A messy kind of beautiful.
In this blog post i wanted to talk a bit (a lot) about and explain the inspiration behind my painting “A Messy Kind of Beautiful.” This piece was inspired heavily by love, femininity, beauty and pomegranates- reds and pinks and all things that scream love and femininity!! and the symbolisms and metaphors surrounding the pomegranate. Which is something that I so deeply love and find more intriguing the deeper I dive into it. I love pomegranates; so let me tell you a bit about them and why I love them so much.
Oh, the many meanings of a pomegranate, basic and slightly cliché of me? maybe so, but here I am, painting about it and tattooing it on my body. People now love to hate on the many symbolisms of the pomegranate and how it’s used in poetry because it’s gotten ‘too big’ and therefore basic, or god forbid people interpret something how they see it… I’ll never understand the hate train on basic things as soon a they become too popular to be deemed ‘cool and unique’ enough for people to want to say they like it. Things are big and popular and LOVED because they’re that good and a lot of people realise it!! Yes, It’s so okay to like something that a lot of other people like too- there’s a reason for that. But this is a bigger conversation for another time.
Historical Overview
The pomegranate represents rebirth, eternal life, fertility, marriage and abundance. Through Ancient Greece and Rome, as well as the pomegranate being the symbol in Armenia- both representing, love, marriage and fertility. Pomegranates symbolise resurrection and life everlasting; often shown in depictions of the virgin and the child. In islam, pomegranate trees are considered holy, and pomegranates are a symbol of beauty and fertility. Pomegranates can also symbolise death and resurrection through the Christian symbolism, the seeds that represent the potential for new life after death. As well as the Greek Mythological story of Hades and Persephone, which i speak in more detail on further down in this blog…
Love
“Pomegranates are so beautiful and worth the mess and maybe I’m beautiful and worth the mess too.”
Despite the mess that it makes to cut open a pomegranate, its worth it for the sweet inside. Much like it being hard work and messy opening up to another human. Pomegranates serve as a reminder that love is worth the hardship and the time and the effort. That the best things don’t come easily, you don’t get the reward without putting in work for it, to be deserving of it. Wanting someone despite the mess, accepting and loving their mess because they’re worth it, because in your eyes it’s not work to open it up, its not too much and you won’t give up on it (or them). You simply just want what’s inside, to love to enjoy to cherish. This also goes hand in hand with the relationship idea involving pomegranates. Someone loving you so much they’ll peel a pomegranate for you, they’ll peel it and spend their time picking out each individual seed for you to eat. A small gesture of kindness, that’s really not that huge- actually being huge because its small and the small things matter the most.
The short but impactful idea that a few seeds in pomegranate could be bad, but not the entire fruit. You will have bad days, but it’s not a bad life… There are still good seeds, there are still good days.
“Worth the mess.” but it’s now rotten. It’s too late. Finally deciding to do that something you contemplated for a little too long, you missed your opportunity… A perfect representation of longing for something or someone but hesitating because of the mess it could cause, only to lose it before you even had it when you finally make up your mind. This one is slightly devastating to ponder for too long…
“Some things are more beautiful broken.”
The cannibalism metaphor. Throughout history, pomegranates have been linked with the idea of cannibalism in a romantic sort of way. A metaphor for the obsessive, all consuming and destructive kind of love. A sort of undying and devotional love to a person. Giving a physical piece of yourself to another to give them sustenance. The violent need to consume another so entirely, to have their soul stay with you forever, to keep it within you. Or a kind of love, that like gluttony, can lead you to destroy the thing you once loved so much.
The Greek Mythology.
The story of Demeter, Hades and Persephone. The big debate around their love story… let me explain this. In pop culture, the Greek Mythological story of Persephone and Hades is seen as romantic and loving, however, this story can also be seen as anything but. The story goes… Hades kidnaps Persephone and takes her down into the underworld with him, where he was lonely. Her mother (Demeter) was terrified, sick with worry about the whereabouts of her daughter. It was confirmed she had been taken to the underworld by hades, and so Demeter and Zeus demanded their daughter back. Hades said he would return Persephone if she had not eaten or drank anything from the underworld in her time there. Persephone ‘had refused to eat anything from the underworld however Hades had tricked her into eating 6 pomegranate seeds’ or ‘persephone had not realised before eating the seeds on her own, the consequences this action would bring for her.’ (different tales recite 3-6 seeds) Therefore, it was decided that Persephone would spend 3-6 months (depending on the tale) in the underworld with Hades a year, and the rest of the year with her mother. In tales where Persephone saw her mother for 9 months a year, Demeter refused to let anything grow whilst Persephone was away from her, which is why we are exposed to winters where nothing grows for 3 months every year. Whilst modern day media and re- tellings paint Persephone and Hades story in a romantic way, saying that Persephone went on her own accord and ended up falling in love with Hades. This being why the pomegranate is seen to represent ‘undying love.’ in this story. On the flip side, it can also be interpreted that Hades took her against her will and tricked her, that Persephone did not consent to any of what had happened in the underworld. This would therefore signify ownership, dominance and rape. I love the debate around this, the different stories, the retellings, so many different outlooks and opinions on their story. That maybe despite the tales being romanticised, it’s okay to still love and adore separate love stories and re-telling’s of Hades and Persephone.
In Ancient Greece and Rome, the pomegranate was also associated with Aphrodite and Hera, both goddesses of love and marriage- symbolising fertility and marriage.
"Once when I was living in the heart of a pomegranate, I heard a seed saying, 'Someday I shall become a tree, and the wind will sing in my branches, and the sun will dance on my leaves, and I shall be." -Kahlil Gibran
Aside from the pomegranates symbolisms…
Flowers!! To me you just can’t have femininity and beauty and love without a flower… Not to bore you too much but, flowers are associated with femininity, representing qualities like beauty, grace and delicacy. In ancient traditions, cultures associated flowers with goddesses and deities of love, nature and fertility. In a lot of art, flowers are also used as a way to symbolise the divine feminine and the female experience!! In art and literature, flowers are literally used as metaphors for female characters that represent things such as their sexuality, their inner beauty and their emotions. As well as this, from a biological perspective, flowers represent growth and reproduction which mirrors aspects of the female body too… Us as females just ARE flowers in my mind.
I also just had the urge that would not go away to use reds and pinks in this painting before I even knew what i wanted to paint or what I wanted it to be about. It just HAD to happen… That’s kind of where the whole idea started. To me red instantly represents women, divine femininity, being beautiful, hot, sexy. Pinks reds are honestly -before this painting- colours I had never ever wanted to use or would have never reached for. They in all honesty aren’t even colours i felt drawn to in real life in any way. Since this last year, red has become one of my absolute favourite colours!!! I have fallen in love with the whole feminine feeling behind a dark red. As well as all the cosy, autumn, dark academia kind of vibes it also portrays too. I like to think it was this painting that changed all this for me and made me fall in love with red, because I have such a deep emotional attachment to this painting. As a girl who LOVES, loves and breathes romance books and romance anything, it only seems right I simply must have red as a favourite colour for life now.
I also just… love pomegranates. Like I really do just love to eat them, they’re SO NICE. Anyways, Thank you for reading if you finished this… Bye!!
