ABSTRACT
It is necessary to cultivate a sense for beauty, for the artistic. ‘Necessary’ because our culture tends to suppress this sense, and ‘cultivate’ because everyone has it latent within them. It used to be so strong that pre-industrial common people could not make a spoon, a cart, a boat, even a house look ugly. To do so would have been like a crime against themselves. Everything, from reaping corn to blessing a meal or carving a chair, was an action giving thanks for God’s creation, an artistically satisfying activity. All they made and did was essentially functional: there was no time, energy or space to make anything without a practical purpose; beauty and utility were inseparable.
