Celebrating Simplicity

At the "Marketing Your Art" workshop I attended on Saturday, one of the tools the leader suggested was to establish a theme on my web site, to draw to my site people who share my interests. I had just started on a web site remodel and so this was timely advice.

I thought about using as my theme the phrase "Behind every picture is a thousand words," but I thought that could make my site, well, wordy.

Another idea was to use the theme of the Peace River region where I live. But that is limiting, and I want to paint more than local stuff - like Papua New Guinea and domesticated flowers that are not so region-specific.

I chose the theme, "Celebrating Simplicity" because it is exactly what I express in every single one of my paintings. What delights me, and what I strive for is to really see the world around me, and to notice the small beauties in life. I don't want my life to pass while I wait for something exciting to happen, or to allow frantic rushing to be my normal pace.

My paintings aren't complex, they don't explore deep or controversial issues, and for a while, I thought that meant that my art wasn't important. But I believe that now more than ever, we need voices in our society that tell us it's okay to unplug, to slow down, to find a piece of quiet. In a society that is increasing in pace of life and distractions, we need advocates for simplicity.