THE ART OF AESTHETICS

The window of my office at work faces a high end furniture shop and the owner is privileged enough to drive his wrinkled, old, bespectacled self around in a Jaguar XK Coupe. Ok, that may have been a bit harsh, but I'm dreadfully jealous. He parks it right in front of the shop window, on the pavement and I stare lustfully at it in a kind of trance, every time I get up for a coffee. It's just divine; all fluid lines, muscular, aggressive yet slinky and curvy enough to have a beguiling hint of feminine allure. It's pure aesthetica on wheels and I defy anyone to walk by without taking a second or third look. (Or slavering all over the bonnet.) Remember the Jaguar marketing campaign, simply featuring the word gorgeous? Who can argue? They knew what they had created and God loves them for it. Before any one who thinks superficiality is a sin starts to complain and suggest that I am speaking out of turn by bringing God into this, I have a point to make and by the end, I think you're going to agree with me.

Somebody get me a tissue...

The way I look at it, most of us are born with an innate sense of aesthetic appreciation, the things which we appreciate are carefully crafted and nothing short of an art form. In some people this appreciation becomes more refined, in others it goes to the dogs. I won't pretend to know why, it's as individual and subjective as someones personality or their taste in music. Some people just fail to get excited about the way things or themselves look. Take the way people dress. Some people know, without being told, exactly how to accentuate their best features and make a positive impression, that states 'I'm in control, I look good and I'm not ashamed of it.' Other people would rather die than give out those kinds of vibes, they'll wear things that allow them to blend in with the masses and try to look plain. Worse still, there are those who do stand out, but for all the wrong reasons. (That said, I'm all for individualism, and if it weren't for those with tragic dress sense, I'd have to try even harder to look good.) Please be aware - this attitude does NOT make me a bad person. Far left wing, earthy types with no makeup on and long, bobbly cardigans will have you believe that you're the scum of the universe for your materialistic ways and your looks-ist tendencies. But please also be aware that I am not referring to natural good looks. This isn't about what you're born with, I'm not that deluded. It's about what you do with it. Men are at an immediate disadvantage, if they're good looking they're good looking, if they're not, there isn't much improvement to be made without a good cosmetic surgeon. But if you are a woman, you might well look like a dog chewing a wasp first thing in the morning, but more than likely, you've got a decent blank canvas (that's a face where everything is in just about the right position) and once you've slathered a few layers of creative war paint on it, you look positively attractive! This is the cleverest form of art known to the average person. Forget Michelangelo and even the man who designed the XK -if you're a plain woman with the knack of making yourself beautiful, you're an artist to be reckoned with.

See, we're all working towards one goal in life, humans, animals, plants - we're all striving to make things as beautiful and striking as possible. It's no accident that we happen to enjoy looking at something beautiful and that nature provides this beauty in abundance. Butterflies, birds, flowers, a sunset - why shouldn't we take a leaf out of nature's book and follow suit? We have to live in this world, why can't we make it and ourselves as nice to look at as possible? Why have some of us become so complacent and downright dowdy?! And I really can't get over the smugness of these people. Humans have psychologically over-evolved to the point where they think aesthetics are last in a long list of things to care about and if anyone feels differently, they are labelled as shallow. Give us superficial types a break - we are merely acting on our natural instincts! In actual fact, that makes us less self absorbed than the people who have to question it and draw a negative conclusion. I never hear people complain about Roman architecture, suggesting that it was all a waste of time and money and might as well have been something more functional like a cheap, brown, council building designed in the seventies.

"Stupid fool - just who does he think he is?!"

And another thing - can someone please inform those people whose jobs involve saving the environment, that their valiant efforts don't have to sacrifice style. (Make sure that whoever designed the Toyota Prius can hear. It's like a piece of lego.) I want to help the environment and I'm the first to admit that my new boyfriend (the Jaguar XK across the road) has a gluttonous 5 litre V8 engine, but until they start making eco-cars with that visual wow factor, they're never going to convert the high end market sector. I would have thought a simpleton could grasp that fact! Let's just embrace beauty shall we? In ourselves, in the home, on the road. Because we can. And we most definitely should.
* A gorgeous advert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UBRm23qPhI