Make it Beautiful

This essay was originally written as an assigment for my graduate work at the Academy of Art University in 2008. Over the years, I've added to it and mostly consider it a work in progress as I continue to explore the nature of beauty, in philosophy, neuroscience, spirituality, and aesthetics.

This is a work in progress, I may update or modify this work at any time, and am currently working on few new sections that I have recently felt are missing:

• Dissonant Beauty: things can be beautiful when they defy common understanding of what makes something beautiful—beautifully ugly—if you will.
• Natural Beauty: nature is the pattern of beauty, when left to itself, the natural state is beautiful.
• Sublime Beauty: some things defy description and the effect they have on your mind is that of awe and wonder.

I also hope to continue to add images of beautiful things that help illustrate these concepts.

© John Dilworth