Bones Are Beautiful
Bones Are Beautiful Aesthetically And Philosophically
Bones are beautiful, for reasons that aren't necessarily obvious some ways, and completely obvious in others. Artists have poured over bones for centuries in part because they help to identify realistic musculature and form for the human figure, and also in part because they are, to paraphrase June Carter Cash, "Just so derned interestin'!!!" Two artists that immediately come to mind are Georgia O'Keefe and Jean Michelle Basqiat, you can find many works of art created by them that glorify in one way or another, skeletons and skulls.
But you don't need to be an artiste to appreciate the favorability of animals calciferous center! Everyone who's ever eaten a great slab of Southern smoked ribs will tell you, the closer to the bone, the sweeter the meat! Speaking as a self-proclaimed culinary guerilla/voodoo chef, bones lend a flavor to meat that is uncanny in it's minerality and other subtle and robust flavors.
Another reason bones are beautiful, is that they are mysterious. Bones are the infrastructure of the body after all. You can see all the tiny modifications of time that it took for those bones to arrive at the shape they are today. When you see a skeleton you can see how the rib cage protects and contains the viscera of the animals body, like some sort of mythical cage for the heart! Knee and elbows connecting the arms and legs are a miracle in and of themselves and you can quickly appreciate the strength needed by muscles and ligaments to pull those powerful appendages about. If we animals are amber spirits, if our muscles are luminous as many a Renaissance artist spent days and weeks trying to prove, then our beautiful bones must be the fly in the amber so to speak. A record of a millennia of information mostly lost to time, but still there for all to see.
Why Are Bones So Beautiful?
The Skull Is Perhaps The Most Beautiful Bone Of Them All!
The Attic Of The Body Is Housed In The Skull
Why is the skull a beautiful bone? Why? Because that's where the party's at! All that thinking needs to be under serious protected supervision. From the tiny field mouse or anole, to the ten ton sperm whale or the now extinct woolly mammoth, all creatures need to check their head!
There is an anonymous quote that says it all, "We can communicate an idea around the world in 70 seconds, but it sometimes takes years for an idea to get through a 1\4 inch of the human skull."
Why is that? Maybe the skull is too strong for it's own good! Therein must lie the etymology behind the moniker "numb skull".
All humor aside, from an aesthetic point of view, the skull is wonder of form. It looks as a though it were shaped to travel aerodynamically through space and time. It's shape is curving and sinewy, as though the Great Spirit puffed a blast of smoke and procured the perfect form. The teeth stand as a picket fence of utility. The eye sockets are dark and foreboding under some light, but somehow roundly humorous in other light. The hinge of the jaw looks like a gate that was designed by an army of master engineers. While the skull cap retains it's own character of expression. Even as pure bone the skull looks as though it is living all on it's own. Creepy in a way, but a beautiful bone in another.
Check out Ben Zoltak's eBook!
Beautiful Bones In Conclusion
Bones for many people are a morbid, maybe even dark reminder of animals inevitable fate. But it is that very fate, that limited terminality, that emboldens artists to admire bones. Bones are beautiful because they are inherently strong, firm, unmoving, porous, rigid and yet still at some point, quite prone to being broken. Bones are mysterious because of this duality, and it's that ambiguity that makes bones beautiful.
No bones about it, there's more to be read!
Comments
Cool photos ! It's not scary any more, but beautiful ! I like especially the deer skull.
Love the Photography, really cool skulls.
anorexic girls are the prettiest girls in the world
Great hub, beautiful pictures and so true. I think our interest in bones also comes from our questions with death and are own mortality.
that guy on the bike really likes to work out.
Hi Ben,
"Speaking as a self-proclaimed culinary guerilla/voodoo chef"...your words, not mine. Hahaha! Can I come for dinner? I love chewing on bones! This was a fun hub to read. The Georgia O'Keefe paintings immediately sprung to mind.
Still pondering your request about my childhood. Think that I'll keep inserting tidbits into various hubs of different topics. Hope that is OK?
-
-
I think bones are beautiful for different reasons than you've listed here, but it's all the same. ; ) I love reading your hubs, they're full of humor and so well thought out. As always, great job Ben! : )
Really nice article. I myself think bones are very artistic. They are so simple and basic but then very complex at the same time.
Interesting topic. You definitely think "outside the box," my friend. I used to collect antlers that were naturally shed by deer.
Bones are indeed beautiful; bones also represent a story and often a mystery. Whenever I see part of a skeleton of any type of creature, I can't help but wonder a bit about its life circumstances. How did it die, only to be found by human beings? What type of life did it lead? It sounds goofy to look at the bones of a steer and wonder what kind of life it led, I know, but there is something compelling in a skeleton--even if it is an "ordinary" animal.
I saw the skeleton of a small snake the other day--that is really something to see.
rocks and bones, I am crazy about both. really enjoyed your hub.
I have been collecting bones and skulls for years. I love bones and you have pointed out all the reasons why in this hub. Thumbs up to beautiful bones..
-
-
Ben - thank you. Certain people don't like the skulls and antlers that decorate the walls. They think they clash with the Bohemian look. Well, I think bones are beautiful too. Of course, I also love rocks. Bones and rocks are real go-togethers. You are such a wonderful writer.
hey i like the words you use...i can clearly see the images...on a side note i so want a skull tatoo and i have no clue why other than i think skulls are cool..
Hi Ben,
When I go to national places like museum etc, I am engrossed by the beuaty of it but when you talked about food in the Sotthern part here, it give sme a little bit something to think about too, haha
thank you Ben for haring this and for reading my hub too, Maita
Bones do have a beauty to them. Thanks for the creative hub.
well anything of nature is a wonder to moi and bones are not left out. don't you just love the way the structure of the bone talks about the part of the body they come from. the spinal cord holds the body up the rib cage protect the heart thought it can't protect it from heartbreaks.
Well being a lover of pirates I love the skull & crossbones, a really original and thought provoking hub my friend which I enjoyed, nice one !
30