Reduction

Enjoyed a private showing of my brother-in-law's powerful art in his own gallery in Mt. Vernon, Washington, then shared dinner with the artist.

There's much more to these Skagit Valley inspired works than first meets the eye—more depth, more texture, more... But that "more" is achieved through reduction—by less.

I'm thinking about the experience and realizing that many times we have to let go of something we thought valuable in order to gain what really matters. There's a little color in these pieces, but very little—instead we're confronted with the force of the images themselves, with depth of thought and medium, with the mind of the artist, with sweeping realities that might have been obscured by "more." Jesus said, "So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple." I like to accumulate, to add this to that—and I often come out with less, not more. But the truth is clear: It's in reduction that we experience the sweeping power of a power greater than our own. It's in loss that we gain.

@christiancarlson7 @perryandcarlson

© Copyright July 2017 by Robert G. Robbins