Imperfection and Beauty
Since I have started posting for VAF in March I have attempted to maintain some personal distance from what I write. After all, I am not writing for myself; this is not my personal blog. Maybe today I should introduce myself—a little.
Two years ago I traveled to Colorado to meet up with 10 other people that I didn’t know in order to talk about beauty. I was nervous. I hadn’t thought about beauty much.
My mother had been sick for a long time and little progress was being made in her recovery. I was depressed on my own accord—maybe the result of taking on too much all at once. I had long since dropped out of any church that I might attend—a big deal since I was raised in churches—but I had not dropped my faith. I just didn’t feel like I fit in anymore. I was on my way to talk about beauty and I didn’t want to talk about pretty.
Maybe I was reacting against a larger stream of thought in American culture: Perfection is Good; Imperfection is Bad. Cosmetically, the opposite of perfection is a blemish; if blemishes were considered to be good then few would sell make-up. Morally, the opposite of perfection is sin. Academically, the opposite of perfection is failure. Much of life is judged through the lens of Morality, Academics or Cosmetics.
Additionally, the business world seeks to measure success by its productivity and fiscal responsibility. These business goals are not left at work; they seem to sneak into our own personal lives and govern our private attempts to manage the way in which we spend our time. Are we being productive? Are we being successful? Are we making the most of what we have? Is our day going according to plan?
I live at odds with perfection. I live at odds with pretty. Maybe that is because real life never seems to measure up. Maybe it is because I don’t like to be told what to do and perfection and pretty are always flapping their jaws somewhere in the back of my conscience. I am starting to wonder if perfection is not just some sort of mythic utopia that is constantly being redefined to suit our changing desires. (See a history of perfection here.)
One thing I found out two years ago was that those ten people could see beauty in the struggles of my life—in the imperfections. Ever since then I have quested to see the world differently. Though I live in a society obsessed with perfection, and though I will likely always feel a compulsion to measure myself accordingly, I have found a renewed energy to explore the ways in which imperfection holds its own beauty.
May 3rd, 2007 at 10:06 pm
I love this post! I think about this all the time!
May 6th, 2007 at 1:13 am
Hmmm…. Interesting timing.
A couple hours ago I was working on a black and white version of a photo I had taken a year ago at this time. The photo was one of a number of photos - all of broken tulips. I just read this writing now.
You see, last year I had wanted to photograph my tulips, but we had a storm and the tulips lost - some were beaten, some were broken off, some lay on the ground. As I walked the yard that next morning, I could not find a single tulip worth taking a photo of. I was looking for perfection. These tulips did not make the perfection requirement.
Just as I was about to go back in, I spotted one laying on the ground with the morning light reflecting off the water drops still on it from the storm. I decided to take a photo of it. Then another. I had soon shot all the tulip shots I wanted. All of broken tulips.
Were they perfect? Not according to my original set of requirements. But they were more than perfect to show beauty in brokenness. The tulips - http://te-d-e-s-i-g-n.smugmug.com/gallery/1541189#149849802
And brokenness is loved by God.
What’s interesting, is I find the black amd white versions, the ones deficient of color, to be the most beautiful. Even exquisite. Sometimes less is more.
Perfection requires some standards. Perfection changes as the standards change.
This past week I photographed an inner city outreach. The children are beautiful if one changes the standards accordingly. If one says there is a perfect nose, which nose is it? Which eyes are the perfect eyes? The reality is, they are all perfect if that is what the creator created. The children - http://te-d-e-s-i-g-n.smugmug.com/gallery/2797469#149307619
May 6th, 2007 at 9:23 am
…con.
If sin had not entered the world, would there be flowers? If there would be flowers, would they at some point lose their petals? When a tulip is down to just two petals, is it any less perfect than when it had all of them? If losing petals is part of the perfect life cycle, ordained and created as such by God, why do we not pick two-petal tulips? http://te-d-e-s-i-g-n.smugmug.com/gallery/1541189#149848751-M-LB
May 7th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
When art is perfect it is not art at all. did you know that the Navaho indians purposefully leave an imperfection in every rug they weave? They do so because only God can make a perfect anything. I wonder did not God leave us in such a frail state so that we need him and each other?
May 7th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
Gary, Could you explain what you mean when you say “when art is perfect, it is not art at all.” It sounds like the better we become at whatever form of art or design we do, that the less it is art.
May 9th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
The way I take that comment: “perfect” art is boring.
Another thought — God, as an artist, made humans, whom are “imperfect.” But that’s another whole can of worms.
May 12th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
I can’t help but ask these questions:
If the Navaho Indians purposely don’t make something perfect, have they not simply redefined what is perfect? In other words, the perfect rug is one with an imperfection because God… Therefore the most accomplished weaver will have the most accomplished imperfection technique. The have perfect rugs - ones with perfect imperfections.
Likewise with a painting. If the goal is to paimt something less than perfect, once you have reached that level of imperfection one is striving for, have you not painted perfectly?