The overwhelming beauty of the specific.

Beauty, I wrote in one of my sketchbooks many years ago, is in the general; truth is in the particular.

What I meant is this: that in general terms young animals are beautiful, but the full power of beauty (in the place where beauty meets truth) is only revealed when we look at one specific young animal, be it a particular young girl or boy, or one specific colt or kitten. And the fact is that this overwhelming beauty applies to ANY specific child, whether conventionally pretty or no. For it is the beauty of character that touches us.

All that we have to give is our caring attention. If we do not look we can never expect to see. Maybe this is what separates the truly great artists from the merely impressive ones. They give us the sensation, the feeling, the intimacy of real life, and of real acceptance. Another note I made to myself long ago, reads, "Where good enough ends, art begins."

Maybe this is what I meant.

Ryno.