Redtree Times

The Worker’s Tool- September 2026

The tools which would teach men their own use would be beyond price.

–Plato, The Republic (380 BC)

This line comes from a section of Plato’s The Republic where he describes Socrates discussing how no tool can make a person a master of a craft or art instantly if they have not trained and learned how to use it. I believe that is how the line is meant to be interpreted.

Makes sense. I have plenty of tools around my place that end up being used as hammers because I stupidly don’t fully understand how to use them.

I understand hammers. Its utility and purpose.is obvious to everyone.

I think paintbrushes are in that same category. You look at them and you know what they’re meant to do.

Grip and go.

Of course, as Socrates said, knowing what is for and how to use it doesn’t mean you are a master of it.

I think I know that about as well as anyone.

This is my current favorite brush. Outside of a few small ink pieces, this brush has been the main tool I have employed in every painting in the last four or five months. Actually, most of my painting are done with just one larger brush and one or two small brushes just for detail work.

Not that I don’t have many other brushes of all sizes and shapes here in the studio. I used to read articles in the art magazines about the masters of painting, both contemporary and the greats from the past, and they were always accompanied by photos of them. They seemed to always be wearing clean smocks — some with ties! — standing in extremely neat and well-organized studios that were airy and light-filled. In many of the photos I could see crocks filled with paintbrushes and paints all laid in neat order.

That was my pipedream. The smock never came about for me. My studio is very nice and I love it. But it doesn’t resemble the environment I saw in those photos. Oh, I did manage to have crocks of brushes.

As I wrote above, I have hundreds of brushes at hand. The sad secret is that many of them have been with me for decades, all unused.

There are a few very expensive brushes that I won in a competition in 1995 0r 1996. They seem too nice to use so I periodically pull them out and admire them now.

Using them would be like asking a prima ballerina to dig a ditch or shovel shit. They’re prima donnas, not the workers I need.

Like this one. This is a worker. Unpretentious. Tough. Shows up to work every day. Dependable as hell. I know exactly what this worker will give me.

Unfortunately, the lifespan of a worker in my employment is limited. This worker has been going for several hard months and it now shows its wear and tear. The brush shape has been worn into a particular shape from constant pushing and shoving of paint. Pushing and shoving probably best describes how I apply paint. Not many smooth and graceful long brushstrokes. More stabbing and poking that wears away the brush. After a time, it makes a very distinctive mark on the surface and feels like an extension of my hand and mind.

That’s the mark of a good tool.

The wear and tear it exhibits is beautiful to me. Sort of a wabi sabi thing, the Japanese idea that celebrates the beauty and grace in the wear and decay of things. The older and more beaten up I get, the more I appreciate the wabi sabi of things, myself included.

I could get a longer life out of workers like this one. I am very tough on my brushes, especially the ones that end up being my favorites. That’s just part of how I work. I know in advance that their lifespans are limited and made even shorter once I establish a love for them.

There’s something in there that relates to human nature, I’m sure. That will have to wait for another day.

I do want to add however, that my original reading of Plato’s passage was different. I read it as being that a tool that taught us our own use would be priceless. I think both work. I know this particular tool, as well the many others that came before it, has shown me my own use. Purpose, if that is the right word here.

Rough as it seems to be, this worker, this tool, is a priceless work of art in my eyes.

Here’s a favorite song, Work Song, that I have played a number of times by a variety of artists this time of year, around Labor Day. I don’t believe I have ever shared this version from Nina Simone. Like most things she did, this is a pretty damn fine. Listening to it this morning has this worker and tool ready to go.