68 NATURE-BASED EXPRESSIVE ARTS THERAPY
spectatorial orientation and the critical discourse that go along with
Western concepts of art and aesthetics. She questions the individualist
ontology that underlies this discourse. She challenges art to be more
interactive and dialectical, noting how art has been deprived of its
amazing capacity to build community through empathy. Calling for
the reenchantment of art and for aesthetics based in active involvement
with the world, Gablik emphasizes the need for a socially and
environmentally engaged artistic practice. There are many examples
now of artists claiming an important role in rethinking the future,
reclaiming the traditional role for artists as community activists and
giving voice to new stories of resilience (Neal 2015).Beauty
The concept of beauty is curiously controversial in today’s world.
If we search online for the word beauty , the main information that
appears is related to products for hair and nails and facial makeup
designed to improve physical attractiveness. Actually the word
beauty is related to the Latin root, bellus , connoting not just physical
attractiveness, but also goodness. Bellus is also related to bene , meaning
well, and beatus , meaning to bless.The instinctual love for beauty
According to Denis Dutton (2009), philosopher at the University
of Canterbury, New Zealand, our love for beauty is instinctual, an
innate response to the natural environment, to attractors that grab
our attention, excite the senses and the intellect and stir emotions.
Artist, teacher and writer, Ruth Gendler (2007), in Notes on the Need
for Beauty , invites us to reclaim beauty as one of the most essential
and profound forces in our lives. Beauty, she says, is not simply
a reflection of surface, but a pathway to coherence, integrity and
ultimately to love. Beauty builds bridges between the senses and the
soul, between reflection and expression and between ourselves and
the world.