Philosopher Queen

Seventeen Ways of Looking for the Beautiful

1.

As evident in the clean lines of modernist design or Renaissance counterpoint, I prefer the simple and austere to over-populated, messy masses.

2.

Complexity is most intriguing when it juxtaposes the simple.

3.

I prefer solving mysteries to being lectured by the head detective.

4.

I prefer a child's intuitive wisdom to the academic's schooled analysis. Children, happily too busy to compare results, experiment honestly, whereas adults, unfortunately so adept at ranking results, often forget what it really means to experiment.

5.

I prefer the kaleidoscope to the periscope.

6.

I prefer the colloquial, the common, and the folk but am able to appreciate the esoteric. Invite the peasants into the castle, but let's all party in the castle for a while.

9.

I prefer an abstraction in art, music, dance, or theatre that jests and riddles and playfully reveals its irreverence.

10.

Form or color, texture or dynamic are beautiful in and of themselves. Please do not employ them as emotional triggers.

11.

I often prefer the Components to the composite Greater Meaning.

12.

I prefer a cross-pollination of genres to absolutes. (Who's a multi-media baby?)

13.

I prefer prose that is poetic.

14.

I prefer a suggestion of narrative to the straight-jacket of a specific story. Use the myth or fairy tale as a skeleton and hang a personal creative interpretation on those timeless bones.

15.

In accordance with the law of inverse proportion: the ugly can be beautiful, too.

16.

I prefer performance that demonstrates its conviction with an easy, confident gracefulness, that physically proves to me it knows where it's going but is brave enough to risk a spontaneous detour.

17.

But, with a secret prejudice for strange imperfections, I choose the puppet over the prima ballerina.