How do we find beauty in the mundane?

Images made from marks from The Floor At The Arnolfini

There was something about the splash of paint that caught my eye

It was the gentle curve of the drops. It seemed as if they had been placed with some intent, as if it was a deliberate arrangement that was there to make a statement. I felt it could be a piece of art in its own right and that it should be celebrated.

That led to the first image that I made of the floor at the Arnolfini. But, as I looked more intently, there were more and more paint splashes, marks and indentations in the floor. And they were worth recording.

A project was born.

Over the course of my visits to the Arnolfini, I spent as much time staring at the floor as I did appreciating their excellent exhibitions. I received strange looks as I pointed my camera downwards. Beauty can be found in the most unlikely of places. I found it on the floor at the Arnolfini. I was driven to create images of what I saw.

How do we find beauty like this?

I was lucky. There was a stunning pattern in the middle of a floor lit by spotlights. But how many other people actually saw and appreciated what I had seen? If it is celebrated in a piece of artwork, beauty becomes obvious. When it is in a place where we do not expect to see it, beauty is often ignored.

I have a three-stage process that helps me find beauty:

Slow down

We see more when we stop rushing. Firstly, we have to be moving at the right pace and be in the right frame of mind in order to see what others may not.

Many people are tempted to start making art as soon as they are confronted by a potential subject. It is far better to spend time with it before starting to work with it. You get to appreciate it more and see elements that you may have missed at first.

Be open

Beauty is not always apparent at first sight. Sometimes we deliberately ignore details because we are not conditioned to see the as beautiful. Let your gaze stop at details that may not, at first, seem to have much potential.

Search

Once you have an idea, look for more instances of it. The first images for The Floor At The Arnolfini came fairly quickly to me. After that, I had to look and see potential in what I had first overlooked.

Beauty can be found everywhere

Random light on a wall, reflections in a puddle, a ripped poster, the form and markings of a paving slab, a piece of rusty metal decorated with bird poo: these are all things that I have stopped and made images of recently. Ordinary subjects that many people would not give a second glance to. But I found them worthy of spending more time with. Worthy of re-imagining and celebrating.

We should celebrate the everyday more

As artists we have the ability to elevate the veryday to a status where it can be rightfully applauded.

PS To see more of my project of The Floor At The Arnolfini go here. You can also purchase a limited edition of The Floor At The Arnolfini zine here

PPS If you would like to challenge your artistic style, explore surroundings in new visual ways or create a variety of different interpretations of one subject, you may be interested in The Vision, an online workshop run by Rob Knight and myself. It next runs in February and March 2024. Find out more here.