Identify the Essential and Eliminate the Rest

A large sheet of splattered sheetrock is on my easel. It serves my purpose to secure the canvases to stay put. I have two easels. Both splattered with 20+ years of paint and writing. Writing “bullets” that I have hidden under the canvases as though they have the ability to seep through the back onto the surface and become visible. My favorite is … “Identify the essential and eliminate the rest.” Sounds too easy.

Given the choice of digging a ditch or sewing a button, I take the digging. It’s the way I am wired. My painting echoes that. No noodling, no details. Details are in the foundation – the underpainting. Kinda like the “rough in” of a building’s framing – exposed wiring and plumbing but it doesn’t remain that visually busy once it hides under sheetrock. Identify the essential and eliminate the rest.

The “rough in” begins with black paint mapping out the journey.

Canvas covered – stand back and look. “Identify the essential and eliminate the rest.” What on this storyboard is talking too much? What needs to be quiet so that the necessary can be heard? Honoring the “small talk” but moving to the essence. Big brushes, bold strokes move over the busy mark making. Done – my eyes are calmed. I don’t hear the chatter. I have “identified the essential and eliminated the rest.”

Now may I do that in my life. Give me power and wisdom to live a simple life. Glorifying God in life. I want to squint more.

Best to you,
Carylon