Hard to do!

You’ve all heard the saying that you should keep it simple, stupid? Well, simple is hard to do. There is an urge to complicate. To add details and complexity. “oooh! Look, you can see the little man inside the truck, and he has his hand on the shift! and it’s only half an inch long!” While I don’t want to suggest that complex isn’t hard, I do believe that sometimes simplicity leaves the imagination open to add to the story. Without the complexity.

For me, that means carving a full ship in twelve to fourteen inches and suggesting complexity, but leaving out many smaller details. Just make suggestions. A friend of mine who was a model maker suggested that excess detail can distract from errors in larger things – perhaps the shape of sails.

Life is like art in that regard, too. We admire simplicity, praise it, and sing of it. But overcomplicate our lives.

Of course, he who has the shop stuffed to the gills with tools is no one to talk. But hey…let him who is perfect toss the first wood shaving!