Simplicity

I'm finding myself more and more attracted to simplicity, both as a philosophy and as a practice.  I would like to apply this concept to many areas of my life, but, to keep things simple, I'm trying to focus on one or two at a time.  For example, I have for quite some time held the goal of getting rid of some my things.  I have lived in this house for over twenty years, and have accumulated a truly embarrassing amount of stuff, much of which I really don't need.

It goes without saying, however, that this does not apply to books, rocks/shells/fossils, and art supplies.  I have to draw the line somewhere, right?

It's a daunting task, but I am making slow progress. Huge bags of clothes have been donated to Vietnam Veterans of America and other organizations, old toys and baby stuff have been discarded, and one of the attics is practically empty!

It seems that I'm leaning more toward simplicity where my aesthetic sensibilities are concerned as well.  As I scrounge through my photos, looking for interesting images with which to play Photoshop games, I'm drawn increasingly to simpler ones that I may not have paid much attention before.

 

  

  

  

Artistically, I've been in kind of a rut; just feeling uninspired and unenthusiastic about it in general, and unsure where I wanted to go next.  Again, I started looking through my old work to see what called to me, if there were perhaps some paths I'd once started to go down, but then abandoned.  What ideas had I been interested in that I hadn't been quite ready to followed up on? 

This seems to be a good strategy for me when looking for direction in my work.  To me, it just doesn't make sense to start over from scratch, jumping from one style or medium into an entirely different one with nothing in between.  Like a true scientist (or scientific artist), I prefer to change only one variable at a time; otherwise, I have no frame of reference for evaluating the changes I've made.

Here are some pieces that still interested me.

  

Are you seeing a pattern here?  I wouldn't quite call these pieces minimalist, but they are definitely simpler and more abstract in composition than some of the other work I've been doing.  I've also been messing around in the studio with the beginnings of a couple of new things that reflect these same ideas.  I'll post them soon if anything comes of them.

The outcome of all this rumination, reflection, simplification, and redirection is that I feel inspired again, and excited to begin exploring some new twists and turns on my artistic journey.  It's about time!