In message ,
Leo Lichtman writes

"Arch" wrote: (clip)gilding a corn stalk. (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I can see that a gilded corn stalk might be quite attractive.

The questions you are raising about esthetics keep coming up, not only among
wood turners, but also among painters, photographers, architects, designers,
to name a few. The subject is complex, and I don't think will ever be
completely resolved, which is why it keeps coming up. As a photographer, I
am quite familiar with the rules of composition. These rules represent
centuries of experience, but they do not *determine* what is beautiful.
They are no more than helpful guides. The danger is that once you learn the
"rules," you may start being controlled by them, and your independent
esthetic sense could fade away.

When everyone starts following the same rules, we are on the road to
dullness. Inevitably, though, someone with a backbone comes along and
starts does something different, creating a new excitement, possibly a new
trend, some new rules, and eventually a new dullness.


Do you find that with your photography, even though you know the rules,
you can take 1000's of photographs, which when you look at them you say
to yourself ok, ok ,ok and then you find one where you say to yourself
'I Like' ? I find I do that with Pictures, art, buildings, craft
objects, basically anything where there is an element of art. Now I play
with turning, I find I the same. An object can be complex, which I will
say 'neat', or 'clever', but it doesn't mean the same as ' I like'. It
is as though when 'I like' something deep inside me has been touched,
maybe its emotion, maybe its the lines of the object flow perfectly
together, maybe its a million and one things all combining together in
one instance

I think the term that comes to mind is rules are meant to be broken, try
it, how else do we really learn something new ?
--
John