Soulful beauty bowls over high school tough guy

To create art is an act of sublime appreciation

Scene: John — the captain of the high school football team — wants to win the heart of Betty. Betty is into art. John is having lunch with his friend Taani, a soulful Punjabi girl who gets top marks in art class. John asks Taani to help him to understand art so he can make conversation with Betty.

John: “What is better, to create art or to appreciate art?”

Taani: “Have you ever watched a woman’s face as she watches a tragic movie? I did once. It was one of the most bitter-sweet things I have ever seen. When her heart was touched by an innocent character on the screen, her brow wrinkled and her smile stretched from dimple to dimple. Then the bridge of her eyebrows quivered and rose in a volcano of pity. Her supple lips parted slightly as the heroine chose a heart-rending act of selflessness. Her breast paused in anguish and then swelled and fell heavily as she found the heroine’s courage deep within herself. Tears began to flow over her round cheekbones as she accepted the hero’s sacrifice.”

Taani demonstrates each of these affects as she describes them and John’s heart does somersaults as he sees a side to Taani that he’s never seen before.

Taani goes on: “That’s my elder sister. I haven’t seen her since leaving India. But every woman has her own exquisite ways of expressing emotions.

Now imagine a photograph of a butterfly taking flight from a lilly pad. What is your reaction?”

John: a cheeky smile crosses his lips: “Boredom”

Taani: “What if I tell you that the photo was taken by a 6 year old child who chose to spend her dying minute capturing that photo before losing her life-long battle with AIDS. Imagine the photo again now and what do you see?”

John swallows hard to clear a lump in his throat.

Taani “I see beauty in a poignant expression on a woman’s face in the theatre, and I see beauty in what a photograph tells me about its impact on the photographer.

Does that answer your question?”

John: “I’m not sure. Are you saying that the little girl photographer and the woman in the theatre are creating art or appreciating art?”

Taani “Yes”…. smiles a devilishly charming smile.

“To create art is an act of sublime appreciation. It might be appreciation of nature or another person, or God’s creation, or a feeling, or a special moment. Who creates and who appreciates art in my film example?… the writer who wrote the book about her lover, the producer who was so moved by the book that he decided to put in on the big screen, the director whose passion for the story inspires the actors, the actors who find the story’s characters within their own hearts; or the woman in the theatre who is moved to majestic displays of emotion? Imagine a ripple moving across a fine multi-coloured cloth as it blows in the breeze. First the ripple is green, then pink, then blue. Likewise a beautiful concept momentarily takes on the properties of the people who propagate it. And those people momentarily take on the properties of beauty.

John: The way you described your sister’s face and feelings….. I feel that you love her deeply. Is loving another person a form of art?

Taani: Takes a deep breath, looks down, then breaks into a tragic smile ….. “yes I think it is one of the highest.”