Beauty is such a weird concept.

Most of the time, it is the target. To make something beautiful.

But how do you even define beautiful?

Aesthetically pleasing? Sonically, in our case?

That’s one way to look at it, the most obvious one. I spent many hours trying to figure out what beautiful meant to me. And at some point, something flipped.

What if art doesn’t have to be beautiful?

I don’t remember exactly when it happened, but Lynch’s work was definitely a factor here. It taught me that I could enjoy something that was not pretty. I could appreciate something disturbing, ugly, weird, for lack of a better word.

Mulholland Drive played a tremendous part in this. That first watch… Man. I felt all kinds of emotions throughout that movie. It was a wild ride. By the time it was over, I couldn’t even say if I liked it.

But it did things to me. That much was undeniable. It took a few rewatches to start expressing it into words, but now it is one of my favourite movies.
I’d even argue it is one of the most interesting things ever filmed.

All of a sudden, beauty wasn’t the end goal anymore.

The new target? Feeling.

If it made me feel something, whatever emotion it was, I was grateful. That was art I wanted to make. Art I wanted to surround myself with.

It didn’t have to make me feel wonderful. Not that it is a bad thing, but it shouldn’t be the point of it all. It’s often our first target when we create. We’re trying to fill a void, to make ourselves feel better. And then we hope it does the same trick for others when they interact with that piece.
But it doesn’t have to be.

Forget about beauty for a bit. While pleasing, it’s a beginner’s game.

Art can move you in so many ways. That’s the beauty of it. Look for things that make you feel weird in your stomach or stir up new thoughts in the old hat rack. Go learn from the ugly, the weird, the broken, the cracked, the disturbing.

When you come back, your beautiful will be a lot richer.

But then again, what do I know…

“I was as hollow and empty as the spaces between the stars.”

Raymond Chandler

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