from Dior was really a dream come true. Being invited to draw at such a major show in Paris with only a couple of other shows under my belt was really wonderful and exciting. It was awesome to witness the diverse teams of creative people, all being the best at what they do, intensely working together while the atmosphere was calm, fun and welcoming. Everyone seemed to be there only with one goal in mind: to make something amazing happen! That being said I quickly learned that not everything was so perfect. The idea was that I could choose favourite models and looks to illustrate before the show, but as I was getting ready to start I was told that the models didn’t have time to pose at all. The show had to start right away, as many important personalities had arrived earlier than expected. Instead of giving up I decided to simply start drawing and capture whatever I could while the show was in action. This drawing I selected is picturing a model quickly being changed into another look. His back was facing me and I captured the moment he was putting on a beautiful patent leather jacket in the exact color that I had with me. I often look at this drawing as inspiration for my new drawings, as for me it perfectly captures the essence of what I was looking at -the energy at the backstage- and exists in the cutting edge between expression, minimalism, representation and abstraction. So, pure beauty for me is not only what I’m looking at. It is a rare and wonderful occurrence that sometimes happens—a perfect combination of interactions with my subjects and their energy, the moments and scenes that I draw and the important ingredient of the unexpected!
Artist and illustrator Jarno Kettunen: “Pure beauty for me is not only what I’m looking at. It is a rare and wonderful occurrence that sometimes happens—a perfect combination of interactions with my subjects and their energy, the moments and scenes that I draw and the important ingredient of the unexpected!”
IG@jarnosees
“Eons before the stumbling cartography of humans, once only birds traced an ocean’s depths to a mountain’s climb, their flight paths spanning vast, unguessed-at distances. And dragons unfurled in ancient, dangerous corners of the world, warning off any sight-seeing cats that drifted too close by. Kristjana reflects on the enigmatic past of world exploration. “Here be dragons” means unexplored territories, in imitation of a medieval practice of putting illustrations of dragons, sea monsters and other mythological creatures on uncharted areas of maps, where potential dangers were thought to exist.”
IG @ kristjanaswilliams
Jaouad Alloul: “Pure beauty is being radically yourself in a world that wants you to fit in”
“As an artist I find this pandemic challenging, but at the same time it gave me the required inner work to accelerate on a deep emotional level”
Jaouad Alloul is a multi-disciplinary artist & entrepreneur. He endeavours to give a voice to people struggling with their gender & identity and to raise awareness for LGBT rights in Islam and beyond. His mission is to connect people through art and dialogue.
IG@sjamaan.media
IG@jaouadalloul
Emerald Rose Whipple: “Beauty recognises itself through us. It touches on the ephemeral nature of all things. When we witness something that impermanent, we witness a moment in time passing.
The fleeting fragility of life is what makes something beautiful to me. I cherish flowers, they are here only for a moment in time, yet they bring innocence and a gentleness to the world.”
“ Beauty is Truth.
I will never pretend that I can define beauty – “ but I know it when I see it “
… and I see it everywhere! I see it in a smile, I hear beauty in a laugh, I watch beauty dancing, I feel beauty in creating and I hope that beauty lives on in everyone’s hearts.
There are now nearly 8 billion people living on earth, with an infinite number of ideas about beauty. And there is more than enough beauty to go around.
… we just need to know it when we see it. “
IG @elsbethshaw
François Real: “What is beauty to me? It’s not a quality but rather a moment, a period of time filled with peace and serenity. Time of nature and time in nature to be fully connected with the elements; a time which can be more related to nature than to culture. Even if an event, a cultural moment by definition, can correspond to beauty, whether it is a piece of music, a painting or even a sculpture like the one I have chosen among my creations to represent beauty. Beauty … it transports me to a moment of internal joy that often, alone or in company, I express loudly and strongly.”
IG @lerealmogador
ReiNarDus: “The infinite possibilities of our human feelings and thinking abilities are especially expressed in our creativity and perception. It is the beauty of these invisible powers that I try to portray in my paintings.”
IG @reinardus_com
The most beautiful thing I’ve ever created is a song with my old band titled “The Simple Things”. It’s the most favourite song I have ever written. Lyrically and musically it meant a lot to me at the time -and it still does.
Josh Beech: “Real beauty to me is being yourself, whatever that means to you is cool, it’s up to interpretation but ultimately it’s who you feel you are. Being comfortable in your own skin and rocking who you are, wherever you are that’s real beauty to me. “
Interview with make-up artist and creative director of Dior Beauté Peter Philips
Wat does pure beauty mean to you?
Peter Philips: “Pure beauty in images comes from composition and balance, which each onlooker will translate for him or herself. What might be beautiful for one, isn’t necessarily beautiful for another. Pure beauty in people comes from within, nothing more, nothing less.”
What is the name/title of the submitted work?
“This shot is part of a beauty and fashion story for VOGUE Germany, June 2019 issue.”
Who collaborated in creating the submitted work?
Editor and stylist: Christiane Arp
Hair: Joseph Pujalte
Manicure: Elsa Deslandes
Photography: Pierre Debusschere
Make-up by Peter Philips
What is the inspiration and story behind the submitted work?
“This story is inspired by the work of Alexej von Jawlensky. He was one of Karl Lagerfeld’s favourites painters. With Karl we often spoke about doing a story inspired on Jawlensky’s work. Unfortunately we never came to doing it, so Christiane Arp proposed to shoot this story, as a tribute to both Karl and Jawlensky. Pierre’s light and camera movements make some of the shots look like genuine paintings.”
Can you describe the creative process that inspires you to create Beauty?
“It’s different every time. The model I work on can be the main source of inspiration, or the photographer, designer, stylist,… can be a source of inspiration. It can be something I read, I heard, I’ve seen,…! A book, a film, a flower or a fish, a sculpture, a dream,…”
Do you have any examples of how Beauty can arise from moments of crisis?
“Pablo Picasso’s Guernica is a work of beauty that expresses all the emotions that come with war and revolution. Without glorifying it, it provokes admiration.”
What are your hopes for humanity in a post COVID-19 world?
“At some moments, Covid-19 seems one of the lesser problems we’re facing. All I hope is for a better future for everyone, equality and a clean planet.”
Peter Philips: “Pure beauty in people comes from within, nothing more, nothing less.”
Marco Santaniello: “I always thought ‘What’s more beautiful than seeing people from all countries/ and races, all gathered together, cheering happily and sharing everything, all focused on the same cause?’
In the case of a crowd of festive supporters the cause is obviously their team, but what if we start thinking of our earth as our team? We could change everything. People can change everything – but only if they are together”
Website: https://mixmixmix6.wixsite.com/marcosantaniellotemp (temporary url )
Twitter/IG: @Superstarmix
Kakao Talk: Superstarmix
Wechat/LINE: superstarmix1
Bolaji Alonge, aka Eyes of a Lagos Boy, uses macro photography to show the inner world of street flowers of Lagos. These flowers grow in city gardens and sidewalks in between the dirt and rubble. They symbolize the beauty of nature, both fragile and strong at the same time. Together with Lagosians, they stand proudly in the midst of the urban jungle. Bolaji shows beauty where it is least expected. During these trying times, when uncertainty is the new normal, the “small” things in life can make all the difference. However, once enlarged, they can become magical objects of wonder.
Bolaji Alonge is an artist, photographer, journalist and actor from Lagos, Nigeria with more than a decade of experience in documenting history. Bolaji Alonge’s visual language speaks of the wonders of nature and human exchange and searches for historical continuity in a world that is fractured. He shows his beloved Lagos from unexpected angles, a city that inspires and captivates imagination, but also pulls people into a vortex of energy and constant challenges. Images of everyday life in Nigeria carry deep social messages that expose fragility, audacity but also squalor. Bolaji makes the viewer reconsider what we have seen with our own eyes, through the Eyes of a Lagos Boy.
Quote: Bolaji shows beauty where it is least expected. During these trying times, when uncertainty is the new normal, the “small” things in life can make all the difference.
Website: http://eyesofalagosboy.com
Bolaji Alonge: “I show beauty where it is least expected. During these trying times, when uncertainty is the new normal, the “small” things in life can make all the difference.”
Jef Paepen: “Small imperfections enhance the beauty”
La Beauté
Je suis belle, ô mortels! comme un rêve de pierre,
Et mon sein, où chacun s’est meurtri tour à tour,
Est fait pour inspirer au poète un amour
Eternel et muet ainsi que la matière.
(Charles Baudelaire)
De schoonheid
Mooi ben ik, als een droom van steen, o stervelingen!
Mijn borsten, waaraan elk van u zich heeft bezeerd,
Hebben zo menig dichter reeds geïnspireerd
Tot stille liefde, eeuwig als de stof der dingen.
(vertaling Peter Verstegen)
Currently I am working on a series reflecting on the impossible split of contemporary life, the Entanglement series. These sculptures fuse the vulnerability of adolescent humans with that of naked trees. A series overthinking both the drama and the joy of human life on earth in the Anthropocene.
Silvia B: “OF BEAUTY & DOUBT is the credo for my work. The one creates the other and no sculpture can do without.”
IG @ silviab.visual.arts
I painted these two artworks in the first lockdown in Vienna in March/April 2020. I just came back from a trip to Mexico, where I met the bat researcher Rodrigo Medellín in the jungle of Calakmul. I then started my corona series ‘Bat rules – kingdom comes’. In my series the bats fight back and overrule the planet in the form of a big party.
Saint Corona is an early Christian martyr.
In 177 A.D., the then 16 year-old Corona was cruelly executed after she had stood by her husband Victor, who had been arrested for persecuting Christians. Sadly, Corona was tied between two bent palm trees, which tore her apart as she skyrocketed.
Corona is the patron saint of money, the treasure hunter, the butcher and the woodcutter. She is worshipped for her steadfastness in faith and is called upon to prevent storms, crop failure and (animal) diseases.
When I painted these 2 holy coronas, I was in the state of inner peace and I felt like an observer. The holy Corona fits perfectly in the year 2020 with the pandemic: the first painting warns of destroying the rainforest, the horrible conditions on wildlife markets and the killing of dying races.
The dove holds a ribbon with ‘FAITH’ written on it. On the day when I painted it, singer Marianne FAITHful was taken to hospital due to Covid-19.
For “Corona rising“ she has freed herself from earthly treasures, her view is towards spiritual wealth. Bats carry her crown (bats carry the corona virus), flowers are blooming and everything that counts is LOVE.
I feel these pictures are beautiful, because they speak so clearly.
Mari Otberg: “Real beauty to me means sensitivity, soul, courage, humanity, kindness, solidarity, romance, charity, meta-level”
IG @mariotberg
Laurent Dombrowicz: “I never considered beauty as something calm or superficial. The emotion of beauty is often violent. It’s really strongly emotional to me. This is why I chose (and shot) this Vanitas, from my own Wunderkammer. It evokes at the same time art and science, naturalia and artefacts, life and death. This is pure beauty to me.”
IG @laurentdombrowicz
Pure beauty, for me, lies in the details on which light has fallen upon. It might be as small as the structure of a leaf, the fragmented light of blinded shutters over a woman’s silhouette, the twinkle in an eye, the reflection of a cloud in a window, the corner of a smile, a soft and loving sigh or as grand as a sky full of stars at a mediterranean sea horizon. Pure beauty has the power to bring me a moment of peace, as I pause in wonder.
Earnest: “Pure beauty has the power to bring me a moment of peace, as I pause in wonder.”
IG: @earnest.art
Art Collective: www.letsplayground.be
Inge Cornil: “The power of nature and the regeneration process of Planet Earth mean pure beauty to me”
IG @ cornil_inge
Chila Kumari Singh Burman transforms the front of Tate Britain into a celebration of bright lights and swirling colour
This magnificent installation, remembering a brave new world, combines Hindu mythology, Bollywood imagery, colonial history and personal memories. Inspired by the artist’s childhood visits to the Blackpool illuminations and her family’s ice-cream van, Burman covers the façade of Tate Britain with vinyl, bling and lights. She changes the figure of Britannia, a symbol of British imperialism, into Kali, the Hindu goddess of liberation and power. The many illuminated deities, shapes and words are joined by Lakshmibai, the Rani (queen) of Jhansi. Lakshmibai was a fierce female warrior in India’s resistance to British colonial rule in the 19th century.
Burman is celebrated internationally for her radical feminist practice, spanning printmaking, drawing, painting, installation and film. Her Punjabi and Liverpudlian heritage enrich her self-expressive work. Burman mashes up stereotypes to create new identities, beyond the limitations imposed on South Asian women in a British cultural context.
The commission opened to coincide Diwali, the Festival of Light. It is a celebration of new beginnings, the triumph of good over evil, light over darkness. remembering a brave new world takes inspiration from the luminous struggles and victories of the past to offer hope for a brighter future.
My new works are around the movement of the “Ravens”, interpreted in “Corps-Beaux”. The concept is to take the “Raven” out of its darkness, to paint it with color.
Mustapha Rafik: “Beauty is relative. It is difficult for me to define it. To define beauty is to kill -I therefore dare not define what should not be defined. What is important is to experience it, live it, … On the other hand I am based on some references like the book ‘Esthétique positive – Introduction à l’exploration structurale des arts plastiques’ by Emile
Tainmont and others, in order to familiarise myself with it -without tilting it.”
IG @musrafik
Martin Bergström: “The most beautiful flowers tend to grow in the dirtiest soil”
Picture taken from the Project: Splendor Solis
Photograph: Thomas Klementsson
Design: Martin Bergstrom
I find beauty in imperfection and transience. I am fascinated by the ephemeral nature of beauty – the quietly elated, bittersweet feeling of having been witness to the dazzling circus of life – knowing that none of it can last. It’s basically about being both saddened by and appreciative of transience. You become aware of how significant those moments are!
“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in” -Leonard Cohen
Gert Motmans: “I am fascinated by the ephemeral nature of beauty – the quietly elated, bittersweet feeling of having been witness to the dazzling circus of life – knowing that none of it can last.”
Khalid Biladi: “This African woman represents pure beauty to me and a ‘no’ to racism.”
IG: @khalidbiladiart
What is the inspiration and story behind the submitted work?
“The inspiration I had for this image, had to be soft with a little rough edge. Think 90’s with a tender feel”
What is the definition and purpose of pure beauty to you?
“Pure beauty to me would be to stay true to yourself, enhance one of your best features. Keep it easy, there is a time and place to play around.”
Title: Tulip
David Stella-Traylor: “Pure beauty to me would be to stay true to yourself, enhance one of your best features. Keep it easy, there is a time and place to play around.”
Title: Tiefen, Dir Zugekehrt
This piece of work represents beauty, it represents all the beautiful people that have lost their lives due to this cruel disease. It represents all the people living day to day as HIV positive. It is a beautiful legacy to all to never forget and to remind everyone that this disease still very much affects people, it doesn’t discriminate. Over 6000 various Red Ribbons were stitched lovingly onto this dress. It is also a beautiful reminder of the time I have been luckily given to be able to complete it and exhibit it as much as possible.
Title: Red Ribbon Dress (2012)
“Pure beauty is not only a visual or intellectual emotion, it’s a feeling that can unexpectedly get hold of you, surprises and humbles you”
Title: Laetitia
Website: https://www.jfcarly.com/
Jean-François Carly: “Pure beauty is not only a visual or intellectual emotion, it’s a feeling that can unexpectedly get hold of you, surprises and humbles you”
Volker about his work: ” I work in digital media using a computer to make my images sometimes crossing over and back to traditional painting. To me it is always an adventure to create a beautiful thing from nothing. The element of surprise plays a big part in the process. Just like in traditional painting, it is good to let things happen; even though I have used this electronic medium for many years I still don’t understand it and, inherently, there are always ‘accidents’ which make in image work.”
About real beauty: “Beauty is, of course in the eye of the beholder, and we, as artists, are only ‘facilitators’ and, as has been said, the smallest part of the process of bringing BEAUTY to existence.”
Title: Parallel Universe 3
Website: http://volkerstox.co.uk
IG: volkerstoxart
Volker Stox: “Beauty is, of course in the eye of the beholder, and we, as artists, are only facilitators and the smallest part of the process of bringing BEAUTY to existence.”
In this time of COVID I am visiting Mom and trying to enjoy every second with her. We are talking about keepsakes and family heirlooms. I am also trying harder to do little gestures to show her how much I love her and to stay present.
Title: Mom’s hand, figurine and roses
Sean Black: “In this time of COVID I am visiting Mom and trying to enjoy every second with her.”
Oeuvre d’Andy Goldsworthy. Cette pièce, une mise en situation, est d’une telle simplicité qu’elle fait magiquement disparaître tout le superfu qui nous entoure. C’est pour moi un souffle et une respiration. Un nouveau regard sur l’essentiel.
Title: Land Art
Titane Lacroix: ” Un nouveau regard sur l’essentiel.”
“Be strong, be fearless, be beautiful.” This is the motto of Dorya Glenn, the pseudonym of Belgian photographer Filip Naudts and Dutch-Chinese writer Julie O’yang. Dorya Glenn is the creature of beauty and power, both of which are crucial fighting for compassion, equality and tolerance in today’s global world. The photo shoot is part of the collaborative art book project “The Picture of Dorya Glenn”, created by the artist duo who believe both in the freedom of expression and the healing power of beauty. This is a piece of work that aims to make the viewer think. The artist duo also think art is a verb: art is “think and make think”.
Title: The Picture of Dorya Glenn
Website: http://www.guardalafotografia.be/
Filip Naudts & Julie O’Yang: “Be strong, be fearless, be beautiful.”
Fugitive Color
Sequestered I gather
The visible objects and angles
Of my days as they turn voiceless
Corners grow in drama and I make peace
With vagaries like a thin supply of lake pigment
The kind known to fade or go dark with time
I paint twilight in the mornings and the red memory
Of flesh made anxious largely by my shy approach
On a good day I set about to reconstruct the wall of my living Room across a single sheet of cold pressed cotton
On the reverse side the spirit animal of my pepper tree
Dips her jasmine skirt to passiflora’s lavish mop and arching antlers
In truth alone again I soldier on with a still life ripe and raw
Plum, clay cup, an empty wine bottle’s full-throated embrace
Of flamed admission & I vow to play in this moment
Songs of radical tempo shift and going all the way
The path walks with her wanderer scattering cinnamon
Our landscape grows thick with scarlet leafwing
A father’s ghost throws a net to his barefoot child
But her hands are full with firefly
Forest echo / Alizarin crimson
—
Tamsin Spencer Smith, 2020
Title: Ninette’s Garden
Tamsin Spencer-Smith: “In truth alone again I soldier on with a still life ripe and raw”
Beauty can be found anywhere, in anything. An image, a sound, a memory, an idea: it doesn’t matter. The moment you feel it, you know it.
Title: Gothica
IG: pat.finder
Pat Boets: “Beauty can be found anywhere, in anything. An image, a sound, a memory, an idea: it doesn’t matter. The moment you feel it, you know it.”
Churchtown Dairy’s founder, Abby Rockefeller, was inspired by William Copperthwaite’s quote ‘Beauty is a birthright and the lack of beauty is a sign of great danger’, made beauty the cornerstone of Churchtown’s mission. “We strive to imbue all our work with beauty — the buildings, the gardens, the care of the animals and the economic and social systems within which we work.”
Title: Churchtown Diary: “A Castle for the Cows”
Quote: “Beauty is a birthright and the lack of beauty is a sign of great danger”
I took this photo in the spring of 2018 at around 5 AM, after another sleepless and painful night. In February of that year I had a spinal stroke and the after-effects took a long time to heal and are in fact still ongoing at the end of 2020.
I was feeling down, walked to the window and saw this view, of our back garden in the mist. Took this photo with my iPhone and immediately felt a lot happier again.
Nature has that effect: it’s not only the greatest artist in the universe, it’s also a fantastic healer. Let’s take care of nature as well as we can- also in our own interest.
Real beauty: You know it when you see real beauty, as it touches you deep within. It’s also a physical reaction (intuition, reflex), it’s what makes us human and what connects us with all other people.
Title: Misty Morning in the Garden
Website: beautywithoutirony.com
Ninette Murk: “You know it when you see real beauty, as it touches you deep within. It’s also a physical reaction (intuition, reflex), it’s what makes us human and what connects us with all other people.”
“Beauty to me is in the unexpected, in innocence and naivety, something small, something different. Gladly we can be beautiful in so many more ways we could imagine ourselves trough the eyes of others”
Title: Ugly
Website: https://baskosters.com/
Bas Kosters: “Beauty to me is in the unexpected, in innocence and naivety, something small, something different.”
“Come Get Your Honey” is a story about the transgender and queer refugees in Berlin. While respecting their struggle, it shows my journey of weaving bonds with a community through fragility, friendship and joy. This work rejects current mainstream narratives on queer and refugee identities, which widely reduce them to their agony. This is performed either by romanticising their pain and struggle, or surgically exploring their body from the “outsider” gaze. Instead, my work aims to depict them as complex human beings in their wholeness, trying to establish a new home in a foreign country and an extremely polarised political climate. As a queer person with a desire to live better, I intimately relate to their pursuit and draw references from my own life.
Title: Come Get Your Honey
Website: http://www.sametdurgun.com
Samet Durgun: ““Come Get Your Honey” is a story about the transgender and queer refugees in Berlin. While respecting their struggle, it shows my journey of weaving bonds with a community through fragility, friendship and joy.”
It would be unwise to try and give a definition of Pure Beauty. It’s still an ongoing discussion in Western philosophy. Let’s keep it that way.
Title: Wave XIX
Jan De Zutter: “It would be unwise to try and give a definition of Pure Beauty.”
Real beauty is able to stir incredible forces inside our souls. It gives us the magic to spread to others.
Title: Spanish Oranges
IG: maja-barker-art
Quote: “Real beauty is able to stir incredible forces inside our souls. It gives us the magic to spread to others.”
As they say: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, but perhaps Pure Beauty is the effort of the opening and understanding we go through when we look at other’s ideas of beauty and have to think and feel what they see, think and feel with their particular take on beauty
Title: The Fabric Decides (2019)
Alex Hidalgo: “As they say: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, but perhaps Pure Beauty is the effort of the opening and understanding we go through when we look at other’s ideas of beauty and have to think and feel what they see, think and feel with their particular take on beauty”
Zomer Van Antwerpen (Summer of Antwerp) organises lots of cultural events in Antwerp each summer, but due to Covid-19 and safety measures, just a few of the projects that were planned for 2020 could take place. Pictured are a few highlights. Bookmark their website to keep informed about Summer 2021 events.
‘In Memoriam’ is a new artwork by Luke Jerram that premiered in Belgium 7-16th August for Zomer Van Antwerpen at Park Spoor Noord. The artwork was then presented at the Greenwich+Docklands International Festival in London 28-31st August.
The installation was a temporary memorial for the public to visit and remember all those we have lost from the COVID-19 pandemic. The artwork is also made in tribute to all the NHS health and care workers who have been risking their lives during the crisis.
To see the art installation in motion, please take a look here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vAdRq6unaA
Real Beauty to me means representing yourself in an entirely personal way, do not be afraid of who you are. Show, share and create love in its truest form. Be in nature and walk through a forest as often a possible, having the personal space to be yourself and to not judge others decisions. Beauty from within, a frame of mind to be positive and constantly moving forwards.
Title: Unknown Beauty (2020)
Website: http://www.lucieflynnstudio.co.uk
Beauty is within. Is something inside that comes out. That attracts and connects people with each other. Beauty is a mindset, a way of thinking and looking, feeling. Beauty is love and respect for yourself, so you can see beauty in everything and everyone. Beauty is something we can discover. If we dare to put ourselves in that world. Beauty is consolation. Beauty is a contrast with the ugliness. The antidote to the darkness and emptiness in the world. Maybe a medicine to recover from all that poison. Beauty is art, is life, is a way of being. And it makes us all more beautiful.
Title: Inner Grounds
Website: https://www.faryda.com/
Faryda Moumouh: “Beauty is art, is life, is a way of being. And it makes us all more beautiful.”
Doin’ It
On a gloomy, rainy walk in North Carolina, I was struck by the beauty of a ray of sunlight penetrating a shallow and muddy body of water. It created an explosion of colours that stopped me in my tracks. When my eyes focused more, I noticed the two frogs ‘doin’it’ -creating new life. I love finding beauty in the most unexpected places and under less favourable circumstances.
Quote: ” I love finding beauty in the most unexpected places and under less favourable circumstances.”
Big Hair, Big Love
We decided to use this shoot as a campaign for Beauty for a Better World. Together with the BFBW founder we created this story. For me, this is perfect beauty, beauty with a twist, beauty with a dream, and a vision.
There is a huge need to dream again; the world needs inspiration more than ever. We need to collect all this beauty as a massive shoutout to let people create and dream again. Transgender and gay people are still the centre of disrespect and incomprehension.
With this story, I want to show that there is nothing more beautiful than a body in its pure art form. Whatever gender, whatever orientation you are, it’s all the same: love.”
Giel Domen: “I want to show that there is nothing more beautiful than a body in its pure art form. Whatever gender, whatever orientation you are, it’s all the same: love.”
