On the subject of engineering elegance, French aviator and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry explains that "a designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." Elegance is the refined. To be elegant is to be graceful in movement and refined in nature. I seek an art of elegance through simplicity. A task is only complicated by unnecessary actions that do not directly aid the end goal. For this reason, there is aesthetic in the minimal.

Japanese Painters of the Edo Period relied on composition and juxtaposition of subject matter to depict concepts of peace, tranquility, chaos, order, and many other ideas related to life. Within the paintings of nature, trees, vines, and other plant life become a tool through which the artist creates his composition. In one of Ito¯ Jakuchu¯’s scrolls a grapevine elegantly cascades through the image. In another, a pine tree violently obstructs half of the painting. The branches of a plum tree with flowers in full blossom point upward like skinny fists raised to heaven. Seated on the violent pine tree is a hawk. Sparrows nest amidst the plum blossoms and over the crashing waves of a brutal ocean swallows fly. Detailing the imagery is secondary to the painters’ cause. Paintings from this period are not burdened by an excess of detail.

In the past, I asserted the importance of the figure in my work and it was vaguely apparent in the image. I no longer claim to observe the human figure, but rather I am the figure. My marks are records of my movement and my existence as a figure in time and space. I believe expression is attainable through colorless means. Imagery and color complicate expression in art. Mark making is the essence of two-dimensional artwork. Many people have argued that pure painting is pigment on canvas, however, painting requires action on the artist’s part. A painter must apply his or her paint to a surface through some means. The gesture an artist makes through mark can convey immediacy or it can slow the viewer down and focus on time. I aim for an art that is both immediate and timely – an art that expresses the purity of a single moment paired with the contrast of continued time.
My art is not intended to be “beautiful,” but it is not without an aesthetic. I assert that my work is elegant, but elegance and beauty are not the same. Beauty exists only in an individual’s perception and judgment. Beauty is physical and meaningless. Beauty, unlike elegance, does not necessitate any degree of refinement.

I am the hawk in Ito¯ Jakuchu¯’s Hawk on Pine Tree. Art making requires willingness to be patient. It is meditation. It is reflection. It is a process of preparation. Every element of the image must unify to express the same concept and this requires the patience to contemplate and understand prior to taking action. Every mark is made with complete intent. Every composition is created with thoughtful concentration. Every element of the image is controlled.

Works Cited
Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de. Wind, Sand and Stars. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1949.