simple matters

available through Edgewater Gallery

Lately, I have been thinking of the phrase “simple matters” as I paint. This abandoned little house is hard by the ‘highway’ in Ferrisburgh, Vermont (on a two lane state road that qualifies for a highway in western Vermont).  The spare arrangement of geometric shapes, the dazzle of reflected light and the rich shadows whispered ‘paint me’ so I pulled over to the gas station across the street and sketched a while.

This house makes me think about the Japanese concept ‘Ma’ — how emptiness can hold so much more than we realize at first glance.

Thirty spokes share the hub of a wheel; yet it is its center that makes it useful.
You can mould clay into a vessel; yet, it is its emptiness that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows from the walls of a house; but the ultimate use of the house will depend on that part where nothing exists.
Therefore, something is shaped into what is; but its usefulness comes from what is not.

Lao Tsu