Beauty is art...and art is beauty

I found this quote online, and part of me believes it - that the creation of beauty is art. It makes me think of the classically-trained artists whose work is more figurative or representational. But I also relate to saying it the other way around - that the creation of art is beauty. To me, that implies that all creativity is good, no matter what it looks like.

The style of mixed media work that I really love (and want to make more of) is abstract, emotional and sometimes grungy. It's rarely figurative or representational, and sometimes the word "beauty" is not the first thing to come to mind.

So I arranged a mixture of Joy letters to spell out the quote, glued them to paper, then spritzed and smudged a few colors of ink all over it - teal, caramel, yellow and red. I mounted the quote to a lovely image of a more traditional landscape painting from an old calendar - I like the juxtaposition, as well as the reminder to make art...now!