Beauty is imperfection. People try so hard these days yo make everything uniform, the result (in my opinion) being that the tiny differences are what makes things beautiful.

There are two schools in my area, side by side - one Catholic (where all the students wear uniforms), the other public. If the public school kids were ever told they had to wear uniforms, they would make a huge fuss because it would “rob them of their individuality”. However, from my point of view, they all try so hard to look perfect, to impress each other, that they all look identical anyways. To me, the ones that stand out are the ones that are probably mocked by their peers. The one crooked tooth among the hundreds that have worn braces appears endearing rather than ungly. The bracelets and necklaces obviously made by a younger sibling being chosen over the ones that would cost twenty dollars or so. And the presence some people have - that makes the air crackle when they enter the room - that says clearly “I’m not a clone, and I’m proud of it.”

This theory of mine doesn’t just apply to people, it’s in everything. Take people’s gardens, for example. Great pains are taken to keep every bloom and leaf perfect, to shape bushes perfectly, to keep the grass all at one height. Often when I’m taking photos, or looking for subjects to fill the pages of my sketchbook, I find my eye drawn to the imperfections. The one leaf with a hole in it, the flower missing a petal, the single branch out of place in a perfectly shaped shrub. People sometimes take offense to this, annoyed at me pointing out their mistakes, but nature is perfect on its own, it isn’t meant to be shaped into a human’s idea of perfection - and these little variances seem to be nature trying to reclaim its identity.

Perfection, the human perception of perfection, is boring. It’s the imperfections, outward and inward, that attract our attention and are deemed beautiful.

~Lauren Rizzotto,
Lauren.Rizzotto@theguthan.com