Stepping Through Beauty

“Genius is not a possession of the limited few, but exists in some degree in everyone. Where there is natural growth, a full and free play of faculties, genius will manifest itself.” -Robert Henri (The Art Spirit)

“Art school teaches one to observe carefully, describe precisely, find solutions to problems through experimentation, keep an open mind to all possibilities, and to accept withering critique in the pursuit of the not yet realized. These are the skills of adventurers, visionaries, and builders of a future we cannot yet fathom.”
-Kit White (101 Things to Learn in Art School)

Though I attended Parsons School of Design in the ’70′s, I am now a psychotherapist. I had not been drawing or painting for many years when I first walked through the doors of the New York Academy of Art (NYAA) in 2006 for a class titled “Beginning Painting and Drawing.” The teacher was an artist whose work I greatly admired, and I was quaking in my pencil box! I wanted to learn to draw and paint like a realist, and my expectations far exceeded my skill-level.

The lessons since have been of self-mastery and beauty, as much as pencils, paint and paintbrushes. My involvement in the learning process has been passionate. I take each of my teacher’s lessons to heart, artistically and metaphorically, and use them in my life and work as a psychotherapist as well.

My teachers encourage me to experience beauty while learning to draw and paint. One of the first lessons is to understand the beauty of chiaroscuro, the study of light and dark in drawing and painting. The lesson, essential for an art student, also serves me well in valuing the lights and darks of life. Light and dark need each other to make a whole of anything.

In art and life, our many preset assumptions reveal how much we do not know. I am still learning to “draw what I see, not what I think I see.” For example, when drawing a picture of an eye, a beginner will very often draw or paint the eye too round, wide or short, in a symbolic almond shape. Not until a teacher points out the numerous interacting shapes, colors and beautiful nuances in an actual eye, will the artist begin to observe and be inspired to practice drawing and painting what is actually there.

My art teachers have little patience for negating, non-constructive self-assumptions or self-criticism in their students. It gets in the way of the process, practice and joy of teaching, and learning  to draw and paint. Rather, “inner-critiques” are redirected towards developing intelligent questions, skills and a “discerning eye.” This requires a particular attitude of open, engaged inquiry, both in the moment and in the long-term service to one’s goals.

As a focusing-oriented person, my “bodily felt sense” directs me as I draw and paint. It inspires, informs and infuses my work with the felt-atmosphere of a moment by moment experience and relationship with my subject. The point of learning technique in art is to transcend it. The beauty is in experiencing the “stepping through” process.

Naturally, my expanding awareness is applied to my life and work. As I am gaining the skills of mindful observation for drawing and painting, I find myself able to listen more fully, and deeply value for myself and others.

Meeting another person, unrestricted by assumptions, is an invitation to be present, make room for the lights and darks, and genuinely relate. If we look for it in art and life, we see people in a beautiful light.

Still Life with Camera and Shell (Oil Painting) © Robin Kappy 11/2011

“One submits oneself to other minds (teachers) in order to increase the chance that one will be looking in the right direction when a comet suddenly cuts through a certain patch of sky.”  –Elaine Scarry (Beauty and Being Just)

While in painting and drawing classes, teachers offer valuable lessons to enhance each student’s mastery and work. We learn to paint with a full range of values, from the lightest light, to the darkest dark. Paintings are often primarily light or primarily dark. Just like people, both types are beautiful.

Elements in artistic expression (values, colors, composition, shapes…) may contribute to a sense of harmony and/or disharmony. The artist’s mastery of his/her medium(s) (oils, cameras, writing tools, musical instruments, etc) transcends theories and techniques in the service of beautiful works.

Elements in a psychotherapeutic relationship may contribute to harmony and/or disharmony in states of being, understanding, empathy, etc.  The therapist’s mastery of his/her medium(s) (his/her person, experience, relating, theories, listening, interpreting, etc) transcend theories and technique in the service of the therapeutic relationship and relationally beautiful moments.

Psychotherapy and art may each contribute to beautiful moments of:

-connection.

-feeling deeply understood.

-natural, artistic, moral, playful, social, relational and/or spiritual renewal.

-states or qualities of symmetry and/or harmony.

-arrangements of parts into a unified whole.

-continuity.

-empathy.

-meaning.

-resonating experience (narrative, images, memories, senses, emotions)…

Painting (Mixed Media) © Lynn Preston 2011

“We can think of our linguistic and situational knowledge not as separate and floating, but as elaborations of our already intricate plant-bodies. In this way we can think how the living body knows (feels, lives, is …..) its situation from inside. But what is a situation? A situation is never just something external.” -Eugene Gendlin

turtles 0n a log
soaking up all the last rays
of October sun

opening my eyes
a bar of autumn sunlight
on the closet door

-Haiku Poems by Susan Rudnick

“Try To Praise The Mutilated World”

Try to praise the mutilated world.
Remember June’s long days,
and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew.
The nettles that methodically overgrow
the abandoned homesteads of exiles.
You must praise the mutilated world.
You watched the stylish yachts and ships;
one of them had a long trip ahead of it,
while salty oblivion awaited others.
You’ve seen the refugees heading nowhere,
you’ve heard the executioners sing joyfully.
You should praise the mutilated world.
Remember the moments when we were together
in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
Return in thought to the concert where music flared.
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
and leaves eddied over the earth’s scars.
Praise the mutilated world
and the grey feather a thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
and returns.

-Adam Zagajewski
Translated by Renata Gorczynski

“Some of us have a hard time believing that we are actually able to finally allow ourselves to feel the depth of that sadness and gently let it break our hearts, we may come to feel a great freedom, a genuine sense of release and peace, because we have finally stopped running away from ourselves and from the pain that lives within us.”
— Wayne Muller (Legacy of the Heart: The Spiritual Advantage of a Painful Childhood)

“The tea ritual: such a precise repetition of the same gestures and the same tastes; accession to simple, authentic and refined sensations, a license given to all, at little cost, to become aristocrats of taste, because tea is the beverage of the wealthy and the poor; the tea ritual, therefore, has the extraordinary virtue of introducing into the absurdity of our lives an aperture of serene harmony. Yes, the world may aspire to vacuousness, lost souls mourn beauty, insignificance surrounds us. Then let us drink a cup of tea. Silence descends, one hears the wind outside, autumn leaves rustle and take flight, the cat sleeps in a warm pool of light. And, with each swallow, time is sublimed.” -Muriel Barbery (The Elegance of the Hedgehog)

Some say an army on horseback,
some say on foot, and some say ships,
are the most beautiful things
on this black earth, but I say
it is whatever you love.
— Sappho (Translated by Stanley Lombardo)

“You hear the sound of water
and you know where you want to be.
Why wait?…Water says, “Live here.”
– Rumi

“Sometimes it takes just a bit of a sparkle of gold or a little bit of silver to kind of reveal that once this was golden.” -Hermes Knauer (Art Restorer at the Metropolitan Museum)

“My belief is in the blood and flesh as being wiser than the intellect.  The body-conscious is where life bubbles up in us.  It is how we know we are alive, alive to the depths of our souls, and in touch somewhere with the vivid reaches of the cosmos.”     — D. H. Lawrence

“Much that is said about beauty and its importance in our lives ignores the minimal beauty of an unpretentious street, a nice pair of shoes or a tasteful piece of wrapping paper, as though those things belonged to a different order of value from a church by Bramante or a Shakespeare sonnet. Yet these minimal beauties are far more important to our daily lives, and far more intricately involved in our own rational decisions, than the great works of art which (if we are lucky) occupy our leisure hours. They are part of the context in which we live our lives, and our desire for harmony, fittingness and civility is both expressed and confirmed in them. Moreover, the great works of architecture often depend for their beauty on the humble context that these lesser beauties provide.” -Roger Scruton

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”— Rumi

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.
― Rumi

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all Time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine: how good it is; nor how valuable it is; nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.” -Martha Graham

“You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive. It is not for unsteady souls.” -Merce Cunningham

“Suffering is not enough. Life is both dreadful and wonderful…How can I smile when I am filled with so much sorrow? It is natural–you need to smile to your sorrow because you are more than your sorrow.” -Thich Nhat Hanh

“When we live without listening to the timing of things, when we live and work in twenty-four-hour shifts without rest – we are on war time, mobilized for battle. Yes, we are strong and capable people, we can work without stopping, faster and faster, electric lights making artificial day so the whole machine can labor without ceasing. But remember: No living thing lives like this. There are greater rhythms, seasons and hormonal cycles and sunsets and moonrises and great movements of seas and stars. We are part of the creation story, subject to all its laws and rhythms.”
— Wayne Muller (Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives)

“If busyness can become a kind of violence, we do not have to stretch our perception very far to see that Sabbath time – effortless, nourishing rest – can invite a healing of this violence. When we consecrate a time to listen to the still, small voices, we remember the root of inner wisdom that makes work fruitful. We remember from where we are most deeply nourished, and see more clearly the shape and texture of the people and things before us.”
— Wayne Muller (Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives)

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

-Rumi

Keeping Quiet

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

Fisherman in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.

Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.

-Pablo Neruda

Roscoe Woods (Oil Painting) © Robin Kappy 11/2011

Autumn Bowl (Oil Painting) © Stormy Brandenberger 11/2011

“We as artists have the ability to show the beauty in the mundane.” – Camille Przewodek

“Anything under the sun is beautiful if you have the vision. It is the seeing of the thing that makes it so.” – Charles W. Hawthorne

“Seeing while drawing is the awareness and development of a whole experience at once and its representation as a unified whole. Students must be aware of the variety of changes and moments that influence their drawing over time. The selective process that gives meaning and expression to a drawing influences our skills as painters.” -Steven Assael, Artist and Teacher

“One of the functions of art is to remind us of common humanity. The artist, like the priest, can sometimes remind us that we are bound by an obligation to one another stronger and more lasting than the bonds of politics or economics.” – John Manchip White

An art teacher may see, know and show a way towards a deeper experience of beauty of and in art. He/she may also bring a greater capacity to experience the of beauty oneself. Has an art teacher or other person inspired you in this way?

A psychotherapist may see, know and show a way towards a deeper experience of beauty of and in a person. He/she may also bring a greater capacity to experience the beauty of art, artful things and meaningful interactions. Has a psychotherapist or other person inspired you in this way?

As a child and young adult I loved to draw. In the 1970′s This led me to Parsons School of Design and a career as a commercial artist. It was a successful career. However, I wanted to use myself to help people, more than I wanted to use my skills as a commercial artist.

Leaving my involvement with art behind, I went on to social work school and to my deeply satisfying career as a psychotherapist. And still…the “artist-in-me” kept calling my name. I returned to my interest in art several years ago, beginning with classes at the New York Academy of Art. I draw almost every day now, if only for a few minutes. It is my way of observing the world around me, finding something beautiful there, and expressing my experience. I love honing my skills and watching what develops as I observe, experience and draw. My passion for drawing and painting still surprises me: it is constant, enduring and a source of connection with beauty that nurtures me in every way.

When young, there was a gleam I longed for in the eyes of my family when they looked at me or my drawings. I needed a reflection of the beauty of my being, values, talents and virtues to encourage me as a creative, passionate, compassionate, vulnerable person. My art teachers have gleams in their eyes when they see beautiful art and growth in their students. When their gleam is directed towards something beautiful in my work it further teaches, inspires and heals me.

Photographic Image: Art Teacher at the Met © Robin Kappy 11/2011

“Beauty feeds the soul, wakens it, and brings it to life as nothing else can. Beauty is a deep-seated reaction to some meaningful and stunning presentation of life. All your senses and your full imagination have to be alert when beauty makes its appearance. If you miss it, it is like going without food.” -Thomas Moore

“It seems to makes sense that those who are able to place themselves compassionately in another’s shoes may experience the moral emotion of elevation through the appreciation of the beauty of the moral actions and virtues of others.” -Haidt

Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all.
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
-John Keats (in “Ode on a Grecian Urn”)

Beauty in art is said to possess certain qualities: animation, nature, pattern, simplicity, symmetry, transformation, selection. spontaneity, surprise, surroundings, unity… Are such qualities found in every variety of beauty?:

Natural Beauty: Known in nature and in our bodies. In what ways do you experience natural beauty?

Artistic Beauty: Known in artistic and well-done actions, interactions, expressions and things. In what ways do you experience artistic beauty?

Moral Beauty: Known in human virtues, values, interactions and actions. In what ways do you experience moral beauty?

Playful Beauty: Playful delight in solitude and with others. In what ways do you experience playful beauty?

Relational Beauty: Known in nurturing relationships with others. In what ways do you experience relational beauty?

Social Beauty: Known in well-done social actions and citizenship. In what ways do you experience social beauty?

Spiritual Beauty: Known in  immaterial and transcendent experience. In what ways do you experience spiritual beauty?

Ascension (Painting) © Janet Pfunder 11/2011

Sagamore Afternoon (Oil Painting) © Robin Kappy, LCSW 11/2011

Photographic Image “Beau Flying” © Raw Q (Anonymous Photographer) 2011

“The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. ” – Albert Einstein

Philosopher Eugene Gendlin states that we are not just engaged in interaction; we are “interaction.”  Bill Cunningham says “If you seek beauty you will find it.” I am seeking and finding beauty in interaction, including the more difficult states of interaction, when something ruptured is in a process of being repaired. In moments of “beauty-in-interaction,” we are most nurtured and connected in our interactions with others and nature.

Still, we sometimes experience hurtful, alienating moments, and beauty is deeply hidden from view. When we find ourselves in terrible situations, our feelings and experience must be attended to before anything else. Only then, often when another person helps us through, we may see beauty again. In relation to terrible situations and events, experiencing something beautiful is like finding water in a hot, dry dessert, or a light in a deep, dark closet. We need it to go on.

When a sense of relational-beauty is lost to us, we need more connection to thrive again. In a way similar to how oxygen nurtures our living-physical bodies, relational beauty nurtures our alive-human-beingness. When beauty-in-interaction meets our relational needs, we are more ready to move through to the next moment.

As people gathered for the “Beauty and Psychotherapy” workshop, I asked what brought them. A few people I knew and several I did not know well said that I had brought them; they had some sense of me and wanted to experience what I had to offer them. It was as if they were saying: “You are valuable, interesting and smart.” The participants reflected what they saw in me as just as I was wanting to give them the best of what I have. I was very touched; a glow of light illuminated something in me, allowing me to sense myself as beautiful. I wanted the participants to come away with a similar experience.

Simply being heard or welcomed by another person may bring a wonderful sense of  inclusion and connection. Perhaps it is the reflection of something beautiful inside of us that brings such a sense of being seen, present and alive.

What moments of “relational beauty” have touched you?

John and Mary (Oil Painting) © Janet Fish 11/2011

Portraits of Friends and Strangers (Pencil Drawings on Paper) © Robin Kappy 11/2011