Article August 6, 2001 Issue

Beauty replaces the beast

By Curt Snider

WHILE I WAS in college, I was going to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which was regarded at that time as really highly rated. It became important to me to know what really constituted beauty— what made a piece of art good or lasting. And so I tried to figure this out.

I'd ask the instructors what they thought about it, but didn't get many answers out of them. Maybe that's because it's similar to a gut feeling. You just know. Well, that wasn't good enough for me, because I like to know things specifically so that I can relate them to whatever piece of art I'm working on, and not just rely on "Well, this feels good." Feeling good about something doesn't necessarily mean that it is good.

I was also studying Science and Health with key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I discovered there that beauty was one of the qualities of God. One of the words Mrs. Eddy used to describe God is Soul. So I focused my study on this name for God, and on what other qualities might be included in that, and how they could be applied to my artwork. I tested what I learned by deliberately trying to bring out in my artwork qualities of Soul, such as balance, harmony, purity, outline, color.