“Beauty is truth, truth beauty;
That’s all on Earth you know, and all you need to know”
John Keats, Ode to a Grecian Urn
I was reminded again this week of this insightful, fundamental statement of art, life and nature today.
First, on Sunday, my Earth here in Manchester was topped and tailed by a restatement of this at the micro level soon after dawn and the macro level just before dusk.
On Friday I hung my five new prints inspired by a sunny, frosty day on Lindow Moss at the end of the second week of December with the solstice fast approaching.
And yesterday on a similar day visiting the Moss as the days are lengthening and the spring equinox coming into sight on the horizon.
The ancient Greeks could make a beautiful urn. But a beautiful world is all around us if we care to look. And art can attempt to capture and interpret this eternal truth. But sadly humanity is doing its best to destroy and not protect as Shell’s (last week) and BP’s (today) obscene profits remind us starkly. Both companies externalise the costs of ravaging nature’s gifts to us…and no doubt know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
