Considering Kindness

I have been thinking about how to portray attributes such as kindness.  Kindnesss is an emotion perceived by others, which is assessed by evaluating behaviour.  So how do I create artwork that portrays something that is intangible.

Within our family, Aunt Joan had a reputation for being very kind.  My brother and I both have very happy memories of two holidays when Aunt Joan took us away with her family for a fortnight in Devon.  She was very kind to my cousin, Martin, who had cystic fibrosis.  Martin was at university in Oxford, and frequently stayed with Aunt Joan at the weekend, as she lived nearby.  Martin benefitted from Aunt Joan's care and was well fed and cherished when he was with her.  Aunt Joan was brilliant at thinking up gifts for small children, and I remember her giving a wooden toddler's swing as a christening present to friends of the family.  She also knitted sweaters and made quilts for nieces going to university.  I also benefitted from accommodation when I was doing weekend classes or summer school at Missenden Abbey.  At first I was worried and felt guilty that I was costing her money for my keep, but later realised she enjoyed the company.  I can talk for Britain, and she very much enjoyed conversation, as she became increasingly blind and arthritic, and was unable to knit or sew. I used to arrive, cook dinner (she could not lift a pan of veg for two), talk all evening, go to bed, make breakfast, talk until I left for class, and then she could rest during the day.  It took me a while to realise my conversational contribution was equal to her contribution of hospitality.

So, Aunt Joan shared experiences (holidays), supported those in need (time and care), identified and paid for appropriate gifts (wooden swing), made useful objects (sweaters and quilts), shared her home.  To me, giving time, sharing experiences and supporting others is what kindness is about.  It is only slightly allied to spending money.

I have also looked up "kindness in art" on the internet.  This led me to a website Random Acts of Kindness.  There were hundreds of examples of how people take Personal Social Responsibility by doing kind things.  A random list is below

1. Send someone a hand written note of thanks.
2. Make a card at home and send it to a friend for no reason.
3. Buy a lottery ticket for a stranger.
4. Put some coins in someone else’s parking meter.
5. Buy a coffee for the man on the high street selling The Big Issue magazine.
6. Cut your neighbour’s hedge.
7. Walk your friend’s dog.
8. Give a compliment about your waiter / waitress to his / her manager.
9. Send someone a small gift anonymously.
10. Stop and help someone replace their flat tyre.
11. Let someone jump the queue at the bank.
12. Support someone in their team sport. 

I think it is interesting that most of them involve doing something, rather than buying things.

Chambers Dictionary defines Kindness as the quality or fact of being kind.  However Kind is defined as n. those of kin, a race: sort of species, a particular variety: fundamental qualities (of a thing): produce, as distinguished from money. - adj. having or springing from the feelings natural for those of the same family: disposed to do good to others: benevolent.

Bloomsbury's Dictionary of Word Origins by John Ayto defines Kind as: Kind the noun and Kind the adjective are ultimately the same word but they split apart in pre-historic times.  Their common source was Germanic kunjam, the ancestor of English kin.  From it, using the collective prefix ga- and the abstract suffix -diz was derived the noun gakundiz, which passed into Old English as gecynde "birth, origin, natrue, face". The prefix go- disappeared in the early Middle English period.

The Dictionary of Word Origins says of Kin: Kin is the central English member of the Germanic branch of a vast family of words that trace their ancestry back to the prehistoric Indo-European base.  Amongst the Germanic descendants of this base was jun-, from which was derived the noun kunjam, source of English kin 'family".  Kindred was formed from kin in early Middle English by adding the suffix -red ' condition'.

So, kind and kindness, appear to have originated as how people relate to family.  I find this a bit challenging.  I can see evidence for kindness is more easily gathered within a family setting, but I think kindness can be exhibited outwith the family.  The evidence I have for Aunt Joan's kindness is certainly demonstrated in her relationships with family, although I would say she had some stereotypical attitudes of her generation towards people who were "not like her" i.e. not white and middle class.   Having said this, I remember one of my last conversations with her, when she was 93.  Aunt Joan said that at one time, it would have been her biggest horror to have neighbours who were ethnic minorities, but now she had Sabrina and Peter next door, she had found them to be good neighbours, and she adored their son Sebastian, who was born soon after they moved in.

So this leaves me with a question.  How is kindness manifested in art?

As part of my contextual review, I think I need to go to a few galleries and see whether I can find artworks that portray people who are kind. And analyse them.