Wabi-sabi

Tim Lively

Tim Lively

Well-Known Member
From Wikipedia

"Wabi-sabi is the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of traditional Japanese beauty and it occupies roughly the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the West". If an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect."
 
It also relates to "Shibui" though not exactly the same.

Shibui is thought of as lasting and actually becoming more pleasing with time.

Shibui/Shibusa:

(1) Shibui objects appear to be simple overall but they include subtle details, such as textures, that balance simplicity with complexity.
(2) This balance of simplicity and complexity ensures that one does not tire of a shibui object but constantly finds new meanings and enriched beauty that cause its aesthetic value to grow over the years.
(3) Shibusa is not to be confused with wabi or sabi. Though many wabi or sabi objects are shibui, not all shibui objects are wabi or sabi. Wabi or sabi objects can be more severe and sometimes exaggerate intentional imperfections to such an extent that they can appear to be artificial. Shibui objects are not necessarily imperfect or asymmetrical, though they can include these qualities.
(4) Shibusa walks a fine line between contrasting aesthetic concepts such as elegant and rough or spontaneous and restrained.
 
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Tim
and Tai
thanks for the concepts.

When I was young, and alone in a forest, or at a lake, or on a mountain (or even now but I am alone a lot less), I would feel exactly what Tim described. But, I never had a word for it. Just a cluster of feelings. A sense of beauty and sadness because it couldn't last and/or because I couldn't take my perceptions and directly place them into the subjective world of someone else so they could share in the beauty with me.

now let's get to makin' stuff...
 
I asked Tai those questions when I first started working with him. He told me, " Be intimate with the art".
I became aware of another Artist a few years ago named, Agnes Martin. She says, "Paint with your back to the world"
Somehow I think the two go hand in hand. Check out Agnes Martin. This woman was a trip. She painted lines for over 60 years. That's right, Lines. For over 60 years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-JfYjmo5OA
 
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Wabi-Sabi Shibui/Shibusa

They are similar to the Lydian and Phrygian modes of a classic 7 tone Ionian scale in music. They have emotional characteristics of major and minor... happy and sad.

To create these aesthetics, look at the intervals and relationships of tones, textures, colors, forms, and time, "intimately".

"They nailed their stakes into the earth of my life, those farmers. They knew the place in me where the river stopped, and they marked it with a new name. Shantaram Kishan Kharre. I don't know if they found that name in the heart of the man they believed me to be, or if they planted it there, like a wishing tree, to bloom and grow. Whatever the case, whether they discovered that peace or created it, the truth is that the man I am was born in those moments, as I stood near the flood sticks with my face lifted to the chrismal rain. Shantaram. The better man that, slowly, and much too late, I began to be." Shantaram
 
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But if you think about these things for too long it takes a month to make a patch knife. It might be a pretty cool patch knife but few, if any will see what you tried to express. My wife will tell me to put a slice of Wabi-sabi between two pieces of Shibui and chew on that for lunch tomorrow. I think it's important to look at this stuff but I would like to put it into action somehow to justify the time spent on thinking about it. Or is Wabi-sabi Shibui just being Neo-Tribal? I see parallels.
 
We all know that one must be appreciative to create art.

Kurt Vonnegut liked to emphasize that you have to be creative to appreciate art.

I think that is very important. If you only want to see a patch knife, that is all you will see. Those things the artist appreciates and puts into her or his creation is only going to be recognized by someone else who is creative and attempting to appreciate the object.

I guess this, at least in part, means that it is important to find your audience. Makes it harder when you try to make a living with it, though. The audience of people that can pay Tim a living wage fee for the patch knife that takes a month, and also will pay it because they appreciate the love, beauty, and inter-connectedness symbolized within the object (and because it also cuts a mighty fine patch)... well, that is probably a very small target audience.

Agnes did it, though.(never knew of her before, thanks Tim).

take care, all
 
I think a big part of the allure of art, is that the appreciation and contemplation of beauty is a character strength and virtue.
 
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Tim Lively said:
Or is Wabi-sabi Shibui just being Neo-Tribal? I see parallels.
Click to expand...

I think it can be.

The NTM were never meant to be perfect or finished. :)

What's cool about "neo-tribal" is, it was meant to be different,.... a group of innovative firebrands, creative/inventive, moving forward with new ideas and paradigms,... yet connected to the past, dedicated to quality and it's traditions with deep and sincere respect for our ancestral metalsmiths who brought us here,... and to have our own set of standards, not conforming to the mainstream etc., or letting others impose their standards on us. We've achieved that to some degree, but I hope we haven't become too passive, static, self satisfied,... or just another genre.

... This all can give the NTM practitioner a feeling of wabi sabi/shibiu... which can manifest itself in their smithing and aesthetics.

Did Marion mean wasabi or wabi-sabi sandwich?... or are those the same? It maybe a bitter/sweet and hot sandwich, but I like it and it will always be a part of me.
 
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