Beauty Tips From Picasso

"Art is the elimination of the unnecessary," said Pablo Picasso, and
I wonder about symmetry being unnecessary to him. Picasso is one of
those artists who has made a wild and important impact on the world of
art, and yet, I will quickly admit that I don't always understand what
is so great about painting a woman and putting both her eyes on the
same side of her face, her lips down on her chin and her right cheek
up on her forehead. What is he trying to say, I wonder?My little son
is an artist through and through. By three years old, he was creating
things at his art table in 3D, and I knew that paper and crayons would
only be his medium for a short time. I had a feeling he would be on to
bigger and bolder art very soon. I had no idea that he would skip
right over woodworking, or just cut and paste, and move directly to
metal work. That is what he did. He is a welder, and finished his
first major welding project - a metal workbench with adjustable legs
so it can grow taller as he does - before he lost his first tooth. His
dad and he work out in their garage with all sorts of safety
equipment, but also with sparks flying almost as fast and furious as
their vivid imaginations.When he was only four or five years old, my
son became obsessed with Picasso. Honestly, the only thing he knew
about him was from a tiny line in the childrens movie by PIXAR, "Toy
Story." There is a scene where the Mr. Potato Head character puts all
his parts on in the wrong place, strikes a pose and says, "Look, I'm
Picasso." When the pig says, "I don't get it," Mr. Potato Head retorts
fiercely, "Uncultured Swine!"That was it - that was all it took, and
my artist son started drawing faces with the nose on the chin or the
lips down on the neck. He did Picasso cut and paste. He did Picasso
paintings. My folks started buying art books for children that would
give him a little background on who Picasso was and the types of art
he created.One time, when he was in a classroom situation where all
the kids were doing puppets and they'd been told where to put the
eyes, where to put the upper lip on the folding paper bag, and where
to put the lower lip so that it would actually form a workable mouth;
my son experimented with his Picasso fascination and put the lips in a
creatively alternate place. When the teacher tried to correct him, he
looked straight at her, and in his tiny voice, told her that his lips
were exactly where he wanted them. He was doing a Picasso puppet, he
said. She took a step back and smiled. Clearly, she understood that
there is no right or wrong when dealing with a true artist.When I
consider that Picasso felt that art was the elimination of the
unnecessary, I become more and more intrigued by what he was trying to
say. In our beauty obsessed world, could we take a clue from Picasso
and not worry if we don't look like the woman on the cover of a
fashion magazine? How many of us can actually compete if that is the
measure of true beauty? Aren't we better off to eliminate the
unnecessary and burdensome aim for outward perfection, and instead
fine-tune the areas of our heart that bring us the most joy, that fill
our eyes with a light from within the moment we speak? Inner beauty is
what fills the eyes and face with radiance anyway!How odd, that I can
find beauty tips from Picasso! Well, we celebrate his birthday in
October, and I think he understood women and beauty and fashion better
than most of us. He would focus on an eye and paint it beautifully. He
wouldn't care exactly where it went, as long as it was captivating. He
would focus on the curve of a hip, the curve of an eyebrow, the lobe
of an ear. All of these things can be beautiful on a woman. All of
these things can also make us think we are not good enough, if we
don't have all the curves in what we think are the right places. We
can stress about whether the dimensions are right, or if the symmetry
is as it should be.Picasso revolutionized art. The Beauty World could
use a revolution! I say, have a Picasso day! Let's focus on the things
that are beautiful, and not worry so much about the whole picture.
Let's wake up to our inner artist who can see beauty in the most
upside down or backwards places. Let's smile because we can see our
various parts - as out of alignment with the world's standards of
beautiful as they may be - as works of art in their own right! Happy
Birthday, Picasso, and Thank You!