Learning to understand the delicate and often subjective art of what makes something beautiful can be eye-opening. Is it glowing yellow fish as they glide underwater? Is it wind dancing through emerald green trees? For artist and photographer Shoog McDaniel, it’s all of these things with one very important addition: self-love.

McDaniel, who uses they/them pronouns and goes by Sugar McD on social media, has been making fascinating art for quite some time. This often involves stunning shots of them swimming underwater. What takes these clips to the next level is the poetic voiceover McDaniel often adds over the visuals, integrating the arts into powerful statement pieces.

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Finding joy in self love

In a recent clip posted to Instagram, they share a video of themselves jumping full-force into a duckweed spring, a pond ripe with yellowish-green leaves. The words they use to describe self-acceptance, while zooming out to show how beautiful their surroundings are, perfectly exemplify inner and outer beauty.

They explain in the clip, “I visited the Duckweed Spring again yesterday. I........

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