Beauty is different for all of us, as is that which is revolting or abhorrent.
We no longer take much of anything apart from the air we breathe directly from nature.

We trade with other humans for what we require to live and work, and what we require to change the way we are feeling.

To increase the value of what we have to offer we need those things to have a more powerful emotional response. The more they can alter a persons "state" the more valuable they are perceived to be.

To have an emotional reaction, we must take messages personally, or they will have little influence. So those who have goods and ideas to sell, must somehow reach us on the personal level, they must stimulate our fears and desires.

I painted this image because it stimulated my desire, but by the time I completed it, not so much. I became more about a game of representing tones and shapes without losing their impact.

Automotive art - Food packaging - Clothing even architecture is all designed to appeal to us personally and evoke an emotional response.

Emotions based in fear - may provoke an automatic response, bypassing our ability to make a rational choice or even to take an action that is in our own best interest.

Desire is Fear of missing out - it is not the same as healthy passion which comes more from giving without strings.

Much of the noise our cultures produce contains strings and is designed to control rather than to offer gently and honestly.

The tools to navigate this world and enjoy the richness of contrast without becoming ensnared are found not in our minds so much as in our senses.

Our minds can only contain concepts, and memories, but memories are not sensations, they are ghosts without texture. Sensation is the only way to interact with reality directly.

Is this helpful?