Beauty is an expression from the subtle planes. What artists express through their work is coming from their inner – via thoughts or intuitional impulses. Many times modern artists seek new expressions for their intentions going beyond traditional forms of perceiving beauty.
What we perceive as beauty in Nature is also coming from the subtle planes of Nature. Many people think the forms of Nature are accidental and produced by mere physical or biological processes. The wisdom teachings, however, understand that there are also other forces at work – a cosmic mind (called Mahat) and what you might call cosmic intuitional impulses. You do not physically see them but they are expressions of beauty beyond physical form. Artists using for their work inspiration or elements of beauty from Nature are in subtle interaction with these cosmic and not human expressions. There are many artists who tune up in their work to these realities. The Japanese art of Ikebana might be seen as an example of such subtle interaction.
Mid-December 2022, I had a Zoom exchange with a friend from Berlin – Barbara Hübner, better called Basia, since she is of Polish origin. I wanted to write some words in a blogpost but it took several weeks before finding time for these lines and giving some hints to her work.
Among other skills, she is an accomplished artist profoundly inspired by Japanese traditions (if you don’t know German, you can read the texts on her websites with an automatic translation). She sent me some pictures of her recent artwork. She mainly works with floral elements and materials such as bamboo, twigs, paper, metal and other compositions.
The images touched me by their clearly structured arrangements and beauty. They radiate a ritualistic concentration on the essential but at the same time the joy of manifesting something sublime and uplifting.
I discovered more about her work on the web (here: Facebook). She calls one of her websites “Joy of Creating“. Using elements of nature, the artistic work magnifies the natural beauty and lifts the viewer up to subtle planes.
She had intensely studied and worked with Ikebana or Kakejiki, colourful paper reliefs partly of huge sizes. You find a beautiful overview on Flickr.
You can see in such works of art the interaction between the thoughts and intentions of the artist and of those of Nature.
