You aren't looking for beauty, it's all around you

The artwork on display at Relevé is really important to me. If you take a moment to look at them, you’ll actually learn a lot about me; you might even learn something about yourself.

When I first signed the lease for my office location, I began designing how the space would look and purchasing furniture. One of my favorite places to browse was Home Sense. During one trip, I saw the above painting displayed at the front of the store, and it really caught my eye. One look at the price tag, though, and I thought “no way.” Not that art isn’t worth the expense, but the art for sale at Home Sense doesn’t feel that priceless. Over the next several weeks I kept thinking about that painting. I even visited the store a few more times just to look at it and make sure I was remembering it right. 

After weeks of mulling, I came to see that this painting was the artistic embodiment of everything I wanted to do at Relevé. 

The face depicted does not meet current or even traditional beauty standards. She is striking, unique, bold. She isn’t even just a face. Nestled among her features are words like love, dance, it matters, not war, show up. The painter honors the subject by recognizing that which makes her different as that which makes her beautiful. 

So I caved and bought it. The artist is a woman from North Carolina named Windy O’Connor, and she has a line of other similar paintings, three of which are also on display at Relevé. The characters depicted in each have a unique striking beauty, but do not conform. 

At this point, I thought I was done purchasing art for the space. I didn’t want to overwhelm the small office, and the Wendy O’Connor pieces are so strong in color I couldn’t imagine anything else matching. But I had a full length of wall facing the couch where I do my consultations that was empty. That’s when I met the friend of a friend, Mattea Sheavy. 

Mattea lives in Amherst, and teaches art in Manchester. She loves working with children and letting their imaginations come alive through art. She visited with me one day, and I told her what I was looking for.

“I’d like a gallery wall. But I don’t want it to be all the same. I want it to inspire people to see the beauty around them. We live in such a beautiful place, but I feel like we get immune to it. There’s beauty in the mountains, the flowers, the snow, the people. I want it to be something that reminds people that they aren’t searching for beauty, it’s all around them.” 

Mattea caught the vibe that day, and she later told me it felt freeing to be allowed to create beauty in art that came from her soul, rather than trying to fit her soul into someone else’s definition of art. 

The gallery she created is a wandering path of peace and beauty. Perhaps my favorite piece is a watercolor of a smiling woman. She has an ample bosom and round cheeks. A thin gold flower crown is perched on her head and she’s smiling serenely about something. This woman represents to me the beauty that we find in the life we have lived, the lives we have touched, and the purpose we’ve found. 

This kind of thinking frees us from conventional beauty standards, and from cultural judgment about having aesthetic treatments. If we choose to have treatment to boost our confidence (which helps us live a fuller life), it doesn’t mean we’re vain. Because the beauty that comes from aesthetic treatments isn’t displayed on our faces, it shines out through our soul.

‍

‍