If life is a work of art, does it not make sense to study the principles of design? To apply or hold the intention of using these principles in the creation of my reality?
It seems possible to broadly interpret, for life, the fundamentals of art:
Composition (how to organize, within parameters)
Format (creating with the available planes, surfaces, materials in mind)
Balance (assymmetry tends to be more interesting!)
Repetition (the beauty of plural experience)
Anomaly (celebrating some particular distinction)
Concentration (focusing on an area)
Economy (using only what’s necessary to achieve what’s desired)
Simultaneous Contrast (emphasizing difference by relation)
Scale (the beauty of the small and the large)
Negative Space (attention to what surrounds)
Metamorphosis (gradual change from one thing to another)
Gradation (the beauty in experience of spectrum or degree)
Emphasis (focus on a theme or pattern)
Focal Point (directing or compelling the observer’s attention somewhere)
Rhythm (the beauty in a repeating pattern, element or principle)
Variety (the beauty in difference)
Unity (wholeness or coherence)
While no single work of art will exemplify all principles, life need not necessarily be singular.
All of this is merely to offer a toast to Aesthetics -- a higher ordering of spirit I have finally caught glimpses of beyond the horizon of my usual vista of Utility.
