THE PRACTICE OF CULTIVATING BEAUTY PART I

Katie Huisman, Jennifer Winsor & Gabryel Harrison at the Learn the Flowers Opening Reception

At Gabryel's Opening, image courtesy of Katie Huisman

Gabryel's Opening, image courtesy of Katie Huisman

A great couple of photos taken by Julie Lee and Katie Huisman at the Opening for Gabryel Harrison's Learn the Flowers Exhibition. If you haven't come to see the show yet, allow us to tempt you with some text by Pennylane Shen...

PART I 

The Practice of Cultivating Beauty

On Gabryel Harrison’s Collection Learn the Flowers by Pennylane Shen

The latest exhibition by artist Gabryel Harrison entitled Learn the Flowers is inspired by the final lines in Gary Snyder’s poem of the same name:

stay together

learn the flowers

go light

Akin to these lines, the paintings simply and honestly convey a profound message, inviting viewers to cultivate compassion and generosity: to live with passion. Harrison has done just this through her engaged contemplation with the natural world.  The pieces in this collection, she states, "are evidence of my trust in nature and the body/mind resonance with beauty to teach me of wisdom and balance. I believe beauty is still relevant.”

  

We live in a post-modern age where subjectivity and relativity define our perceptions, where multiple entry points and possibilities often leave us in a restless liminal space. In beauty, we can find an undeniable truth and comfort. Despite this, it seems that somewhere along the way we have forgotten, lost, or perhaps even willingly discarded this idea. The notion that the essence of beauty can be defined as constant and unwavering has been left behind.

Swallowed up in a sea of irrelevance and irreverence, we have forgotten that beauty can be recognizable, undeniable, and vividly expressed, as it is here in Learn the Flowers. The artist states, "Beauty isn’t merely ‘taste’ or ‘aesthetics’, it is more like the erotic impulse to engage life... a charge of attraction that compels us, it connects us, breaks us open. We must be unafraid of the conversation that includes beauty.” Harrison’s work exemplifies this by bringing to the fore a tangible and true beauty. 

Spilling Tears and Roses, Gabryel Harrison, 2012