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Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
–Albert Einstein
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This Einstein fellow is a pretty smart guy.
Simplification, harmony and opportunity could be ingredients for any recipe to success in any field but I think they apply particularly well to the creative arts. I know that I can easily apply these three rules to my own work.
For me, its strength lies in its ability to transmit through simplification and harmony. The forms are often simplified versions of reality, shedding details that don’t factor into what it is trying to express.
There is often an underlying texture in the work that is chaotic and discordant. The harmonies in color and form painted over these create a tension, a feeling of wholeness in the work. A feeling of finding a pattern in the chaos that makes it all seem sensible.
And the final rule–opportunity lying in the midst of difficulty– is perhaps the easiest to apply. The best work always seems to rise from the greatest depths, those times when the mind has to move from its normal trench of thought. Times when it has to find new ways to move the message ahead. The difficulties of life are often great but there is almost always an opportunity or lesson to be found within them if only we are able to take a deep breath and see them. These lesson always find their way into the work in some way.
Thanks for the thought, Mr. Einstein. I hear good things about you.
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This post ran here several years ago. Just thought I needed a reminder of what I should be doing.
Redtree Times 
It amuses me — and gives me a bit of pause — that Einstein’s Three Rules of Work could apply just as well to the process of moving. You know you’re seeing real truth when it applies across the whole range of human experience. Creating a painting or creating a home: the man got it right.
Wow! Three clear rules. The greatest wisdom always comes in simple form. On a more humorous note, I recall the great English novelist Somerset Maugham saying (paraphrase): “There are three rules to writing a great novel; unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”
Oh, I think he knew. He just wanted us to have to find them for ourselves. Maugham!
Hahaha. That’s a high compliment! (Btw, GC, your painings also capture depth of feeling and richness of experience through the m.o. of simplicity. I like that 🙂 )