Simplification Series

 

As I sat before my blank canvases the word ’simplification’ presented itself like a distant drone from a productive beehive.   The more I thought about the word and it’s many permutations the drone changed into individual buzzing sounds in the form of questions.  My head was so busy with questions.  Just before the point of feeling like too many questions were flying around my head to make sense of the subject, I was stung with one…Why do people seek to make their lives more complex when they conversely seek simplicity? 

To rouse an answer I go to my computer and refer to a subject often thought to be at polar opposites of the visual arts. Mathematics.

What I found was that in the world of mathematics to simplify an equation requires the taking away of radicals without altering the value of the roots of the equation.  With this I set out to compose my visual answer to the question. 

I take out my paints from my paint drawer.  I take out titanium white, then all the variations I have of  brown, and finally black. 

The simple answer is that people subscribe to complex social situations and structures to feel part of a group; humans are a social species after all.   Because this is hardwired, people (like the math equation), don’t want to change the root of their being in order to simplify.  What needs to happen is that, non-essentials must be eliminated to form the simple solution.  

So off to my back yard to find the subjects and objects to express this concept visually.

What one will see in the visual representation of this topic is very little.  There are the creatures among the snow covered rocks and branches.  The grouping of the animals fulfills the need for warmth physically and mentally.  The rocks are physical elements providing cover from weather, predators and a place to store food.  The branches are the psychological components providing the bases for creating a nest.  The branches represent the antenna that receive and transmit all things important to the ego.  If the number of branches or rocks or creatures increases they do not complicate the equation because they are the essentials that do not alter the fundamentals of the equation.

What Story am I telling about Humanity?

This story is about a person who finds their way into a group that is pleasing physically and mentally.  This person along with its group finds the objects that they need to make their environment safe. The person builds a nest remembering to use only materials that nourish the individual within the group.