the eye of the beholder

Recently we had the pleasure of meeting (artist) friends of the girls over dinner. They had just returned from their cross-country road trip together and I had made them a more or less healthy meal (tortellini, broccoli, bell pepper, tomatoes, and rosemary bread) that was well received after all the on-the-road PB&J sandwiches and such.

After dinner they were hanging out a little bit, and one of them wandered our home. (I'm tempted to do some name-dropping here because I have been told she is kind of a big deal in the art community, but I will refrain). She found my love and me reading in our family room, and she said :"You have a beautiful home. Usually you think, wow, you have a beautiful home but it's boring, but your house isn't like that at all! You have art everywhere, it is really cool".

detail of Vera's 8x4 ft AP art project

Now I can tell you that personally, I feel quite different about our home on a regular basis. Most furniture we selected as much for the price/deal than appearance, and there is more than one purchase I regret. But after her compliment, I began to look around to try and see things in a new light. Indeed we have art everywhere, courtesy of my girls and some art we collected over the years. Indeed our taste is not what most people like (judging by what is commonly displayed in stores). I am feeling a bit better about my home right now.

I have been thinking about appearances more than usual lately due to national and local cases of profiling, judging, putting people/things in boxes. But also, I see more and more artists/photographers/people questioning societary ideas of beauty- a girl with cancer who was so incredibly beautiful shining from the inside out, pictures portraying children with various disabilities in all their beauty and strength.

It pains me to read that a local preacher is instructing kids not to wear hoodies. I dislike what I have to wear to work in order to appear professional (or what people perceive as such). No, these two are not on the same level, and yet, they are. I also severely dislike that I am guilty myself in judging people/things by appearance. I am not really hopeful that the ideal of 'the melting pot' will happen anytime soon, and perhaps it should not be a (boring?) melting pot at all, but rather a celebration of differences. And I think art has a large role to play in this challenging process.