Abstract Beauty

I've been thinking a lot recently (well, maybe not that much; I don't think that much about too many things) about abstract beauty and just the concept of abstraction and non-representationalism in general.

I've been thinking about the importance of things we don't understand and of things that speak to us on a sub-conscious level (and, I suppose, things that are also said on a sub-conscious level, where there is not a specific agenda or message being pushed).

I've been making a deliberate effort recently when I draw or engage in other kinds of creating, to deliberately try to create something abstract or something that doesn't particularly stand for anything. Not because I believe in meaninglessness or chaos. But because for many years I have suffocated parts of myself which do not speak verbally, which are hard to understand. "Groans words cannot express."

I believe there is value in me as an artist approaching a page not with an idea of where I am going to take the page or what I am going to say through what is represented on the page. But rather, in a mystical kind of way, listen to the page. Listen to the things involved (and listening to my heart, as that is also something very much involved, a very valid voice at the table).

Thus, when I watch the clip involved, I think about the sheer abstract beauty involved in the tons of water and ash and who-knows-what-else being shot to the sky. I think of the reality of it and the abstraction of it.

“The heavens declare the glory of God;
       the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
 Day after day they pour forth speech;

       night after night they display knowledge.
 There is no speech or language

       where their voice is not heard.”

(Psalm 19)