attend to beauty

"The heart from the moment of its first beat instinctively longs for the beautiful…" Robinson Jeffers

[thekimonogallery]

Kirikane decorated balls by National Living Treasure of Japan as a Kirikane artist, Sayoko ERI (1945~2007) まり香盒　人間国宝・江里佐代子 (A kirikane is a decorative technique used for Buddhist statues and paintings, using gold leaf, silver leaf, platinum leaf cut into lines, diamonds and triangles.)

[attendtobeauty]

I would love to sit, and breathe deeply, holding one of these balls in each hand.

[itsfullofstars]

ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY June 23, 2025 How do stars form? Images of the star forming region W5 like those in the infrared by NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, later NEOWISE) satellite provide clear clues with indications that massive stars near the center of empty cavities are older than stars near the edges. A likely reason for this is that the older stars in the center are actually triggering the formation of the younger edge stars. The triggered star formation occurs when hot outflowing gas compresses cooler gas into knots dense enough to gravitationally contract into stars. In the featuredscientifically colored infrared image, spectacular pillars left slowly evaporating from the hot outflowing gas provide further visual clues. W5 is also known as Westerhout 5 (W5) and IC 1848. Together with IC 1805, the nebulas form a complex region of star formation popularly dubbed the Heart and Soul Nebulas. The featured image highlights a part of W5 spanning about 2,000 light years that is rich in star forming pillars. W5 lies about 6,500 light years away toward the constellation of Cassiopeia. Image: https://ift.tt/l3bjQZ9 via NASA https://ift.tt/Lfw26Rt APOD --> https://ift.tt/HrhnMc6

[attendtobeauty]

I'm looking at the star in the lower right of the Heart and directly to the right, the owl.

[attendtobeauty]

This painting is the beckoning entrance to the ancient Cadzow Forest near Glasgow, Scotland known for its oaks and herd of white cattle. Once a royal hunting forest, it's now open to the public for walking and wildlife observation.

The painter, Samuel Bough, was a 19th century artist, theatre scene painter and book illustrator, and strongly influenced by J. M. W. Turner, a highly skilled painter of sea ports.

[attendtobeauty]

"Lothlórien is beautiful because there the trees were loved." ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

[japaneseaesthetics]

Japanese mother-of-pearl hairpin.  date unknown

[attendtobeauty]

Exquisite...its own being, its own presence and echo of the sea.

[lostfunzones]

Artur Pastor.

[attendtobeauty]

“The breeze kissed waters, which occasionally stir for a few moments, but quickly return to their usual stillness, as if ashamed.” Artor Pastor, Portuguese Photographer

He described photography as “understanding the art of seeing.” His most uncompromising tool was light, spending an entire day sitting and looking for that perfect “tilt of sun."

Note the beautiful palette curving across the photograph in this quiet, but intensely alive, moment.

[attendtobeauty]

 “It is a serious thing just to be alive in this fresh morning in this broken world.” Mary Oliver

[lostfunzones]

“There are always flowers for those who want to see them.” ― Henri Matisse Jazz cut-out by Henri Matisse (1947).

[attendtobeauty]

Yes!

[nobrashfestivity]

Yashima Gakutei WHITE CRESENT MOON AND PLUM BLOSSOMS Edo period, 1615-1868

[attendtobeauty]

This fabulous view of the moon by Yashima Gakutei - poet, artist and fine woodblock printmaker - delights me with the beauty of winter becoming spring or as a cooling image for the summer months.

[attendtobeauty]

Like Tagore, I too "have come far, led by my dreams and visions."

[attendtobeauty]

Anaïs Nin, self-publisher. She decided to print her book, Winter of Artifice, herself when she couldn't find a publisher for it. She recounts her experience in her diary, Volume 3 1939-1944:

"The writing is often improved by the fact that I live so many hours with a page that I am able to scrutinize it, to question the essential words. In writing, my only discipline has been to cut out the unessential. Typesetting is like film cutting. The discipline of typesetting and printing is good for the writer."

I am a letterpress printer poet myself, and every word she wrote on the craft is true.

[attendtobeauty]

“Everything is on fire–but everyone I love is doing beautiful things and trying to make life worth living.” – Nikita Gill

Personally, the effort alone makes life not only worth living, but magical, mysterious, wondrous.

[attendtobeauty]

"…and yet there are endless mysteries under that clarity, behind those naked, fairy-tale eyes…" Anaïs Nin, from The Diary of Anaïs Nin: Vol.1, 1931-1934

[metmuseum]

Waterpot (Suichū). ca. 1850–60s. Credit line: Edward C. Moore Collection, Bequest of Edward C. Moore, 1891 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/47081

[attendtobeauty]

This is more than a waterpot; it's magic transportation to other realms, and possibly better than Aladdin's lamp:-)

[nemfrog]

Cat, fiddle. The Latch key of my bookhouse. 1921. 

[attendtobeauty]

The title itself is eye-catching, along with the image nod to the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle". The book is filled with whimsical typography and illustrations of rhymes, many of which are still recited today with gusto by children in the park near my home. You may be surprised by some of the contributors, such as Shakespeare, Hans Christian Andersen, Kate Greenaway, the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, Walter de la Mare and Eugene Field, to name a few.

[proartspb]

[attendtobeauty]

The complex act of reading & playing music simultaneously is clearly revealed here.

[hometoursandotherstuff]

And, Otto's damned happy about it, too.

[attendtobeauty]

I can relate!