I have devoted the past few days to cleaning, reorganizing and rethinking things.
On Sunday, I cleared out the studio completely — creating a clean slate, as demonstrated in the panoramic image below. I like having absolutely nothing going on — except ideas. No work in progress, just lots of potential for new work, waiting to be made.
Also I’ve been sketching continuously for the past two weeks, trying to solidify the new direction in which I’m heading.
I have realized that, for the past few months, I have been working from painting to painting, from whim to whim. While it has been refreshing to create work somewhat spontaneously, I realize I’ve lost continuity in the process.
Now I’m focused on creating a body of work that has continuity from one work to the next.
Where my thinking is at: Been reading Le Corbusier and Ozenfant’s essays from “L’Esprit Nouveau” (The New Spirit) — the notion that evolution is a “function of purification,” that as things evolve, they become more economical. On the human body they write:
“When examining these selected forms, one finds a tendency toward certain identical aspects, corresponding to constant functions, functions that are of maximum efficiency, maximum strength, maximum capacity, etc., that is, maximum economy. ECONOMY is the law of natural selection.”
Upon which, they add a few paragraphs later, “To use as theme anything other than the objects of selection, for example, objects of decorative art, is to introduce a second symphony into the first; it would be redundant, surcharged, it would diminish the intensity and adulterate the quality of the emotion.”
In other words: Use only what you need to get your point across. Concentrate on only what is necessary.
Economy of thought. Economy of resources. Less pollution. That’s it.
Tags: in the studio
