15 September 2021

Occam's Razor and the search for meaning

                                                                                 GGS 

Evening Prayer Brunswick heads, 11 September, 2021, oil on canvas board, 25 X 20 cm

                                                                                 LJD

Evening Prayer Brunswick heads, 9 September, 2021, oil on canvas board, 25 X 20 cm

                                                                                 LEP 

Evening Prayer Brunswick heads, 11 September, 2021, oil on canvas board, 25 X 20 cm

These days many of us cannot help but feel an immense state of anxiety about the world and the people who inhabit it. There are too many versions of reality because everybody knows best, more than everyone else, and because they have big mouths. Daily, after watching the News, I cannot shake the feeling that the inmates have taken over the asylum. Enfin! Quoi faire!! 

When it comes to Painting though, and happily so, diverse realities are welcome! "Bring it all on!" we cry out to the world.

In my pursuit of some abstract meaning in this particular motif I seem to be continually drawn back to a simple design, and this is fine with me. It is almost as if I am cutting everything down to the barest of bones via Occam's Razor. 

In olden days, it was known as the Principle of Parsimony, and that makes sense to me. And today I imagine that it lives on wholeheartedly in places like Japan for instance, where brevity and simplicity are still equally revered.

Myself, I often pare both the drawing and colour harmony down to the design of a flag for some verdant island near the equator. I don't usually set out to do this but it's true that when I am feeling uncertain I will sometimes just carve out the sea and sky into slices the colour of mango and watermelon.

Graphically, (for me) it is interesting, and somewhat easy as I adore stripes of all sorts, thick and thin. Sometimes it is a way to just begin something because time is precious. 

I could almost see an entire show presented just in this simple format yet inevitably with many, many varied colour harmonies. 

  

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